At the door to which I allowed her to go alone, she had an instant of doubt.
"You would not be so cruel as to deceive me?" she said, trembling.
I waved my hand in a negative, but I could not trust myself to speak. I was afraid, terribly afraid, that if she did not go at once I should clasp her, willing or unwilling, in my arms, and crush her mouth with my own. And that I would not have done for the world.
As early the following morning as I could expect to find Harvey Hume in his office I was there. Having nothing whatever to do, as usual, he drew me into a private room, closed the door and asked to what he was indebted for a call at that hour.
"I want to consult you on a legal matter," I said, gravely. "Now, do not get excited, for you will need all your wits. Listen!"
I told him that a man was lying in jail under the charge of having raised the figures on a check of mine; that it was my desire that the man should go free; and that I wanted him to tell me how to accomplish that result.
"He is unjustly accused?" he said, interrogatively.
"Whether he is or not doesn't matter. I want him set at liberty."
Hume thought deeply for some moments.