“Beg pardon, Mrs. Percival,” the man threw back with an added air of respect. “It is an unpleasant duty, ma’am, but you’ll not object, I know.” He beckoned sharply to two or three others who stood behind Mr. Early, and turned toward the open door.
“What does all this mean, Mr. Early?” Lena gasped.
He tumbled as if exhausted into the same easy chair that Ram Juna had occupied a few moments before.
“I am completely staggered,” he exclaimed. “The police seem to think they have reason to suspect my guest of being implicated with a gang of counterfeiters. In fact they say that it is his extraordinary cunning of hand that produced the bills that have been appearing everywhere. And—great heavens!—he used my house as—as—as a fence! My house! Pardon me, my dear Mrs. Percival, but I am horribly upset. They’ve found dies and all kinds of queer things in the little room that he kept sacred to his meditations. But of course I can’t be suspected of knowing. Why, all my servants can bear testimony to the fact that I know nothing about that room.”
“Of course, Mr. Early, no one would think of accusing you.”
“Still, my house, you know—and my friend. It’s horrible!” In fact Mr. Early was shivering as though he had the ague. “It would drive me mad if any one should think—why, Mrs. Percival, think of the scandal of having him with me for months. Of course, if they catch him, I’ll make him clear me at once. But, take it how you will, it is awful. The least I can expect is to be laughed at over the whole civilized world for being his dupe. I’ve always prided myself on my clean skirts. You think I’m raving, Mrs. Percival. I am nearly mad.” Mr. Early suddenly leaped up with horror newly reborn in his eyes. “And I had just given him a large check. That is bound to look bad. There is no knowing how it may be misconstrued. Great heavens, what am I to do?”
Lena flushed.
“I’m afraid that check was for me,” she said. “Mr. Early, I want to thank you—for—for being so generous to me; and when Dick comes back from North Dakota, he will repay you at once.”
Mr. Early caught himself up and remembered that he had a part to play in the present drama.
“When Dick comes back,” he said in a stupefied way, “what do you mean by ‘when Dick comes back’? Isn’t he here now? Why, he must be. It isn’t an hour since he signed—”