“You know the main lines of what happened, don’t you?” Alec went on, rather more calmly. “So I needn’t go into details. The wretched woman begged and wept, but it had no more effect upon Stanworth than if he had been a stone image. He just went on smiling that infernal, cynical smile and told her not to make such an unnecessary fuss. Then he made that suggestion to her that you told me about, and for the moment I very nearly saw red. As for her, it finished her off completely. She just crumpled up on the chesterfield and didn’t say another word. A few minutes later she got up and tottered out of the room. Then I came out of my hiding place.”
“Good man,” Roger murmured.
“Well, of course I knew by this time just how the land lay. I knew what Stanworth was, and I knew where he kept his evidence against these people. I didn’t quite know what I was going to do, but it was pretty clear that something had got to be done. Well, he was a bit startled at first, but recovered himself wonderfully and began to be infernally sarcastic and cynical. I told him that I wasn’t going to stand the sort of thing I’d just seen; and unless he stopped the whole thing and let me burn all the evidence he’d been talking about, I’d go straight to the police and tell them all about it. That seemed to amuse him quite a lot; and he pointed out that if I did that, everything would come to light which all these people had been paying money to keep concealed, and they’d all be very much worse off than before. That had never occurred to me, and I was rather taken aback for the minute; then I told him that if that was the case I’d unlock the safe myself, even if I had to lay him out to get the key. He simply laughed and tossed his keys on the table. ‘That’s the one for the safe,’ he said. ‘I don’t quite know how you’re going to open it as you happen to be ignorant of the combination, but doubtless you have provided for that contingency.’ Of course that took me in the wind again, but before I could answer him I heard somebody coming down the stairs.
“ ‘Ah!’ he said. ‘I was quite forgetting. I’ve got another visitor coming to see me to-night. As you seem to have mixed yourself up in my affairs, the least I can do is to invite you to be present at this interview also. Get behind that curtain again, and I think I can promise you an interesting quarter of an hour.’
“Well, I hesitated, while the footsteps began to cross the hall, till he caught me by the arm and sort of snarled, ‘Get out of sight, you fool. Can’t you see you’ll make it ten times worse for her by letting her see you?’
“Even then I didn’t realise what he meant, but I saw that there was something in what he said, and just managed to get behind the curtain in time. You can imagine what I felt like when the door opened and I saw Barbara come into the room.”
“Ghastly!” Roger exclaimed with feeling.
“Ghastly! That’s putting it mildly. Well, I’m not going to tell you the details of what happened then, because there’s really no need to and it’s only giving people away unnecessarily. All I need say is that Stanworth had got hold of some information about—well, about Mrs. Shannon. I don’t even know what it was. He ostentatiously pulled a revolver out of his desk, opened the safe, and showed her two or three pieces of paper, holding them so that she could read them without taking them into her hands. Then he told her to sit down on the settee to talk things over, keeping the revolver in front of him on the desk all the time. Well, Barbara sat down, looking very white and frightened, poor kid, but still not knowing in the least what Stanworth was getting at. He didn’t keep her in ignorance long. He just leaned back in his chair, informed her calmly that if she didn’t fall in with his wishes he’d make the information he’s just shown her public property and calmly proceeded to state his terms.
“Lord, Roger, old man, I had some difficulty in holding myself in. What do you think he wanted? He told her absolutely plainly that what he was after was money, and went on to say that he knew quite well that she herself hadn’t got enough to satisfy him. Therefore she’d got to marry me within a month, so that she would be able to pay the very moderate sums which he would from time to time require. She could either tell me or not, as she saw fit; it didn’t matter to him in the least. If she refused, he was very much afraid she and her mother would have to take the consequences.
“Of course you see what he was getting at. Me! He was practically saying to me that if I didn’t marry her and pay his blackmail, he would disgrace and ruin the mother of the girl I loved. Very neat sort of trap, wasn’t it? Incidentally, he went on to point out, also for my benefit, that it wasn’t the least use trying to do him any sort of bodily harm, because that would only bring things to a head in the way you know, and he never opened the safe without a loaded revolver in his hand, which he wouldn’t hesitate for a second to use if it became necessary.