“Business!” finished Frank, grimly. “I don’t like blackmailers, and I think they are dangerous, so I fancy I’ll have you put away for safe-keeping.”
“That’s right!” cried Hodge, with intense satisfaction.
The woman began to weep.
Lester Vance looked around, as if in search of some avenue of escape. At last he realized that he was in a very bad scrape, and he longed to be well out of it.
All at once, with a wild cry, the woman sprang up, rushed at Frank, clasped him about the neck and began to scream. Shriek after shriek came from her lips.
Merry attempted to put her away, but she clung to him in a frantic manner, continuing to scream.
Her wild cries brought bell boys, porter, clerk, guests and others rushing onto the scene, and crowding into the parlor. There were some moments of general confusion, a struggle near the door, and then the woman seemed to swoon and slip to the floor.
Of course Merry was questioned, of course he was regarded with suspicion. A pompous man demanded to know the meaning of it, looking accusingly and scornfully at Merry.
In a very few words, Frank explained that an attempt at blackmail had been made, but when he looked round to point out the two men concerned in the crooked work, he found they had slipped away in the general confusion.
“Gol-darned if I noticed when they got aout!” exclaimed Gallup, in chagrin. “I was so upset by the howlin’ of that air woman that I never saw nothin’ else.”