“Because you do not gauge them. Or no, I do not mean that—I believe you would take them even if you understood what you were facing. But it is not fair to let you.”
Caruth laughed. “I’m the best judge of that!” he declared. “Come, we won’t discuss it any more. I am going to help you, and that’s all there is to it.” Gently he raised the girl’s hand to his lips. “There!” he announced, as he released it. “It’s all settled. I won’t bother you about it any more till that gold is in our hands. Come, sit down, and tell me what you want me to do first.”
“But——”
“There are no buts. You want to know about this Wilkins who has turned up. Very well. I’ll tell you what I noticed, and you can ask questions.”
Before Caruth left the hotel that night, he had imparted to Miss Fitzhugh every detail concerning the plainsman that his quickened memory could supply. The man’s appearance, his language, history, desires, threats, and the precautions he had taken to secure his safety, had all been minutely depicted. Miss Fitzhugh possessed the rare power of making those she questioned recall particulars that had made almost no impression on them when they occurred. Just as a powerful developer brings out on a photographic plate once invisible details, so her interrogatories, acting on Caruth’s memory, quickened it and evolved details concerning Thomas Wilkins that the young man himself had not suspected that he possessed.
At the end the girl had dismissed him with instructions to bring the plainsman to call upon her the next day.
Caruth hesitated. “He seems to be a very sharp fellow,” he objected. “He put two and two together very quickly, and asked some questions that worried me. Undoubtedly he thinks my story fishy. And it is fishy. If he knows that you are involved in the case, he may become dangerous.”
The woman threw out her hands. “Don’t I know it?” she flamed. “But I’ve got to see him for myself. How do either you or I know that he is your valet’s brother? How do we know that he is not an agent of the man who killed your valet? Russia has many spies as improbable as he. Probably he is what he purports to be, but I must see him and judge for myself. And I must see that letter—the whole of it. There is no other way. Somebody must do the bargaining. No, I must see him. Do you know where to find him?”
“Certainly. He is asleep in his brother’s room at my apartment now.”
“Then have him ready at ten to-morrow morning. Be at the door of your building at the moment, neither too soon nor too late. A motor will pick you up and take you to a safe place where I will meet you.”