“What am I to do with this?” asked the girl, taking it.
“Give it to him, and tell him where it came from. Tell him old Jonas got it from a prisoner at Libby Prison and brought it to you.”
“But why am I to do this?” asked the girl.
“Why not? If he is innocent, what’s the harm? If not, if he is in the plot and we can’t catch him otherwise, the message on the paper will send him to the telegraph office to-night, and that’s where we want him.”
“But I never promised that,” said the girl with obvious reluctance to do anything not only that might tend to harm the suspected, but that might work to the furtherance of Arrelsford’s designs.
“Do you still believe him innocent?” sneered the man.
Edith lifted her head and for the first time she looked Arrelsford full in the face.
“I still believe him innocent,” answered the girl, slowly and with deliberate emphasis.
“Then why are you afraid to give him the paper?” asked Arrelsford, directly with cunning adroitness.
The girl, thus entrapped, clasped the paper to her breast, and turned toward the window. Her mind was made up, but it was not necessary for her to call. Her ear, tuned to every sound he made, caught the noise of his footfall on the porch. She turned her head and spoke to the other two.