"I'd like to stay, if you don't mind," John Quincy suggested.
"Oh, by all means," Greene answered. "We couldn't get along without you."
The policeman brought Egan to the door, and the proprietor of the Reef and Palm came into the room. His face was haggard and pale; his long siege with the authorities had begun to tell. But a stubborn light still flamed in his eyes. After him came Carlota Egan, fresh and beautiful, and with a new air of confidence about her. Captain Cope followed, tall, haughty, a man of evident power and determination.
"This is the prosecutor, I believe?" he said. "Ah, Mr. Winterslip; I find you everywhere I go."
"You don't mind my staying?" inquired John Quincy.
"Not in the least, my boy. Our business here will take but a moment." He turned to Greene. "Just as a preliminary," he continued, "I am Captain Arthur Temple Cope of the British Admiralty, and this gentleman"—he nodded toward the proprietor of the Reef and Palm—"is my brother."
"Really?" said Greene. "His name is Egan, as I understand it."
"His name is James Egan Cope," the captain replied. "He dropped the Cope many years ago for reasons that do not concern us now. I am here simply to say, sir, that you are holding my brother on the flimsiest pretext I have ever encountered in the course of my rather extensive travels. If necessary, I propose to engage the best lawyer in Honolulu and have him free by night. But I'm giving you this last chance to release him and avoid a somewhat painful expose of the sort of nonsense you go in for."
John Quincy glanced at Carlota Egan. Her eyes were shining but not on him. They were on her uncle.
Greene flushed slightly. "A good bluff, Captain, is always worth trying," he said.