"I had received information that something of the kind had happened, but your silence gave me chance to hope that my informant was mistaken."
"No doubt I ought to have reported to you at once. I can only offer apologies for my neglect."
Big Sam gravely bowed in pardon of my remissness.
"It is a very awkward affair," he said. "And it will prove much more awkward if she dies."
"She is now out of danger."
"I trust so. Her death would send the tongs at each other's throats."
"And at yours?"
"I should find it necessary to be absent from the city for some months," he said quietly.
"You might look on it in the light of a vacation," I suggested.
"Unfortunately it is of the last importance that I should be here through the coming months."