“To-morrow I shall be away—well away, I trust, from the reach of either of the gentlemen you mention. I am not concerned with to-morrow as much as to-day.” She remembered that they were within an hour of daybreak. “To-day is a most fateful day for me—and for you.” He emphasized the last words.
She preserved an icy silence.
“If I may put my case in a nutshell,” he went on, with all his old-time suavity, “I may say that it is necessary for me to secure the money that is stored in that ridiculous safe.” She checked an exclamation. “Ah! you understand? Let me be more explicit. When I say get the money, I mean get it for myself, every penny of it, and convert it to my private use. You can have no idea,” he went on, “how comforting it is to be able to stand up and say in so many words the unspoken thoughts of a year, to tell some human being the most secret things that I have so far hidden here,” he struck his chest. “I had thought when old Reale’s commission was intrusted to me that I should find the legatees ordinary plain, everyday fools, who would have unfolded to me day by day the result of their investigations to my profit. I did not reckon very greatly on you, for women are naturally secretive and suspicious, but I did rely upon the two criminals. My experience of the criminal classes, a fairly extensive one, led me to believe that with these gentry I should have no difficulty.” He pursed his lips. “I had calculated without my Jimmy,” he said shortly. He saw the light in the girl’s eye. “Yes,” he went on, “Jimmy is no ordinary man, and Angel is a glaring instance of bad nomenclature. I nearly had Jimmy once. Did he tell you how he got the red envelope? I see he did not. Well, I nearly had him. I went to look for his body next morning, and found nothing. Later in the day I received a picture postcard from him, of a particularly flippant and vulgar character.” He stopped as if inviting comment.
“Your confessions have little interest for me,” said the girl quietly. “I am now only anxious to be rid of your presence.”
“I am coming to that,” said the lawyer. “I was very rude to you a little while ago, but I was busily engaged, and besides I desired to give you an artistic introduction to the new condition. Now, so far from being rude, I wish to be very kind.”
In spite of her outward calm, she trembled at the silky tone the lawyer had now adopted.
“My position is this,” he said, “there is an enormous sum of money, which rightly is yours. The law and the inclination of your competitor—we will exclude Connor, who is not a factor—give you the money. It is unfortunate that I also, who have no earthly right, should desire this money, and we have narrowed down the ultimate issue to this: Shall it be Spedding or Kathleen Kent? I say Spedding, and circumstances support my claim, for I have you here, and, if you will pardon the suspicion of melodrama, very much in my power. If I am to take the two millions, your two millions, without interruption, it will depend entirely upon you.”
Again he stopped to notice the effect of his words. The girl made no response, but he could see the terror in her eyes.
“If I could have dispensed with your services, or if I had had the sense to guess the simple solution of this cursed puzzle, I could have done everything without embarrassing you in the slightest; but now it has come to this—I have got to silence you.”
He put forward the proposition with the utmost coolness, and Kathleen felt her senses reel at all the words implied.