"Ah! You admit that I am innocent," said Frank, quickly.
"To all here. But it depends upon yourself if I prove it in open court. What will you give me?"
"Wait a moment, Frank," interposed Jarman, preventing the young man from replying. "Do you mean to say, Berry, that you can prove the innocence of Lancaster?"
"No, he can't," said Darrel. "It's impossible."
"Not if I get five thousand a-year for life," said Berry, coolly.
"Then I must have half of it," put in Fairy Fan.
At this moment Balkis called them into the inner room in an imperious voice. At first they were unwilling to go; then they decided to obey, seeing that the negress might prove dangerous. She was seated at the head of a table under a kind of canopy.
"You say that Lancaster is innocent?" she asked Berry.
"I do," he replied, "if I get five thousand a-year; and a mighty small sum that is, considering the cards I hold."
"But what about me?" said Fan, looking disagreeable.