“Scenes, hysterics, threats of suicide—and all that sort of thing?”

Jack nodded again with a furrowed brow.

“Plenty of them. Bluffed to kill me twice. Finally, when she found out I was married——”

“How did she find out that? You were not fool enough to tell her, I hope?”

“She found out. I don’t know how she found out, but she found out.”

For some moments neither spoke.

“What’s her final offer?” resumed Rose.

Lamont lifted his head with a worried look in his eyes.

“Twenty-five thousand and quits,” he said slowly, tugging at the end of his gray mustache with a hand that trembled visibly.

“Ridiculous! Modest, to say the least. Plain blackmail, Jack. If you pay that woman a cent you’ll never get rid of her.”