“I think I have made a mistake, gentlemen,” he began. “I was expecting to meet Mr.—ah—er—a gentleman who is not here.”
The words were hardly out of his mouth before the door was opened for the third time, and Dimmock, closely followed by Kinzie, entered. Like the judge, the receiver would have withdrawn when he saw the group around the table; but again Starbuck intervened, this time to shut the door and to stand with his back against it.
At the click of the latch, Sprague rose ponderously in his place at the head of the table.
“Sit down, Mr. Dimmock,” he directed. “This is a little business meeting preliminary to another and more important one, and our time is exceedingly limited.”
The receiver looked sharply at the speaker. “My time is much more limited than yours, Mr. Sprague,” he retorted crisply. “I shall have to ask you to excuse me.”
“Certainly,” said Sprague suavely, “if you wish it. But in that case, I must tell you that Mr. Starbuck, who is standing just behind you, has been properly sworn in as a United States deputy marshal, and he will promptly take you into custody on a charge of conspiracy.”
If the chemistry expert had suddenly rolled a bomb, with the fuse lighted, down the length of the long table, the sensation could scarcely have been greater or more startling. Dimmock took a backward step and put up his hands as if to ward off a blow; and Hunniwell, the imported attorney, sprang to his feet as if his chair had been suddenly electrified.
“What’s this?” he stormed. “This is not a court of law! I demand that that door be opened! We cannot be held in duress!”
“Sit down!” said Sprague shortly. “Mr. Dimmock is your client, and you are here, not to defend him, but to advise him. As to the duress you’re so much afraid of, I’ll say this: I am going to make one short statement of facts. After you have heard it, if you and your client wish to withdraw, the door will be opened.”
“I—I am ill,” said the judge weakly, and he made a motion to rise from his chair. Kinzie grimly poured out a glass of water from the pitcher on the table and gave it to him without comment, while Dimmock took the chair Starbuck was offering him and sat down.