“Will be down to see you to-night at eight. Have sent a note to Nat in your name, telling him to be there, too. I think we have him on the hip, so be sure and have the squire and the officer present.”
Code wondered vaguely how they had Nat on the hip, as he had been unable to find a single iota of proof to push home the case he and Elsa had built up against him.
The note brought him stark awake and eager for the conference. He had begun to drowse after a 282 good home dinner and sixty hours without sleep, but this acted like an electric shock. He was keen and alert, for he knew that this was the night of his destiny. Either he should triumph as he had in the grueling race, or he should have to face the ignominy of transfer and legal proceedings at St. Andrew’s.
At half-past seven Squire Hardy, his round, red face fringed by snowy whiskers, came in. He dragged a chair into the passageway in front of the bar and was beginning a long and laborious law opinion when the detective, who had been to Mis’ Shannon’s boarding-house for dinner, returned.
The two began to fight the matter out between them when, at a quarter to eight, Nat came in, dressed in his best clothes and smoking a land cigar.
“Well, what do you want of me, Schofield?” he asked. “You sent for me, but you needn’t try to beg off. I won’t listen to it. Now, go ahead.”
On the instant a feminine voice was heard outside, and a moment later Elsa Mallaby stepped into the little four-foot passage.
“Oh, how many there are here!” she said in a surprised voice. “Perhaps, Code, I had better wait until later.”
“Hey, Roscoe!” sung out Code, hardly able to control his desire to grin. “Bring Mrs. Mallaby a chair.” Roscoe obeyed and added two more, so 283 that all were placed within a small compass just outside Code’s cell.
From Elsa Mallaby’s first entrance Nat had observed her with a certain flicker of fear and hatred in his eyes. She, on the other hand, greeted him with the same formal cordiality she had used toward the others. Though utterly incongruous in such surroundings, she seemed absolutely at her ease and instantly assumed command of the situation.