“I see!” said the crook reflectively. “Well, that’s a good stunt. Blackmail, hey? Ever since you came to Rainbow Landing I’ve been trying to figger out what you came for. ’Course I seen right away that you wasn’t there for the turpentine business. For a while I did think you were after the girl.”
“The girl is neither your affair nor mine,” said Lockwood.
“Well, I thought you might be sweet on her,” went on Hanna, looking keenly at his opponent’s face. “I was sweet on her myself, one time. Fact is, I could have her now, if I wanted her. But I’ve got other fish to fry.”
“I know you’re lying, Hanna!” Lockwood returned.
“Well, that’s neither here nor there,” Hanna resumed, with no air of resentment. “You’ll find out soon. But I was going to say that we might do a deal. I’ll let you alone with the girl, and you let me alone with the rest of ’em. I could block your game in a minute, you know. What I say goes in that family.”
“Not so much as you think. But I’m making no such deal.”
“Well, then, what’s your figure?”
“For what?”
“Why, suppose you don’t go back with any report on oil stocks. In fact, you don’t go back there at all. Supposing I fall for your blackmailing scheme. Supposing I pay into a bank—say at Chicago—two thousand dollars, and you go there and draw it.”
“And leave you to clean out the Power bank roll?”