The question evidently took the girl by surprise. She became deathly pale, and for a moment Klimo thought she was going to faint. With a marvelous exhibition of will, however, she pulled herself together and faced her accuser.
"You have no right to say such a thing," she began. "My father is----."
"Pardon me," he answered quietly, "but I am in the possession of information which enables me to understand exactly what he is. If you answer me correctly it is probable that after all I will take your case up, and will help you to save your father's life, but if you decline to do so, ill as he is, he will be arrested within twenty-four hours, and then nothing on earth can save him from condign punishment. Which do you prefer?"
"I will tell you everything," she said quickly. "I ought to have done so at first, but you can understand why I shrank from it. My father has for a long time past been ashamed of the part he has been playing, but he could not help himself. He was too valuable to them, and they would not let him slip. They drove him on and on, and it was his remorse and anxiety that broke him down at last."
"I think you have chosen the better course in telling me this. I will ask my questions, and you can answer them. To begin with, where are the headquarters of the Society?"
"In Chicago."
"I thought as much. And is it possible for you to tell me the names of the two principal members?"
"There are many members, and I don't know that one is greater than another."
"But there must be some who are more important than others. For instance, the pair referred to in this telegram as Alpha and Omega?"
"I can only think," she answered, after a moment's thought, "that they must be the two men who came oftenest to our house, Messrs. Maguire and Rooney."