Armstrong stiffened as he met the jubilant grin of Wren and looked past him to see Dorothy. Into her cheeks mounted a faint color upon meeting the gaze of her husband, but she was given no chance to speak, for the moment. Windsor addressed Jimmy Wren curtly.
"Wren, where did you get this check?"
Jimmy Wren regarded the bruised features of Slosson, and chuckled heartily.
"Out of that bird's pocket. We had a scrap on the train, and went over the rail—he was pretty drunk, and got a grip on my throat that's there yet!" He grinned again as a low exclamation broke from Slosson. "Didn't know me, did you? Well, I knew you, Slosson! Why, as to the check, Mr. Windsor, I took all the papers I found on him. Yep, deliberately and with malice aforethought, you might say. Got that check, and a few other things, and Mrs. Armstrong helped me figure matters out and then brought me here to see you. Looks like I'd landed right in the middle of a party, too! By the way, Windsor, here's a letter of introduction you might like to glance over. Macgowan sent Slosson to that Milligan law firm and told 'em to lay the town at his feet, and said what a good friend Slosson was—
"Give me those papers!" burst forth Slosson. "I demand—"
The huge hand of Robert Dorns dropped on his shoulder and crushed him into a chair.
"Sit there, me lad! Your demands don't go here."
From the broken figure of Ried Williams sounded a low groan. Windsor quietly glanced over the letter that Jimmy Wren handed him, and a flame shot into his eyes. He looked at Slosson with contempt, then turned to Ried Williams.
"So that offer of a job in New York was a bribe, was it?"
Williams swallowed hard. "It—Macgowan thought it—that it would repay you—"