“To pay this mortgage off?” Sally swung round on Edmonds now, as she questioned him.
“Yes,” he admitted, “he can easily do it.”
Then the girl turned to Hawtrey. “Gregory,” she said with harsh incisiveness, “there’s only one way you could get that money—and it isn’t yours.”
Hawtrey made no reply. He could not meet her gaze, and when he turned from her she looked back at the mortgage-broker.
“If you’re gone before I come back there’ll sure be trouble,” she informed him, and sped swiftly out of the room.
Hawtrey sat down limply in his chair, and Edmonds laughed in a jarring manner. The game was up, but, after all, if he got his three thousand dollars he could be satisfied, for one way or another he had already extracted a great deal of money from Hawtrey.
“If I were you I’d marry that girl right away,” Edmonds advised Hawtrey. “You’d be safer if you had her to look after you.”
Hawtrey let the jibe pass. For one thing, he felt that it was warranted, and just then his anxiety was too strong for anger.
In the meanwhile, Sally had run out of the house to meet Hastings, who had just handed his wife down from their wagon. The girl drew him a pace or two aside.
“I’m worried about Gregory,” she said; “he’s in trouble—big trouble. Somehow we have got to raise three thousand dollars. Edmonds is inside with him.”