“I dare not!” he groaned.
“Oh! yes, you dare. Brace up, Rivers. There is more than one way to tackle a bad job.” Then, so suddenly that it took Rivers’s breath, Northrup swept everything from sight by asking calmly: “What did you do with that letter you manufactured?”
So utterly unexpected was this attack, so completely aside from what seemed to be at stake, that Rivers concluded everything was known; that the very secrets of his innermost thoughts were in this man’s knowledge. The quicksands all but engulfed him. With unblinking eyes he regarded Northrup as though hypnotized.
“I took it to her,” he gasped.
“Your wife?”
“Yes.”
“She does not suspect?”
“No.”
“What did your wife say when she read the letter?”
“She’s going to help me out.”