Jack looked at Kate, and she nodded imperceptibly.
"Only the one prisoner, sergeant!" said Jack. "I haven't evidence enough against this one."
Delamare, shaking Jack's hand, went with the sergeant, and the two young couples were left alone. An awkward silence fell on them. Jack was afraid to say anything for fear of seeming to triumph over them. Kate signaled to him that the best thing for them to do was to go.
"Wait a minute," said Jack. He turned to the other man with a humorous light in his eye. "Bobo, you and I have been partners in a hazardous enterprise. I can't say exactly that you have always stood by me, but there were extenuating circumstances. And I feel a certain responsibility in introducing you to a life of luxury. So I'm going to establish a trust fund that will pay you twenty-five thousand a year. With care, you and Miriam ought to be able to live on that." He turned to the girl. "Will you stick to him, Miriam? You might do worse. He loves you. It's the real thing—and that's not too common in this wicked world."
Bobo got up. "Miriam!" he said imploringly. He took her hand. She did not pull it away.
"Now, come on, Kate!" said Jack briskly. "Never mind any things!"
He led her down the corridor to Silas Gyde's old rooms. "We'll go through the vault into your house," he said. "The hotel lobby will be seething with excitement by now."
"I wonder if you did right—about Bobo and Miriam, I mean. She isn't likely to do him much good."
"Such as she is, he'd rather have her than anything else in the world."
In Kate's house they paused.