Susannah blushed deeply; and for an instant her lashes swept over a sudden stern flame in her eyes. Then she lifted them and looked with a noncommittal openness from one face to the other. “I think I have nothing to add,” she said.
“Yes, but perhaps we have,” Mr. Warner informed her gently. “Sit down, Miss Ayer. Sit down, boys.”
The three men seated themselves. “Thank you,” said Susannah; but she continued to stand. Byan rose thereupon, and stood lolling in the corner, his vague smile floating on his lips. O’Hearn dropped his chin almost to that point on his chest where his folded arms rested. His lips drooped. Occasionally he studied the situation from under his protuberant forehead.
“Miss Ayer,” Warner went on after a pause, “you read that letter—the one you handed to me this morning?”
Susannah hesitated for an almost imperceptible moment. “Yes,” she admitted, “entirely by mistake.”
“I am going to tell you something that it will surprise you to hear, Miss Ayer. What this fellow says is all true. Carbonado is merely a—a convenient name, let us say. In other words, we are engaged in selling fake stocks to suckers. To be still more explicit, we are conducting a criminal business. We could be arrested at any moment and sent to jail. To the Federal penitentiary, in fact. I suppose that is a great surprise to you?”
Though she had guessed something of this ever since she recalled the contents of the letter, the cold-blooded statement came indeed with all the force of a surprise. Susannah’s figure stiffened as though she had touched a live wire. The crimson flush drained out of her face. And she heard herself saying, as though in another’s voice and far away, the inadequate words: “How perfectly terrible!”
“Exactly so!” agreed Warner. “Only you haven’t the remotest idea how terrible. Miss Ayer, this company—you as well as the rest of us—needs money and needs it right away. Ozias Cowler has money—a great deal of money. Somebody’s bound to get it—and why not we? We use various means to get money out of suckers. There’s only one way with Cowler. He’s stuck on you. You can get it from him. We want you to do that—we expect you to do that.”
Susannah stared at him. “Mr. Warner, I think you are crazy. I could no more do that ... I couldn’t ... I wouldn’t even know how ... my resignation goes into effect immediately. I couldn’t possibly stay here another minute.” She turned to leave the office.