"What will he say?" Lorraine demanded.
"That what he did was with Stephanie's permission."
Lorraine laughed shortly. "Just so—and a jury won't hesitate long when it's a question of veracity between a pretty woman and a mere man. Silence might be the wiser course, if no one knew, but that is not the case—everyone knows it now, or will by night. You know Dolittle quite as well as I—don't you believe Stephanie?" he suddenly demanded.
"Of course I believe her," Pendleton answered impatiently. "She told me about Porshinger's conduct just before you came up, and we were discussing what to do——"
"But you didn't know that it had been overseen?" Lorraine interrupted.
"No—we——"
"Exactly!—And Dolittle's story puts another aspect on it. We've got to fight, and fight at once." He signalled his motor with his stick, and it rolled up to the doorway. "I'll telephone you as soon as the warrant is issued," he said, and flashed away.
Pendleton looked thoughtfully after the receding car, then he came slowly back to his place.
"I don't know that the fool isn't right," he muttered.—"But why the devil didn't he act as promptly in the Amherst affair?... I couldn't stop him," he said, in answer to Stephanie's inquiring look. "He has gone to have Porshinger arrested."
"It doesn't much signify!" Stephanie shrugged. "Since Billy Dolittle saw it, the tale will be spread broadcast. He doesn't like me, you know, so that will be an additional animus—and Harry's stick didn't make him feel any the more lenient!" She laughed shortly. "I think I should like to have seen those thrusts—they're about all the satisfaction I can get out of the miserable affair. However, I'm pretty well hardened by this time—one more nasty story won't matter."