"I may do so after we have had this little talk. Come closer, so I can speak in a low tone and he will not hear."
They pulled their chairs up to the table.
"This man is stubborn," she said. "You could starve him or beat him, and it would do you not the slightest good. It would only make him the more determined to be faithful to Prale. We would gain nothing. We've got to convince him that we are in the right."
"I object to telling him the whole truth," said the masked man.
"He could do nothing except tell it to Prale—and Prale knows it already, doesn't he?" Kate Gilbert asked.
"You want to let the fellow go?" the masked man cried. "Why, we can use him as a sort of hostage!"
"As if Sidney Prale would care if he never saw his valet again!"
"He is more than a valet; he is one of Prale's spies! If we can hold this man prisoner, and attend to Jim Farland, that detective, Prale would stand alone. There are not many men he would trust to help him. And, if he stands alone, it will be easier for us to torment him, cause him trouble, drive him away!"
"Sometimes I regret that we started this thing," Kate Gilbert said. "What will it avail us to make Prale's life miserable?"
"You seem to forget—"