"Well, it is a hard thing to say against a man, when I have no proof," replied Mr. DeVere, "but I believe, in his heart, Dan Merley knows I paid him. I think he is just trying to make me pay him over again to cheat me."
"Oh, how can he be so cruel?" cried Alice.
"He is a hard man to deal with," went on her father. "A very hard man. This has been bothering me all day. I simply cannot pay that five hundred dollars; and yet, if I don't——"
"Can they lock you up, Daddy?" Alice questioned, fearfully.
"Oh, no, dear, not that. But he can make it very unpleasant for me. He can force me to go to court, and that would take me away from the film studio. I might even lose my engagement there if I had to spend too much time over a lawsuit.
"But, worst of all, my reputation will suffer. I have always been honest, and I have paid every debt I owed, though sometimes it took a little while to do it. Now if this comes to smirch my character, I don't know what I shall do."
"Poor Daddy!" said Ruth, softly, as she smoothed his rumpled hair.
"There, girls, don't let me bother you," he said, as gaily as he could. "Perhaps there may come a way out."
"Why don't you ask the advice of Mr. Pertell?" suggested Ruth.
"I believe I will," agreed her father. "He is a good business man. I wish I was. If I had been I would have insisted on getting either a receipt from Merley, or my note back. But I trusted him. I thought he was a friend of mine."