“You really mustn't! Good-bye!”
The instant her “Good-bye” was out of her mouth Joe clicked the receiver upon its hook, and stood regarding the breathless Maggie. His pale, stern face was not quite so severe as before. Presently he spoke: “I know now that you really were sick of what you'd been trying to do—that you'd really broken away from these two—that you'd really confessed to Dick, and are now all square with him.”
The word “Father!” struggled chokingly toward her lips. But she only said:
“I'm glad—you know.”
“And you were shrewd in that guess you made of what one of these two would do.” Joe crossed back to Barney and Old Jimmie. “You two must have been almighty afraid, because of Larry Brainard, that your game was suddenly collapsing, and each must have been trying to grab a piece for himself before he ran away.”
“What you talking about?” gruffly demanded Barney.
“Perhaps I'm talking about you. But more particularly about Jimmie Carlisle. For just now Dick Sherwood said when he telephoned, that an hour or two ago Jimmie Carlisle had hunted him up, had hinted that he was going to lose a lot of money unless he was properly advised, and offered to give him certain valuable information for five thousand cash.”
Barney turned upon his partner. “You damned thief!” he snarled, tensed as if about to spring upon the other.
Old Jimmie, turned greenishly pale, shrank away from Barney, his every expression proclaiming his guilt. Then Maggie again found her voice:
“And at about the same time Barney was trying to double-cross Jimmie Carlisle, Barney proposed to me that, after we'd got Dick Sherwood's money, we'd tell Jimmie Carlisle we'd got very little, and divide the real money fifty-fifty between just us two.”