“I’ll kill the case somehow!” he breathed.
“But the case looks very strong against Doctor West. Everybody believes him guilty. Do you think you can suddenly, within twenty-four hours, reverse the whole situation, and not run some risk of having suspicion shift around to you?”
Blake’s eyes fell to his desk, and he sat staring whitely at it.
“And there’s still another matter,” pursued the gentle voice of Mr. Brown, now grown apologetic. “I wouldn’t think of mentioning it, but I want you to have every consideration before you. I believe I never told you that the National Electric & Water Company own the majority stock of the Acme Filter Company.”
“No, I didn’t know that.”
“It was because of that mutual relationship that I was able to help out your little plan by getting Marcy to do what he did. Now if some of our directors should feel sore at the way you’ve thrown us down, they might take it into their minds to make things unpleasant for you.”
“Unpleasant? How?”
Mr. Brown’s fatherly smile had now come back. It was full of concern for Blake.
“Well, I’d hate, for instance, to see them use their pressure to drive Mr. Marcy to make a statement.”
“Mr. Marcy? A statement?”