John dropped his thin fingers from his tie and replied quietly. "Did Mary tell you? I asked her not to."
"She evidently thought it better that I should know, and I think she is right, as usual. What did Sophie Binner want of me—and you?"
John walked over to his friend and put his hands upon Rodrigo's shoulders. He suggested, "Please don't ask me any more about her, Rodrigo. You'll never see or hear from her again. Why not let it go at that?"
Rodrigo replied impatiently, "I'm not a baby, John, I know more about women like Sophie than you do. What was she up to?"
John shrugged his shoulders and decided to make a clean breast. "She looked like the devil—thin and badly dressed. She said her show had failed, left the whole company stranded out in Pocatello, Idaho. Christy and the company manager skipped and went back to England. Sophie pawned her jewels and clothes and just scraped together enough money to get her to New York. So she came to you for help."
Rodrigo relaxed with relief. "Fair enough," he admitted. "I'll stake her to a trip home. Why didn't you tell her to go away and come back again when I was there?"
John hesitated. "She insisted upon some money at once. She had—some letters from you. I read a couple of them, and they were really pretty serious stuff, Rodrigo. You were never a calm letter-writer. And writing letters to a certain type of woman is very had business in this country. There are always shyster lawyers around ready to pounce upon them and turn them into money. And she said—well, that you were in her apartment the night her show opened. She mentioned a colored elevator man whom she could summon as a witness, if necessary. But, damn it, I don't believe you were, Rodrigo." John looked at his friend anxiously.
"I was just there for a minute, and it was perfectly harmless," Rodrigo said at once. "It didn't mean a thing and she probably played it up merely to give me a black eye with you. As a matter of fact, I recall that the elevator boy did ride us up and wasn't there when I came down the stairs later. I had a fearful row with her and she's probably out for revenge. But what's Sophie's game anyway—blackmail? She can't get away with it."
John replied, "She threatened to sue you for breach of promise to marry her, said you had jilted her in London once before. She wanted five thousand dollars to call it off. I knew she didn't have a case, but I thought it was just as well to keep her quiet. So I gave her two thousand dollars. Then I stopped in at the apartment house address she gave me and for a fifty dollar bill persuaded the colored elevator boy that you had never been there."
Rodrigo shook his head and smiled. Was there ever a friend like this innocent-wise John Dorning?