"I shall go," remarked the detective, "but I shall have to ask this lady to accompany me to Police Headquarters."
It required some effort of will to say it. The suffering which she endured had aroused in him a compassion to which he would have found it easy to yield. But having repelled the charitable impulse that threatened to wreck his carefully devised plan, he said with added firmness:
"I am ready to start as soon as she is."
"Why, what do you mean?" bellowed the lawyer. "This is an outrage! What the devil do you mean?"
"I mean that Mrs. Collins is under arrest," explained the detective.
CHAPTER XV
On hearing the ominous word, arrest, Mrs. Collins trembled and grew cold. She looked entreatingly from the detective to the lawyer, as if seeking some explanation of this new and entirely unexpected blow. Britz, noting the helpless bewilderment of the woman, experienced a painful contraction of heart, as if it were ordained that he must share the suffering which he had inflicted on her. Presently she lifted her face to his in a look of silent protest, and he felt a stinging sense of shame at the shabby part he was compelled to play. But he remained firm.
"I am sorry, but I must insist that this lady come with me," he said with a note of sad determination in his voice.
"Oh, you're sorry!" echoed Luckstone ironically. "You'll be sorrier before you're through with this case. This is an outrage! On what charge do you arrest this lady?"