“I got your wire saying you would see me this morning,” Senator Barclay then said, while Stella quietly closed the door. “I’m very glad you could make it convenient to comply with my request. I have not forgotten how deeply I am indebted to you, Carter, for having saved my reputation in that foreign-spy affair. I will not say my honor, of course, for I was in no degree culpable, though malicious persons, or an uninformed public, might have thought differently.”
“I was very well aware of it, Senator Barclay, and I made sure that your name did not appear in the matter,” Nick replied. “But let the dead bury the dead. What’s the trouble, now, that you again need my aid?”
“I am in a quandary, possibly in an equally bad mess,” said the statesman. “It concerns, to begin with, the same young man who was robbed of the government coast-defense plans by those infernal foreigners, aided by that traitor, Dillon, all of whom woolly-eyed me into friendly relations with them for more than a year. I cringe with chagrin when I think of it.”
“But how is Harold Garland involved in your present trouble?” questioned Nick, keeping him to the point.
“Involved in it!” blurted Senator Barclay. “Damn it—excuse me, Stella; I forgot you were here. How is Garland involved in my present trouble? Hang it, Carter, he is something more than involved in it. He is the trouble.”
Nick laughed, while Stella Barclay blushed profusely.
“Suppose you explain, senator, without any expletives,” Nick suggested.
“Yes, dad, dear, do,” pleaded Stella. “Tell Mr. Carter the whole business. Don’t mind me, I shall survive it.”
“It can be told in a nutshell, Carter,” said Senator Barclay familiarly. “Since you opened his eyes to the devilish treachery of that jade, Madame Irma Valaska, Garland has transferred his affection to my daughter. He always was fond of her, mind you, and he now declares that he loves her. I am glad that he does, and she him.[{16}] I am fond of Garland myself, as far as that goes, for he’s a clean-cut, manly, and wonderfully capable fellow. I know of no man whom I would rather have for a son-in-law.”
“Permit me to extend my best wishes,” said Nick, with a sort of droll pleasantry, glancing at the crimson face of the smiling girl. “I think, like your father, that Harold Garland is a remarkably fine fellow.”