“That’s plain enough, isn’t it? If you had been captured, all my plans for making money out of my discovery would have been ruined.[Pg 20]”
“So I thought. Very well. We’ll get down to business. You spoke just now of laying your terms before me. That means, I take it, that you wish me to purchase your silence?”
“Naturally.”
“In other words—blackmail! Unless I buy your silence, you denounce me and my friends to the police?”
“Blackmail is an ugly word, Mr. Atherton, and I should prefer not to have it brought into this discussion. I certainly intend to denounce you to the police, if you’re foolish enough to reject my terms, but I haven’t come here to demand money as the price of my silence.”
“Then what do you want?”
CHAPTER IX.
MAX REVEALS HIMSELF.
“I want to become a member of your gang, or organization, or secret society, or whatever you call it,” Max informed him coolly. “I want to share your excitements, your risks, and your plunder. That’s all I ask. Take me into partnership, and you’ll not only secure my silence about last night, but you’ll also have enlisted a valuable and experienced recruit, though I say it myself.”
Alfred Atherton rose to his feet and paced the room for a moment or two. At length he halted and once more planted himself in front of his caller.
“You’re a remarkable fellow, Max,” he said, with just a suspicion of irony in his voice. “By your unaided wit you have discovered what all the trained intelligence of the police has failed to discover, or even to suspect. I congratulate you.