“Then help me destroy this man. Help me to get those papers and silence him.”
“It is true, then?”
“It is true.”
“Mother Flintstone was your sister?”
“Yes, yes. She was Hester, the sister who contracted a poor marriage years ago and finally drifted into crime.”
Claude Lamont seemed struck with a thunderbolt, and for some time he sat in the presence of his father, dazed and speechless.
“I had hoped the truth would never come out,” continued the millionaire. “I accidentally discovered a year ago who Mother Flintstone was, but I said nothing. I would have given her thousands to have thrown herself from the bridge or to have left the city, but I dared not approach her. And so she left a confession behind; she has left the secret to a scoundrel like this George Richmond. Why, this man has more names than one.”
“A good many people have nowadays,” answered Claude.
“Well, he must be silenced somehow.”
“With money?”