Claude wanted to ask further questions, but she stopped him by laying her hand on his shoulder.
“That man was an enemy of us all,” she said. “He was dangerous, Claude.”
“Positively so,” was the reply.
“He was a living menace to our future happiness; he was as dangerous as this man Richmond, your friend, and his confession. I shuddered whenever I thought of Nick Carter, who would not let me buy him off.”
“He was incorruptible, was he?” laughed Claude.
“Yes, but he’s fixed now.”
“With whose money, Opal? Father’s?”
“With something that silences better than gold,” was the startling answer. “I would never face him the second time with a bribe. I know what’s what.”
“See here. You’ve got me on nettles. What’s become of this man? I demand to know?”
Opal thought a moment, and then turned her head away.