“Mulholland blames the drink curse, and says that Vreeland paid him to help steal a rival’s love-letters, ‘only to beat the game’ of that hated one. Helms stubbornly stands out and swears that Vreeland bribed the electrician to tap the wires so as to overhear Mrs. Willoughby’s lawyer talking over the impending marriage. So you see, the lying jade will have witnesses to back up her story.”
“What must I do? Tell me, Hugh. You are my only friend,” faltered Elaine, grasping his arm convulsively. “There is my child. Think of the agony to her—the shame of such disclosures! My new-found darling!”
“Yes, and there are the newspaper scandals to fear—the worst feature. We could not try these people and dare to openly prove the real facts. Even a French maid’s gossip and babble can find believers,” sadly said Hugh, with averted eyes. He well knew the callous gossips!
“You would only estrange Alynton, plunge your daughter into a useless sorrow, and your whole life story would be bruited abroad. I can not bear to see you disgraced, Elaine,” he faltered.
“I have a plan,” he said slowly. “Keep the woman Justine here. I will pay her and ship her off to Paris. Dan Daly will see that she goes. Let us only frighten her! She will be only too glad to escape her rightful punishment—the lying jade! You have recovered your dangerous document. You do not need Martha Wilmot now. Let me separate these people at once!
“Martha goes back first to England. Alberg is gone, and of course the nurse can not be convicted. There is no direct evidence. I will have Mulholland quietly released; Daly can answer for him. Helms we will call quits with, on his frankly signing a full confession, naming only himself, and I give him a passage over to Hamburg. And this will stop Justine’s mouth forever.”
“And the disposition of Justine?” murmured the white-faced woman.
“She stays here only till Vreeland is buried, and I then will have her properly paid off before the Consul, and see her on the French steamer myself. I know the French Consul very well. She will never return. It is the only way to bury the whole past in Vreeland’s grave.
“For, only in this way, Daly can quietly aid me to frighten a written confession out of each of our other captives. And then the courts, newspapers and the public must perforce remain out of the affair. I have to go now and see Wyman and Endicott about the arrangements for Vreeland’s funeral, as his widow refuses to see any human being. That marriage was only part of some abortive scheme, ruined by Garston’s death. I should say that you had seen enough of Wall Street now.”
“Use full power, any money; let it be as you wish,” said Elaine, leaving the room without a word to the two women. “I trust you of all men!” she had whispered at parting. And yet Conyers only sighed wearily.