“No,” he admitted seriously. “They don’t bluff. If that boy shows up inside the Speedway I wouldn’t give five cents for Max’s fire policy.”
Claire looked round quickly. The band had just started a One-step. She had been interestedly watching the entrance.
“Let’s dance, Ivor,” she said quietly. “Max has just come in.”
McLagan glanced round quickly. Max, dark, sleek, picturesque, was coming towards them hurrying down the room. His face was unsmiling, and to those who knew him the signs were sufficiently ominous.
McLagan quickly took possession of the girl and drew her away from the region of the notice-board and Max, and as the latter came up and stood himself before the insolent threat it contained, he found himself alone with such emotions as the message inspired. Claire and McLagan, like the rest of the dancers, were observing him half-amusedly, half-doubtfully as they glided about over the polished floor which was so much his pride. They knew that his wealth and power as the reigning monarch of his beloved Speedway had been challenged, and they wondered as to its possible effect upon a man of his temperament.
CHAPTER X
The Haunt of the Clansmen
FOR all the glory of the night had waned, lost in the deeper shadows of the hour before dawn, the house stood out stark and decaying on the low foreshore of the lake. Once upon a time the place had represented luxury. It had possessed an enclosure where its owner had sought to cultivate a flower garden about it. There had also been a pile-built landing at the water’s edge, and a stout boat house. There had even been a roadway approach from the city which was more than a mile distant. But, like the house itself, these things had long since yielded to the fierce battle of the elements. A few up-standing timber-baulks reared their rotting heads above the water. The original fencing of the enclosure lay rotting on the ground, and the roadway to the city was almost completely submerged by the encroaching waters. For the most part the house was well-nigh roofless. The shingles had been torn from their places, and the underlying joists stood out bare to the storms which swept the plain in the howling winter season.