“You can’t suppose that Mr. Davidge has enemies among his own people?”
“O’ course he has! Slews of ’em. Some them workmen can’t forgive the man that gives ’em a job.”
“But he pays big wages. Think of what Jake gets.”
“Oh, him! If he got all they was, he’d holler he was bein’ cheated. Hollerin’ and hatin’ always come easy to Jake. If they wasn’t easy, he wouldn’t do ’em.”
Marie Louise gasped: “Abbie! In Heaven’s name, you don’t imply––”
“No, I don’t!” snapped Abbie. “I never implied in my life, and don’t you go sayin’ I did.”
Abbie was at bay now. She had to defend her man from outside suspicion. Suspicion of her husband is a wife’s prerogative
Marie Louise was too much absorbed in the general vision of man’s potential villainy to follow up the individual clue. She was frightened away from considering Jake as a candidate for such infamy. Her wildest imaginings never put him in association with Nicky Easton.
There were so many excursions and alarms in the world of 1917 that the riddle of who tried to sink the ship on dry land joined a myriad others in the riddle limbo.