“Whew!” Jolls was ejaculating below, like an echo. “Say, what do you think I’m made of? Why, even seventy-five thousand is too much. I won’t make a cent over a hundred thousand clear profit on the contract, even as it is, even if the Board grants a full million; and if you get seventy-five thousand, I’ll get only twenty-five. And a hundred and fifty thousand, why, that will just mean fifty thousand coming out of my pocket.”
“Oh, cut that. You’re lying, and I know it, and you know I know it. I may be nervous but I’m not afraid of you or your hired thugs—private detectives, you like to call ’em; murderers I call ’em. I’m sorry I ever went into this fool business; even if I do need the money for that gambling debt, and even if I do hate those goody-goody fools like Jack Adeler and that old woman General Thorne—with his knitting.”
(Just then this same General Thorne, not so very many feet away from Captain Welch, was clinching and unclinching his plump hands as though he had hold of some one’s throat. Poodle was busily stuffing his handkerchief into his mouth.)
Captain Welch was going on, “I’m not in this for my health. You know that if we get found out I’ll be the most disgraced man in America—next to you. But I’m getting desperate anyway. Desperate, do you hear me? That gambling affair, and the shortage in accounts at Fort Myer (I’d like to kill you for finding that out)—they’ll come out if I can’t get hold of plenty of hush-money. And then I’ll have to have enough over so I can resign from the Army and go to Europe for the rest of my life. I’m desperate I tell you. Now either you come across, or I’ll split to General Thorne—tell him the whole business by letter, and make a getaway from the country. It’s easy enough for me to move—I haven’t got any factories like you to take with me, and I’ll be welcomed in at least three South American armies. Here’s my ultimatum: Sign up for a hundred and fifty-thousand, or I walk out of this cabin—with my revolver out and the drop on you and your thugs—”
“ALL RIGHT!” snarled Jolls. “Take your bribe.” And he signed a small sheet of paper which the Captain tucked into his pocket.
Poodle was surprised to hear something much like a repressed chuckle beside him; and the General whispered, “It’s lovely—it’s lovely! I’ve already heard enough to land Captain Welch in disgrace.”
“Well, now,” Jolls was saying, below, “let’s get our lines straight, and then we can talk to this Griffin boy. Young whelp! I’d like to kill him just on general principles. First, we’ll make him sign that letter. I think an hour in the swamp will have him about where we want him. Then to-night I’ll have Bat do the second-story burglar act, and steal all the plans of the tetrahedral that there are here in Washington—at the Lieutenant’s room and the patent office. That last is the most dangerous thing yet. As for Priest, you’ve got the data on his having been arrested for forgery have you?”
“Yes,” said Welch.
“Is that true—was Martin Priest a forger?” the General hastily whispered to Poodle.
“Yes, he confessed it to Lieutenant Adeler and us,” admitted Poodle.