“So you have sent for Campbell?”
“I had Murchison first.”
“Parker!”
“The fellow spotted the thing. I hadn’t even looked at the woman’s eyes. Nice for me, wasn’t it?”
Betty Steel’s face had changed in an instant, as though her husband had confessed bankruptcy or fraud. The sleek and complacent optimism vanished from her manner; her voice lost its drawl, and became sharp and almost fierce.
“What did Murchison do?”
“Do!” And Parker Steel laughed with an unpleasant twitching of the nostrils. “Bluffed like a hero, and helped me through.”
Mrs. Betty’s bosom heaved.
“So you are at Murchison’s mercy?”
“I suppose so, yes.”