She resolutely forced herself not to glance again toward the shrinking woman.
"Go on, please," exclaimed Kingsley, a trifle nervously.
"You asked me, I think, how I proposed to handle this," returned Leonie. "Well, I have not quite reached that point yet. You know sometimes a trade falls through, and the larger the transaction the greater the danger attending it. Now, Mr. Kingsley, fortunately for your cousin, but most unfortunately for you, the stories told by you about Lynde Pyne to your uncle were discovered by him to be false while there was yet time remaining to him to make a new will. That will was made!"
"You are sure?"
"I have read it myself. You are cut out without a dollar, while the entire fortune is given to Mr. Pyne without reservation. What I propose is to deliver that will over to you, if you will release me from this place without trying to in any way molest me, or attempting to search me."
"You have the will?"
"I decline to answer that question, but I know where it is, and I will put you in possession of it when I have your assurance that you will do as I have demanded. So far as the other papers are concerned, they relate to the birth of a person, which cannot concern you, but in which I am interested as I was in the securing of that will. You understand me, I think, without further explanation."
She intended him to believe that she wanted to extract money from Miss Chandler, and he fell into the trap easily enough.
"I am willing," she continued, "to give up the papers that concern you if you will allow me to retain the others that are in my keeping without interference."
He smiled curiously.