With a hard look on his face Murgatroyd watched her pull a little book from a bag, watched her take out the stub of a pencil, waited while she busied herself in adding figures, waited until at the end of a short calculation she looked up at him and made known the result.
"In all, I have about eight hundred and sixty thousand dollars left."
"What?" exclaimed the prosecutor, unable to conceal his astonishment. For since he had begun his investigations it had come to him that Mrs. Challoner's affairs were in a bad way. A moment later he said: "And that eight hundred thousand dollars or so is——"
"All in negotiable securities," she promptly assured him, "payable to bearer. I get six and seven per cent. on some of them—the old ones."
"Where are these securities?"
"In the Fidelity Safe Deposit vaults."
"In addition to these," went on Murgatroyd, "you have your house on the Avenue?"
"Yes. There's a small equity in it."
He raised his eyebrows.
"It is subject to mortgage, then?"