Page:Arthur Stringer--The House of Intrigue.djvu/106

96 "She is not in a position to," he said. I saw his jaws set like a nut-cracker. But I didn't think much about his jaws, at the moment, for I was busy putting two and two together. It took me some time to work out that little sum. But I did my best to get it straight.

"You mean Clarissa Bartlett is lying up-stairs in bed, on the point of death, and that she simply refuses to sign the will you want her to!"

He sat there blinking. Then he took his turn at looking me square in the eye.

"My dear young lady, you are clever beyond your years! You have plainly seen much of the world, and it has brought you wisdom."

"Oh, I'm not such a wise baby," I flippantly interrupted.

"You are more than wise; you are clever," he protested. "And the crown of cleverness is the acquisition of its material rewards."

"Well, that's what I'm after," was my next mock-flippant retort.

"Precisely," he said, "and that is a question which we may as well settle now, without further loss of time."

I watched him as he took a plump and shiny bill-fold from his inner breast pocket. Then he slowly