Page:Arthur Stringer--The House of Intrigue.djvu/241

Rh The quiet assurance, the calm solemnity, with which he made that preposterous statement rather took my breath away. The deceit of the old scoundrel was incredible. And I felt sure it would be easy enough to prove that he was telling anything but the truth.

"You know that's a lie, don't you?" I challenged, turning to Alicia Ledwidge.

"You ordered me to keep out of this family conference," she coolly retorted, "and I prefer to take your advice!"

I stepped in front of Doctor Klinger.

"Have you ever seen me before?" I demanded.

"Never!" was his somewhat disquieting reply.

The whole thing was getting more and more like a nightmare. I was beginning to lose my perspective. And what was more, my arms were beginning to ache with the weight of those two heavy automatics.

The man at the end of the line seemed to notice this. I could see him smile a little as he witnessed the palsied motion which my overstrained arm-muscles were giving to the two pistol-barrels.

"Don't you think it would be just as well to put them down now?" he calmly inquired.

"They're not going down until you answer me a