Page:Arthur Stringer--The House of Intrigue.djvu/361

Rh you don't understand that you're being duped and deceived and made a Jumping-Jack of, you're a bigger fool than I took you for."

"And whom do you hold responsible for all this?" I calmly inquired.

"No one but that man Washburn!" was Ezra Bartlett's sibilant answer.

"And a pretty kettle of fish he's got us in for!" concurred Brother Enoch.

"Well, what do you intend doing about it?" I inquired.

My tranquillity seemed to exasperate Ezra Bartlett beyond all endurance.

"Do about it?" he piped, in an ecstasy of rage. "Do about it? I'll tell you what I'm going to do about it. If they don't let us out of here inside of half an hour, I'm going to burn this house down!"

Incendiarism seemed to be a sort of habit with the occupants of that incomprehensible mansion.

"I really wouldn't do that," I quietly explained to him. "For that's what the girl up-stairs tried to do. And it only ended in having 'em lock her up!"

"Well, they can't lock us up!" the old scoundrel announced with much vigor. "If anybody's going to get locked up for all this, it's that young Washburn!"