Page:Arthur Stringer - Gun Runner.djvu/116

 "If you like to take it that way."

"But he has won you over to his side—he has captured you against your will!"

"I don't quite understand," persisted the operator.

"No; but Ganley does. That's why he has bought you over, and led you into his power in this way." She was speaking more rapidly now; a brightened colour had come into her cheeks.

"But how am I in his power?" McKinnon asked.

"What was the paper you signed? What have you promised? What was the money paid over to you for?"

"To hold back certain messages."

"Yes, to hold back messages. And why do that?"

"So that this man Ganley—the man he calls Ganley—can be held at Puerto Locombia."

"You mean the other man, the man in the cabin? Then you don't believe what I have said about the real Ganley?"

"I don't know what to believe," the noncommittal McKinnon complained, studying the woman's face. The only conclusion he came to was that it was a disturbingly beautiful one.

She was silent for a moment, apparently deep in thought.