Page:Bailey - Call Mr Fortune (Dutton, 1921).djvu/145

134 "Missed! Yes, you haven't quite hanged me, thanks. You've only made everybody think I murdered my father. And so that don't satisfy you! Thanks very much!"

"Well, are you satisfied?" said Reggie. "You know, you're not fair. I'm makin' every allowance. But you're not fair. If you want the thing cleared up, you've got to give us something more. And that's why I'm here. Now, is there anything new?"

"Oh, go to the devil!"

"Geoffrey!" Lucia, standing behind him, touched his shoulder. "Mr. Fortune is very kind. He desires to help us," and she smiled and nodded at Reggie.

"Oh, hold your tongue, baby. Mr. Fortune's a damned tricky policeman, and he can take his tricks to another market."

"But you are impossible!" Lucia cried. "Mr. Fortune, you see what I have to live with. This great bear!" She rumpled Geoffrey's hair, and he made an exclamation of disgust and dashed her hand away. "But yes, Mr. Fortune, there is something new. This great animal, he desires not to take his father's money. He writes to the lawyer to say he will not have it. But I forbid him. I say it is mad. Say if I am right, Mr. Fortune. What is the father's it is the son's. And Geoffrey, he has done nothing. But if he says he will not take it"—she made a fine