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234 by driving him into fits of rage by reminding him of that Australian treachery. But at last he sends him a message, which brings him to New York.”

“Yes,” I said, “and I have cudgelled my brain in vain trying to imagine what that message could have been.”

“Well,” remarked Godfrey, “while we can’t, of course, give its actual text, I don’t think it very difficult to guess its general tenor. We know what Tremaine came here to do—he came to blackmail Mrs. Delroy. It’s pretty safe, then, to suppose that the message told him that she was blackmailable—in other words, that she had married a rich man. No doubt, Tremaine’s money was running low, and he jumped at this chance of replenishing his purse. Thompson was working his way toward St. Pierre to join him, and actually reached there on the Parima just as Tremaine was leaving. Perhaps Tremaine had tried to play Thompson false a second time.

“Now,” he continued, “let us see how nearly we can reconstruct the scene which occurred in this room. Tremaine supplies Thompson on the voyage up with whiskey, and agrees to keep him supplied, believing that he may be useful—not daring, at any rate, to make an open enemy of him, lest he spoil his game here—Thompson had only to speak a word to the police to put Tremaine back in Sing Sing to serve out his unexpired term. Arrived at New York, he establishes himself in the suite across the hall, and spends a week or two in looking over the ground, ostensibly boosting his railroad scheme. Thompson, who has been in jail, joins him and takes these rooms.