Page:Edgar Wallace - The Green Rust.djvu/190

186 as a woman had no attraction for me. He believed—and there he was justified—that if I could not marry her I had no interest in detaining her, and engaged Homo to follow him around with a special licence. He timed everything too well for my comfort."

Milsom shifted round and peered anxiously at his companion.

"How do you mean?" he asked. "It was only by a fluke that he made it in time."

"That isn't what I mean. It is the fact that he knew that every second was vital, that he guessed I was keen on a quick marriage and that to forestall me he carried his (as he thought) pseudo-clergyman with him so that he need not lose a minute: these are the disturbing factors."

"I don't see it," said Milsom, "the fellow's a crook, all these Yankee detectives are grafters. He saw a chance of a big rake off and took it, fifty-fifty of a million fortune is fine commission!"

"You're wrong. I'd like to think as you do. Man! Can't you see that his every action proves that he knows all about the Green Rust?"

"Eh?"

Milsom sat up.

"How—what makes you say that?"

"It's clear enough. He has already some idea of the scheme. He has been pumping old Heyler; he even secured a sample of the stuff—it was a faulty cultivation, but it might have been enough for him. He surmised that I had a special use for old Millinborn's money and why I was in a hurry to get it."

The silence which followed lasted several minutes.

"Does anybody except Beale know? If you settled him ?"

"We should have to finish him to-night" said van Heerden, "that is what I have been thinking about all day."

Another silence.

"Well, why not?" asked Milsom, "it is all one to me. The stake is worth a little extra risk."

"It must be done before he finds the Paddington place;