Page:GB Lancaster--law-bringer.djvu/187

Rh "I have come to pay my debts," he said pleasantly, and pulled a chair up, sitting opposite to her, and leaning forward. "You have won quite a good deal from me, Mrs. Ducane. I suppose you understand that?"

She did not lift her eyes from the wrist-muscles of the shut hand across his knee. But she felt her own hands and feet getting cold. There was nothing familiar in this man, and there was nothing in her which knew how to answer him.

"Of course we both know how you managed it," said Dick. "You knew where I was weak, and you took advantage. I don't reproach you, for I know that women like to work that way. But you will not find me weak any more, Mrs. Ducane."

Jennifer did not speak. She was trying to remember the Dick she had known: the courteous, kindly friend who had helped her over so many hard places. There was nothing left but the courtesy, and that was congealed almost into threat.

"You know what I came here for?" said Dick softly. "I came for you to tell me what you have done with your husband."

"I can't," she said sharply, and a shudder ran through her.

"I assure you that he cannot escape if he is living. You have not the least idea of our power and organisation. He cannot get out of Canada from here, and he cannot stay in it long without our knowledge. You can do no good by holding your tongue. But you can do much harm."

"To whom?"

"To yourself." He would not add his own name. "You know that people are saying that he has been made away with? The captain of the tug has already lodged an accusation against you. It is unsupported. I believe it to be unsupportable. But you can only prove that by telling the truth now."

There was no mercy in his voice. She knew that he was in a white heat of anger at the check to his plans and the blow to his pride. And she knew how the knowledge that she had taken advantage of his love to make him betray