Page:Richard Marsh--The goddess a demon.djvu/114

102 him. He winced under my touch like a hound which fears punishment.

"What was the nature of your business, Mr. Moore, which took your sister last night to Mr. Edwin Lawrence?"

"That's my business; it's none of yours."

"Answer my question."

He actually whimpered. It was beginning to dawn on me that I might be constrained to wring his neck before he went

"Don't! You hurt! It was about some bills."

"Some bills of yours which you had given to Mr. Lawrence?"

"No, it wasn't then. Don't! It was about some bills which he got me to—to fake."

"I see. And might some of them have borne the name of Mr. Philip Lawrence?"

"Who told you? How do you know?"

"Never mind who told me. Answer!"

"It was all his fault! I should never have thought of such a thing if it hadn't been for him; he egged me on. I—I owed him a few pounds, and he said if I were to fake up some bills, with his brother's name on them, he'd let me off."

"And put the forgeries on the market, dividing the proceeds of the fraud with you?"

"Nothing of the kind, I'll take my oath to it; I swear I never had a penny. I never dreamt