Page:The Millbank Case - 1905 - Eldridge.djvu/249

 *manded the other. "Oh," he said, as he saw on Matthewson's face what he regarded as a protest; "it won't spoil the goods to show 'em. I'd just as lief tell you before as after. It's silence I'm selling; not facts."

"I don't need you to repeat your talk; and what's more, it won't be safe for you to," Matthewson said. "I know perfectly well what it would be; but I warn you not to dare speak it."

The man in the alcove almost betrayed himself as he heard this astounding acknowledgment. After all, had he mistaken what he had seen, and was this the real secret he had been trying to unravel? Cranston was speaking again:

"Threatened men live long. You'll get just as much for as little money, if you keep a civil tongue. I've got silence to sell; but I'm just blamed fool enough, if you get me mad, to refuse to sell at any price."

"Then your proposition is that if I pay you your price, you'll keep silence regarding your discovery as to Theodore Wing's mother; and that if I do not, you'll sell your information to any one who will