Page:The achievements of Luther Trant - Balmer and MacHarg - 1910.djvu/99

Rh you not called in the police? What made you wait three days before calling in even me?"

"Because the family," Murray replied, "have known from the first that it was Mrs. Eldredge who had the child abducted."

"Mrs. Eldredge?" Trant cried incredulously. "Your wife, sir?" he appealed to the older man.

"Yes, Mr. Trant," Eldredge answered, miserably.

"Then why have you sent for me at all?"

"Because in three days we have gained nothing from her," the brother-in-law replied before Eldredge could answer. "And, from the accounts of your ability, we thought you could, in some way, learn from her where the child is concealed."

The young president of Eldredge and Company was twisting under the torture of these preliminaries. But Trant turned curiously to Murray. "Mrs. Eldredge is not your sister?"

"No; not the present Mrs. Eldredge. My sister, Walter's first wife, died six years ago, when Edward was born. She gave her life for the boy whom the second Mrs. Eldredge—" he remembered himself as Eldredge moved quickly.

"Isabel, my second wife, Mr. Trant," Eldredge burst out in the bitterness of having to explain to a stranger his most intimate emotion, "as I thought all the world knew, was my private secretary—my stenographer—in this office. We were married a little over two years ago. If you remember the way the papers treated her then, you will understand what it would mean if this matter became public! The