Page:The council of seven.djvu/92

 informed that for the time being the Garland affair was to stand in abeyance.

"Your resignation, I take it, will not appear to-*morrow in large pica on page eight," said the Colossus with a gleam of frost.

"Not unless you hold me to it." The look in the large, dark, oriental eyes had an almost canine pathos. Bennet Gage would not have been at all surprised had the despot done so.

"No, carry on, my friend." The words of the Colossus were light, but a grim mouth belied them. "I quite think we shall have to put all the cards on the table, but this may not be the moment. Before taking a definite line, it may be well to hear what the coroner's jury has to say on the subject. In the meantime, we had better get to know whether Scotland Yard's keeping anything up its sleeve."

"Verity can be trusted there, I think."

"I hope so." Saul Hartz, as he spoke, took the black sealed envelope from the table before him and slipped it into his coat pocket. A weaker man would have been impelled to take Gage into his confidence. But the self-faith of the Colossus stood foursquare against every shock. He was even ready to despise himself for allowing such a piece of "mumbo jumbo" to upset his plans. The fact remained that it had; but so far as he could he was determined to minimize the effect and to conceal the cause.

"You had better make this to-morrow's first article."