Page:Under three flags; a story of mystery (IA underthreeflagss00tayliala).pdf/271

 as the novelists say, we take up the thread of our narrative, which was broken when I left your box at the garden."

"Suppose we do? What do you desire of me?"

"I wish to possess myself of certain information in your keeping."

"Relative to that Vermont affair?"

"Precisely."

"I can tell you nothing."

"Excuse me. Perhaps you mean you will tell me nothing."

"As you please, sir."

"I think you will," Jack says, calmly. "Will you pardon a cigar, Mrs. Harding? Perhaps the smoke will keep these inquisitive mosquitoes at a distance."

Isabel laughs unpleasantly. "Do I understand you to intimate that you will resort to force?" she inquires, sarcastically.

"Assuredly; although I don't fancy the word 'force.' 'Induce' is the better term."

"A truce to your euphemism, Mr. Ashley. I am curious to learn what possible lever you can possess."

"I shall not delay the information. I have in mind a lever whose potency you can readily appreciate. I refer to the Count de Gonzaga."

"Good heavens! What do you mean?" In awed, whispered tones.

"I think you grasp my meaning," Jack returns, coolly. "Or will it be necessary for me to relate another fairy tale, concerning a beautiful woman who posed successfully for a time as the widow of an enormously wealthy American ship-owner?"

"You would not dare"

"I would dare do several things, if the occasion for unusual trepidity seemed to arise. Besides, the vaunted brotherhood of man"

"The vaunted brotherhood of man would lead you to betray a defenseless woman—one who never did you aught of harm, would it?" pants Isabel.

"My dear Mrs. Harding, consider how easily you may