Kate, on leaving her carriage, directed the driver to go back to The
Pines to await Mr. Britton's return and bring him immediately to the
office. She then unlocked the door to the room which had been Darrell's
office and which opened directly upon the street, and she and her
companion entered and seated themselves in the darkness. The room next
adjoining was Walcott's private office, and beyond that was Mr.
Underwood's private office, the two latter rooms being separated by a
small entrance. They had waited but a few moments when Mr. Underwood's
carriage stopped before this entrance, and an instant later Kate heard
her father's voice directing the coachman to call for him in about an
hour. As the key turned in the lock she heard Walcott's voice also. The
two men entered and went at once into Mr. Underwood's private office.
Mr. Underwood immediately proceeded to business in his usual abrupt
fashion: "Mr. Walcott, there is no use dallying or beating about the bush; I want
this partnership terminated at once. There's no use in an honest man and
a thief trying to do business together, and this interview to-night is
to find the shortest way of dissolving the partnership."
"I think that can be very easily and quickly done, Mr. Underwood,"
Walcott replied.
Kate, who had stationed herself in the entrance where she had a view of
both men, saw the cruel leer that accompanied Walcott's words and
understood their significance as her father did not. Her hand sought the
bosom of her dress for an instant, then dropped quietly at her side, but
swift as the movement was, her companion had seen in the dim light the
gleam of the weapon now partially concealed by the folds of her skirt.
With noiseless, cat-like step she approached Kate and touched her arm.
"You will not shoot? You will not kill him?" she breathed rather than
whispered.
Kate's only reply was to lay her finger on her lips, never removing her
eyes from Walcott's face, but even then, in her absorption, she noted a
peculiar quality in those scarcely audible tones, something that was
neither fear nor love; there seemed somehow an element of savagery in
them.
Meanwhile, Mr. Underwood was going rapidly through the evidence which he
had accumulated, showing mismanagement and fraud in the conduct of the
business of the firm and misappropriation of some of the funds held in
trust. Of the wholesale robbery, the plans for which Walcott had so
nearly perfected, he knew absolutely nothing. As Walcott listened, the
sneer on his face deepened.
"You seem to have gone to a vast amount of labor for nothing," he
remarked, as Mr. Underwood concluded. "I could have given you that much
information off-hand. You have not lived up to your part of the
contract, and I see no reason why I should be expected to fulfil mine.
You promised me your daughter in marriage, and then simply because she
saw fit----"