"And what am I doing? I am the most degraded woman in the world."

"Oh, no, you're not. Not by a long sight. You don't know how much worse

you could be. One woman who is here to-night I saw lying dead drunk in

the road between San Mateo and Burlingame the other day when I was

driving with Alice Thorndyke, and Alice is having her fourth or fifth

lover, I forget which--"

"They are no worse than I."

"Listen. He's coming. Got it ready?"

"I can't."

"You must. He'll hound you in the Merry Tattler until the whole town

knows you're a welcher, and not a soul would speak to you. That is the

one unpardonable sin--"

"I wish I'd told Price--"

"Oh, no, you don't. This is just a lovely way out. Glad he had the

inspiration. Hello, Nick."

A man had groped his way between the trees and stood just under

the window.

"What are you doing here?" asked Doremus sourly.

"Witness, witness, my dear Nick. Besides, poor Helene never would have

come alone, so there you are."

"To hell with all this melodramatic business. It could have been done

anywhere--"

"Not much. Dark corners for dark doings."

"Well, hand it over."

Ruyler had given his brain an icy shower bath as soon as he heard his

wife's voice, and was now as cool and alert as even the detective could

have wished. He did not wait for the promised impulse to his elbow; his

hand shot up just ahead of Doremus's and closed over his wife's hand,

which, he felt at once, held the ruby. At the same moment Spaulding

caught Doremus by his medieval collar and shook him until the man's teeth

chattered, then he slapped his face and kicked him.

"Now, you," he said standing over the panting man, who was mopping his

bleeding nose, and holding the electric torch so that it would shine on

his own face. "You get out of California, d'you hear? You're a gambler

and a blackmailer and a panderer to old women, and I've got some

evidence that would drag you into court however it turned out, so's

you'd find this town a live gridiron. So, git, while you can. Go while

the going's good."

Doremus, too shaken to reply, slunk off, and Spaulding after a glance

upward, left as silently.




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