"Oh, I know your plot!" she went on rapidly. "It"s every detail! The first step was to ruin the water-works, so the city would sell and sell cheap. The first step toward ruining the system was to get my father out of the way. And so this charge against my father was trumped up to ruin him. The leader of the whole plot is Mr. Blake; his right hand man yourself. Oh, I know every detail of your infamous scheme!"
He stared at her. His lips had slowly parted.
"What--you say that Mr. Blake----"
"Oh, you are trying to play your part of innocence well, but you cannot deceive me!" she cried with fierce contempt. "Yes, Mr. Blake is the head of it. I just came from his office. There"s not a doubt in the world of his guilt. He has admitted it. Oh----"
"Admitted it?"
"Yes, admitted it! Oh, it was a fine and easy way to make a fortune--to dupe the city into selling at a fraction of its value a business that run privately will pay an immense and ever-growing profit."
He had stood up and was scratching his bristling hair.
"My G.o.d! My G.o.d!" he whispered.
She rose.
"And you!" she cried, glaring at him, her voice mounting to a climax of scorn, "You! Don"t walk the room"--he had begun to do so--"but look me in the face. To think how you have attacked my father, maligned him, covered him with dishonour! And for what? To help you carry through a dirty trick to rob the city! Oh, I wish I had the words to tell you----"
But he had begun again to pace the little room, scratching his head, his eyes gleaming behind the heavy gla.s.ses.
"Listen to me!" she commanded.
"Oh, give me all the h.e.l.l you want to!" he cried out. "Only don"t ask me to listen to you!"
He paused abruptly before her, and, eyes half-closed, stared piercingly into her face. As she returned his stare, it began to dawn upon her that he did not seem much taken aback. At least his guilt bore no near likeness to that of Mr. Blake.
Suddenly he made a lunge for the door, jerked it open, and his voice descended the stairway, out-thundering the press.
"Jake! Oh, Jake!"
A lesser roar ascended:
"Yes!"
"Stop the press! Rip open the forms! Get the men at the linotypes! And be alive down there, every d.a.m.ned soul of you! And you, Billy Harper, I"ll want you here in two minutes!"
He slammed the door, and turned on Katherine. She had looked upon excitement before, but never such excitement as was flaming in his face.
"Now give me all the details!" he cried.
She it was that was taken aback.
"I--I don"t understand," she said.
"No time to explain now. Looks like I"ve been all wrong about your father--perhaps a little wrong about you--and perhaps you"ve been a little wrong about me. Let it go at that. Now for the details. Quick!"
"But--but what are you going to do?"
"Going to get out an extra! It"s the hottest story that ever came down the pike! It"ll make the _Express_, and"--he seized her hand in his grimy ones, his eyes blazed, and an exultant laugh leaped from his deep chest--"and we"ll simply rip this old town wide open!"
Katherine stared at him in bewilderment.
"Oh, won"t this wake the old town up!" he murmured to himself.
He dropped into his chair, jerked some loose copy paper toward him, and seized a pencil.
"Now quick! The details!"
"You mean--you are going to print this?" she stammered.
"Didn"t I say so!" he answered sharply.
"Then you really had nothing to do with Mr. Blake"s----"
"Oh, h.e.l.l! I beg pardon. But this is no time for explanations. Come, come"--he rapped his desk with his knuckles--"don"t you know what getting out an extra is? Every second is worth half your lifetime. Out with the story!"
Katherine sank rather weakly into her chair, beginning to see new things in this face she had so lately loathed.
"The fact of the matter is," she confessed, "I guess I stated my information a little more definitely than it really is."
"You mean you haven"t the facts?"
"I"m afraid not. Not yet."
"Nothing definite I could hinge a story on?"
She shook her head. "I didn"t come prepared for--for things to take this turn. It would spoil everything to have this made public before I had my case worked up."
"Then there"s no extra!"
He flung down his pencil and sprang up. "Nothing doing, Billy," he called to Harper, who that instant opened the door; "go on back with you." He began to walk up and down the little office, scowling, hands clenched in his trousers" pockets. After a moment he stopped short, and looked at Katherine half savagely.
"I suppose you don"t know what it means to a newspaper man to have a big story laid in his hands and then suddenly jerked out?"
"I suppose it is something of a disappointment."
"Disappointment!" The word came out half groan, half sneer. "Rot! If you were waiting in church and the bridegroom didn"t show up, if you were----oh, I can"t make you understand the feeling!"
He dropped back into his chair and scratched viciously at the copy paper with his heavy black pencil. She watched him in a sort of fascination, till he abruptly looked up. Suspicion glinted behind the heavy gla.s.ses.
"Are you sure, Miss West," he asked slowly "that this whole affair isn"t just a little game?"
"What do you mean?"
"That your whole story is nothing but a hoax? Nothing but a trick to get out of a tight hole by calling another man a thief?"
Her eyes flashed.