CHAPTER IX
THE PRICE OF A MAN
When, half an hour before, Katherine walked with bowed head out of Harrison Blake"s office, Blake gazed fixedly after her for a moment, and his face, now that he was private, deepened its sickly, ashen hue.
Then he strode feverishly up and down the room, lips twitching nervously, hands clinching and unclinching. Then he unlocked a cabinet against the wall, poured out a drink from a squat, black bottle, gulped it down, and returned the bottle, forgetting to close the cabinet. After which he dropped into his chair, gripped his face in his two hands, and sat at his desk breathing deeply, but otherwise without motion.
Presently his door opened.
"Mr. Brown is here to see you," announced a voice.
He slowly raised his head, and stared an instant at his stenographer in dumfounded silence.
"Mr. Brown!" he repeated.
"Yes," said the young woman.
He continued to stare at her in sickly stupefaction.
"Shall I tell him you"ll see him later?"
"Show him in," said Blake. "But, no--wait till I ring."
He pa.s.sed his hand across his moist and pallid face, paced his room again several times, then touched a b.u.t.ton and stood stiffly erect beside his desk. The next moment the door closed behind a short, rather chubby man with an egg-sh.e.l.l dome and a circlet of grayish hair. He had eyes that twinkled with good fellowship and a cheery, fatherly manner.
"Well, well, Mr. Blake; mighty glad to see you!" he exclaimed as he crossed the room.
Blake, still pale, but now with tense composure, took the hand of his visitor.
"This is a surprise, Mr. Brown," said he. "How do you happen to be in Westville?"
Mr. Brown disposed himself comfortably in the chair that Katherine had so lately occupied.
"To-morrow"s the trial of that Doctor West, isn"t it?"
"Yes."
"Well, I thought I"d better be on the ground to see how it came out."
Blake did not respond at once; but, lips very tight together, sat gazing at the ruddy face of his visitor.
"Everything"s going all right, isn"t it?" asked Mr. Brown in his cheery voice.
"About the trial, you mean?" Blake asked with an effort.
"Of course. The letter I had from you yesterday a.s.sured me conviction was certain. Things still stand the same way, I suppose?"
Blake"s whole body was taut. His dark eyes were fixed upon Mr. Brown.
"They do not," he said quietly.
"Not stand the same way?" cried Mr. Brown, half rising from his chair.
"Why not?"
"I am afraid," replied Blake with his strained quiet, "that the prosecution will not make out a case."
"Not make out a case?"
"To-morrow Doctor West is going to be cleared."
"Cleared? Cleared?" Mr. Brown stared. "Now what the devil--see here, Blake, how"s that going to happen?"
Blake"s tense figure had leaned forward.
"It"s going to happen, Mr. Brown," he burst out, with a flashing of his dark eyes, "because I"m tired of doing your dirty work, and the dirty work of the National Electric & Water Company!"
"You mean you"re going to see he"s cleared?"
"I mean I"m going to see he"s cleared!"
"What--you?" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Mr. Brown, still staring. "Why, only in your letter yesterday you were all for the plan! What"s come over you?"
"If you"d gone through what I"ve just gone through----" Blake abruptly checked his pa.s.sionate reference to his scene with Katherine. "I say enough when I say that I"m going to see that Doctor West is cleared.
There you have it."
No further word was spoken for a moment. The two men, leaning toward each other, gazed straight into one another"s eyes. Blake"s powerful, handsome face was blazing and defiant. The fatherly kindness had disappeared from the other, and it was keen and hard.
"So," said Mr. Brown, cuttingly, and with an infinity of contempt, "it appears that Mr. Harrison Blake is the owner of a white liver."
"You know that"s a lie!" Blake fiercely retorted. "You know I"ve got as much courage as you and your infernal company put together!"
"Oh, you have, have you? From the way you"re turning tail----"
"To turn tail upon a dirty job is no cowardice!"
"But there have been plenty of dirty jobs you haven"t run from. You"ve put through many a one in the last two or three years on the quiet."
"But never one like this."
"You knew exactly what the job was when you made the bargain with us."
"Yes. And my stomach rose against it even then."
"Then why the devil did you tie up with us?"
"Because your big promises dazzled me! Because you took me up on a high mountain and showed me the kingdoms of the earth!"
"Well, you then thought the kingdoms were pretty good looking property."