Margaret Cameron

“ Already Parker's approach was distinctly audible. "Now, if you decide that he is not opposed to the Henderson bill, you may give me up. But if he shows that he is fighting it, you'll believe me about the other things, too, and help me get away."
No, I will not!" she cried, under her breath. "I will not set a trap for him!"
"Yes, you will," whispered Bobby, through the crack of the closing door. "You'll have to. It's the only way that you'll ever learn, now, whether or not you can trust him." ”

“ Why do you think I stood there in the window and watched you trying to unlock my uncle's door with your badly made key? Why do you think I let you go to his office, stay as long as you liked, and come out of your own accord, before I stopped you? Because I recognized you as you came up the walk in the moonlight, Mr. Private Secretary! ”

“ Look at me!" She looked, and Bobby's clear gray eyes never wavered or faltered under her scrutiny. "I swear to you," said he, holding her gaze, "that I have nothing in my possession that belongs to your uncle, or that concerns him in any way. I swear to you that I looked at nothing in his office except some printed books, and I looked at them only because I was startled by finding his name on the fly-leaf of one I picked up supposing it to belong to Jack Reynolds. ”

“ THE MIGHTY TRIFLE BOBBY FARQUHAR often wondered afterward why it should have been Reynolds whom he met that night, rather than any one of half a dozen other men who would have extended a similar invitation. "It was just one of those things," he once said to me, "that some people call coincidence, and some people call the working of Fate, and in which some other people see 'the hand of Providence'; but whatever you choose to call it, it begins with what looks like a trifle and ends by knocking the most careful plans into pi and changing a fellow's whole life for him." ”

“ As he mounted the steps, fumbling the while for the key Jack had given him, he remembered sundry other occasions when he and Jack had approached this selfsame portal, whispering and on tiptoe, long after the house had been closed for the night, and had felt their way through halls beset with pitfall and with snare, and up shrieking stairs, to snatch a scanty sleep before the seven-o'clock call to breakfast upon which the elder Reynolds had insisted. Soon after graduation Farquhar had gone abroad to continue his university work, and just before his return Jack Reynolds had gone West to live ”

“ He put out one foot to continue his descent of the stairs. "You see, I thought—"
"Don't do that!" she sharply commanded, whipping out the concealed hand, which held a revolver. "Stay where you are." Then, as he stood speculatively regarding her, she added, quietly: "Perhaps I'd better tell you that this is not a bluff. I'm an excellent shot. I've used firearms all my life. You'd better stay exactly where you are."
"Oh, I have frightened you," deprecated Farquhar. ”

“ To Bobby's protest against going to a suburb when he had to make so early a start next morning, Reynolds retorted:
"Suburb nothing! Your train stops at Glenwood, man! You'll save twenty-five minutes on your starting-time. No, you won't inconvenience anybody," he rapidly continued. "Mother and the girls are still in Europe, and Dad's in Canada. Business brought me East unexpectedly, and I'm keeping bachelor hall out there, with Annie, our old cook, looking after me. Here's my latch-key. ”

“ He stepped toward the coat-closet, and behind the closed door Bobby braced himself for a spring, determined not to be captured without a fight and believing all other hope to be lost. It seemed to him that Parker's hand must be on the door, when Joan's voice rang out, sharply:
"Uncle Tom!"
"Yes? What's the matter, girlie?" Genuine concern colored the tone, and the footsteps receded again. "Are you ill?"
"No—no, of course I'm not ill—only nervous." She achieved a little laugh. "Uncle Tom, there was—a man here."
"A man? What man? ”

“ Your uncle himself owns one of the biggest gambling-places in the city."
"That's a lie!"
"Listen! That's one reason why he's so keen about this bill. Another is that he's in the pay of the gamblers' association. Now, you tell him that a man came to see him in a great hurry to-night and left a message that Con and Jerry—that's Clafflin and Kincaid, you know—that Con and Jerry have slumped and the deal to-morrow is a dead one. Can you remember that? Say it!"
"Con and Jerry have slumped, and the deal to-morrow is a dead one," she repeated, impelled by his insistence. ”

“ If you hunt around, you'll probably find another one ready for you somewhere. Annie always keeps one fixed up for my unexpected friends. By the way, you'd better take the latch off the front door when you go in. Annie's a good cook, but she has the disposition of a Tartar, and one thing she won't stand for is being rung up in the wee sma' to let somebody in. Whatever you do, don't wake Annie! ”

“ And him Bobby Farquhar served with. the whole-hearted and ardent devotion that idealistic youth has ever given to noble leaders, combined with a practical, clear-headed ability which the older man was not slow to recognize. Consequently, when Governor Rhodes himself had been unexpectedly called away from the capital on Saturday, by urgent private business, which would detain him several days, he had still desired Bobby to spend the following day in the city, as had previously been arranged. ”

“ For a moment Farquhar hesitated, wishing to spare her, and then he decided to tell her and put her to the test. Therein lay his only hope now, and time was perilously short.
"I'm going to tell him that two of his men have deserted him, and advise him to get into line himself before he loses what little power he has left," he said.
"What do you mean?"
"A bill has been introduced into the Legislature making the patrons of a gambling-house equally guilty with the keeper."
"Yes, I know. Well?" ”

“ I've got to meet my aunt, who's coming in about half past eleven, and take her to a hotel, so you'll get there before I do. Go in and make yourself at home, just as you used to. You'll find pajamas and things in my room. ”