Before Kingsley had an opportunity to reply, Miss Chandler had sprung
by him and had caught Leonie's hand in an iron grasp.
"You must be mad!" she whispered hoarsely. "Think what you are doing!
You lose every possible hope! There is no doubt but what we can escape
if you will only help me. For God's sake keep your wits about you and
do the thing you contemplate only when you are overpowered and forced
to yield."
But Leonie had no idea of considering any such advice.
She perfectly realized there was not the shadow of a hope for them, and
she wanted to preserve that marriage certificate.
She understood that it was but the copy of a record, and that she could
prove her words without it; but it was the greatest saving of valuable
time to keep what she had.
Besides, she had not looked at the name of the clergyman nor the
witnesses, and they might be very hard to find.
Kingsley made no move whatever to intercept Miss Chandler.
He knew his power, and he allowed her, without interference, to talk to
her companion as much as she chose, though every word that she uttered
could be distinctly heard by him.
With a slow smile, though she was far from feeling in any degree
mirthful, Leonie turned in his direction.
"Are you prepared to answer my question?" she asked calmly.
"I am," he replied. "You shall have ample time to say anything that you
wish. Will you proceed at once?"
"By doing that you will lose everything," gasped Miss Chandler.
The smile on Leonie's face only deepened.
"You must remember that there is honor among thieves, Mr. Luis
Kingsley," she began, "and the promise that you shall make me before
you hear my secret must be kept to the letter. Do you agree?"
"I agree to abide by whatever promise I make. You may be sure of that.
But the question is, whether I shall make the promise or not."
"I think you will. It can make no possible difference to you who I am,
nor how I came by my information, but I have come into possession of a
secret of yours which I am willing to sell for my liberty. I will tell
you in the first place that the reason why I do not wish you to search
me is that I am not the boy that you suppose, but a woman."
"This is growing interesting. Go on!"
"Well, sir, several years ago you had an uncle of great wealth."
"Leonie, for God's sake----"
Miss Chandler had interrupted, but Leonie talked on as though unaware
of it.
"He was fond of a cousin of yours, but not of you. The cousin's name
was Lynde Pyne. He had been brought up to look upon himself as your
uncle's heir, a fact of which you were unable to see the justice. You
were determined that such should not be the case. You, therefore, went
systematically to work to alienate the affection of your uncle from his
favorite nephew, pouring into his ears a tale of the treachery of Lynde
Pyne that finally had the desired effect--that of causing your uncle to
make a new will, leaving to you the bulk of his fortune."
"It seems to me that for a young woman whom I never saw before in my
life, you are wonderfully well acquainted with my affairs."
"Poor girls need money as well as other people, and some of us have
learned from men that the easiest way to obtain it, is often to
discover the private affairs of men of millions like yourself, and
trade upon the knowledge that we have gained."
"And how do you propose to handle this?"
"That is just what I am going to tell you."
She turned for a moment and looked at her sister. She was standing with
her back leaning against the door, her face deadly white, her eyes
glaring like those of an animal.
It was a desperate case with her, but there seemed absolutely nothing
that she could do to avert the terrible danger that threatened her.
A weakness came over Leonie, the weakness that is engendered by human
sympathy for a person in distress, but then a consideration of all that
Miss Chandler had done against her wiped it out, and she turned her
eyes in the direction of Kingsley with a little shudder of horror.
She resolutely forced herself not to glance again toward the shrinking
woman.
"Go on, please," exclaimed Kingsley, a trifle nervously.
"You asked me, I think, how I proposed to handle this," returned
Leonie. "Well, I have not quite reached that point yet. You know
sometimes a trade falls through, and the larger the transaction the
greater the danger attending it. Now, Mr. Kingsley, fortunately for
your cousin, but most unfortunately for you, the stories told by you
about Lynde Pyne to your uncle were discovered by him to be false while
there was yet time remaining to him to make a new will. That will was
made!"
"You are sure?"
"I have read it myself. You are cut out without a dollar, while the
entire fortune is given to Mr. Pyne without reservation. What I propose
is to deliver that will over to you, if you will release me from this
place without trying to in any way molest me, or attempting to search
me."
"You have the will?"
"I decline to answer that question, but I know where it is, and I will
put you in possession of it when I have your assurance that you will
do as I have demanded. So far as the other papers are concerned, they
relate to the birth of a person, which cannot concern you, but in which
I am interested as I was in the securing of that will. You understand
me, I think, without further explanation."
She intended him to believe that she wanted to extract money from Miss
Chandler, and he fell into the trap easily enough.
"I am willing," she continued, "to give up the papers that concern
you if you will allow me to retain the others that are in my keeping
without interference."
He smiled curiously.
"I accept the terms," he said, slowly. "I think Miss Chandler's
presence here places her as much in my power as I care to have her, and
I am not at all desirous of securing her money, therefore I agree to
your terms."
Evelyn Chandler started forward, her ashen face more pallid than ever.
"You will eternally regret it if you do!" she gasped, hoarsely. "Do you
know what the papers are that she wishes to conceal? Do you know who
she is?"
"The key to this door!" cried Leonie, excitedly. "Throw it to me and
the will is yours!"
"Listen to me, now!" gasped Miss Chandler. "I swear----"
"Here is the will!" interrupted Leonie. "The key--quick! There is a
man in front of the house. If you hesitate I shall break the glass and
pitch it through if you kill me!"
"Hear me!" panted Miss Chandler, catching Kingsley by the lapel of the
coat and holding him frantically.
It but impeded his progress as he would have sprung toward Leonie; and
seeing that she would not hesitate a moment to accomplish the purpose
that she had assured him she would, he took the key from his pocket and
flung it toward her.
Knowing that he would catch her if she made any attempt to escape with
the will, she threw it down, unlocked the door, and sped away down the
street like the wind.
The man of whom she had spoken as being across the street was a myth,
but it had seemed to put an idea into her head that strangely enough
had not occurred to her before.
Not even pausing to take breath, she ran along under the gray of the
awakening morning, her mouth parched and dry, her tongue seeming to
cleave to the roof of her mouth.
About three blocks away she found a policeman. Excitedly she caught his
arm.
"Quick!" she gasped. "A moment's delay, and you will be too late! He
may have escaped now! There are millions of money depending upon it.
Quick!"
Something of her excitement seemed to communicate itself to the tired
man. He set into a run with her, and with an evidence of surprise,
stopped before the residence of Ben Mauprat, where the door was already
open, and in which he could see the shadowy figures of a man and woman.
With the officer, Leonie sprung up the steps.
"Arrest that man!" she gasped, pointing dramatically toward Luis
Kingsley. "He has a will in his possession that has been suppressed for
years!"
"Arrest that woman, who is masquerading in the clothes of a man!"
exclaimed Kingsley angrily, seeing that he had fallen into a trap.
Miss Chandler had sunk back helplessly. The officer glanced hastily
from one to the other.
"I think I had better take you all in!" he said. "That seems to be the
safe plan. Come, now, and no foolishness!"