Jack hung in indecision.
"She tried to plug you, didn't she?"
"Oh, I don't mind a little thing like that."
The worthy sergeant looked a trifle scandalized at the jest.
Bobo, who had sat in a daze throughout, lifted a drawn face. "Jack,
let her go, please!" he murmured huskily.
Jack looked at Kate, and she nodded imperceptibly.
"Only the one prisoner, sergeant!" said Jack. "I haven't evidence
enough against this one."
Delamare, shaking Jack's hand, went with the sergeant, and the two
young couples were left alone. An awkward silence fell on them. Jack
was afraid to say anything for fear of seeming to triumph over them.
Kate signaled to him that the best thing for them to do was to go.
"Wait a minute," said Jack. He turned to the other man with a humorous
light in his eye. "Bobo, you and I have been partners in a hazardous
enterprise. I can't say exactly that you have always stood by me, but
there were extenuating circumstances. And I feel a certain
responsibility in introducing you to a life of luxury. So I'm going to
establish a trust fund that will pay you twenty-five thousand a year.
With care, you and Miriam ought to be able to live on that." He turned
to the girl. "Will you stick to him, Miriam? You might do worse. He
loves you. It's the real thing--and that's not too common in this
wicked world."
Bobo got up. "Miriam!" he said imploringly. He took her hand. She
did not pull it away.
"Now, come on, Kate!" said Jack briskly. "Never mind any things!"
He led her down the corridor to Silas Gyde's old rooms. "We'll go
through the vault into your house," he said. "The hotel lobby will be
seething with excitement by now."
"I wonder if you did right--about Bobo and Miriam, I mean. She isn't
likely to do him much good."
"Such as she is, he'd rather have her than anything else in the world."
In Kate's house they paused.
"What are we going to do now?" she asked.
"First I'm going to kiss you," he said, suiting the action to the word.
"Then you're going to put on your prettiest dress and hat and we're
going down to the City Hall to get a license. Then we'll be married by
the first person that's looking for the job. Then we'll take a train
for Charleston where the _Columbian_ is still awaiting orders, and
we'll sail away under the tropical moon with a whole ocean liner to our
two selves!"
"But--but----!"
"But me no buts!"
"But you'll have to be here for the trial, I suppose."
"There won't be any trial," said Jack gravely. "Harmon Evers had a
vial of cyanide in his vest pocket."
"Oh!" cried Kate. "He must be stopped!"
"I promised not to."
"But is it right to let him cheat the law?"
"He may cheat the law, but not justice! The state will be saved the
expense of a trial, and the public a demoralizing newspaper sensation."