The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1940-12-19
CHAPTER XV-Continued

Don't bother" said, 'to ring
for the maid to show me the door.
I can find it. I ask you-not now
but later when you've less to dis
turb you-to think seriously whether
I've ever violated your confidence.
I knew about Grove and his key.
l saved him once from the jam he
is in now. ! knew of his iaison
with lone See how much of that
you can find in the Press, or any
other newspaper-up to now"
Allegro gave a little laugh of dis
belief. She tossed Dukes squeal on
the desk between us and went from
the room. I bowed jerkily to Miss
Agatha and headed for the door.
Her voice checked me.
up to now" she repeated. "Do
I understand that is threat?"
I had stood plenty. Her stern
eyes could not beat mine down.
"And do I understand" I an
swered, that your question is
prelude to bribery"
Are you," she inquired, doing
your best to be insulting?"
81 am" told her, "and 1 didn't
begin it."
She chuckled. The hearty sound
never seemed more bizarre. It
wrecked melodrama and spoiled my
pose. stared. Miss Agatha grinned.
Put down your hat and coat"
she babe me. 81 want to talk to
you. Don't stand there gawping
Do as 1 say. Allegro is troubled
with ideals. She'll outgrow them in
time. Suppose you tell me, as po-
litely as you can manage, just how
you happen to be on the Press"
She smoked one of my cigarettes
while l confessed my arrangement
with Cochrane, and the difficulties
of being pulled two ways by con-
fiicting loyalties. Once or twice,
while spoke, she nodded and when
I had ended, gave that preposterous
grin of hers.
"You make me feel BETTER" she
told me. 81 didn't want to believe
I'd twice been mistaken in my esti-
mates of character in so short a
time"
1 found myself defending Grove.
You'll learn when this thing is
unscrambled that he's been just a
young idiot, nothing more. No one
can make me believe that"
mo one can make me, either"
she broke in, quietly. Hes a good
boy. He's lacking in common sense,
that's all. Well, it's a family fail
ing"
Miss Agatha" blurted, smit-
ten by the calm she preserved above
the anguish that must be tearing at
her, you're a game guy!"
Her face relaxed trif1e.
David" she said, when wom-
en- reach my age, they cry easily,
or not at all. have no gift for
tears. Grove is in trouble and I
have to help him. I always used
to pull him out of scrapes. That's
my job again."
She looked at me and the wrinkles
about her eyes deepened.
eff you had a spark of chivalry,"
she Knocked, you'd offer to help
me-
"'And if" I answered, "you had
any intuition whatever, you would
know that anything I've got is
yours"
81 do know it." she admitted with
another chuckle, and then grew sud-
denly grave.
Twill you help me-" she asked,
''to save my nephew from the trou-
BILE into which a scoundrel and a
stupid police force have plunged
him and out of which a pompous
lawyer apparently can't get him? I
am an old woman, David, and a
cripple. I can't put a murder and
a suicide where they belong, by my
SELF
''All you have to do" I prom
ised, sis point out the murderer"
do you think SOP" she asked
tartly. ''Ive found him already"
I looked hard at her.
IT'S Lyon Ferriter,' said Agatha
Paget. 'I've known that all along"