"Come across?" he asked.
"Come across?" mimicked the girl. "Send me abroad and keep me
there. And I'll swear it was an accident. Twenty-five thousand,
that's all I want. Cutler told me he was going to make you
governor. He can't make you governor if he's in Sing Sing, can he?
Ain't it worth twenty-five thousand to you to be governor? Come
on," she jeered, "kick in!"
With a grave but untroubled voice Wharton addressed Mrs. Earle.
"May I use your telephone?" he asked. He did not wait for her
consent, but from the desk lifted the hand telephone.
"Spring, three one hundred!" he said. He sat with his legs
comfortably crossed, the stand of the instrument balanced on his
knee, his eyes gazing meditatively at the yellow tree- tops.
If with apprehension both women started, if the girl thrust herself
forward, and by the hand of Mrs. Earle was dragged back, he did not
appear to know it.
"Police headquarters?" they heard him ask. "I want to speak to the
commissioner. This is the district attorney"
In the pause that followed, as though to torment her, the pain, in
her side apparently turned, for the girl screamed sharply.
"Be still!" commanded the older woman. Breathless, across the top
of the arm-chair, she was leaning forward. Upon the man at the
telephone her eyes were fixed in fascination.
"Commissioner," said the district attorney, "this is Wharton
speaking.
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