" Then he added grimly: "I don't think
you'd find it worth much for anything else."
There was a knock at the door beyond, and he hastily rose.
"Be here after the two-thirty session," he said. And the Wolf, huge and
masterful, disappeared with a stealthy tread, and the door closed
softly behind him.
A million dollars! My check honored for unlimited amounts! Doddridge
Knapp trusting me with a great fortune! I was overwhelmed, intoxicated,
with the consciousness of power.
Yet this was the man who had brought death to Henry Wilton, and had
twice sought my life in the effort to wrest from me a packet of
information I did not have. This was the man whose face had gleamed
fierce and hateful in the lantern's flash in the alley. This was the
man I had sworn to bring to the gallows for a brutal crime. And now I
was his trusted agent, with control, however limited, of millions.
It was a puzzle too deep for me. I was near coming to Mother Borton's
view that there was something uncanny about Doddridge Knapp. Did two
spirits animate that body? What was the thread that should join all
parts of the mystery into one harmonious whole?
I wondered idly who Doddridge Knapp's visitor might be, but as I could
see no way of finding out, and felt no special concern over his
identity or purposes, I rose and left the office. As I stepped into the
hall I discovered that somebody had a deeper curiosity than I. A man
was stooping to the keyhole of Doddridge Knapp's room in the endeavor
to see or hear.
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