The Pirate of Panama | Page 7

about that, Mr. Sedgwick."
His hand rested on the back of the chair for a support. My eyes looked
straight into the blue barrel of his weapon. It was a ticklish moment. I
congratulate myself that my nerves were in good condition. My fingers
played a tattoo upon a sheet of paper on my desk. Beneath that page of
office stationery lay the map he wanted.
"One moment, captain. This is not Russia. Have you considered that the
freedom of my country carries with it disadvantages? You would
probably be hanged by the neck till you were dead."
His mood had changed, but I knew he was not a whit less dangerous
because the veneer of suave mockery masked the savagery of the Slav.
"Not at all. The unwritten law, my friend. I find you insulting my
cousin and the hot blood in me boils. I avenge her. Regrettable, of
course. Too hasty, perhaps. But--oh well, let bygones be bygones."
In one breath he had tried and acquitted himself.
"And do you think that I would agree to your accursed lies?" his cousin
asked, white as new-fallen snow.
"Let us hope so. Otherwise I should have to base my action upon a
construction less creditable to you. The point is that I shall not hesitate
to carry out my promise. We can arrange the details later, my dear.
Come, Mr. Sedgwick! Choose!"

"You coward!" flashed his cousin in a blaze of scorn.
"Not at all, dear Evie. All point of view, I assure you. Mr. Sedgwick
has told you that I take a sporting chance of being scragged. I haven't
the slightest ill feeling, but--I want what I want. Have you decided,
sir?"
He was scarcely two yards from me, but neither his keen gaze nor the
point of the automatic revolver wandered for a fraction of a second
from me. There was not a single chance to close with him. I was
considering ignominious surrender when Miss Wallace saved my face.
"Can he give you what he hasn't got?" she cried out, her natural
courage and her contempt struggling with her fear for me.
"So he hasn't it, eh?" There was a silence before he went on: "But it is
in this room somewhere. You have it or he has it. Now, I wonder
which?" He spoke softly, as if to himself, without the least trace of
nervousness or passion. "Yes, that's the riddle. Which of you?"
His eyes released me long enough to shoot a questioning glance at her,
for from my face he could read nothing.
"If you have it, Evie, my cousin, you will perhaps desire to turn it over
to me for safe keeping. It will be better, I think."
"For you or for me?"
He laughed noiselessly, with the manner peculiar to him of having
some private source of amusement within.
"Would you shoot me if I didn't agree with you?" she continued.
"My dear cousin," he reproved. From his air one might have judged
him a pained and loving father.
"Then what will you do?"
"Yes, I really think it will be better," he murmured with his strange

smile.
"And I ask again, better for whom?"
"For Mr. Sedgwick, my dear," he cut back.
She was plainly taken aback.
"But--since he hasn't the paper----"
"We'll assume he has it. At least he knows where it is."
His manner dismissed her definitely from the business in hand. "I must
apologize for my brusqueness, Mr. Sedgwick, but I'm sure you'll
understand that with a busy man time is money. Believe me, it is with
great regret I am forced to cut short so promising a career. You're a
man after my own heart. I see quite unusual qualities in you that I
would have found pleasure in cultivating. But I mustn't let my selfish
regret interfere with what is for the good of the greatest number. At
best it's an unsatisfactory world. You're well rid of it. Any last
messages, by the way?"
He purred out his atrocious mockery as a great cat gifted with speech
might have done while playing with the mouse it meant to destroy.
"I'd like to make it clear to you what a villain you are--but I despair of
finding words to do justice to the subject. As for your threat, it is
absurd. You'd hang, to a certainty, on the testimony of Miss Wallace."
He shrugged his broad shoulders.
"Life is full of risks. We all have to take them, and for my part it lends
a zest. Unfortunately, if you take this risk you will not be in a position
later to realize that your judgment was at fault. That, however, is your
business and not mine," he concluded cheerfully, lifting his weapon
slightly and taking aim.
"For the last