The Spider Strain | Page 3

river. He had faced charging elephants and infuriated tigers, he had been in many a close corner during his work for The Spider, but never in his life before had he faced an ordeal such as this. The charming girl who sat at his side was more formidable, in her way, than a jungle filled with wild beasts.
"What is it, John?" she asked now. "Is it something that you cannot tell me?"
"I--I am not good enough!" he replied.
"John Warwick, I have been investigating you a bit. Alice Norton has spoken to me about you a hundred times, and she has known you from boyhood. You have been a good, clean man, John. You were a bit wild in college, and just after you graduated, but your wildness consisted mostly of globe-trotting and hunting lions, and things like that."
"I suppose so," Warwick sighed.
"There is nothing in your past life that would keep a nice girl from becoming your wife."
"My word! Regular paragon--what? Example to be held up to erring youth, and all that sort of thing!"
"Now you are trying to make me laugh and change the subject. And I refuse to do anything of the sort, John Warwick! We are going to have an explanation here this afternoon--or I never shall go riding with you again, or talk to you when you visit my uncle."
"Oh, I say! Condemn a chap, and all that?"
"I mean it, John!"
Warwick looked up the river again--and saw nothing. He was feeling very uncomfortable, to say the least. He was remembering his promise to The Spider, and he did not want to lose the sweet companionship of the girl at his side.
Silvia Rodney touched him on the arm. "Silly man!" she said.
"Beg pardon?"
"I think that I understand, John. You have wanted to speak to me for some time--I could tell. And you have not, because--well, because of my uncle, I suppose."
"But what could your jolly old uncle have to do with it?" John Warwick asked. "You mean that I am afraid he wouldn't give you to me, if I were to ask him?"
"I suppose you think that I am a silly girl who is blind and deaf and dumb," she said. "My uncle seems to think so, too. Why, John, I have known the truth for two years, at least, but never have let my uncle find out. I felt a bit badly about it at first--and then I discovered that my uncle isn't so very bad after all. He was bad in his youth, but now he and his men and women are working more in the interests of right than anything else. I know that my uncle is The Spider, the supercriminal!"
"My word!"
"It is the blood that flows through his veins," she went on. "His father was a famous criminal. My own father was associated with my uncle for some time before his death. I am resigned to those facts now, John."
"My word!"
"And you are not so very bad, you see. What have you done recently? You recovered an idol that had been taken from India. Uncle received money for that, of course, and so did you, yet it was honest in a way to have the idol returned. Then you recovered a famous painting that had been stolen, and so it found its way back to its original owner. You committed burglary to get it, and yet it was honest, in a way. So, you see, things are not so very bad."
"My word!" Warwick gasped again.
"And so, John, if that was the reason why you did not speak--"
"But I am a crook!" he protested. "Can I ask a sweet girl to become my wife when I am a criminal, when I am liable to arrest and incarceration at any moment?"
"John, if the girl loved you, she would be willing to run that risk."
"My dear lady! Since I have been working for your uncle, he has aided me in building up my shattered fortunes. I could maintain my place in society now and have a wife at my side. And I do want you, dear girl! But I cannot have you--unless The Spider releases me. If he would do that--"
"I feel sure that he will, John. He loves me, you know, and will do anything for my happiness."
"We shall ask him," Warwick said.
"You let me ask him, John. Let me tell him everything. I feel sure that it will be all right."
"You'll marry me, if The Spider releases me?"
"Of course!" she said. "So we--we are engaged, now?"
"I suppose so--provisionally."
"Well--" John Warwick faced her again, and saw her smile and her trembling lips. He took her into his arms quickly, and kissed her. "Let us hope and pray that The Spider will be merciful!" he said.
They got up and started walking back through the woods toward