"
"Then you have seen the Colonel?"
"No--but I have seen Mrs. Cortlandt. I felt I had a right to ask
something from her in return for what I did for you. I know that
sounds rotten, but you'll understand how it is. Colonel Jolson
wants his brother-in-law, Blakeley, to have the place, but I'm
entitled to it, and she has promised to fix it for me. If I go up,
you go, too; that's why I was worried when this Clifford party
appeared."
"There IS something, I suppose, I ought to tell you, although it
doesn't amount to much. I was mixed up in a scrape the night I
left New York. A plain-clothes man happened to get his head under
a falling bottle and nearly died from the effects."
"What was the trouble?"
"It really wasn't the least bit of trouble, it was fatally easy.
We were out on a grape carnival, six of us. It was an anti-
prohibition festival, and he horned in."
"There is nothing else?"
"Nothing."
"Well, this Clifford party is stopping at the Hotel Central.
Better look him over."
"I will," said Kirk, feeling more concern than he cared to show,
but his apprehension turned out to be quite unfounded. On
inspection, Clifford proved to bear no resemblance whatever to
Williams, nor did he seem to have any concealed design.
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