“You can let her alone,” Sanford Quest
said quietly. “A wife cannot give evidence
against her husband, and besides, I need her.
She is going to work for me.”
Macdougal was already at the door, between the two
detectives. He swung around. His voice was
calm, almost clear—calm with the concentration
of hatred.
“You are a wonderful man, Mr. Sanford Quest,”
he said. “Make the most of your triumph.
Your time is nearly up.”
“Keep him for a moment,” Sanford Quest
ordered. “You have friends, then, Macdougal,
who will avenge you, eh?”
“I have no friends,” Macdougal replied,
“but there is one coming whose wit and cunning,
science and skill are all-conquering. He will
brush you away, Sanford Quest, like a fly. Wait
a few weeks.”
“You interest me,” Quest murmured.
“Tell me some more about this great master?”
“I shall tell you nothing,” Macdougal
replied. “You will hear nothing, you will
know nothing. Suddenly you will find yourself
opposed. You will struggle—and then
the end. It is certain.”
They led him away. Only Lenora remained, sobbing.
Quest went up to her, laid his hand upon her shoulder.
“You’ve had a rough time, Lenora,”
he said, with strange gentleness. “Perhaps
the brighter days are coming.”
[Illustration: Lord Ashleigh accuses
Lenora of being implicated in
the crime, but Quest decides
to the contrary.]
[Illustration: Ian Macdougal is
given A life sentence for the
murder of the daughter of
lord Ashleigh.]
THE HIDDEN HANDS
1.
Sanford Quest and Lenora stood side by side upon the
steps of the Courthouse, waiting for the automobile
which had become momentarily entangled in a string
of vehicles. A little crowd of people were elbowing
their way out on to the sidewalk. The faces of
most of them were still shadowed by the three hours
of tense drama from which they had just emerged.
Quest, who had lit a cigar, watched them curiously.
“No need to go into Court,” he remarked.
“I could have told you, from the look of these
people, that Macdougal had escaped the death sentence.
They have paid their money—or rather their
time, and they have been cheated of the one supreme
thrill.”
“Imprisonment for life seems terrible enough,”
Lenora whispered, shuddering.
“Can’t see the sense of keeping such a
man alive myself,” Quest declared, with purposeful
brutality. “It was a cruel murder, fiendishly
committed.”
Lenora shivered. Quest laid his fingers for a
moment upon her wrist. His voice, though still
firm, became almost kind.
“Never be afraid, Lenora,” he said, “to
admit the truth. Come, we have finished with
Macdougal now. Imprisonment for life will keep
him from crossing your path again.”
