"Well, well, Miss Flora," he wanted to know, "to what bad action of mine do I owe this good fortune?"
She retreated, beckoning him to the middle of the room. "You owe it to the bad action of another," she said gaily. "Your friends are being slandered."
Harry made a movement as if he would have stopped her, and the expression of his face, in its alarm, was comic. But she paid no heed. She laid her hand on Harry's arm. "Mr. Kerr is just about to accuse us of being impostors," she announced. She had robbed the situation of its peril by gaily turning it exactly inside out.
The judge blinked, puzzled at this extraordinary statement. Harry was disconcerted; but Kerr showed an astonishment that amazed her--a concern that she could not understand. He stared at her. Then he laughed rather shakily as he turned to her with a mock gallant bow.
"All women impose upon us, madam. And as for Mr. Cressy"--he fixed Harry with a look--"I could not accuse him of being an impostor since we have met in the sacred limits of of St. James'."
The two glances that crossed before Flora's watchful eyes were keen as thrust and parry of rapiers. Harry bowed stiffly.
"I believe, for a fact, we did _not_ meet, but I think I saw you there once--at some Embassy ball."
The words rang, to Flora's ears, as if they had been shouted from the housetops. In the speaking pause that followed there was audible an unknown hortatory voice from the smoking-room.
"I tell you it's a damn-fool way to manage it! What's the good of twenty thousand dollars' reward?" Flora clutched nervously at the back of her chair. She seemed to see the danger of discovery piling up above Kerr like a mountain.
The judge chuckled. "You see what you saved me from. They've been at it hammer and tongs all the evening. Every man in town has his idea on that subject."
"For instance, what is that one?" Kerr's casual voice was in contrast to his guarded eyes.
The judge looked pleased. "That one? Why, that's my own--was, at least, half an hour ago. You see, about that twenty-thousand-dollar proposition--" They moved nearer him. They stood, the four, around the red velvet-covered table, like people waiting to be served. "The trouble is right here," said the judge, emphasizing with blunt forefinger. "The crook has a pal. That's probable, isn't it?"