"No," answered Stephanie to her father. "You are giving your daughter to a man who, however he sinned, and your daughter doesn’t presume to pass condemnation upon him as she might were she not a party to it, has frankly and openly acknowledged his transgression and expressed himself willing to take the consequences."
"Humph," said the old man, a flicker of a smile appearing on his iron face.
"Well," said Maynard, "I believe you are right. There is good stuff in you, Harnash, and your unforced, voluntary confession shows it. I don’t think you’ll administer knock-out drops to anybody again, and eventually I suppose you’ll get Stephanie, but there are conditions."
"You couldn’t impose any conditions that I would not gladly meet."
"I was coming to those myself," said the girl.
"Oh, you had thought of this, too, had you?"
"First of all there must be no public mention by any of us of the possible fate of Derrick until we are satisfied that he is dead."
The assent of Harnash was obviously not necessary to that.
"That’s where you come in, father--what is the legal term?--as an accessory after the fact to what we have done."
"Clever, clever," he murmured, "my own daughter."
"The next condition is that we must satisfy ourselves beyond peradventure that Derrick is dead before any marriage."
"That is a harder proposition," said the old man.
"Because," went on the girl, "I told George when I supposed Mr. Beekman was alive and would turn up some time that I would never marry him until I had got a release from Derrick’s own lips, and as long as there is a chance that he is alive that condition holds."
"I’m so glad that I can look forward to getting you at any time under any circumstances," said Harnash fervently, "that I accede gladly to any conditions that you may lay down."
"And how will you settle the affair if by any good fortune we succeed in finding Beekman and he refuses to consent and wishes to hold you to your terms?" asked Maynard thoughtfully. "You don’t seem to have counted on that."
Harnash and Stephanie looked at each other with dismay.
"And how if he wants to kill Harnash, as he would have a perfect right to do, for his part in the--er--deplorable transaction?" continued the old man relentlessly.