"I insist on giving you a check for your railroad fare," said Mr. Ridgeway, and took up a pen. What he wrote however was not the few magic words on a blank check, but the words, "Do not come here. Go to your apartment and stay there until ten tonight. Then both of you come to my address; skirt the wall until you find a gate. It will be unlocked. Follow the path at the right until you come to a porch with a French window. This will be open. Go into the room and wait there in the dark until I come."
Lawrence nodded and handed the note back. Mr. Ridgeway touched a match to it, at the same time lighting a cigar so that the smell of burned paper would not be evident.
"Thank you, sir," said Lawrence as though he had received a check. "And good-bye."
The door closed, and he was alone. He sat staring at the edge of the table that hid the wicked little device which had handed him over into the hands of his enemies. No wonder plans had gone wrong! And now when so much hinged on the attitude of the country to the new Republic in Europe, and when the question of a mammoth loan was a matter of the most importance. As he mused, O'Brien jerked the door open and came in. Although O'Brien knew that the listener at the end of the tiny wire could not see him, he was by nature too much of an actor not to play the whole part. So he came in swaggering and approaching the table said truculently, "I come back to see you, sir, on something important."
"Speak up, my man," said Mr. Ridgeway. "I am rather busy, and hereafter you will send in your name."
"I won't send nothing," said O'Brien, "unless I get a raise. I work twice as hard and long as any man at the field, and there are twenty planes to look over and keep in order, to say nothing of that dirigible that I will have to nurse back to health. I want more money."
"No such thing!" growled O'Brien. "I know you! Take me or leave me!"
"It's the latter then, O'Brien. I won't be bullied by you or any other man," said Mr. Ridgeway with a wink.
"Then that settles it," said O'Brien. "Belave me when I say I am glad to be through with the likes of you, and if you will pay me what you owe I will get me a job where I am appreciated."
He pointed toward the door with his stubby thumb, and Mr. Ridgeway, taking the hint, said, "Wait here and I will get your money," and left the room.