Children of the Whirlwind [106]
was only waiting to pronounce swift judgment. "Mr. Hunt, is it true that Miss Cameron is this Maggie Carlisle the officer mentions, and that you knew it all the while?"
"Yes--" began the painter.
"Don't blame him, Miss Sherwood," Larry interrupted. "He didn't tell you because I begged him not to as a favor to me. Blame me for everything."
Her judgment upon Hunt was pronounced with cold finality, her eyes straight into Hunt's: "Whatever may have been Mr. Hunt's motives, I unalterably hold him to blame."
She turned upon Larry. The face which he had only seen in gracious moods was as inflexibly stern as a prosecuting attorney's.
"We're going to go right to the bottom of this, Mr. Brainard. You too have known all along that this Miss Cameron was really the Maggie Carlisle this officer speaks of?"
"Yes."
"And you have known all along that she was the daughter of this notorious criminal, Old Jimmie Carlisle?"
The impulse surged up in Larry to tell the newly learned truth about Maggie. But he remembered Maggie's injunction that the truth must never be known. He checked his revelation just in time.
"Yes."
"And is it true that Maggie Carlisle is herself what is known as a crook?--or has had crooked inclinations or plans?"
"It's like this, Miss Sherwood--"
"A direct answer, please!"
"Yes."
"And is it true, as this officer has suggested, that you were in love with her yourself?"
"Yes."
"You are aware of my brother's infatuation for her? That he has asked her to marry him?"
"Yes."
Her voice now sounded more terrible to Larry. "I took you in to give you a chance. And your repayment has been that, knowing all these things, you have kept silent and let me and my brother be imposed upon by a swindling operation. And who knows, since you admit that you love the girl, that you have not been a partner in the conspiracy from the first!"
"That's exactly the idea, Miss!" put in Gavegan.
Larry had foreseen many possible wrong turns which his plan might take, but he was appalled by the utter unexpectedness of the actual disaster. And yet he recognized that the evidence justified Miss Sherwood's judgment of him. It all made him seem an ingrate and a swindler.
For the moment Larry was so overwhelmed that he made no attempt to speak. And since for once Gavegan was content merely to gloat over his triumph, there was stiff silence in the room until Miss Sherwood said in the cold voice of a judge after a jury has brought in a verdict of guilty:
"Of course, if you think there is anything you may say for yourself, Mr. Brainard, you now have the chance to say it."
"I have much to say, but I can't blame you if you refuse to believe most of it," Larry said desperately, fighting for what seemed his last chance. "I loved Maggie Carlisle. I believed she had splendid qualities. Only she was dominated by the twisted ideas Old Jimmie Carlisle had planted in her. I wanted to eradicate those twisted ideas, and make her good qualities her ruling ones. But she didn't believe in me. She thought me a soft-head, a police stool, a squealer. Then I had to disappear; you know all about that. Not till I had been with you for several weeks did I learn that she was being used in a swindling scheme against Dick.
"I did think of telling you or Dick. But my greatest interest was to awaken that better person I believed to be in her; and I knew that the certain result of my exposing her to you would be for me to lose the last bit of influence I had with her, and for her to pass right on to another enterprise of similar character. So the idea came to me that if I didn't expose her, but caused her to be received with every courtesy by her intended victims, the effect upon her would be that she would feel a revulsion for what she was doing and she would come to her best senses. I told this to Mr. Hunt; that's why he agreed not to give her away. And another point, though frankly this was not so important to me: it seemed to me that a good hard jolt might be just what was needed to make Dick take life more seriously,
"Yes--" began the painter.
"Don't blame him, Miss Sherwood," Larry interrupted. "He didn't tell you because I begged him not to as a favor to me. Blame me for everything."
Her judgment upon Hunt was pronounced with cold finality, her eyes straight into Hunt's: "Whatever may have been Mr. Hunt's motives, I unalterably hold him to blame."
She turned upon Larry. The face which he had only seen in gracious moods was as inflexibly stern as a prosecuting attorney's.
"We're going to go right to the bottom of this, Mr. Brainard. You too have known all along that this Miss Cameron was really the Maggie Carlisle this officer speaks of?"
"Yes."
"And you have known all along that she was the daughter of this notorious criminal, Old Jimmie Carlisle?"
The impulse surged up in Larry to tell the newly learned truth about Maggie. But he remembered Maggie's injunction that the truth must never be known. He checked his revelation just in time.
"Yes."
"And is it true that Maggie Carlisle is herself what is known as a crook?--or has had crooked inclinations or plans?"
"It's like this, Miss Sherwood--"
"A direct answer, please!"
"Yes."
"And is it true, as this officer has suggested, that you were in love with her yourself?"
"Yes."
"You are aware of my brother's infatuation for her? That he has asked her to marry him?"
"Yes."
Her voice now sounded more terrible to Larry. "I took you in to give you a chance. And your repayment has been that, knowing all these things, you have kept silent and let me and my brother be imposed upon by a swindling operation. And who knows, since you admit that you love the girl, that you have not been a partner in the conspiracy from the first!"
"That's exactly the idea, Miss!" put in Gavegan.
Larry had foreseen many possible wrong turns which his plan might take, but he was appalled by the utter unexpectedness of the actual disaster. And yet he recognized that the evidence justified Miss Sherwood's judgment of him. It all made him seem an ingrate and a swindler.
For the moment Larry was so overwhelmed that he made no attempt to speak. And since for once Gavegan was content merely to gloat over his triumph, there was stiff silence in the room until Miss Sherwood said in the cold voice of a judge after a jury has brought in a verdict of guilty:
"Of course, if you think there is anything you may say for yourself, Mr. Brainard, you now have the chance to say it."
"I have much to say, but I can't blame you if you refuse to believe most of it," Larry said desperately, fighting for what seemed his last chance. "I loved Maggie Carlisle. I believed she had splendid qualities. Only she was dominated by the twisted ideas Old Jimmie Carlisle had planted in her. I wanted to eradicate those twisted ideas, and make her good qualities her ruling ones. But she didn't believe in me. She thought me a soft-head, a police stool, a squealer. Then I had to disappear; you know all about that. Not till I had been with you for several weeks did I learn that she was being used in a swindling scheme against Dick.
"I did think of telling you or Dick. But my greatest interest was to awaken that better person I believed to be in her; and I knew that the certain result of my exposing her to you would be for me to lose the last bit of influence I had with her, and for her to pass right on to another enterprise of similar character. So the idea came to me that if I didn't expose her, but caused her to be received with every courtesy by her intended victims, the effect upon her would be that she would feel a revulsion for what she was doing and she would come to her best senses. I told this to Mr. Hunt; that's why he agreed not to give her away. And another point, though frankly this was not so important to me: it seemed to me that a good hard jolt might be just what was needed to make Dick take life more seriously,