You should be
a member of the bar. Anyone who can lead a battle-scarred veteran of
cross-examination like myself into a trap and then spring it on him, as
you have done, is gifted by Providence."
"But will you tell me?"
He hesitated, perplexed and doubtful.
"I ought not to say another word on the subject," he declared,
emphatically. "What Captain Warren will say to me when he finds this
out is unpleasant to consider. But... But yet, I don't know. It may be
better for you to learn the real truth than to know a part and guess
wrongly at the rest. I... What is it you want me to tell you?"
"Everything. I want you to sit down here by me and tell me the whole
story, from the beginning. Please."
He hesitated a moment longer and, then, his mind made up, returned to
his chair, crossed his legs and began. "Here it is," he said.
"Caroline, about twenty years ago, or such matter, your father was a
comparatively poor man--poor, I mean, compared to what he afterward
became. But he was a clever man, an able business man, one who saw
opportunities and grasped them. At that time he obtained a grant in
South America for--"
"I know," she interrupted; "the Akrae Rubber Company was formed. You
told Steve and me all about that. What I want to know is--"
"Wait.
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