Blake rode up and gave his horse to the horse-boy. "Put him in
the stable for a while," he said. "I may want him again." Then he
went round to the front door and asked for Mrs. Gordon.
"I have come to see Miss Grant on very important business," he
said when the old lady came in. "Would you ask her if she would
see me?"
The old lady was in a quandary. She had heard all the rumours that
were going about, but she knew that they had been kept from Mary
Grant, and she thought that if Blake meant to talk business he
might shock or startle the girl terribly.
"Mr. Pinnock the lawyer is here," she said. "Perhaps you had better
see him. Miss Grant does not know--"
"I am come as a friend of Miss Grant's, Mrs. Gordon," he said.
"But, if Mr. Pinnock is here, perhaps it would be better for me to
see him first. Shall I wait for him here?"
"If you will go into the office I will send him in there," and the
old lady withdrew to talk of commonplace matters with Mary, all
the time feeling that a great crisis was at hand.
Soon the two lawyers faced one another over the office table, and
Blake got to business at once.
"Mr. Pinnock," he said, "I am asked to act for Margaret Donohoe,
or Margaret Grant as she claims to be; and I want you to believe
that I am seriously telling you what I believe to be the truth,
when I say that Miss Grant had better settle this case."
"Why should she pay one penny? What proofs have you? It looks to
me, with all respect to you, Mr. Blake, like an ordinary case of
blackmail."
"If it were blackmail," said Blake quietly, "do you think that
I would be here, giving you particulars of the case? I tell you,
man, I am ready now to give you all particulars, and you can soon
see whether to advise a settlement or not."
"Fire away, then," said Pinnock. "It will take a lot to convince
me, though, and so I tell you."
Blake gave him the particulars gleaned from Peggy. "I have examined
and cross-examined and re-cross-examined her, and I can't shake
her story."
Pinnock listened with an immovable face, but his mind was working
like lightning. As the name of the missionary and Pike's Hotel were
mentioned, he remembered that he had seen these very names on the
butts of Grant's cheque-books. Getting Blake to excuse him for a
moment, he hurried to his room and pulled out a bundle of cheque-butts.
The best diary of many a man is found in his cheque-butts. There
he saw on the very date mentioned by Blake, cheques drawn to "Self
and P.", also one drawn to "Pike accommodation," and one simply
to the name of Nettleship for five pounds. Of course it was quite
possible that the latter was only a donation to charity, such as
old Bully was occasionally very free with; but, taken together, the
whole lot made Blake's story look unpleasantly probable. Pinnock
whistled to himself as he tied the bundle up again. "Case of settle
or be sorry," he said to himself. "I wonder how much will settle
it?"