"Is he--wearing stripes?"
"Yes, it's the fashion there."
"For God's sake, don't jest. For five years!" The young man sank into a chair and covered his face with his hands.
"There'll be something off for good behaviour, my boy. He wanted to behave well before he went there, so I suppose he'll keep it up. The whole town was against him. He didn't have a friend."
"How did you escape?" demanded Graydon, looking up suddenly. "State's evidence?"
"No, not even after he tried to put most of the blame upon me. He tried that, my boy. I just let him talk. It saved me from prison. Usually the case with the man who keeps his mouth closed."
"But, Elias--Elias, why have I been kept in the dark? Why did he not tell me about it? Why has--"
"You forget, Graydon, that you turned from him first. You were really the first to condemn him. He wanted you to stay away from this country until he is free. That was his plan. He didn't want to see you. Now he wants you to come to him. He wants you to bring Jane Cable to see him."
"What!"
"Yes, that's it. I believe he intends to tell her the names of her father and mother. I think he wants her to forgive him and he wants to hear both of you say it to him."
Graydon stared blankly from the window. The old clerk was smiling to himself, an evil, gloating smile that would have shocked Bansemer had he turned suddenly.
"He wants both of us to--to come to the penitentiary?" muttered the son.
"Yes, as soon as possible. Do you think she'll go?" demanded Droom anxiously.
"I don't know. I'm afraid not."
"Not even to learn who her parents are?"
"It might tempt her. But she hates father."
"Well, she can gloat over him, can't she? That ought to be some satisfaction. Talk it over with her. She's here, isn't she?"
"Elias, do you know who her parents were?" asked Graydon quickly. "I've thought you knew as much about it as father."
The old man's eyes shifted.
"It's a silly question to ask of me. I was not a member of the Four Hundred, my boy."
"Nor was my father. Yet you think he knows."
"He's a much smarter man than I, Graydon. You'll go with me to see him?"
"Yes. I can't speak for Miss Cable."
"See her to-morrow. Come out to my place to-night, where the reporters can't find you. Maybe you won't care to sleep with me--I've but one bed, you see--but you can go to a quiet hotel downtown. I'm packing these things to store them for your father. Then I'm going back to New York to live on my income. It's honest money, too."