Perhaps the relief I felt found
expression in my face, for the woman exclaimed:
"I believe you are actually glad; that it pleases you to know this."
"It certainly does," I replied swiftly, "for now I can work openly,
knowing exactly what I ought to do. I have felt like a rat skulking in
a hole. I believed what those men told me; they convinced me with
proofs I could not ignore, but they must have lied. In some details,
at least, they must have deceived. Now would it be possible for Philip
Henley to be in a penitentiary convicted of crime?"
"It would not be," she returned firmly. "There was no time after I
left him for an arrest and conviction. That alone is sufficient to
convince me of fraud and conspiracy. More than that, Philip Henley was
not one to commit a crime of that nature, and there was no reason why
he should. His remittances were amply sufficient. Under the influence
of liquor he might commit assault, or even murder, but never forgery."
"Then what do you think has occurred?"
"Either one of two things," she said soberly. "He is dead, or
helplessly in the power of those men who sent you here. There is no
other conclusion possible. They had possession of his papers--even his
private memoranda. They knew more of conditions here than I had ever
been told.
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