Said Evan: "Stripped of its humorous verbiage this means: 'Come across or we'll croak the old man. And you needn't think you would profit by his death because we'd come down on you harder than ever then!'"
"Isn't it awful! Isn't it awful!" gasped Deaves. "Was ever a man put in so frightful a position? What am I to do?"
"Three courses are open to you," said Evan patiently; "the first, and in my opinion the wisest, course is--to do nothing. Put it up to them."
"But my father! He will suffer for it! A rotting old house overrun with rats, you said. And such an ordeal as you went through! It might very well kill him. How can I risk it?"
"He will always have the option of freeing himself," said Evan.
Evan shrugged. "Well, we went over all that last night. Your second course would be to take that letter to the police and put the whole matter in their hands. A force of ten thousand men with the information I can give them ought to be able to locate the clubhouse before night."
"Well, your third course is to hang out the flag and open negotiations."
"I have nothing to negotiate with! I cannot raise a cent more!"
"Never mind; bluff them. Spin them along as far as you can, on the chance of outwitting them in the end."
"What chance would I have of outwitting them?" cried Deaves mournfully.
Evan looked at the poor distraught figure and thought: "Not much, I guess." Aloud he said: "Well, that's the best I can do for you."
"All three courses are equally impossible!" cried Deaves desperately.
"You are no help at all!" cried Deaves. He turned like a demented person, and ran down-stairs.
Evan thought he had seen the last of him.
But on the afternoon of the following day he returned once more. He was still perturbed, but his desperate agitation had passed; there was even a certain smugness about him. Clearly something had happened to ease his mind.
Deaves looked confused. "Well--I couldn't make up my mind what to do," he confessed. "I--I didn't do anything."
"Just what I advised," said Evan. "Then what happened?"
Deaves evaded a direct answer. "I came to ask you if you would accompany me on a little expedition to-night?"
"Is it necessary for me to tell you? I would pay you well."
"It's not a question of pay," said Evan. "I must know what I'm doing."