My young master has implored his father
not to write to him direct.'
'This go-between, as we may call him, is the third person in the
secret? Who is he?'
'That I dare not tell you!'
'Mr. Sanderson, it would be much better for your master and his son
that you should be more open with me. These half-confidences are
misleading. Has the son made any suggestion regarding his release?'
'Oh yes, but not the suggestion I have put before you. His latest
letter was to the effect that within six months or so there is to be
an election for governor. He proposes that a large sum of money shall
be used to influence this election so that a man pledged to pardon him
may sit in the governor's chair.'
'I see. And this sum of money is to be paid to the third person you
referred to?'
'Yes.'
'May I take it that this third person is the one to whom various sums
have been paid during the last five years in order to bribe the
governor to pardon the young man?'
Sanderson hesitated a moment before answering; in fact, he appeared so
torn between inclination and duty; anxious to give me whatever
information I deemed necessary, yet hemmed in by the instructions
with which his master had limited him, that at last I waved my hand
and said:--
'You need not reply, Mr.
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