"Listen," he said. "You are going away, I can see, with one idea in your
mind. You have held your peace during the last quarter of an hour,
because you have known that your lives would be forfeit if you told the
truth, but you are saying to yourselves now that from the shelter of
other walls you can tell your story."
There was a furtive look in Rees' eyes, a guilty twitch on his
companion's mouth. Wingate smiled.
"You cannot," he continued, "by the wildest stretch of imagination,
believe that this has been a one-man job. The whole scheme of your
conveyance into Dredlinton House and into this room has necessitated the
employment of something like twenty men. The greater part of these, of
course, have been paid by me. One or two are volunteers."
"Volunteers?" Phipps exclaimed. "Do you mean that you could find men to
do your dirty work for nothing?"
"I found men," Wingate answered sternly, "and I could find many more--and
without payment, too--who were willing to enter into any scheme directed
against you and your company."
"Are we to stand here," Phipps demanded, "whilst you preach us a sermon
about our business methods?"
"I am afraid, for your own sakes, you must hear what I have to say before
you go," Wingate replied. "I will put it in as few words as possible. If
you give the show away, besides making yourselves the laughingstocks of
the world you may live for twenty-four hours if my people are unlucky,
but I give you my word of honour, Phipps--and I will do you the credit of
believing that you recognise truth when you come across it--that you will
both of you be dead before the dawn of the second day.
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