This is a
very strange situation in which we find ourselves, Captain West."
"I have felt so," he admitted, surprised at this beginning. "Yet I must
confess, I am now becoming quite reconciled."
She sat up suddenly, with eyes searching his face.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Perhaps I ought not to say," he answered boldly. "Yet circumstances
seemingly justify frankness between us. I mean that I feel far more
deeply interested in the final outcome of this affair today than I did
yesterday--it means more to me."
"Indeed! Why?"
"Largely, I imagine, because I am privileged to know you much better.
That naturally makes a difference."
"Does it indeed? You imply then an increased interest in myself as an
individual brings with it a greater desire to serve me?"
"Assuredly, yes."
"Then you render my task doubly hard," she said soberly, yet with a
certain hardness in the tone. "I had not suspected any personal side
whatever. You were a total stranger to me, Captain West, and I employed
you in this matter merely in a business way, as--as--a detective. Surely
you understood this clearly?"
"In a measure that is quite true," feeling the sharp sting of her words.
"Yet the comparison is hardly fair, is it? I am not a detective in the
sense with which you employ the term. No question of pay even has been
discussed between us. The appeal to my services was from an entirely
different stand-point.
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