For Larry, as Maggie had hoped, had dimly apprehended
something of Maggie's plan, and he felt himself bound by the promise
she had extracted from him, to let her go through with whatever she
had under way; though he had no conception of her plan's extent, and
could, of course, not know of the intention of her overwrought mind to
give her plan its final touch in what amounted to her own self-
destruction, and in her vanishing utterly out of the knowledge of all
who knew her.
Another minute passed; then Larry heard three peculiar rings of the
bell of the outer door--an obvious signal. Maggie answered the
summons, and Larry saw Old Jimmie enter. There followed a rapid and
compact conference between the three, the substance of which was the
telling of Old Jimmie of the developments against Dick Sherwood which
Maggie had a little earlier recited to Barney, together with
instructions to Old Jimmie concerning his new role as Maggie's
guardian. It seemed to Larry that he caught signs of uneasiness in
Jimmie, but to all the older man nodded his head.
Presently there was a loud ring. "That's Dick!" exclaimed Barney in a
whisper. "And mighty eager, too--shows that by being ahead of the
time you set! Let him in, Maggie."
Maggie was startled by the ring, though she did not show it.
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