CHAPTER XVIIIPHILLIDA’S HAND IS FORCED
Now that he was in possession of the astonishing fact, Larry scarcely knew what to do with it. It only tended to bear out Shane’s theory that Phillida was a common blackmailer, and the weight at Larry’s breast became heavier and heavier. He still struggled against it; there must be some other explanation he told himself. But how was he to set about obtaining it? A trip to England was out of the question. Supposing he took the next ship and got the Englishman by the throat and shook the truth out of him—Phillida’s trial would have come and gone before he could get back to New York.
Larry walked the steaming pavements oblivious to his direction. In his confusion and distress his thoughts turned irresistibly to Phillida herself. If he could only reassu
