“But what the devil are we to do, Hugh?” said Algy, now very serious himself. “I tell you it will be impossible to make him accept that money. He’s as docile as a sheep in some ways, but once he does stick his toes in over anything, a bag of gunpowder won’t shift him.”
“Well, if he really is determined to go through with it, it may be necessary to get him away and keep a watchful eye on him till he gets it off his chest at the Royal Society. That’s to say if he’ll come. Once it’s out—it’s out, and the reasons for doing away with him will largely have disappeared.”
“Yes; but I say, old man—murder!” Algy harked back to his original point. “Don’t you think that’s a bit over the odds?”
Hugh laughed grimly. “You’ve lived the quiet life too long, Algy. There are stakes at issue now which stri
