ent
of Marcus. She got something, you got something, but Marcus got the
most. Julian got something too, but it was Marcus got the joints. He
gave you three the head, and the hoofs, and the innards, and the tail.
I've had it out with the Plinlimon woman and I know. You were a gang."

Voles heaved up in his chair.

"What more have you to say?" asked he thickly.

"A lot. There is nothing more difficult to get at than a gang, because
they cover each other's traces. I pay you a certain sum in cash, you
deduct your commission and hand the remainder over to the Plinlimon
woman, she pays her Pa, and gets a few hundred to pay her milliner.
Who's to prove anything? No cheques have passed."

"Just so," said Voles.

"I'm glad you see my point," replied Jones. "Now if you can't untie a
knot, you can always cut it if you have a knife--can't you?"

Voles shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, I said you were a knife, didn't I, and I'm going to cut this knot
with you, see my point?"

"Not in the least."

"I'm sorry, because that makes me speak plain, and that's unpleasant.
This is my meaning. I have to get that property back, or else I will go
to the police and rope in the whole gang. Tell the whole story. I will
accuse Marcus. Do you understand that? Marcus, and Marcus' daughter, and
Marcus' son, and you. And I won't do that to-morrow, I'll do it to-day.
To-night the whole caboodle of you will be in jail."

"You said you hadn't come to fight," cried Voles. "What do you want?
Haven't you had enough from me? Yet you drive me like this. It's
dangerous."

"I have not come to fight. At least not you. On the contrary, when I get
this property back, if it turns out worth a million, I'll maybe pay you
your losses. You've been paying the piper for Marcus, it seems to me."

"I have," groaned Voles.

The two words proved to Jones that he was right all through.

"Well, it's Marcus I'm up against, and you have to help me."

Then Voles began to speak. The something Oriental in his nature, the
something that had driven him rushing with outspread arms at the
constable that evening, began now to talk.

Help against Marcus! What could he do against Marcus? Why Marcus
Mulhausen held him in the hollow of his hand. Marcus held everyone: his
daughter, her husband, his own son Julian, to say nothing of A. S. Voles
and others.

Jones listened with patient attention to all this, and when the other
had finished and wiped the palms of his hands o