Is Mabel Ticknor going to be the
woman? That's the point."
"Too dangerous, Jim! Too dangerous!" Ticknor put in nervously.
"Pardon me, old man. The danger is for us four, who pretend we've got
the thing."
"There are lots of other women and I've only got one wife!" objected
Ticknor.
"We're pressed for time," Grim answered. "You see, Ticknor, old man,
you're a Cornstalk and therefore an outsider--just a medico, who saws
bones for a living, satisfied to keep your body out of the poorhouse,
your soul out of hell, and your name out of the newspapers. Your wife
is presumably more so. There are several officials' wives who would
jump at the chance to be useful; but a sudden trip toward Damascus just
now would cause any one of them to be suspected, whereas Mabel wouldn't
be."
"I don't know why not!" Ticknor retorted. "Wasn't she in here when
those three murderers came to finish the lot of us? If Yussuf Dakmar
makes any report at all he'll surely say he traced the letter to this
house."
"Yussuf Dakmar came no nearer than the street," Grim answered. "He has
no notion who is in here. His three friends are in jail under lock and
key, where he can't get at them.
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