"Miss Polly, it's about the woman at Perkins's--at Dr. Pruyn's
house."
Her eyes dilated with anger.
"I won't hear! How dare you come to me--"
"You must! Don't make it harder for me than it is."
She looked up, startled, and noted the haggard lines in his face.
"I'll hear it if you think I should, Fitz."
"She is dead."
"Dead? His--his wife?"
"She wasn't his wife. She was a helpless leper, whom he was trying
to cure with some new serum. He had to do it secretly because
there is a law forbidding any one to harbor a leper."
"Oh, Fitz!" she cried. "And she died of it?"
"No. They killed her. Last night."
"They? Who?"
"Government agents, probably. They were after Pruyn."
"How horrible! And--and Mrs. Pruyn. Where was she?"
"There isn't any Mrs. Pruyn. There never was."
"But the Dutch permit! It was for Dr. Pruyn and his wife."
"Sherwen misread the form. So did I. It read for Dr. Pruyn and a
woman. He hoped to take her to Curacao and complete his
experiment."
"That's what he meant when he spoke of being lawless, and I've
been thinking the basest things of him for it!" The girl, dazed by
a flash of complete enlightenment, caught at Carroll's arm with
beseeching hands.
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