"
The villain smiled and stroked his mustache complacently. "I don't mind
telling you, seeing you're not likely to give me any further trouble,
that I shall marry the heiress to the Alstine estates and quit the
precarious work that I have all along been following, and hereafter live
a gentleman."
"Indeed!"
The detective could not help admiring the villain's coolness, even while
despising his villainy.
"You congratulate me on my plan?"
"No. You cannot carry it out."
"And why not, pray? You won't be there to interfere, Mr. Keene. I have
provided against such a contingency."
"You have a wife living."
"So you imagine, so _she_ imagines; but it is a mere show. Iris is not my
wife."
"You deceived her with a mock marriage?"
"That is about the size of it."
"What a consummate scoundrel."
"Don't use such pet expressions, my dear Keene, you hurt my feelings, you
really do, I assure you."
"I expect to hurt your neck some time," retorted the detective, curtly.
"Oh, you do? Let me tell you, Mr. Keene, that that time will never come
to you, never.
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