he must be met with the bluff direct now."

"How can he be bluffed?" Featherstone asked with a hopeless gesture.
"He can have my son arrested if I don't agree to his demands."

"He would first have to tell the police all he knew, and as soon as he
did this his hold on you would be gone. Then they'd ask why he'd kept
the secret, which would be remarkably hard to answer, although he might
perhaps take the risk out of malice if he saw you meant to be firm.
For all that, you must be firm; you can't buy him off. He'd come back
later with a fresh demand. Would your estate stand the strain?"

"My wife and daughter would make any sacrifice for Lawrence's sake."

"The sacrifice would benefit this bloodsucker, which is a different
thing," Foster rejoined. "Then, even if you impoverished your family,
you'd only put off the reckoning, which would come when the fellow had
taken all you'd got. In short, he must be bluffed off now."

He sat down and pondered and there was silence for some minutes. It
had got dark and he heard the steady patter of the rain. He knew he
had undertaken a difficult task, and felt daunted because he could not
see his way. Still, it looked as if the happiness of these charming
people, and perhaps his partner's future, depended upon him. If that
were so, he must not fail them.

"Well," he said by and by, "my opinion is that Daly thinks Lawrence is
here, so to speak within his reach, which must be a strong
encouragement. If he learns the truth, he'll, no doubt, go back to
Canada and get on his track. I'd like to set him searching up and down