In the Temple of Jimjambo, when he was
only a kid, he had been desperately in love with her. She was not
only beautiful, she was so smart; she was the smartest woman he had
ever known. McGivney remarked that she had been playing with Peter
even then--she had been in Guffey's pay at that time, collecting
evidence to put Pashtian el Kalandra in jail and break up the cult
of Eleutherinian Exoticism. She had done many such jobs for the
secret service of the Traction Trust, while Peter was still
traveling around with Pericles Priam selling patent medicine. Nell
had been used by Guffey to seduce a prominent labor leader in
American City; she had got him caught in a hotel room with her, and
thus had broken the back of the biggest labor strike ever known in
the city's history.
Peter felt suddenly that he had a good defense. Of course a woman
like that had been too much for him! It was Guffey's own fault if he
hired people like that and turned them loose! It suddenly dawned on
Peter--Nell must have found out that he, Peter, was going to meet
young Lackman in the Hotel de Soto, and she must have gone there
deliberately to ensnare him. When McGivney admitted that that was
possibly true, Peter felt that he had a case, and proceeded to urge
it with eloquence.
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