When Dan left Mrs. Jarsell he was very well pleased with the promise she had given concerning the safety of Lillian. He fully¹ believed that she, in her role of Queen Beelzebub, would keep that promise faithfully, if only because her own interests demanded such honesty. The fact that the confession² of Penn was in the hands of a third party to be made use of should anything happen to Miss Moon, prevented the Society of Flies from carrying out the threat made to him at the secret meeting. To save their own lives the members would be forced — much against their will no doubt — to spare those of Lillian and himself. Dan chuckled³ at the way in which he had circumvented⁴ the deadly organisation⁵. But he had only scotched⁶ the snake, he had not killed it, and until he did so there was always the chance that it would strike when able to do so with safety. But while Penn’s confession remained in Laurance’s hands, all was well.

One thing struck Halliday as strange, and that was the persistence⁷ with which Mrs. Jarsell kept up the comedy of having-nothing-to-do-with-the-matter during so confidential⁸ a conversation. She knew that Penn had been a doubtful member of her gang; she knew that he had been despatched — as Dan truly believed — because he was not to be trusted, and now she knew that he had left a confession behind him, which was in the hands of her enemies. Also, she was aware that the man who spoke⁹ to her had read the confession and must have guessed that her name, as Queen Beelzebub, was mentioned therein. This being the case, it was to be presumed that she would speak freely, but in place of doing so, she had pretended ignorance, and for his own ends he had humoured her

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