"Not exactly. Although I may say I represent him."

"Well, he got a good one. You know how to use your fists, Mister."

"Better than this 'Frisco Pet did once, eh, Tom?" The man frowned. "But
to return to the subject in hand. That question you seemed afraid to
answer just now was superfluous; I know where you were the night the
woman was shot."

"You do?"

"Yes; you were--" John Steele leaned forward and said something softly.

"How'd you find that out?" asked the man.

"The 'Frisco Pet knew where you were all the time; but did not speak,
because he did not wish to get you into trouble. Also, because he did
not know, then, what he long afterward learned,--indirectly!--that you
could have cleared him!"

"Indirectly? I? What do you--?"

"Through your once having dropped a few words. Wine in, wits out!"

The fellow scowled; edged his chair closer.

"Keep where you are!" John Steele's hand touched the revolver now on the
table before him; even as it did so, the room seemed to sway, and it was
only by a strong effort of will he kept his attention on the matter in
hand, fought down the dizziness. "And let's get through with this! I
don't care to waste much more of my time on you."

"You're sure nothing will happen to me, if--" The man watched him
closer.

"This paper need never be made public."

"Then what--"

"That's my business. It might be useful in certain contingencies."

"Such as the police discovering he hadn't gone to Davy Jones' locker?"
shrewdly.

John Steele's answer was short, as if he found this verbal contest
trite, paltry, after the physical struggle that had preceded it.

"And what am I to get if I do what you--" The pupils of the fellow's
eyes, fastened on him, were now like pin-points.

The other smiled grimly; this bargaining and trafficking with such a
man, in a place so foul! It seemed grotesque, incongruous; and yet was,
withal, so momentous. He knew just what Rogers should say; what he would
force him to do! In his overwrought state he overlooked one or two
points that would not have escaped him at another time: a certain
craftiness, or low cunning that played occasionally on that disfigured
face.

"What did you say I was to get if--"

"You shall have funds to take you out of the country, and I will engage
to get and forward to you the money left in trust. The alternative," he
bent forward, "about fifteen years, if the traps--"

The fellow pondered; at last he answered. Fo