ling but
there was a tremour of the lips that spoke so banteringly.

Good old West! A friend in a thousand.

"Nice sort of place for the Squire of the Manor to be disporting himself,
isn't it?" returned Merriton, fighting his hardest to keep his composure
and reply in the same light tone. "I--I--damn it, Tony, you don't believe
it, do you?"

West went red to the rim of his collar. He choked with the vehemence of
his response.

"Believe it, man? D'you think I'm crazy? What sort of a fool would I be
to believe it? Wasn't I there, that night, with you? Wait until I give my
evidence in court. Bullet or no bullet, you're no--no murderer, Nigel;
I'd swear my life away on that. There were others on worse terms with
Wynne than you, old chap. There was Stark, for one. Stark used to borrow
money from him in the old days, you know, until they had a devil of a
shindy over an I.O.U. and the friendship bust. You'd no more reason to
kill him than Lester Stark, I swear. Or me, for that matter."

"No, I'd no reason to kill him, Tony. But they'll take that quarrel we
had over the Frozen Flame that night, and bring it up against me in
court. They'll bring everything against me; everything that can be
twisted or turned or bullied into blackening my name. If ever I get
scot-free, I'll kill that man Borkins."

West put up his hand suddenly.

"Don't," he said, quietly; "or they'll be putting that against you, too.
Believe me, Nigel, old boy, the Law's the greatest duffer on earth. By
the way, here's a piece of news for you! Heard it as I stopped in at the
Towers this morning. Saw that man Headland, the detective. He told me to
tell you, and I clean forgot. But they found an I.O.U. on Wynne's body,
an I.O.U. for two thou'--in Lester Stark's name. Dated two nights before
the party. Looks a bit funny, that, doesn't it?"

Funny? Merriton felt his heart suddenly bound upward, and as suddenly
drop back in his breast like lead. Glad that there was a chance for
another pal to come under the same brutal sway as he had? What sort of
a friend was he, anyway? But an I.O.U.!... And in Lester Stark's name!
He remembered the black looks that passed between the two of them that
night, remembered them as though they had been but yesterday. He jerked
his chin up.

"What're they going to do about it?"

"Headland told me to tell you that he was going to investigate the matter
further. That you were to keep up your heart.... Seemed a decent sort of
a