usand times over--but--"

Then Queed threw the last thing that he had to offer into the scales,
namely himself. He leaned over the table and fixed the old man with
imploring eyes.

"I'd do my best to make it up to you. I'll--I'll live with you till one
or the other of us dies. You'll have somebody to take care of you when
you are old, and there will never be any talk of the poorhouse between
you and me. It can all be arranged quietly through a lawyer,
Professor--and nobody will guess your secret. You and I will find quiet
lodgings somewhere, and live together--as friends--live cleanly,
honorably, honestly--"

"For God's sake, stop!" said Surface, in a broken-voice. "This is more
than I can bear."

So Queed knew that it was hopeless, and that the old man meant to cling
to his dishonored money, and let his friend go. He sank back in his
chair, sick at heart, and a painful silence fell.

"If I refuse," Surface took up the theme, "it is for your sake as well
as mine. My boy, you don't know what you ask. It is charity, mere mad
charity to people whom I have no love for, who--"

"Then," said Queed, "two things must happen. First, I must lay the facts
before Miss Weyland."

Surface's manner changed; his eyes became unpleasant.

"You are not serious. You can hardly mean to repeat to anybody what I
have told you in sacred confidence."

Queed smiled sadly. "No, you have not told me anything in confidence.
You have never told me anything until I first found it out for myself,
and then only because denial was useless."

"When I told you my story last June, you assured me--"

"However, you have just admitted that what you told me last June was not
the truth."

Again their eyes clashed, and Surface, whose face was slowly losing all
its color, even the sallowness, found no sign of yielding in those of
the younger man.

Queed resumed: "However, I do not mean that I shall tell her who you
are, unless you yourself compel me to. I shall simply let her know that
you are known to be alive, within reach of the courts, and in possession
of a certain sum of money withheld from the trustee funds. This will
enable her to take the matter up with her lawyers and, as I believe,
bring it before the courts. If her claim is sustained, she would
doubtless give you the opportunity to make restitution through
intermediaries, and thus sensational disclosures might be avoided.
However, I make you no promises about that."

Surface drew a