oods' face was white. For one minute I felt sure the two men would
settle matters then and there. Suddenly he turned and said: "Come,
Helen!"

"She stays here!" Jim cried.

Helen had arisen from the divan when the two men came together. Now
she stepped forward.

"I'm going with Frank. We came back here more for your sake than our
own. We tried to give you a chance to do the decent thing, but I might
have known you wouldn't. With all your protestations of love for me,
when I ask you to do the one thing that would show that love, the one
thing that would make me happy, you not only refuse, but you insult the
man who means everything in the world to me. If I had ever loved you
in my life, what you have just said would have made me hate you. As I
never loved you, I despise and loathe you now."

She started to pass him, but he grabbed her by the shoulders. His face
was white and drawn and his eyes were the eyes of a madman. He lifted
her up bodily and almost threw her on the divan, crying, "By God! You
stay here!"

Jim turned just as Woods rushed and with a mighty swing to the side of
the head, sent him crashing into the corner. Dazed as he was, he half
struggled to his feet, and when I saw him reach beneath his coat, I
sprang on him and wrenched the revolver from his hand.

Disheveled and half-stupefied, he rose and glared at us like an angry
bull. Slowly he straightened his tie and brushed back his hair. He
glanced over at Helen, who was sobbing on the sofa.

"Two of you--eh? A frame-up." All the hatred in the world gleamed in
his eyes, as he looked at Jim. "If you don't let Helen come to me,
Felderson, I'll kill you; so help me God, I'll kill you!" Then he
picked up his coat and hat and walked out of the room.

Jim went slowly to the door and into the hall. He looked tired and
old. I heard the outer door slam behind Frank Woods and a motor start.
Then I went out to Jim.

CHAPTER THREE

I COULD KILL HIM

I was on my way back to Jim's after having gone home to change my
clothes. Jim had asked me to stay with him that evening and, to tell
the truth, I was glad to do it, partly because of the threat Woods had
made and partly because of the way Helen looked at Jim when she passed
us in the hall on the way to her bedroom. Being a lawyer, I have
naturally made a pretty close study of character, and if I ever saw
vindictiveness on the face of any human, it was on Helen's at that
moment.