girl you had ruined.
But you left her--to death or worse. She was loyal to you. She kept your
secret, you damned villain. I wrung it out of her to-day when I went
home only by pretending that I knew.... And you let Jeff bear the blame
of it without saying a word. I know now why her name wasn't unearthed
by the reporters. You killed the story because you were afraid the truth
would leak out. You haven't a straight hair in your head. You sold out
Jeff's bill. You're for yourself first and last, no matter who pays the
price."

"That's your interpretation of my career. But what does Verden think of
me? No man stands higher among the best people of the community."

"To hell with you and your best people. I say you're nothing but a
whited sepulchre," snarled Miller.

Suddenly he reached for his hat and left the office. He was stifling.

He knew that if he stayed he could not keep his hands from his enemy's
throat.

James wrung his hands. "My God, Jeff, it's awful! To think that a little
fault should come out now to ruin me. After I've gone so far and am on
the way to bigger things. It's ghastly luck. Can't you do something?
Can't you keep the fellow quiet? I'll pay anything in reason."

Jeff looked at him steadily. "I wouldn't say that to him if I were you."

"Oh, I don't know what I'm saying." He mopped the blood from his face
with a handkerchief. "I'm half crazy. Did he mark me up badly?" James
examined himself anxiously in the glass. "He's just chopped my face to
pieces. I'll have to get out of the city to-night and stay away till the
marks are gone. But the main point is to keep him from talking. Can you
do it?"

For once Jeff's toleration failed him. "He's right. You are a selfish
beggar. Don't you ever think of anyone except yourself?"

"I'm not thinking of myself at all, but of--of someone else. You're
wronging me, Jeff. This is not the time to go back on me, now that I'm
in trouble. You've got to help me out. You've got to keep Miller quiet.
If he talks I'm done for."

His cousin looked at him with contemptuous eyes. "Can't you see--haven't
you fineness enough to see that Sam Miller would cut an arm off before
he would expose his wife to more talk? Your precious secret's safe."

"It's all very well for you to talk that way," James complained. "I
don't suppose you ever were put into temptation by a woman. You're not a
lady's man. I'm the kind they take a shine to for some reason. Now this
Anderson woman--