how can you be so indelicate as to taunt me with my poverty;
to suggest, to hint even so subtly, that I would fill my empty pockets
from your purse?" He looked at her reproachfully.

"What _do_ you want, then?"

The Dago Duke's voice took on a purring, feline softness which was more
emphatic and final than any loud-mouthed vehemence--

"What do I want? I want you to tell the officers that you passed two men
riding on a run from Dubois's sheep-camp--two Indians or 'breeds' in
moccasins--and I want you to do it quick!"

"You want me to perjure myself and you 'want me to do it quick,'" she
mimicked.

He paid no attention.

"I want you to help clear that girl; if you refuse, Giovanni Pellezzo
will swear out a warrant for your arrest, charging you with the theft of
$5.50 while he was etherized for a minor operation."

They regarded each other in a long silence.

She said finally--

"You know, of course, that this Italian will have to go after this?"

"You'll have him discharged?"

"Certainly."

"He needs a rest."

"He'll get it."

Another pause came before she asked--

"Do you imagine for a moment that an ignorant foreigner can get a
warrant for me on such a charge?"

"I foresee the difficulty."

"You mean to persist?"

He nodded.

She flung at him--

"Try it!"

"If we fail in this," continued the Dago Duke evenly, "there's the case
of Antonio Amato, whose hand the nurse, acting under your instructions,
held after thrusting a pencil in his limp fingers and signed a check
when he was dying and unconscious. Which check you cashed after his
death, in violation of the State banking laws from which perhaps even
you are not exempt if this man's relatives choose to bring you to
account for the irregularity."

"It is a lie!"

"It is not impossible," he continued, "to get the nurse who left you
before Nell Beecroft came, saying that she knew enough about you both to
'send you over the road.' It is not too difficult to bring to light the
examples of your incredible incompetency which prove you unfit to sign a
death certificate, nor is your record in Nebraska hard to get."

She moistened her colorless lips before she spoke.

"And where is the money coming from to do all this?"

She had touched the weak spot in his attack, but he replied with
assurance.

"It will be ready when needed."

"This is persecution--a plot to ruin me on the trumped-up charges of
irresponsible people."

The Dago Duke's k