I have them, and that is enough. Will you accept MY offer?"

He hesitated. The sneer had left his face and his tone when he addressed
me was respectful, though there was a curious note of chagrin or
dissatisfaction in it. I had expected him to be eager and, perhaps,
mockingly triumphant. He was not. He seemed reluctant, almost
disappointed.

"I suppose I'll have to," he said. "But, Paine, what is up? Why are you
doing this? You're not afraid of me? No, of course you're not. You're
not the kind to squeal and lie down because you think the odds are
against you . . . Confound you!" with a sudden burst of impatience, "you
are enough to upset all the self-conceit a man's got in him. Just as I
think I'm beginning to size you up you break loose in a new place."

"Pardon me," I put in, "but I don't see that you are helping to save
that valuable time of yours. I understand that you accept. Will you pay
me now?"

He rose, threw away his cigar, and, with his hands in his pockets, stood
regarding me.

"Your mind is made up, is it?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Humph! Have you thought of what our mutual friend Dean and the rest of
the patriots may say when they find this out?"

I had thought of little else all the way from the bank to his door. I
was thinking of it then.

"Of course," he added, "that is not my affair, but--"

"It is not."

"You're right; it isn't. Still--hang it all, Paine! I don't often feel
any compunctions when I beat a fellow in a game like this, and I did
intend to have my own way in this one--"

"Well, you're having it, aren't you?" I put in. "Why talk so much about
it?"

"Because I am not so sure I am having it. Of course I can see that, for
some reason or other, you need thirty-five hundred dollars. Anyone but
you, if they were going to sell, would get the last dime they could
squeeze. You won't, because you are as pig-headed as--as--"

"Oh, do cut it short," I snapped. And then, a trifle ashamed of my
rudeness, "Excuse me, Mr. Colton, but this isn't exactly pleasant for me
and I want to get it over. Will you pay me now?"

"Hold on; let me finish. I was going to say that, if you needed the
thirty-five, perhaps I could manage to let you have it."

I stared at him. "Let me have it!" I cried. "Do you mean you'll lend it
to me?"

"Why, yes, maybe. You and I have had such a first-rate, square, stand
up fight that I rather hate to have it end. I want to lick you, not have
you quit before I've really