s-"

"If you take the word of those alongshore sharks against mine--' the
other began thickly.

"Save yourself the trouble of further lying," Duncan went on coldly.
"I looked it up. I got Flaubin before the Governor himself, and the old
rascal confessed to sixteen hundred overcharge. Said you'd stuck him up
for it. Twelve hundred went to you, and his share was four hundred and
the job. Don't interrupt. I've got his affidavit below. Then was when I
would have put you ashore, except for the cloud you were under. You had
to have this one chance or go clean to hell. I gave you the chance. And
what have you got to say about it?"

"What did the Governor say?" Captain Dettmar demanded truculently.

"Which governor?"

"Of California. Did he lie to you like all the rest?"

"I'll tell you what he said. He said that you had been convicted on
circumstantial evidence; that was why you had got life imprisonment
instead of hanging; that you had always stoutly maintained your
innocence; that you were the black sheep of the Maryland Dettmars; that
they moved heaven and earth for your pardon; that your prison conduct
was most exemplary; that he was prosecuting attorney at the time you
were convicted; that after you had served seven years he yielded to your
family's plea and pardoned you; and that in his own mind existed a doubt
that you had killed McSweeny."

There was a pause, during which Duncan went on studying the rising
squall, while Captain Dettmar's face worked terribly.

"Well, the Governor was wrong," he announced, with a short laugh. "I did
kill McSweeny. I did get the watchman drunk that night. I beat McSweeny
to death in his bunk. I used the iron belaying pin that appeared in the
evidence. He never had a chance. I beat him to a jelly. Do you want the
details?"

Duncan looked at him in the curious way one looks at any monstrosity,
but made no reply.

"Oh, I'm not afraid to tell you," Captain Dettmar blustered on. "There
are no witnesses. Besides, I am a free man now. I am pardoned, and by
God they can never put me back in that hole again. I broke McSweeny's
jaw with the first blow. He was lying on his back asleep. He said, 'My
God, Jim! My God!' It was funny to see his broken jaw wabble as he said
it. Then I smashed him... I say, do you want the rest of the details?"

"Is that all you have to say?" was the answer.

"Isn't it enough?" Captain Dettmar retorted.

"It is enough."

"What are you going to do about