Falconer leant back and smoked contemplatively, with a coolness, an

indifference to the other's emotion which Sir Stephen found well-nigh

maddening.

"Yes," said Falconer, after a pause, "I suppose your house of cards

would come down with a crash if I opened my mouth say, at breakfast

to-morrow morning, and told--well, all I know of the great Sir Stephen

Orme when he bore the name of Black Steve. Even you, with all you

colossal assurance, could not face it or outlive it. And as for the

boy--it would settle his hash now and forever. A word from me would do

it, eh, Orme? And upon my soul I don't know why I shouldn't say it!

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I've had it in my mind, I've kept it as a sweet morsel for a good many

years. Yes, I've been looking forward to it. I've been waiting for the

'physiological moment,' as I think they call it; and it strikes me that

it has arrived."

Sir Stephen's face grew strained, and a curious expression crept into

it.

"If you ask me why you should not, I can give you no reason," he said.

"If you were poor I should offer you money--more, a great deal more

than I received for the old claim; but I can see that that would not

tempt you to forego your revenge. Falconer, you are not poor; your

daughter wears diamonds--"

Falconer shrugged his shoulders.

"No, I'm not in want of money. You're not the only man who has had a

change of luck. No, you can't bribe me; even if I were hard up instead

of rather flush, as I am, I wouldn't take a hundred thousand pounds for

my revenge."

Sir Stephen rose. There was an ominous change in his manner. His

nervousness and apprehension seemed to have suddenly left him, and in

its place was a terrible, stony calmness, an air of inflexible

determination.

"Good!" he said; and his voice had changed also, changed from its

faltering tone of appeal to one of steadfast resolution, the steadiness

of desperation. "I have made my appeal to you, Falconer, and I gather

that I have failed to move you; that you intend to exact your revenge

by--denouncing me!"

Falconer nodded coolly.

"And you think that I could endure to live under such a threat, to walk

about with the sword of Damocles over my head? You ought to know me

better, Falconer. I will not live to endure the shame you can inflict

on me, I will not live to tempt you by the sight of me to take your

revenge. I shall die to-night."




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