? Let's say that I
got tired of staring at the lonely grandeur of Pike's Peak, _mon gars_,
or that the lady who gave me the pleasure of her society skipped for
Denver with a younger man, or that the high altitude played
Billy-be-damned with my nerves, and you'll have excuse enough. But the
fact is, Pete, I _was_ a bit nervous at being so long away from the
center of financial operations, and thought I'd better come right on and
talk to you."

"I got your letter," said Peter calmly, "I hadn't answered it yet----"

"I thought it better to come for my answer."

"I've been thinking it over----"

"Good. It will be worth thinkin' over. You'll bless the day Jim Coast
ran athwart your course."

"You seem to be taking a good deal for granted."

"I do. I always do. Until the present opportunity it was about the only
thing I got a chance to take. You wouldn't of done me a good turn that
night, if you hadn't been O.K. Will you have a drink of your own? It's
good stuff--ten years in the wood, I see by the label, and I'm glad to
get it, for whisky is scarcer than hen's teeth between this and the
Rockies."

As Peter nodded he poured out the drinks and settled down in Peter's
chair with the air of one very much at home.

"Well, Pete, what's yer answer to be?" he said at last. "You weren't any
too polite when I left here. But I didn't think you'd turn me down
altogether. And you're straight. I know that. I've been countin' on your
sense of justice. How would _you_ like to be treated the way _I_ was
treated by Mike McGuire?"

"I wouldn't like it."

"You just bet you wouldn't. You wouldn't stand for it, _you_ wouldn't.
I've got justice on my side and I've got the law--if I choose to use
it--but I'd rather win this case as man to man--without its getting into
the newspapers. That wouldn't matter much to a poor man like me, but it
would make a heap of difference to a man who stands where McGuire does."

"That's true."

"Yes. And he knows it. He hasn't got a leg to stand on." Kennedy paused
and looked Peter over coolly. Peter had been studying the situation
critically, playing his game with some care, willing to placate his
visitor and yet taking pains not to be too eager to gain his
confidence. So he carefully lighted his cigarette while he debated his
course of action.

"What makes you think that I'm in a different mood now from when you
left here?"

"Haven't I told you? Because I believe that you know that right's right