ed look of fear in the battered face.

"I tripped over a chair, he explained, glaring at his foe.

"Damn you then, stand up and fight!"

Disgust and annoyance were pictured on the damaged countenance of the
lawyer. "I don't fight with riff raff from the streets."

With a lurch Miller was free from Jeff and at him again. James lashed
straight out and cut open his lip without stopping him. Jeff wrenched
the furious man back again. A moment later he made a discovery. The fear
of his cousin was not physical.

"Here! Stop it, man! What's the row about?" Jeff hung on with a strangle
hold while he fired his questions.

Sam turned a distorted face toward him. "Nellie."

The truth crashed home like a bolt of lightning. James was the man who
had betrayed Nellie Anderson. The thing was incredible, but Jeff knew
instantly it was so.

Except where the blood streamed down it the face of the lawyer was
colorless. His lips twitched.

"Is this true, James?"

The sullen eyes of the detected man fell. "It will ruin me. It will ruin
my career. And all because in a moment of fearful temptation I yielded,
God help me."

"God help you!" The angry scorn in Miller's voice burned like vitriol.
"God help you! you selfish villain and coward! You pursued her! You
hounded her. You made your own temptation--and hers. And afterward you
left her to bear a lifetime of shame--to kill herself if she couldn't
stand it. When I think of you, smug liar and hell hound, I know that
killing isn't good enough for you."

"Steady, old man," counseled Jeff.

Miller began to tremble violently. Tears gathered in his eyes and
coursed down his fat cheeks. "And I can't stamp him out. I can't expose
him without hurting her worse. I've got to stand it without touching
him."

Faintly Jeff smiled. James did not look quite untouched. He was a much
battered statue of virtue, his large dignity for once torn to shreds.

Miller flung himself down heavily in a chair and buried his face in his
hands. James began to talk, and as he talked his fluency came back to
him.

"It's the only stain on my life record... the only one. My life has been
an open book but for that. I was only a boy--and I made a slip. Ought
that to spoil my whole life, a splendid career of usefulness for the
city and the state? Ought I to be branded for that one error?"

Miller looked up whitely. "Shut up, you liar! If it had been a slip you
would have stood by her, you would have married the