tiful effort.

"This is blackmail."

"I have my price," Garth admitted.

Black sat on the table edge.

"I'll put them on to you down town--through Manford."

Garth laughed outright.

"You! You'd never have the nerve. Give a police surgeon one good look at
you!"

Black fumbled in one of the drawers. He lifted out a cheque book.

"How much?" he asked with dry lips.

"Not money," Garth said.

He felt every nerve in his body tighten.

"When I saw you making a fool of yourself last night," he went on, "you
had come straight from a house you are going to get me in to-night."

The cheque book fluttered to the floor.

"Wh-what for?"

"To save a woman," Garth answered. "It's enough for you to know that
they've trapped her there, and that she means too much to me--"

Black turned on him with a snarl.

"You mean you love her. Then maybe you can understand. What about my
wife?"

"Black," Garth said quietly, "you stand a better chance of sparing your
wife if you meet my price. I promise to do all I can to keep you out of
the scandal. I'll get you away clean if it can be done. All I ask is,
that for your wife's sake, you'll try to be a man. But now you listen.
By gad, if you refuse to do this thing, I'll raise a scandal that will
finish you once for all. I'll shout the thing from the housetops. I'll
take you to a cell within the next ten minutes. What about your wife
then? Look at me. I'm not bluffing. I hate it, but I've no choice. It's
life and death to me, and, since it's all I've got, I'm going to use
your reputation to make it life."

Black sank into a chair, covering his face.

"You do mean it. I can't do it. I tell you I can't do it."

Garth stood over the man. As he fought, there came back to him with an
advocacy not to be denied, the memory of Nora's altered face, out of
which, however, her eyes, unalterable, had glanced at him with a
definite appeal.

"Yes you can," he said savagely. "They'll let you vouch for a--friend.
And if you don't, you'll give the game away to a jury and a crowded
courtroom."

Black's hands dropped. He stared straight ahead. He did not answer.

Garth reached out and grasped the telephone. Black stumbled to his feet
and tore at Garth's arm.

"What are you going to do?"

"Call for a patrol wagon to drive up to your exalted home."

"No, no, no!"

"Then you agree?"

"You'll come with me alone?"

"Yes."

"Then I agree."

The gleam in Black's eye was revealing. I