himself; she could not
imagine his feeling such fear; but she was frightened. She put her
hand on his arm.

"You mean it affects me directly?"

"It may. For that reason I feel I must do what you would have me do."

He seized both her hands in his and held her before him; she waited for
him to go on.

"Cora," he said, "what would you have me do if you knew I had found out
that a young man--a man who, four or five years ago, had as much to
live for as any man might--had been outraged in every right by men who
are my friends? Would you have me fight the outfit for him? Or would
you have me--lie down?"

His fingers almost crushed hers in his excitement. She stared at him
with only pride then; she was proud of his strength, of his ability to
fight, of the power she knew he possessed to force his way against
opposition. "Why, you would fight them!"

"You mean you want me to?"

"Isn't that what you had decided to do?"

He only repeated. "You want me to fight them?"

"Of course."

"No matter what it costs?"

She realized then that what he was facing was very grave.

"Cora," he said, "I didn't come to ask your advice without putting this
squarely to you. If I go into this fight, I shall be not only an
opponent to some of my present friends; I shall be a threat to
them--something they may think it necessary to remove."

"Remove?"

"Such things have happened--to better men than I, over smaller matters."

She cried out. "You mean some one might kill you?"

"Should that keep me from going in?"

She hesitated. He went on: "Would you have me afraid to do a thing
that ought to be done, Cora?"

"No," she said; "I would not."

"All right, then. That's all I had to know now. The young man is
coming to see me to-night, Cora. Probably he's downstairs. I'll tell
you all I can after I've talked with him."

Warden's wife tried to hold him a moment more, but he loosed himself
from her and left her.

He went directly downstairs; as he passed through the hall, the
telephone bell rang. Warden himself answered it. Kondo, who from his
place in the hall overheard Warden's end of the conversation, made out
only that the person at the other end of the line appeared to be a
friend, or at least an acquaintance, of Warden's. Kondo judged this
from the tone of the conversation; Warden spoke no names. Apparently
the other person wished to see Warden at once. Warden finished, "All
right; I'll come and get you.