what do you want?" The reiterated question had a desperate
ring as if, despite its urgency, the speaker dreaded the reply.
"You've never bothered to dig me out before. What's the notion?
I'm nothing to you. You loathe the sight of me."

Burke made a slight gesture as of repudiation, but he expressed no
denial in words. "As to that," he said, "you draw your own
conclusions. I can't discuss anything with you now. The point is,
you are out of that hell for the present, and I'm going to keep you
out."

"You!" There was a note of bitter humour in the word. Guy Ranger
threw back his head as he uttered it, and by the action the
likeness between them was instantly proclaimed. "That's good!" he
scoffed. "You--the man who first showed me the gates of hell--to
take upon yourself to pose as deliverer! And for whose benefit, if
one might ask? Your own--or mine?"

His ashen face with the light upon it was still boyish despite the
stamp of torment that it bore. Through all the furnace of his
degradation his youth yet clung to him like an impalpable veil that
no suffering could rend or destroy.

Burke suddenly abandoned his attitude of gaoler and took him by the
shoulder. "Don't be a fool!" he said again, but he said it gently.
"I mean what I say. It's a way I've got. This isn't the time for
explanations, but I'm out to help you. Even you will admit that
you're pretty badly in need of help."

"Oh, damn that!" Recklessly Guy made answer, chafing visibly under
the restraining hold; yet not actually flinging it off. "I know
what I'm doing all right. I shall pull up again presently--before
the final plunge. I'm not going to attempt it before I'm ready.
I've found it doesn't answer."

"You've got to this time," Burke said.

His eyes, grey and indomitable, looked straight into Guy's, and
they held him in spite of himself. Guy quivered and stood still.

"You've got to," he reiterated. "Don't tell me you're enjoying
yourself barkeeping at Hoffstein's! I've known you too long to
swallow it. It just won't go down."

"It's preferable to doing the white nigger on your blasted farm!"
flashed back Guy. "Starvation's better than that!"

"Thank you," said Burke. He did not flinch at the straight hit,
but his mouth hardened. "I see your point of view of course.
Perhaps it's beside the mark to remind you that you might have been
a partner if you'd only played a decent game. I wanted a partner
badly enough."

An