stituted that he
could play the hypocrite, he would not have supposed his sensibilities
acute enough to overwhelm him in the unmasking.

"You are wondering why I desired this interview," Covington began. "You
cannot understand what there is left for me to say to you in view of
what has happened. I could have bluffed this out for a time, but it was
no use. There are other developments which will follow on the heels of
this which make it useless to temporize. I have played the game my way,
letting you make the rules, believing that when it came to the showdown
my cards would be strong enough to win. They would be under normal
circumstances, but you've called my hand too soon. You see before you a
desperate man, Mr. Gorham, upon whom you have forced the necessity of
taking a gambler's chance. That is why I am here to-night."

"You must be implicated in matters far deeper than I have knowledge to
talk like this, Covington. You have been false to me and false to the
Companies, but after all there is nothing criminal in what you have
done. To me, the greatest crime a man can commit is so to forget the
manhood with which his Maker endowed him, as to prostitute it for
temporary personal advantage, but the law looks upon other lesser crimes
as deserving of greater punishment. I cannot tell how much of a lesson
this may be to you. It will, of course, be necessary for you to leave
New York, as the committee, however much they may criticise my code,
have one of their own which you have transgressed. As far as I am
concerned, you may have no anxiety. I have too many important matters in
hand to wish to divert myself from them simply to make you pay the
penalty you owe me."

"I am implicated deeper than you know, but I am here to make terms
rather than accept them," Covington replied. "I do not choose to begin
life over again, and I require your definite assurances that whatever
you know or may learn against me be kept from the knowledge of the
committee. At present I hold their confidence, and I am not willing to
relinquish it. What I have done in this stock transaction will not
strike them as so serious a matter as you make of it. I venture to say
that I am not the only one of them to do it."

Gorham looked at him keenly. "This is the talk of a man bereft of his
senses."

"I told you I was desperate, and so I am. I have been working all my
life to gain the position of wealth and power which is now within my
grasp, and you sha