er," said Siward, turning
whiter.

"You told that to the governors, too. Tell them again, if you like. I
decline to discuss this matter with you. I decline to countenance your
unwarranted intrusion into what you pretend to believe are my private
affairs. I decline to confer with Belwether or Mortimer. It's enough
that you are inclined to meddle--" His cold anger was stirring. He rose
to his full, muscular height, slow, menacing, his long, pale fingers
twisting his silky beard. "It's enough that you meddle!" he repeated.
"As for the matter in question, a dozen men, including myself, heard you
make a wager; and later I myself was a witness that the terms of that
wager had been carried out to the letter. I know absolutely nothing
except that, Mr. Siward; nor, it appears, do you, for you were drunk at
the time, and you have admitted it to me."

"I have asked you," said Siward, rising, and very grave, "I have asked
you to do the right thing. Are you going to do it?"

"Is that a threat?" inquired Quarrier, showing the edges of his
well-kept teeth. "Is this intimidation, Mr. Siward? Do I understand
that you are proposing to bespatter others with scandal unless I am
frightened into going to the governors with the flimsy excuse you
attempt to offer me? In other words, Mr. Siward, are you bent on making
me pay for what you believe you know of my private life? Is it really
intimidation?"

And still Siward stared into his half-veiled, sneering eyes, speechless.

"There is only one name used for this kind of thing," added Quarrier,
taking a quick involuntary step backward to the door as the blaze of
fury broke out in Siward's eyes.

"Good God! Quarrier," whispered Siward with dry lips, "what a cur you
are! What a cur!"

And long after Quarrier had passed the door and disappeared in the
corridor, Siward stood there, frozen motionless under the icy waves of
rage that swept him.

He had never before had an enemy worth the name; he knew he had one now.
He had never before hated; he now understood something of that, too.
The purely physical craving to take this man and crush him into eternal
quiescence had given place to a more terrible mental desire to punish.
His brain surged and surged under the first flood of a mortal hatred.
That the hatred was sterile made it the more intense, and, blinded
by it, he stood there or paced the room minute after minute, hearing
nothing but the wild clamour in his brain, seeing nothing but the