“Here’s the man we were talking about, Scannel, you remember. Remember Dave Scannel, who was your partner in seventy-eight? Look at him. This is him now. He’s a rich man now. Remember Scannel?”

Hargus, his bleared old eyes blinking and watering, looked across the desk at the other.

“Oh, what’s the game?” exclaimed Scannel. “I ain’t here on exhibition, I guess. I⁠—”

But he was interrupted by a sharp, quick gasp that all at once issued from Hargus’s trembling lips. The old man said no word, but he leaned far forward in his chair, his eyes fixed upon Scannel, his breath coming short, his fingers dancing against his chin.

“Yes, that’s him, Hargus,” said Jadwin. “You and he had a big deal on your hands a long time ago,” he continued, turning suddenly upon Scannel, a pulse in his temple beginning to beat. “A big deal, and you sold him out.”

“It’s a lie!” cried the other.