"He has--and he told the truth. There's something phony about that murder case; somebody's tryin' to frame him. And when Jim Farland gets through, somebody is goin' to jail!"
"You're right; I won't. Maybe I don't amount to much, but I'm mighty square compared to some people I know about."
"And what do you suppose is going to become of you, if you refuse to do as I say?"
"I guess I'll manage to struggle along," Murk said.
"We'll see about that!" the masked man replied, getting up from the chair. "Perhaps a night spent in your present position, without food or water, will cause you to change your mind. If it does not, there are other methods that can be used."
"Goin' to pull rough stuff, are you?" Murk sneered. "Go as far as you like! You can manhandle me, but you can't make me turn against Sidney Prale. That's a golden little thought for to-day, as the preacher says."
The masked man stepped forward, snarling behind his mask, his hands closing, and the two thugs stepped forward also, as if to use Murk roughly if the other gave the command.
But there was an interruption. Kate Gilbert came in from the adjoining room.
"It makes no difference," Kate Gilbert said. "This man knows me, or he would not have been set to spying on me. Sidney Prale knows that I am associated with his enemies, since I was talking to him to-day. It is not necessary for _me_ to mask my face!"
"It really was not necessary for you to come," said the masked man. "This fellow refuses to have anything to do with us."
"I cannot blame him. You used violence to get him here. I am afraid that I should refuse to have business relations with a man who knocked me on the head."
"It was the only way. We couldn't approach him on the street very well. We have him here now and perhaps may be able to force him to see the light."
"I shall not countenance more violence!" Kate Gilbert said. "I told you in the beginning that force was not to be used. This man is not to be blamed in any way. He merely is an employee of the man we are fighting."
"I think it justifiable to use any method that will get results," the masked man told her. "You seem to forget----"
"I do not forget!" Kate Gilbert cried. "Who has a better right to hope to see Sidney Prale punished? Who has suffered more than I and mine? But I do not wish to see violence used. This man may be made to help us, but I fear you have taken the wrong method. And what do you intend doing now?"