"And what if I were to refuse you even a shilling for your dinner?"
"I should be compelled to lay my information before the proper authorities, that Ralph Warriner is alive and may at times be captured in England."
"Would you be surprised to hear that Mr. Warriner committed no crime for which he could be captured?"
"I should be surprised beyond words. Mr. Warriner sold the mechanism of the Daventry gun to a foreign government."
"Are you so sure of that?"
"I was his agent."
"You! Then you are also his accomplice."
"True,--and I look forward to turning Queen's evidence."
Miranda withdrew from the contest. The discussion was hardly more than academic, for she knew both that her husband was alive and that this particular crime he had committed.
"What is your price?" she asked, and she sat down upon the bench.