"Why?"
"Because he could trust me!"
There was a muffled barb in this retort, a barb which I could not understand. I could see, however, that it had its effect on the other man. He stared at the woman with sudden altered mien, with a foolish drop of the jaw which elongated his face and widened his eyes at the same moment. Then he wheeled on the sullen Hobbs.
"Hobbs, you lied about her!" he cried, like a blind man at last facing the light.
He had his hand on the bound and helpless burglar's throat.
"Tell me the truth, or by the living God, I'll kill you! You lied about her?"
"About what?" temporized Hobbs.
"You know what!"
Hobbs, I noticed, was doing his best to shrink back from the throttling fingers.
"It wasn't my fault!" he equivocated.