"Shoot you if you try any pranks; hand you over to the police if you force me; give you your liberty and pay you well if you come over to my side in the affair and make a clean breast of the whole thing."
He chewed this in silence for a while and then asked: "How do I know that?"
"The first two you can judge for yourself; the last you'll have to take on trust. You can please yourself. How much were you to make by this job?"
"Five hundred marks; but it wasn't only the money. Dragen has the whiphand of me."
"He'll want all his hands for himself after this, and you'll stand by his side in the dock--unless you go in the witness box against him. Tell all you know, and you shall not have five hundred, but a thousand marks."
"They'd have my life."
"Not if you leave the country. I'll add the passage money to America. You're not tough enough for a real scoundrel, you know; and you'll get a fresh start there."
"I shouldn't be in it at all if it weren't for Dragen and the gambling."
"Well, you must make up your mind quickly."
"I'll do it," he said, after another long pause, drawing a deep breath. "But you must keep me safe from the rest until it's over;" and then he began to tell me.