“You need twist nothing on my account. If I had failed to catch you now I would have dogged you for the opportunity.”
“Oh, that’s it, is it?” he said, with a laugh and a savage sneer. “Well, state your business and be off.”
He spoke ferociously, but on the instant, seeing my eye caught by something lying on that part of the table his body had covered, dived for it and had it in his grasp. Then with a backward sweep of his hand he closed the cabinet doors and stood facing me.
“Now, sir,” he said.
“Dr. Crackenthorpe,” I answered, “you won’t bully me away from my purpose. I’m a better man than you, and a stronger, I believe; but I won’t begin by threatening.”
“And that’s very kind,” he put in mockingly. “Still we’d better come to business, don’t you think?”
“I’m coming to it and straight. What’s that you’ve got in your hand?”
“What I intend to keep there. Is that all?”
“It’s a cameo you stole from my father. Don’t take the trouble to deny it.”
“I don’t take any trouble on your account, my good fellow. It’s a cameo, as you very properly observe, but it happens to belong to me.”