Fred Starratt grasped Brauer's puny wrist in a ferocious grip.
"Oh yes, I will… Do you know who I am?"
"You? … No… Let me go; you're hurting me!"
"Look at me closely!"
"I tell you I don't know you. Are you crazy?"
"Perhaps… I've been in an insane asylum… Now do you know who I am?"
Brauer fell back. "No," he breathed: "it can't be possible! Fred
Starratt is dead."
Fred began to laugh. "You're right. But I want something to eat just the same. You're going to take me into Hjul's … and buy me a meal. … And after I've eaten perhaps you'll hear how I died and who killed me."
He could feel Brauer trembling in his grasp. A rising cruelty overwhelmed him. He flung Brauer from him with a gesture of contempt.
"Are we going to eat?" he asked, coldly.