“It was no time to provoke discord; it was a moment that demanded all we could muster of concession and agreement, and so I simply told how mere accident had turned my steps in this direction.
“'What if I said I don't believe you, Paul Hunt?' retorted he, savagely. 'What if I said that I see your whole game in this business, and know every turn and every trick you mean to play us?'
“If you had not drunk so much of Godfrey's Burgundy,' said I, 'you 'd never have spoken this way to an old friend.'
“'Friend be———!' cried he, savagely. 'I know no friends but the men who will share danger with you as well as drink out of the same bottle. Why did you leave us this evening?'
“'I'll be frank with you, Tom,' said I. 'I had made a rendezvous with Louisa; but she never came.'
“'Why should she?' muttered he, angrily. 'Why should she trust the man who is false to his pals?'
“'That I have never been,' broke I in. 'Ask Hawke himself. Ask Godfrey, and he'll tell you whether I have ever dropped a word against you.'
“'No, he would n't,' said he, doggedly.
“'I tell you he would,' cried I. 'Let us go to him this minute.'
“'I 'd rather not, if the choice were given me,' said he, with a horrid laugh.