"So you'd like to save your own skin, after all, wouldn't you?" he inquired.
Taking up his hat from the table, Ordway turned toward the door and laid his hand upon the knob before he spoke.
"Is it decided then that I shall go to Jasper Trend?" he asked.
"Well, I wouldn't if I were you," said Wherry, "but that's your affair. On the whole I think that you'll pay more than your share of the price."
"It's natural, I suppose, that you should want your revenge," returned Ordway, without resentment, "but all the same I shall tell him as little as possible about your past. What I shall say is that I have reason to believe that your wife is still living."
"One or more?" enquired Wherry, with a sneer.
"One, I think, will prove quite sufficient for my purpose."
"Well, go ahead," rejoined Wherry, angrily, "but before you strike you'd better be pretty sure you see a snake in the grass. I'd advise you for your own sake to ask Milly Trend first if she expects to marry me."
"What?" cried Ordway, wheeling round, "do you mean she has refused you?"
"Oh, ask her—ask her," retorted Wherry airily, as he turned back to the whiskey bottle.