"Yes, yes! You know all. You have won. I fought you for Lillian, and there is no chance of my gaining her for my wife. You won't either. You have to reckon with Queen Beelzebub. As for me--as for me----" he faltered, and trembled. Dan stepped right up to the desk. "What's the matter?"
"I--I--I have taken poison," gasped Curberry, and dropped his head on his hands with a sob.
CHAPTER XVIII
[THE FLIGHT]
"Poison!" echoed Dan, startled out of his composure, for he was far from expecting such a word, "the doctor----"
"No doctor can do me any good," sobbed Curberry, lifting his haggard face, and looking up with wild, despairing eyes, "there is no antidote to this drug I have taken. It is painless, more or less, and in an hour I shall be dead, as it works but slowly. Time enough for me to speak."
"Let me get a doctor," insisted Halliday, for so distraught did the man look that he was not surprised that the servant had been uncomfortable, "you must not die without----" Curberry struggled to his feet, and laid hands on his visitor. "No, no! I am ready to die," he said in a harsh, strained voice, "why should I be kept alive to be hanged--to be disgraced--to be----"
"Then you admit----"
"I admit everything in this--this," he touched a few loose sheets of paper lying on the desk, "this confession. Like Penn, I have made one."
"You must have a doctor," said Halliday, and ran to the bell. Curberry, with a wonderful strength, seeing how ill he looked, rose swiftly, and sprang after him. "If you call a doctor I shall shoot myself," he said, hoarsely, and pulled out a small revolver. "I would rather die by means of the poison I have taken, since it is more painless. But, sooner than be taken by the police, I shall shoot myself--and you, too--and you, too." Halliday waived aside this threat. "You won't see the police----"