"I never said such a thing."
"Keep cool, Major. There's no use losing your temper. You and Doyle and O'Donoghue all said you'd be glad to gloat over Simpkins' corpse. If you hadn't said so I shouldn't be taking all this trouble. If I didn't still believe that you hate Simpkins I should drop the matter at once. After all, it's no business of mine."
"Then do drop it. Like a good man, J. J., leave Miss King alone, and let the judge fish in peace."
"No; I won't. I'll see the thing through now I'm this far, and within easy reach of success. I don't want to have you reproaching me afterwards for going back on my word."
"I won't reproach you. I promise not to."
"You'd mean not to; but when the present flurry is over, and when Simpkins begins to annoy you again about the fishing and other things, you won't be able to help reproaching me. Even if you refrain from actual words I shall see it in your eye. I can't go through life, Major, haunted by your eye with a mute, unspoken reproach in it."
Major Kent sighed heavily.
"Then what do you mean to do?" he asked.
"I shall see the judge to-morrow," said Meldon, "and—"
"I advise you not to. He's sure to have found out about the paraffin oil by that time."