"I mightn't be able to——," he shrugged.
"What is McGuire frightened about? Not about what he owes you. He could pay that ten times over. It's something else—something that happened out there at the mine that you dare not tell——"
"That I won't tell," laughed Coast disagreeably.
"That you dare not tell—that McGuire dares not tell. Something that has to do with his strange message about the blood on the knife, and your placard about what you've got holding over him——"
"Right you are," sneered the other.
"It's dirty money, I tell you—bloody money. I know it. And I know who you are, Jim Coast."
Coast started up and thrust the roll deep into his trousers pocket.
"You don't know anything," he growled.
Peter got up too. His mind had followed Coast's extraordinary story, and so far as it had gone, believed it to be true. Peter wanted to know what had happened out there at the mine in the desert, but more than that he wanted to know how the destinies of this man affected Beth. And so the thought that had been growing in his mind now found quick utterance.
"I know this—that you've come back to frighten McGuire, but you've also come back to bring misery and shame to others who've lived long in peace and happiness without you——"