Lane was difficult to astonish, but now he actually gasped; and several of those present, who were still within his clutches, sprang to their feet. "A glacier wouldn't be cooler than you!" Lane said. "You must know they're worth, or will be, about three times as much."
"Exactly," said Haldane; and Gordon and another chuckled silently. "That is just why we want to see you safely out of this country. The man who drives that kind of bargain gives nobody else a show. Please sit down, gentlemen; I'll answer your questions later."
I think Lane, in spite of his refusal to admit anything, must have felt himself driven into a corner. Indeed, for almost the first time during my acquaintance with him he showed signs of temper, for his lips straightened and there was a gleam of malice in his eyes.
"Your hand looks a good one, but it's not good enough," he said. "I'm going to tell you to do your worst. Say, don't you count too much on Mr. Haldane, the rest of you. If this is fun to him, it's bread and cheese to me, and I don't let up on my living easily. Stand out from under before he gets tired and the roof falls on you. You all know me."
The listeners had good reason to do so; but they had not only lost their fear of him—the fear which makes a coward of a brave man when he becomes a debtor—but had found his yoke so galling that they would have risked the worst by defying him in spite of it. He must have read as much in the contemptuous laugh and lowering faces.
"I think we could beat you with it; but we hold still better cards," said Haldane quietly. "For instance, you have squeezed Niven a little too hard, and he is prepared to risk his liberty to testify on one or two points against you. I refer to incidents connected with Gaspard's Trail."
Lane brought his hand down on the table, and, for some unexplainable reason, I actually believed him as he said: "Gaspard's Trail was burnt by accident."
"We won't question the statement," said Haldane. "It was, at least, an accident that you were quick to profit by. This ace, however, takes the trick. Just run through this account book, and—remembering that we can produce Miss Redmond, and three men, who will swear to what her father said when Ormesby's cattle, which did not get there by accident, were burned in the fence—consider what might be done with it."
Lane seemed to shake himself together after he had read the first few entries; while, watching him closely, I once more saw the tell-tale contraction at the corners of his mouth. This was the only sign he made, however, save that presently he moved forward a little in his chair, which was close before the fire, and held up the torn-out page as though he wished the lamplight to fall on it more directly. The action, which was made very naturally, suggested nothing to myself or even to Haldane; but when the reader moved again, Boone rose suddenly and laid a restraining hand on his arm.
"You have had time enough to grasp the significance of what is written there, and I'll take the papers back," he said. "Of course, knowing whom we dealt with, we have a duly attested copy."