"You'll pay for this!" said Hallo, furiously. "This isn't America, with its lynchings, where people can take the law into their own hands."
"You needn't sneer at America!" said Dick, with cold anger in his voice. "You earned a good living there, and made a small fortune—and you stole another! Now, then, step forward! Slowly—and go straight ahead until I tell you to turn."
With a snarl Hallo obeyed. And Dick, as he went along behind him, keeping the pistol in such a position that he could use it on the instant, began to talk to him.
"You're a joke, Mike Hallo," he said, contemptuously. "The next time you try to swindle someone, don't pick an American family. You thought you were safe here, because we didn't have the money to hire big lawyers to go after you, didn't you? You never expected to see me here in Semlin. And when you did, you thought you'd fixed me by getting them to arrest me!"
"I had nothing to do with that," protested Hallo. His blustering, savage mood seemed to be passing, and he was disposed to cringe.
"Oh, no!" said Dick. "Of course not! You didn't want me to be driven out of Semlin! You wanted me to stay here and get back the money you stole from my father. You don't care anything about money, either, I suppose? Oh, no! You don't care any more about money than you do about your right hand! You wouldn't do anything to turn a dishonest penny except murder and treason and robbery, would you?"
"Dick, I've always been friendly to you and your family," said Hallo, tremulously. "I'm half an American. I tell you what I'll do. We'll let bygones be bygones. I lost more than your family did in the failure, back there in New York, of course. But I've done pretty well since I came home here to Hungary."
"I should think so!" said Dick. "How much has the Austrian government paid you for the spy's work you have done? Why, you even cheated your government! You're not even a patriot!"
For the first time, seemingly, Hallo guessed that Dick might have something to do with the enemies he really feared—the Servians with whom he had been playing fast and loose for weeks.
"What do you mean by that?" he cried, turning half around in his eagerness.