Dick jammed the pistol into his ribs to remind him of it.
"Go on! Keep your face turned away from me! I don't like the looks of it!" he said, viciously.
"Do you know Stepan Dushan?" asked Hallo.
"You'd like to know, wouldn't you?" said Dick.
"See here, Dick, there's no use in your being angry at me any more. Perhaps I was mistaken. I will tell you, in any case, what I will do. I will overlook everything that you have done here in Semlin, and I will arrange to have the police charge against you withdrawn. That is a very serious matter, let me tell you. If I did not have a great deal of influence with the big people here it would be quite impossible to arrange it. And I will give you, besides, twenty-five thousand dollars!"
Dick laughed.
"Go on," he said. "Walk faster!"
"Thirty-five thousand—"
"If you offered a million, I would believe you just as easily," said Dick. "I know you for just what you are, Mike Hallo! You're a low down liar and cheat and swindler, and I wouldn't believe you under oath. If I accepted your proposition, you'd never pay me a cent, and you'd do your best to get me into prison here besides."
"No—no—I'm telling you the truth, Dick! I will do it, I swear it! Do you think I have no gratitude? It is of the greatest possible importance that I should be free at once to attend to some pressing business!"