"Goin' to pull rough stuff, are you?" Murk sneered. "Go as far as you like! You can manhandle me, but you can't make me turn against Sidney Prale. That's a golden little thought for to-day, as the preacher says."
CHAPTER XVIII
A WOMAN'S WAY
The masked man stepped forward, snarling behind his mask, his hands closing, and the two thugs stepped forward also, as if to use Murk roughly if the other gave the command.
But there was an interruption. Kate Gilbert came in from the adjoining room.
The masked man whirled to meet her.
"You should not—" he began.
"It makes no difference," Kate Gilbert said. "This man knows me, or he would not have been set to spying on me. Sidney Prale knows that I am associated with his enemies, since I was talking to him to-day. It is not necessary for me to mask my face!"
"It really was not necessary for you to come," said the masked man. "This fellow refuses to have anything to do with us."