“Royal Harding!” he finally gritted.
“Lester Vane!”
The two sworn foes faced each other like wild tigers about to battle.
“I thought you dead.”
“God spared my life to overtake and defeat you.”
“Then you—you escaped that day from the face of the cliff?”
“I did.”
“Curses on my stupidity. I ought to have made sure of the job.”
A scornful laugh rippled from Harding’s set lips.
“That is what you ought to have done,” he said; “but as you failed to do it, you must now stand punishment for your falseness.”