"Oh, you would never be so wicked, so dastardly, as that!" cried Faith. "Have you no sense of honor, no manliness about you?"
Her words were so appealing that the detective winced a little. His keen eyes shifted uneasily. He could not face her.
"I offered to warn you," he muttered at last. "There's a way out of the fix if you are a mind to take it."
"But I am in no fix!" protested Faith. "I have done no wrong! How dare you accuse me!"
The detective went on as though she had not spoken.
"There's a way out of it, miss; you have only to say the word. I know a gent that's in love with you this very minute. He'll fix things with old Forbes—he's got lots of dough. Just you promise to be agreeable and I'll hush the whole thing up to-morrow."
As he made this fiendish suggestion he eyed the girl sharply.
Each change in her expression seemed to render her more beautiful. For a moment she was dazed and almost powerless to speak, then, as a great wave of color swept up to her very brow, she fairly hissed her answer in a scorching whisper.
"You coward! You cur! Go at once and leave me! Make what accusations you like—I am afraid of you no longer! In God will I place my trust, and He will not forsake me! Go, I say, and think well over what you are doing. Remember that there is One above you who is watching your evil deeds and as surely as He will punish the wicked so will He protect the innocent!"
As she spoke the last words she walked hastily away.