“He’s paying—what?”
Overton stopped with his hand on the door, looking back at the old figure in the armchair.
“The piper!” The doctor laid down his pipe. “He’s paying with his heart’s blood, Simon, and I don’t know that he can do anything more than that. It’s the way some men pay a debt of honor, isn’t it?”
“Brave men!”
Gerry nodded his head slowly.
“Of course, he’s a coward,” he admitted slowly. “Judge Herford calls him a damned coward.”
“I don’t intend to bring up that subject. I’m simply going to ask the judge to let matters stand as I’ve fixed them. Faunce keeps the command and the story—my story is never known.”
“You’re going to tell him that you give up the command to Faunce?”
“Of course!”
“That’s right, my boy, that’s right; but Faunce is giving up Diane.”