“My statement is true, isn’t it?” Nick demanded, more sternly.
“Suppose it is?” growled Ardley. “What then?”
“I want the truth from you, then, both about Pierre Toulon and the stolen girl. I intend to have it, too.”
“Suppose you don’t get it?”
“I will arrest you at once, Ardley, and take you with me,” Nick forcibly informed him.
Ardley laughed derisively.
“I guess not,” he cried.
“You have got another guess, Ardley, unless you——”
“So have you!”
Ardley had not stirred from his indifferent position until that moment, the position of a man who appeared to have no aggressive design, but who was content to rely confidently upon his prodigious strength.