“The man who knows!”
In the drawer before the millionaire lay a self-cocking revolver, and this flashed through his mind as he resolved upon desperate action.
“All right,” he said, as nonchalantly as possible, and in a second he had opened the drawer.
The man near by stood in such a position that he could not look into the place, and he did not see Lamont’s hand close about the black ivory stock of the weapon.
Suddenly the millionaire’s hand leaped from the drawer and the revolver flashed in the stranger’s face.
“I won’t be blackmailed,” hissed Lamont. “I’m as merciless as a tiger when aroused, and I count your life as nothing as compared to the welfare of my family. What is the lie you have made up for to-night’s work? What is the infamous story you have planned about my son? Tell me or I will kill you where you stand, and the world will lose your infamy in this house.”
The man on the carpet seemed to increase an inch in stature as he looked down into the tensely drawn face of the man of many fortunes.
“You’d do that, would you?”
“As I live I will!”
“You’re a fool, Perry Lamont.”