“No, sir! I won’t stand for it! What sort of a silly fool do you think I’d feel like with you getting up before all that bunch and—and spouting all that rot? If you tell that yarn I’ll deny it!”
Hal smiled. “I can prove it, though. I can produce five fellows who will testify that I was in Gus Billing’s room at eleven o’clock that night.”
“Is that where you were?” asked Joe eagerly.
“Yes.”
“Oh! Why, that isn’t—there’s no harm—”
“Of course there’s no harm, but I stayed too late. Gus’s clock was about an hour slow and I never thought to look at my watch. Anyhow, it won’t do you any good to deny it, Joe.”
“Well, then—” Joe spoke slowly, frowning intently across the shadowy room. “Maybe you sort of feel that you—you owe me something. Of course I didn’t do it just for—just to oblige you, but you wanted to win, and I guess I helped—”
“Of course I owe you something. I’m trying to make you understand it. And I’m going to pay what I owe.”
“Not that way,” replied Joe firmly. “If you do want to—to square things there’s just one way you can do it.”