"I would still do the same," I answered.
"Do you think it would be really worth while or your duty, to do such a thing?" Littell asked. "Winters will probably be acquitted; White is past helping, and what could be gained by offering up a friend as a sacrifice?"
"Nothing," I answered, "but the demands of the law."
He leaned over and put his hand on my shoulder.
"Dick," he said, "you are a strange fellow with more than your share of conscientiousness, but even with you there must be a point where duty ceases and human nature asserts itself. Would you, if it were one of us three, your friends, upon whom you fixed this crime, give him over to the gallows?"
"I refuse to answer," I said.
"But you would do it!" Van Bult asserted, and I did not dispute him.
"I am going home," Davis broke in. "I have had enough of this; you fellows can go on hanging one another all night, if you choose, but I won't have a hand in it," and he pushed his chair back from the table.
The laugh that followed relieved the tension, and we prepared to break up.
"Let us have a last drink together before we go out," Littell said, and following his example, we all rose and filled our glasses.