"For the truth. I think you've told it to me. Anyway you've made me tell it to myself."
"I guess I ain't told you much you don't know about your snide business."
"You have, though. Go ahead and hire your hall. But—take a look at to-morrow's 'Clarion' before you make your speech. Now, good-day to you."
McQuiggan, wondering and a little subdued by a certain quiet resolution in Hal's speech, went, beckoning Ellis after him for explication. Hal turned to his father.
"I don't suppose," he began haltingly, "that you could have told me all this yourself."
"What?" asked Dr. Surtaine, consciously on the defensive.
"About the medical ads."
"McQuiggan's a sore-head"—began the Doctor.
"But you might have told me about Certina, as I've been living on Certina money."
"There's nothing to tell." All the self-assurance had gone out of the quack's voice.