"I did what I had to do. I hated it."
"I'm glad to know that much, anyway."
"But I'd do it again, exactly the same."
The Doctor turned troubled eyes on his son. "Hasn't there been enough judging of each other between you and me, Boy-ee?" he asked sorrowfully.
In wretched uncertainty how to meet this appeal, Hal hesitated. He was saved from decision by the return of McGuire Ellis.
"No movement yet from the enemy's camp," he reported. "I just had a telephone from Hale's club."
"Perhaps they won't come, after all," surmised Hal.
"There's pretty hot talk going. Somebody's been helping along by serving free drinks."
"Now who could that be, I wonder?"
"Maybe some of our tenement-owning politician friends who aren't keen about having to-morrow's 'Clarion' appear."