"What is it?" growled the man.
"Why, that I hold the power to give you a term in the State's prison, whenever I may happen to feel inclined that way."
"Indeed!" Martin spoke with a cold, defiant sneer.
"I am uttering no vague threat. From the beginning, I have kept this trap over you, ready to spring, if need be, at a moment's warning."
"I suppose you thought me a poor fool, did you not?" said Martin as coldly and contemptuously as before. "But you were mistaken. I have not been altogether willing to trust myself in your hands, without good advice from a limb of the law quite as shrewd as yourself."
"What do you mean?" exclaimed Grind, somewhat startled by so unexpected a declaration.
"Plainly," was answered, "while I took your advice as to the surest way to act upon Jasper, I consulted another as to the means of protecting myself from you, if matters ever came to a pinch."
"Oh! Preposterous!" Grind forced a laugh. "That's only an afterthought."
"Is it. Hark!" Martin bent close to his ear, and uttered a few words in an undertone. Grind started as if stung by a serpent.
"Wretch!"