He laughed bitterly.
“Recognise you—you shark! Never! And if you ever dare to speak of my daughter, I’ll shake you like a cur. There now, do as you like; you’ve got my answer.”
Ratman dropped his jaw in utter amazement. For a minute the words would not come. Then, with a face so livid that Oliphant could see its whiteness through the night, he hissed—
“You mean it? You defy me?—me, with these papers in my hand, and the whole story of your villainy in my keeping? You—”
As he held up the bills a wild impulse prompted the wretched captain to make a grab at them.
There was a short struggle. Oliphant, with his back to the cliff, kept his hold for a moment; then a fierce blow sent him reeling backwards to the edge, with the torn half of the documents in his hand. There was a gasp, a half cry, and next moment only one man stood in the place, peering with ashen face into the black darkness below.