When they were alone Haines faced the Senator and spoke determinedly.
"They told you I was not running straight," he said.
The Senator nodded, and the lines about his mouth deepened.
"Yes."
Bud Haines stiffened at the word. Every muscle in his body seemed to become rigid as he mentally vowed that he would retaliate against his traducers if it cost him his life to do it. Hope had informed him only too accurately, he now realized. Little did the Senator know that what he was now about to hear would give him one of the severest shocks of his life.
"They told me you weren't running straight," said Haines deliberately. "Now, neither one of us has been crooked, but somebody else has been, and this was the plan to keep us apart."
"Norton told me you were speculating in Altacoola lands," said
Langdon.
"And Norton told me the same of you," retorted Bud.
The Senator's face grew very serious.
"But my daughter, Miss Carolina Langdon, confirmed Norton's story."