He seized Leech by the shoulder.
“I’ll tell how you deal with women—for instance, with Miss Bush, the school-teacher, alias Mrs. Jonadab Leech!” he hissed.
Leech seemed suddenly to shrink up.
“What do you know about—about her?”
“Put me on the stand, and I’ll tell you all you want to know,” said McRaffle, tauntingly. “Perhaps, you don’t want me as a witness now? Well, I’ll tell you what I’ll do. Pay me the thousand dollars, or—I tell you—endorse my note for a thousand, and I’ll keep quiet. Otherwise, I’ll have to get Dr. Still to endorse it, or maybe even the Governor,” he said, meaningly.
“Well, if I do, will you swear that you will never open your mouth again about this to a single soul on earth?”
“Make it twelve hundred,” said McRaffle. “The Governor’d give twice that to know of Mrs. Leech. I reckon it would be some time before you’d dine with Miss Krafton again.”
Leech seized him to stop him.
The rest of the conversation was in a lower key, and they soon moved off together, leaving Steve still in darkness, literally and figuratively. But he had conquered a great temptation. This reflection, after a time, brought a feeling almost of peacefulness. He threw himself on the bed, and began to go over his life. Presently he began in humility to look to a Higher Power.
At that moment his door was opened, and a voice said: