"Wh-what for?"
"To save a woman," Garth answered. "It's enough for you to know that they've trapped her there, and that she means too much to me—"
Black turned on him with a snarl.
"You mean you love her. Then maybe you can understand. What about my wife?"
"Black," Garth said quietly, "you stand a better chance of sparing your wife if you meet my price. I promise to do all I can to keep you out of the scandal. I'll get you away clean if it can be done. All I ask is, that for your wife's sake, you'll try to be a man. But now you listen. By gad, if you refuse to do this thing, I'll raise a scandal that will finish you once for all. I'll shout the thing from the housetops. I'll take you to a cell within the next ten minutes. What about your wife then? Look at me. I'm not bluffing. I hate it, but I've no choice. It's life and death to me, and, since it's all I've got, I'm going to use your reputation to make it life."
Black sank into a chair, covering his face.
"You do mean it. I can't do it. I tell you I can't do it."
Garth stood over the man. As he fought, there came back to him with an advocacy not to be denied, the memory of Nora's altered face, out of which, however, her eyes, unalterable, had glanced at him with a definite appeal.
"Yes you can," he said savagely. "They'll let you vouch for a—friend. And if you don't, you'll give the game away to a jury and a crowded courtroom."
Black's hands dropped. He stared straight ahead. He did not answer.