"Why do you follow up the matter? Your client is safe?"
"But the community is no longer safe when perjurers strut about, masquerading as the sole guardians of honor."
He folded his arms once more and looked straight at his man. In another the gesture might seen theatrical, but it was Shagarach's natural attitude in thought, like the bowed head and lowered eyes of the philosopher burrowing into the depths of things, or the uplifted gaze of the poet leaving earth for the stars and sunset. The lawyer's interests lay in the horizontal plane, and the faces of fellow-men were his study.
"Yes, I am reputed inexorable to perjurers. It is true. They rarely escape me unpunished. As a consequence, witnesses prefer to tell me the truth, which is an advantage to my clients, of whose interests I am the devoted servitor."
"And you will ruin me to gratify this—this——"
"I will procure your indictment for perjury and conspiracy in the case of Commonwealth vs. Bail."
Kennedy trembled like one with an ague. But stronger men than he had yielded as abjectly to Shagarach. He was a blood of high standing, with a fortune as well as a reputation to lose. The chances of a felon's succeeding to the property of old Angus Kennedy, the millionaire, who had adopted him, were relatively slight.
"What is the penalty for perjury?" he asked, in a random way, as if at a loss what to say or do.
"Imprisonment at hard labor."
"It is not punishable by fine?"