"Evidently not. So you sacrifice me for him."
"You think I wasn't justified?"
"You'll have to settle that with your conscience," he said coldly. "Don't think I would have been justified in your place."
"You would have let him go to prison—the man who had fought for you against odds?"
"Does that alter the fact that he is a thief?" Verinder demanded angrily.
"It alters my relation to the fact—and it ought to alter yours. He did a great service to the woman you are engaged to marry. Does that mean nothing to you?"
"The fellow was playing off his own bat, wasn't he? I don't see I owe him anything," the mine owner sulkily answered. "Truth is, I'm about fed up with him. He's a bad lot. That's the long and short of him. I don't deny he's a well-plucked daredevil. What of it? This town is full of them. There was no question of his going to prison. I intended only to get back some of the ore he and his friends have stolen from me."
"I didn't know that."
"Would it have made any difference if you had?"
She considered. "I'm not sure."