Page:The Millbank Case - 1905 - Eldridge.djvu/253

 rest and pay to you before you leave. Are those the terms?"

"Those are the terms, if you get the money quick enough."

"Then you can get out of this office, you skulking, blackmailing scoundrel, or I'll throw you out of the window. Go, and don't be slow about it, for my fingers are itching to get hold of you. I'm through with you!"

For an instant, Cranston was dumbfounded by the sudden revulsion of position. He had believed the money practically in his grasp, and instead he encountered this dismissal of contempt and abuse. But his surprise was only for an instant. Then a flood of senseless anger, verging on madness, seized him. He had but one impulse and that was to punish the man who had led him on, only to throw him down. There was a flash of a pistol in his hand as he said:

"But I'm not through with you, by God!"

"You don't need that to send you to State's prison," said a voice behind him, as a hand, seemingly of steel, grasped his and wrenched away the