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 deaf ears many a day, Mr. Stott." Texas reminded him, "and this is the time you'll listen to its demands."

"What do you mean, Hartwell?"

"I mean the difference between six thousand legal debt and sixty thousand forged, with inter-ust from that day to this."

"You can't prove it!" said Stott again, weakly. "It can't be proved!"

"You might as well call it sixty thousand, to make it look better. We'll let you put any kind of a face to it you can think up, Stott, to save you in front of the world on that. You can send for Mrs. McCoy and count the cash money down in her hand, and tell her it's your gratitude for past favors done you by Ed McCoy, or that it's your heart moved by your great prosperity, or that you've got religion—or anything you want to tell her. That done, we cross off your crime and let you free on murder."

Stott sat thinking it over. Perhaps the turn that things took when they scorned his money put a newer and graver complexion on their case in his eyes; doubtless he realized that he couldn't make the plea of blackmail stick against them before the public. On their part, taking Mackey's skulking retreat into consideration, they could ruin him in an hour.