"Is it not true?" asked King quietly.

"That is not the question. I don't wish my past acts raked up. On that
point I am sensitive."

A slight pause ensued.

"Are you done?" asked King quietly. Then leaping from the chair he burst
suddenly into excitement.

"There's the door, go! And never show your face here again."

Casey had lost his advantage. At the door he gathered himself together
again.

"I'll say in my paper what I please," he asserted with a show of
bravado.

King was again in control of himself.

"You have a perfect right to do so," he rejoined. "I shall never notice
your paper."

Casey struck himself on the breast.

"And if necessary I shall defend myself," he cried.

King bounded again from his seat, livid with anger.