light out, leaving him to laugh at you?"

Damer flushed a little, and a look of vindictive malice crept into his
eyes as he rose.

"That's about enough!" he said. "You're quite a different man from
Alton. I'm going on."

"Sit down!" said Hallam sharply. "I'm quite as dangerous to you. Take
some more whisky, and listen to me, though I didn't think it would be
necessary to go into the thing again. I was with the men who found
Gordon at the bottom of his shaft on the Quatchigan."

Damer appeared irresolute, but he sat down. "Nobody knows how he got
there."

"No? Well, I have a notion, and I guess Tom Winstanley and one other
man could tell."

"Winstanley's dead."

Hallam laughed. "Still, the other man is on my pay-roll, but where you
can't get at him unless I want you to. Now, are you going to gain
anything by kicking against me?"

Damer was evidently astonished, and sat for almost a minute as though
lost in reflection. Then he made a little gesture as one who abandons
a struggle.

"I guess that takes me. What do you want?" he said.