Drene said, still laughing: “It’s the common rumor. You may imagine it amuses your friends--if you have any left.” Graylock spoke in a voice that had a ghostly sound in the great room: “Don’t harm her, Drene. It is not necessary. I shall never see her again--if that will content you.” Drene laughed: “I never saw my wife again. Did that help me? I never saw her again, but as long as she lived I knew what she was ... My wife. And when she died, still my wife. There was no relief--no relief.” Graylock, deathly white, framed his haggard face between his hands and stared at nothing: “I know,” he said. “I understand now. I am here to-night to pay the reckoning.” “You can’t pay it.” “No, not the whole score. There’s another bill, I suppose, waiting for me--somewhere. But I can settle my indebtedness to you--” “How?” “That’s up to you, Drene.” “How?” repeated Drene, violently. Graylock made a slight gesture with his head toward Drene’s sagging pocket: “That way if you like. Or,” he added, “There is a harder punishment.” “What is it?” “To give her up.” “Yes,” said Drene, “that is harder. But I can make it even harder than that. I can make it as hard for you as you made it for me. I can let you live through it.” He laughed, fisted in his pocket, drew out the lumpy automatic and leisurely pushed the lever to “safe.” He said: “To kill you would be like opening the cell door for a lifer. You know what you are while you’re alive; maybe you’d forget if you were dead. I--” He ceased, fiddling absently with the dull-colored weapon on his knee; and for a while they remained silent, not looking at each other. And when Drene spoke again he was still intent upon the automatic. “If I knew what happens after a man dies I could act intelligently.” He shot an ugly look at Graylock: “I don’t know about you, either. You’re a rat. But you might fool me at that. You might be repentant. And in that case you’d get away--if it’s true that the eleventh hour is not too late.... If it’s true that Christ is merciful.... So I’ll take no chances of a getaway. You might fool me--one way or another--if you were dead.” Graylock lifted his head from his hands: “I don’t know how much of the other debt I’ve already paid, Drene. But I’ve paid heavily since I knew her--if that is any satisfaction to you. And since I knew she cared for you, and when I realized that you meant to strike me through her--I have paid, heavily.... Yet, if you were honestly in love with her--” “Is that any of your damned business?” “She’s only a child--” “You rat! That’s what’s coming to you!” “If you say so. But what is coming to her, Drene?”