"You see, sir," interrupted Harry deliberately, "it really is time for a show-down. I wouldn't go away from Chicago at present, even for the wedding journey which we will pretend you were honestly offering us. I am going to stay and fight it out. You will have to stay and fight it out, too." "Me?" blustered Boland. "What have I got to fight out?" "You know very well why you were at Druce's cafe tonight. You were in a plot against me, leagued with that fellow, Druce, and his tribe, too, against the crusade started by Mary Randall to protect girls. You prefer to make money exploiting them. Not directly, perhaps, but conspicuously indirect." "So you are turning traitor in--politics?" sneered his father. "Taking sides with a crazy fanatic, whose presence at the cafe caused the death of a good citizen of Chicago. Druce did not mean to shoot Anson." "I see your line of defense. It's you who have turned traitor--to all that is right in you as a man. See, here is the anonymous letter which summoned me to the cafe tonight. I wish you could tell me that you do not know who wrote that note." Boland read the letter scornfully. "How should I know who writes you letters? Young men who make alliances with women who frequent such places must expect such messages," he sneered. "Stop!" Harry's eyes blazed with anger. "We have borne all that we shall of that sort from you. One more such syllable and I shall not be able to speak to you as to my father--even in outward respect." "You seem already to have forgotten that completely." Harry let the sneer pass. "It is up to you, sir, to decide now--this moment--whether or not I ever look upon you as my father again. I have myself decided that I shall no longer be a party to your crimes." "Crimes! My God, this is too much!" "You are too shrewd a man to have a fool for a son. I see plainly that you were leagued with Druce and Anson to blacken the woman I love. But right is might and love is right. The whole dastardly affair enlightens me as to the nature of your alliance with that dive. Why did you renew the lease to Druce against my protest? I never realized until tonight the horror of your extensive holdings of tenderloin property. I don't want another cent from such sources." "Very well." The elder Boland shook with anger. "Get out of this house, you and your--fitting mate. Never let me see your face again. Tomorrow I will undertake a campaign which will brand you among your friends as a son who turned traitor to his father in his hour of stress. All my power, all my money, will be against you. I will crush you as I have every man who has dared oppose me. Get out of my house!" Harry gazed at his father in a tumult of pity and wrath, but he did not speak. Patience, her eyes filled with tears, her hands nervously clutching her 'kerchief, walked up to the angry man.