‘So Birnie let you in for that five hundred, did he?’ he exclaimed with a laugh. ‘What a chap he is!’ ‘I paid the five hundred you drew of Birnie. Certainly I did!’ continued Gurth. ‘I was very glad to do it for a poor devil out of luck whom I had known in former times. I could afford it, you know——-’ ‘Of course you could, having Ralph’s money to spend.’ ‘Ralph’s money was left to me legally, Mr. Marston, and no one can dispute my right to it! You got that five hundred, and you seem to have made a good use of it. You have managed to worm your way into respectable society, established a certain amount of credit, and now you have the confounded impudence to interfere in my private affairs—to aspire to the hand of a lady I intend to make my wife. Take my advice, Mr. Marston; be satisfied with your present success, and leave well alone.’ ‘If I don’t?’ ‘If you don’t I shall take care that your true character is known. I have no doubt if the police are once put on the right track they could furnish me with some interesting details of your past career.’ Marston laughed. ‘What a rum chap you are, Egerton!’ he said. ‘Do you think if I had anything to fear I should have acted in the way I have? You are on the wrong line this time, old fellow.’ ‘You interfere between Ruth Adrian and me, and it will be bad for you!’ exclaimed Gurth, angrily. Marston, who had been standing by the window, came across the room to the mantel-shelf, and stood with his back to the fireplace. ‘Listen to me, Gurth Egerton,’ he said. ‘I told you once before that it was no use your crossing my path in this quarter, and you despised my warning. It is necessary now that I should let you know the consequences to you if you persist in your folly.’ ‘You threaten?’ ‘Certainly. Haven’t you threatened me? But I shall not be so foolish as you. You have shown your hand to no purpose. I fancy when you see my cards you will fling the game up.’ Marston’s manner was cold, and his voice stern. He spoke with such an air of conscious power that Gurth’s anxiety betrayed itself in the expression of his face. Marston noticed the effect, and hastened to follow it up. ‘I love Ruth Adrian honestly and devotedly!’ he continued. ‘With her for my wife, I am about to lead a new life—a life which you will not be able to understand, perhaps. If you, by word or deed, attempt to thwart my purpose, woe betide you, Gurth Egerton. You had better try to rob a lion of its whelp than step between me and the fulfilment of my dream.’ Gurth roused himself with an effort. ‘Talk, my dear fellow!’ he exclaimed, banteringly. ‘Mere talk! What could you—an adventurer, a runaway from America, a penniless schemer—say or do that would injure a man of my wealth and position? Come, what do you want? A thousand—two thousand? Name your figure, take a cheque, and disappear. You are good at disappearing, you know.’