"Even if it was a lie," Violet despairingly persisted, "you ought to help me. Do you know who I am?" "That's the point." "Do you know how I was brought here?" "I can guess." "I was tricked. The man said he wanted to marry me. I didn't know. I believed him. An' they beat me an' starved me and did things I couldn't think about an' couldn't help thinkin' about. An' all I want is just for you to do me this one little favor. I won't bother you. I won't blow on you----" "What's that?" "Oh, you know I wouldn't blow on you! I couldn't. I want to forget the whole thing. I've got friends to go to who'll get me work. I only want you to get me out of the door and safe away." Like most men of his sort Dyker, although ready enough to make a living out of the results of cruelty, hated the sight of cruelty's self. The girl's words touched, though lightly, his selfish heart. "But I can't afford to help you," he protested. "You see how I'm tied up here. I can't have Rose jump on me now." "You know she's jumping on you already. You know she's knifing you in the back. The only way you can stop her is by using what I've told you." "Of course," said Dyker in the tone of a man thinking aloud, "if she really was playing both ends against the middle, I could pull her teeth by going straight to O'Malley and telling him so." Violet did not wholly understand this, but she agreed immediately. "Of course you could," she said. "And I suppose I could have her pinched then, if you'd testify against her. Would you do that? Would you go into court?" Violet's fingers closed spasmodically. "Just give me the chanc't," she said fervently. "And of course there are other girls who've been in the same scrape here?" "There's a new one upstairs this minute." "There is? Um. That's good." He rattled the money in his pocket. "Only, look here," he persisted, "if you have been telling the truth, it will probably make me solid with O'Malley, but if you haven't, I'll go clean to smash." Violet saw the turn of affairs and, with hope's revival, her mind cleared immediately. "I haven't told you all," she said, "and I guess the rest will make you sure enough." "There's more then?" "A lot." "What is it?" "Will you help me out of here?" "If you convince me.--Let's see; the shops around here are still open.--Yes, if you convince me, you'll be out of here in half an hour." It was her only chance. She did not hesitate. She told him the whole of what she had heard of the later assuring interview between Rose and Angelelli. This time he listened quietly, his face inscrutable. "That all?" he asked when she had ended. "That's all," she said. "It's the truth?" "Ain't I sayin' it proof that it's true? How could I make it up? I don't know all that it means." "You knew enough to pass it on to me." "Lucky for you I did, too; but I don't know all it means--how could I?--and you do know, an' that ought to be proof enough that it's God's truth, Mr. Dyker."