"You know I'm frightened, and you're throwing a bluff. You're a fool not to realize that it's because I'm so frightened that I am capable of killing you. I've craned my neck around every corner, and jumped at every shadow since that day--always watching for you. Now, I'm going to end it. I see your plan as if it were printed on a glass pane. You've discovered my doings, and, if you left here alive, you'd inform the government." Here, at least, Saxon could speak, and speak truthfully. "I don't know anything, or care anything, about your plans," he retorted, curtly. "That's a damned lie!" almost shrieked the other man. "It's just your style. It's just your infernal chicanery. I wrote you that letter in good faith, and you tracked me. You found out where I was and what I was doing. How you learned it, God knows, but I suppose it's still easy for you to get into the confidence of the _juntas_. The moment I saw you on the boat, the whole thing flashed on me. It was your fine Italian brand of work to come down on the very steamer that carried my guns--to come ashore just at the psychological moment, and turn me over to the authorities on the exact verge of my success! Your brand of humor saw irony in that--in giving me the same sort of death you escaped. But it's too late. Vegas has the guns in spite of you! There'll be a new president in the palace within three days." The man's voice became almost triumphant. He was breathing more normally once again, as his courage gained its second wind. Saxon was fencing for time. Incidentally, he was learning profusely about the revolution of to-morrow, but nothing of the revolution of yesterday. "I neither know, nor want to know, anything about your dirty work," he said, shortly. "Moreover, if you think I'm bent on vengeance, you are a damned fool to tell me." Rodman laughed satirically. "Oh, I'm not so easy as you give me credit for being. You are trying to 'kiss your way out,' as the thieves put it. You're trying to talk me out of killing you, but do you know why I'm willing to tell you all this?" He halted, then went on tempestuously. "I'll tell you why. In the first place, you know it already, and, in the second place, you'll never repeat any information after to-night. It's idiotic perhaps, but my reason for not killing you right at the start is that I've got a fancy for telling you the true facts, whether you choose to believe them or not. It will ease my conscience afterward." Saxon stood waiting for the next move, bracing himself for an opportunity that might present itself, the pistol muzzle still pointed at his chest.