"I'm not timid," went on the other. "You know me. Howard Rodman, speakin' in general, takes his chances. But I am afraid of you, more afraid than I am of the devil in hell. I know I can't bluff you. I saw you stand against this wall with the soldiers out there in front, and, since you can't be frightened off, you must be killed." The man's voice gathered vehemence as he talked, and his face showed growing agitation. "And the horrible part is that it's all a mistake, that I'd rather be friends with you, if you'd let me. I never was informant against you." He paused, exhausted by his panic and his flow of words. Saxon, with a strong effort, collected his staggered senses. "Why do you think I come for vengeance?" he asked. "Why do I think it?" The thin man laughed bitterly. "Why, indeed? What except necessity or implacable vengeance could drive a man to this God-forsaken strip of coast? And you--you with money enough to live richly in God's country, you whose very face in these boundaries invites imprisonment or death! What else could bring you? But I knew you'd come--and, so help me God, I'm innocent." A sudden idea struck Saxon. This might be the cue to draw on the frightened talker without self-revelation. "What do you want me to believe were the real facts?" he demanded, with an assumption of the cold incredulity that seemed expected of him. The other spoke eagerly. "That morning when General Ojedas' forces entered Puerto Frio, and the government seized me, you were free. Then, I was released, and you arrested. You drew your conclusions. Oh, they were natural enough. But, before heaven, they were wrong!" Saxon felt that, until he had learned the full story, he must remain the actor. Accordingly, he allowed himself a skeptical laugh. Rodman, stung by the implied disbelief, took up his argument again: "You think I'm lying. It sounds too fishy! Of course, it was my enterprise. It was a revolution of my making. You were called in as the small lawyer calls in the great one. I concede all that. For me to have sacrificed you would have been infamous, but I didn't do it. I had been little seen in Puerto Frio. I was not well known. I had arranged it all from the outside while you had been in the city. You were less responsible, but more suspected. You remember how carefully we planned--how we kept apart. You know that even you and I met only twice, and that I never even saw your man, Williams."