'I can, and without my aid the secret must be hid forever.' Holmes rose, angrily, from his seat. 'What brought _you_ here?' demanded he. 'Be seated, I beg of you,' said Rust, bowing, and speaking in a low, mocking tone. 'What brought me here? _You_ called upon _me_, I think; it was but civil to return the visit. I have come to do so.' 'This is idle, Sir,' replied Holmes, coldly. 'You came for some purpose. Name it. The sooner this interview is over, the more agreeable I suppose it will be for both of us.' 'For me, certainly,' said Rust, in a manner so constrained and different from his usual one, that the lawyer was in doubt whether he was in jest or earnest. Then he added, in a bitter tone: 'You ask what brought me here. Destiny, folly, revenge perhaps against my own heart's blood. Call it what you will; here I am; and ready to assist in the very matter which now perplexes you. What more do you want?' Holmes replied with a sarcastic smile: 'The assistance of Michael Rust is likely to be as great as his sincerity. We certainly should place great reliance on it.' Rust, perfectly unmoved by the taunt, answered in a tone so bitter, so full of hatred to himself, so replete with the outpouring of a cankered heart, so despairing and reckless, that the lawyer felt that even in him there might be some truth: 'I care not whether you trust me or not; I care not whether you believe me or not. If Michael Rust could ever have been swayed by the opinions of others, it would have been before this; it's too late to begin now. I came here because I have failed in all I undertook; because I am beginning to hate the one for whom I have toiled, until I grew gray with the wearing away of mind and body; because the soul of life is gone. I do it out of revenge against that person. There is no remorse; no conscience; but it's revenge. Look at me; that person has blasted me. Do I not show it in every feature and limb? Now you understand me. My schemes are abandoned; and I shall soon be where neither man nor law can reach me. My secret can do me no good; why should I keep it? Perhaps the recollection of past days and of past favors from one whom I have wronged, may have had its weight; perhaps not. I've come to tell the truth. If you will hear it, well; if not, I go, and it goes with me.' Holmes and Harson exchanged looks, and Harson nodded, as if in acquiescence to some proposition which he supposed the looks of the other to indicate. 'Well, Sir,' replied Holmes, 'we will hear what you have to say.' 'Stop,' said Rust; 'before uttering a word, I must have a promise.' The lawyer looked at him, and then at Harson, as much as to say: 'I expected it. There's some trick in it.'