The words in themselves was an insult, independent of the wagging of his bull-like head, which slowly moved in mockery. The terrible trial was telling upon Julia. Her great eyes were strained, and lines of distress were forming at the corners of her mouth. She shifted the reins to her left hand and thrust her right under the loose folds of a light wrap which she carried. When her fingers closed upon the handle of the revolver, new courage came. She would go on, though something told her that her quest was hopeless. "Yes, we need money, but we don't want any that isn't rightfully ours. I have read in the _Herald_ all about the affair at the bank, and how the dividend was passed that you might make improvements and buy a new safe. Can't you do these things, and declare the dividend, too?" "We _might_ do without these things altogether," he answered, darkly. She grasped at the straw. "Oh, please do! I felt that if I would come and ask you to give us what was really ours, that you would. Won't you have it done, Mr. Marston? Tell me, and I'll not detain you any longer." Again he smiled his wolfish smile, and gazed on her in a sinister way. "We do not get things for nothing in this world," he answered, in a cold, deliberate voice. The paroxysm of passion which had shaken him was gone now, and had left him maliciously cool and scheming. "You want me to declare this dividend. I can do it yet, for I'm the bank, you know. I kick those pups around down there like I do these dogs and niggers here at home. The question is--how badly do you want this dividend?" A rosy flush flared up into Julia's waxen cheeks. "It is not quite fair to flaunt our need in my face," she answered, all but imperiously. "But you know how we are situated, as does every one in Macon, and this county. Father's bank stock is his only source of income, if you will have me say it." "You have not exactly answered my question," pursued Devil Marston. "I told you that everything worth having must be bought. What will you give me for this dividend?" "I do not understand what you mean. It belongs to us--or our part of it does. Why will you not let us have it?" She could not look at him; his face was repulsive beyond measure, and she kept her eyes on the delicately-veined ears of The Prince as she desperately fought her battle of words. "I will let you have it--but, there is a price to pay. You cannot get something for nothing, from me!" His voice rang hard and exultant on the last sentence. "Please be plain," she urged. "Tell me what you mean, quickly." "The dividend has its price, if you will pay!" he said, drawing a step closer. "A little price to save you and your father from starvation. Get down, come into my home with me, drink a glass of wine with me, kiss me once!--Will you pay it?" CHAPTER XII