"You are ill-treating him!" Phipps cried passionately. "I shall go to Scotland Yard myself! I shall tell them what you have said. I shall denounce you!" "My dear fellow," Wingate scoffed, "you have done that already. You have induced those very excellent upholders of English law and liberty to set a plain-clothes man to following me about. I can assure you that he has had a very pleasant and a very busy evening." Phipps rose to his feet. "Wingate," he exclaimed, "curse you!" "A very natural sentiment. I hope that you may repeat it a good many times before the end comes." "You are a conspirator--a criminal!" Phipps continued, his voice shaking with excitement. "You are breaking the laws of the country. I shall see that you are in gaol before the week is out!" "A good deal of what you say is true," Wingate admitted, "with the possible exception of the latter part. Believe me, Peter Phipps, you are a great deal more likely to see the inside of a prison than I am. You will be a poor man presently and poor men of your type are desperate." Phipps remained perfectly silent for several moments. "Wingate, you are a hard enemy," he said at last. "Will you treat?" "I have named the price." "You are a fool!" Phipps almost shouted. "Do you know," he went on, striking the table with his clenched fist, "that what you suggest would cost five million pounds?" "You and your friends can stand it," was the unruffled reply. "If not, your brokers can share the loss." "That means you make a bankrupt of me?" Phipps demanded hoarsely. "Why not?" Wingate replied. "It's been a long duel between us, Phipps, and I mean this to be the final bout." Phipps moved his position a little uneasily. He was keeping himself under control, but the veins were standing out upon his forehead, his frame seemed tense with passion. "Tell me, Wingate, is it still the girl?" Wingate looked across at him. His face and tone were alike relentless, his eyes shone like points of steel. "You did ill to remind me of that, Phipps," he said. "However, I will answer your question. It is still the girl." "She was nothing to you," Phipps muttered sullenly.