“No; he’s an angel. And all he wants is a pair of wings which would just fix him out.” Lamont reddened and then turned pale again. “I announce this interview terminated,” he said, but his voice was agitated and his gaze wandered to the door across the room. “You can write out the check for the amount I have mentioned if you have any regard for the honor of your house.” “Not a dollar!” “Then take the consequences!” So threatening, the man arose and coolly buttoned his coat. “You’re mad,” said the millionaire. “Perhaps. I’m money mad, but I want to save you and yours. I don’t want to heap disgrace upon your wife and daughter. I don’t want to disgrace you and see your boy go to the chair. I don’t want to do anything of the kind, and I won’t if you pay me for the secret.” Perhaps something told Perry Lamont that he was dealing with a desperate man, who, after all, might have the secret he spoke of, but it was such a terrible thing to think of that it chilled his blood. “I’m a man of business. I want the check or your boy is exposed.” “What is the crime?” asked Lamont. “What did I say? They take life for murder only.” “My son!--a murderer!” “They will certainly lay hands on Claude if you don’t buy my silence.” “In Satan’s name, who are you?” “The man who knows!” In the drawer before the millionaire lay a self-cocking revolver, and this flashed through his mind as he resolved upon desperate action. “All right,” he said, as nonchalantly as possible, and in a second he had opened the drawer. The man near by stood in such a position that he could not look into the place, and he did not see Lamont’s hand close about the black ivory stock of the weapon. Suddenly the millionaire’s hand leaped from the drawer and the revolver flashed in the stranger’s face. “I won’t be blackmailed,” hissed Lamont. “I’m as merciless as a tiger when aroused, and I count your life as nothing as compared to the welfare of my family. What is the lie you have made up for to-night’s work? What is the infamous story you have planned about my son? Tell me or I will kill you where you stand, and the world will lose your infamy in this house.” The man on the carpet seemed to increase an inch in stature as he looked down into the tensely drawn face of the man of many fortunes. “You’d do that, would you?” “As I live I will!” “You’re a fool, Perry Lamont.” “Why so?” “You might slay me here, but the net would be played out or drawn in all the same. You don’t suppose I would place myself in your power the sole custodian of this secret which, if let out, will send your son to the electric chair? I’m no fool.” The tightly clutched weapon seemed about to fall from Lamont’s hand. “The secret is unloosed the moment I die at your hands,” continued the cool stranger. “Come, treat me white, and I’ll treat you the same. I want ten thousand for what I know. It saves your boy and rescues your house from disgrace.”