“You’ve always been the bane of our house. What do I care what you think of my manner? The sharper it cuts, the better pleased am I. You’ve worked upon moods and weaknesses of the old man with your infernal cunning and got him under your thumb, as you think. Don’t be too sure. You’ll find an enemy of very different caliber in me. There’s a law for blackmailers, though you mayn’t think it.” He cocked his head on one side a moment, like a vile carrion crow; then came softly and pushed a lean finger at my breast. “And a law for fratricides,” he said, quietly. I laughed so disdainfully that he forgot himself on the instant in a wild burst of fury. “Toad! Filthy, poisonous viper!” he yelled. “You think to combat me with your pitiful little sword of brass! Have I overlooked your insolence, d’ye think? Speak a word further--one word, you pestilent dog, and I’ll smash you, body and soul, as I smash this glass!” In his rabid frenzy he actually seized and threw upon the floor the tumbler from which he had lately been drinking, and, putting his heavy heel on it, crushed it into a thousand fragments. “Oh!” he moaned, his breath chattering like a dry leaf in the wind, “I’ll be even with you, my friend--I’ll be even with you! You dare--you dare--you dare! You, the poor dependent on my bounty, whom I could wither with a word. The law you call upon so glibly has a long arm for murderers. You think a little lapse of years has made you safe”--he laughed wildly--“safe? Holy saints in heaven! I’ve only to step over to the police station--five minutes--and you’re laid by the heels and a pretty collar weaving for your neck.” He checked himself in the torrent of his rage and lifted his hand menacingly. “Harkee!” he cried. “I can do that and at a word I would! Now, d’ye set your little tin plate against my bludgeon?” “Yes,” I said. He seemed to doubt my answer, as if his ears had misinterpreted it, for he went on: “If you value your life keep out of my way. Take the lesson from your father. He knew what I could do if I chose; and he took the best means in his power to buy my silence.” I gave a cry of fierce triumph. “So--the secret is out! It was to save me, as he thought, that my father parted with his treasure!” The blackmailer gave no answer. I went and stood close up against him, daring him with the manliness he lacked. “You are a contemptible, dastardly poltroon,” I said, with all the coldest scorn I could muster. He started back a little. “If I had killed my brother in good reality, I would go to my hanging with joy if the only alternative were buying my safety from such a slimy, crawling reptile as you!” “If?” he echoed, with a pale effort at another laugh. “‘If’ was what I said. Pretty doctor you, not to know, as I have since found out, that the boy died by other means than drowning!” In an ungovernable burst of fury I took him by the throat and drove him back against the table--and he offered no resistance.