If he lives
and you will give up your practice and retire to your ranch or what
business pleases you, I will guarantee that he does not prosecute you
for what has passed. If he dies . . ."
"If he dies"--he snatched the words from her--"it will be murder!"
". . . you would be free from prosecution," she continued, quite as
though he had made no interruption, "I rather imagine that I should
die, too. And, as you say, I would be liable for murder. He is asleep
now because I have drugged him. I shall chloroform him before he
wakes. I should have no defense in the law-courts. Yes, it would be
murder."
He drew a step back from her as though from one suddenly gone mad.
"What are you operating for?" he demanded.
"For your blunder," she said simply. "And you are going to help me."
"Am I?" he jeered. "Not by a damned sight! If you think that I am
going to let myself in for that sort of thing . . ."
Until now he had not seen the gun in her hand. Her quick gesture
showed it to him.
"Charles Patten," she told him emphatically, "I am risking Mr. Norton's
life; I am therefore risking my own. Understand what that means.
Understand just what you have got to win or lose by to-night's work.
Consider that I pledge you my word not to implicate you in what you do;
that if worse came to worse, you could claim and I would admit that you
were forced at the point of a gun to do as I told you.
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