Out with it--the pistol!" he added, standing menacingly over the other.
In a kind of stupor, under the storm that was breaking above him, Burlingame slowly drew out of a capacious waistcoat pocket a tiny but powerful pistol of the most modern make.
"Put it in my hand," insisted Crozier, his eyes on the other's.
The flabby hand laid the weapon in Crozier's lean and strenuous fingers.
Crozier calmly withdrew the cartridges and then tossed the weapon back on the table.
"Now we have equality of opportunity," he remarked quietly.

"If you think you would like to repeat any slander that's slid off your foul tongue, do it now; and in a moment or two Mrs.Tynan can turn the hose on the floor of this room." "I want to get to business," said Burlingame sullenly, as he took from his pocket a paper.
Crozier nodded.

"I can imagine your haste," he remarked.

"You need all the fees you can get to pay Belle Bingley's bills." Burlingame did not wince.

He made no reply to the challenge that he was the chief supporter of a certain wanton thereabouts.
"The time for your option to take ten thousand dollars' worth of shares in the syndicate is up," he said; "and I am instructed to inform you that Messrs.