'What do you want to know for ?' he asked in an agitated voice.

I told him quite simply, that he must give me his proofs and tell the members of his family that he had been mistaken--that Alice's first husband had really died before she married him.

If he agreed to do that he had nothing farther to fear from me--I would remain dead forever.

'You can destroy proofs, but not facts,' he muttered in reply to this.

I told him the facts were never likely to come to light if he entered into a compact of silence.
"He sat for a few moments as if contemplating the alternatives I had placed before him--sat with one hand in his table-drawer, seeking for papers, I thought.