"I shall be terse and entirely frank," said the colonel, and at once
Donnegan reared triple guard and balanced himself for attack or defense.

"Between you and me," went on the fat man, "deceptive words are folly. A
waste of energy." He flushed a little. "You are, I believe, the first
man who has ever laughed at me." The click of his teeth as he snapped
them on this sentence seemed to promise that he should also be the last.

"So I tear away the veils which made me ridiculous, I grant you.
Donnegan, we have met each other just in time."

"True," said Donnegan, "you have a task for me that promises a lot of
fighting; and in return I get lodgings for the night."

"Wrong, wrong! I offer you much more. I offer you a career of action in
which you may forget the great sorrow which has fallen upon you: and in
the battles which lie before you, you will find oblivion for the sad
past which lies behind you."

Here Donnegan sprang to his feet with his hand caught at his breast; and
he stood quivering, in an agony. Pain worked him as anger would do, and,
his slender frame swelling, his muscles taut, he stood like a panther
enduring the torture because knows it is folly to attempt to escape.

"You are a human devil!" Donnegan said at last, and sank back upon his
stool. For a moment he was overcome, his head falling upon his breast,
and even when he looked up his face was terribly pale, and his eyes
dull. His expression, however, cleared swiftly, and aside from the
perspiration which shone on his forehead it would have been impossible
ten seconds later to discover that the blow of the colonel had fallen