"A patron!" From the other's lips fell an oath; he seemed about to say
something but checked himself; the seconds went by.

"But even if there had been something not quite--strictly in
accord--which there wasn't"--quickly--"a man couldn't gainsay what had
been said," Dandy Joe began.

"He could," indifferently.

"But that would be--"

"Confessing to perjury? Yes."

"Hold on, Mr. Steele!" The man's eyes began to shine with alarm. "I'm
not on the---"

"I know. And it wouldn't do any good, if you were."

"You mean--" in spite of himself, the fellow's tones wavered--"because
he's under the water?"

"No; I had in mind that even if he hadn't been drowned, your---"

"Wot! Hadn't---"

"A purely hypothetical case! If the sea gave up its dead"--Joe stirred
uneasily--"any retraction on your part wouldn't serve him. In the first
place, you wouldn't confess; then if you did--which you wouldn't--to
employ the sort of Irish bull you yourself used--you would be
discredited. And thus, in any contingency," leaning back with folded