I can face facts." Hanaud stared at his companion for a few moments.

Then, with a remarkable air of consideration, he bowed.
"You have won, monsieur," he said.

"I will take up this case.

But," and his face grew stern and he brought his fist down upon the table with a bang, "I shall follow it to the end now, be the consequences bitter as death to you." "That is what I wish, monsieur," said Wethermill.
Hanaud locked up the slips of paper in his lettercase.

Then he went out of the room and returned in a few minutes.
"We will begin at the beginning," he said briskly.