A sudden palsy had seized him, yet he was determined to speak; he felt that he must be heard, that he had something vital to say.

An impulse he could not control compelled him to turn in the direction of Andy Gilmore, and for a brief instant his eyes fastened themselves on the gambler, who returned his gaze with a cynical smile, as though to say: "You haven't the nerve to do it." With the tip of his tongue Langham moistened his swollen lips.

He was about to speak now, and Gilmore, losing his former air of bored indifference, leaned forward, eager to catch every word.
"I would like to say," he began in a tolerably steady voice, "that North left my office at half past four o'clock yesterday afternoon intending to see Mr.McBride; indeed, happening to glance from my window, I saw him enter the store.

Before he left my office he had explained the business that was taking him to McBride's; we had discussed it at some length." "What took him to McBride's ?" demanded Doctor Taylor.
"He went there to raise money on some local gas company bonds which he owned.

Mr.McBride had agreed to buy them from him.