The next instant his glance flashed upwards, and their eyes met.
There was a sharply-defined pause.

Then, "You'd never be fool enough for that, Jack!" ejaculated Palliser, with vehemence.
"I'm fool enough for anything," said Conyers, with his cynical smile.
"But you wouldn't," the other protested almost incoherently.

"A fellow like you--I don't believe it!" "It's loaded," observed Conyers quietly.

"No, leave it alone, Hugh! It can remain so for the present.

There is not the smallest danger of its going off--or I shouldn't have shown it to you." He closed the drawer again, looking steadily into Hugh Palliser's face.
"I've had it by me for years," he said, "just in case the Fates should have one more trick in store for me.