"You are, are you?" cried Blind Charlie, springing up. "Well, let me----"
"Sit down, Peck!" Blake ordered sharply
"Come, give me a chance at her!"
"Sit down! I'm handling this!" Blake cried with sudden harshness.
"Well, then, show her where she's at!" grumbled Blind Charlie, subsiding into his chair.
Blake turned back to Katherine. His face was again impassive.
"And so it is your intention to commit this monstrous libel?" he asked in his former composed tone.
"Perhaps it is not libel," said Katherine.
"You mean that you think you have proofs?"
"No. That is not my meaning."
"What then do you mean?"
"I mean that I _have_ proofs."
"Ah, at last we are coming to the crux of the matter. Since you have proofs for your statements, you think there is no libel?"
"I believe that is sound law," said Katherine.
"It is sound enough law," he said. He leaned toward her, and there was now the glint of triumph in his eyes. "But suppose the proofs were not sound?"
Katherine started.
"The proofs not sound?"
"Yes. I suppose your article is based upon testimony?"
"Of course."
His next words were spoken slowly, that each might sink deeply in.
"Well, suppose your witnesses had found they were mistaken and had repudiated their testimony? What then?"
She sank back in her chair. At last the expected blow had fallen. She sat dazed, thinking wildly. Had they got to Doctor Sherman since she had seen him, and forced him to recant? Had Manning, offered the world by them in this crisis, somehow sold her out? She searched the latter's face with consternation. But he wore a rather stolid look that told her nothing.
Blake read the effect of his words in her white face and dismayed manner.
"Suppose they have repudiated their statements? What then?" he crushingly persisted.
She caught desperately at her courage and her vanishing triumph.
"But they have not repudiated."
"You think not? You shall see!"
He turned to Blind Charlie. "Tell him to step in."
Blind Charlie moved quickly to a side door. Katherine leaned forward and stared after him, breathless, her heart stilled. She expected the following moment to see the slender figure of Doctor Sherman enter the room, and hear his pallid lips deny he had ever made the confession of a few hours before.
Blind Charlie opened the door.
"They're ready for you," he called.
It was all Katherine could do to keep from springing up and letting out a sob of relief. For it was not Doctor Sherman who entered. It was the broad and sumptuous presence of Elijah Stone, detective. He crossed and stood before Blake.
"Mr. Stone," said Blake, sharply, "I want you to answer a few questions for the benefit of Miss West. First of all, you were employed by Miss West on a piece of detective work, were you not?"
"I was," said Mr. Stone, avoiding Katherine's eye.
"And the nature of your employment was to try to discover evidence of an alleged conspiracy against the city on my part?"
"It was."
"And you made to her certain reports?"
"I did."
"Let me inform you that she has used those reports as the basis of a libellous story which she is about to print. Now answer me, did you give her any real evidence that would stand the test of a court room?"
Mr. Stone gazed at the ceiling.
"My statements to her were mere surmises," he said with the glibness of a rehearsed answer. "Nothing but conjecture--no evidence at all."
"What is your present belief concerning these conjectures?"
"I have since discovered that my conjectures were all mistakes."
"That will do, Mr. Stone!"
Blake turned quickly upon Katherine. "Well, now what have you got to say?" he demanded.
She could have laughed in her joy.
"First of all," she called to the withdrawing detective, "I have this to say to you, Mr. Stone. When you sold out to these people, I hope you made them pay you well."
The detective flushed, but he had no chance to reply.
"This is no time for levity, Miss West!" Blake said sharply. "Now you see your predicament. Now you see what sort of testimony your libel is built upon."
"But my libel is not built upon that testimony."