"
"What! This to me!" exclaimed Grind, roused to instant excitement.
"This to you," was the cool, deliberate answer.
"You have mistaken your man," returned the lawyer, now beginning to
comprehend Martin more thoroughly. "I understand my whole relation to
this affair too well to be moved by any attempt at extortion which
you can make. But I can tell you a little secret, which it may be
interesting for you to know."
"What is it?" growled the man.
"Why, that I hold the power to give you a term in the State's prison,
whenever I may happen to feel inclined that way."
"Indeed!" Martin spoke with a cold, defiant sneer.
"I am uttering no vague threat. From the beginning, I have kept this
trap over you, ready to spring, if need be, at a moment's warning."
"I suppose you thought me a poor fool, did you not?" said Martin as
coldly and contemptuously as before. "But you were mistaken. I have
not been altogether willing to trust myself in your hands, without
good advice from a limb of the law quite as shrewd as yourself."
"What do you mean?" exclaimed Grind, somewhat startled by so
unexpected a declaration.
"Plainly," was answered, "while I took your advice as to the surest
way to act upon Jasper, I consulted another as to the means of
protecting myself from you, if matters ever came to a pinch.
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