"
There was a moment or two of silence, during which the visitors
watched the face of the man whose weakness they both knew. At last
Ed Austin ventured to say, apologetically:
"I'm willing to do almost anything to help Adolfo, but--they'll
make a liar of me if I take the stand. Isn't there some other way
out?"
"I don't know of any," said Lewis.
"Money'll square anything," Ed urged, hopefully, whereupon Urbina
waved his cigarette and nodded.
"This Ricardo Guzman is the cause of it all. He is a bad man."
"No doubt of that," Lewis agreed. "He's got more enemies than I
have. If he was out of the way there wouldn't be nothin' to this
case, and the country'd be a heap better off, too."
"What about that other witness?" Ed queried.
"If Ricardo were gone--if something should happen to him"--
Urbina's wicked face darkened--"there would be no other witness. I
would see to that."
The color receded from Ed Austin's purple cheeks, and he rose
abruptly. "This is getting too strong for me," he cried. "I won't
listen to this sort of talk. I won't be implicated in any such
doings."
"Nobody's goin' to implicate you," Tad told him. "Adolfo wants to
keep you out of trouble.
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