"If
you drive him into a corner he will do desperate things. If you tried
that game on with him you would regret it for the rest of your life. Good
heavens, you are like a child playing about amidst a lot of unguarded
machinery. Why do you do it?"
"That I will tell you presently. Mr. Rawlins, you have a daughter."
The hard look died out of the listener's eyes.
"Whom I love better than my life," he said. "There are two John
Rawlins's--the one you know; and, well, the other one. I should be sorry
to show you the other one."
"For the sake of your daughter I don't want to see the other one."
"Then why do you pit yourself against me like this?"
"I don't think you are displaying your usual lucidity," Chris said,
coolly. Her heart was beating fast, but she did not show it. "Just
reflect for a moment. I have found you out. I know pretty well what you
are. I need not have told you anything of this. I need have done no more
than gone to the police and told them where to find you. But I don't want
to do that; I hate to do it after what I saw last night. You have your
child, and she loves you. Could I unmask you before her eyes?"
"You would kill her," Rawlins said, a little unsteadily; "and you would
kill me, I verily believe.
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