I had almost made up my mind to kill you. But I won't do that.
There's a better way. In half an hour I'll be with McDowell, and I'll
beat you out by telling him that I'm John Keith. And I'll tell him this
story of Miriam Kirkstone from beginning to end. I'll tell him of that
dais you've built for her--your sacrificial altar!--and tomorrow Prince
Albert will rise to a man to drag you out of this hole and kill you as
they would kill a rat. That is my answer, you slit-eyed, Yale-veneered
yellow devil! I may die, and Peter Kirkstone may die, but you'll not
get Miriam Kirkstone!"
He was on his feet when he finished, amazed at the calmness of his own
voice, amazed that his hands were steady and his brain was cool in this
hour of his sacrifice. And Kao was stunned. Before his eyes he saw a
white man throwing away his life. Here, in the final play, was a
master-stroke he had not foreseen. A moment before the victor, he was
now the vanquished. About him he saw his world falling, his power gone,
his own life suddenly hanging by a thread. In Keith's face he read the
truth. This white man was not bluffing. He would go to McDowell. He
would tell the truth. This man who had ventured so much for his own
life and freedom would now sacrifice that life to save a girl, one
girl! He could not understand, and yet he believed.
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