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"It's not me as would open another man's letter, unless in the way of me duty." "Do you know Mother Borton?" I continued. "Know her? know her?" returned Corson in a tone scornful of doubt on such a point. "Do I know the slickest crook in San Francisco? Ah, it's many a story I could tell you, Mr.
"Oh, my God, I'm cut!" came in a shriek out of the darkness and clamor; and there followed the flash of a pistol and a report that boomed like a cannon in that confined place. My eyes had not been idle after the warning of Mother Borton, and in an instant I had decided what to do. I had figured out what I conceived to be the plan of the house, and thought I knew a way of escape.
On a sudden Mother Borton sat bolt upright in bed, and a shriek, so long, so shrill, so freighted with terror, came from her lips that I shrank from her and trembled, faint with the horror of the place. "They come there, they come!" she cried, and throwing up her arms she fell back on the bed. The candle shot up into flame, sputtered an instant, and was gone.
It flashed on me that the attack in the Borton den was of his planning, that Terrill was his tool, and that he had supposed me dead. It was thus that I could account for his startled gaze and evident discomposure. "Nine o'clock was the time, you said," I suggested deferentially. "I believe it's a minute or two past." "Oh, yes," said Doddridge Knapp, pulling himself together. "Come in here."
It's jest as well you're here instid of having a little passear with Tom Terrill and Darby Meeker and their pals." "Well," said I, as cheerfully as I could under the depressing circumstances, "if they want to kill me, I don't see how I can keep them from getting a chance sooner or later." Mother Borton looked anxious at this, and shook her head. "You must call on your men," she said decidedly.
What could he tell me that I don't know already? I've been on the road to hell for fifty years, and do you think the devil will let go his grip for a man that don't know me? No, dearie; your face is better for me than priest or minister, and I want you to close my eyes and see that I'm buried decent. Maybe you'll remember Mother Borton for something more than a vile old woman when she's gone."
I never closed my eyes a wink, and you has to come a-sneakin' up and settin' your dogs on me." Mother Borton again drew on an apparently inexhaustible vocabulary of oaths. "Oh, you're as bad as him," she shouted, "and I reckon you'd be worse if you knowed how." And she spat out more curses, and shook her fist in impotent but verbose rage.
I haven't got the money from the one that's doing the hiring yet, so I couldn't pay him." Mother Borton gave an evil grin, and absorbed another inward laugh. "I reckon the money'll come all right," said Mother Borton, recovering from her mirth. "There's one more anxious than you to have 'em paid, and if you ain't found out you'll have it right away. Now for guards, take Trent no, he's hurt.
The place had the same appearance as the one to which I had been taken by Dicky Nahl. "A fine night, Mother Borton," said Corson cheerily, as he was the first to enter, and then added under his breath, " for the divil's business." Mother Borton stared at him with a black look and muttered a curse. "Good evening," I hastened to say.
He referred to the chase for the fugitives. "Nothin' worth while," replied Anderson dismally. "Uncle Jimmy Borton had a letter from Albany to-day, an' his son-in-law said three strange men had been seen in the Albany depot the other day. I had Uncle Jimmy write an' ast him if he had seen anybody answerin' the description, you know.
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