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But his first tangible impression was the knowledge that his wife was once more pouring brandy down his throat and imploring him to hurry. Then the sound of muffled blows echoed from above. "Quick, Jim, oh, quick, or it will be too late. No, not that way. We can't go by the front that's cut off. By the back this way I've got everything open!" "But what's the noise?" asked Durkin weakly.
Durkin, through all his rage, shut his teeth on a sudden sob. It was all over. It was the end. A change suddenly swept across the woman's face, a light of exaltation leaped into her dilated pupils, and her hand went up to her heart. Was it some small sound or movement that she had heard, or was it some minute vibration of floor that she had felt?
"No!" shouted Tad, his face flushing, as all the old fighting spirit in him came to the surface. "Then, take the consequences!" Ab Durkin raised his revolver, peering from rock to rock, not certain now as to the exact location of the boys. He seemed ready to fire the instant he made out the mark he was seeking.
"Oh, yes; I've traveled here, winter after winter." She picked out a card from her pocket-book, on which was inscribed, in Spencerian definiteness of black and white, "Miss Barbara Allen." It had been the card of Lady Boxspur's eminently respectable maid and Frances Durkin had saved it for just such a contingency. He read the name, slowly, and then placed the card in his vest pocket.
"Home to clear our names and take this money to the bank!" "And receive the reward," added Mr. Sharp, with a smile. "Don't forget that!" "Oh, yes, and I'll see that you get a share too, Mr. Durkin," went on Tom. "Only for your aid we never would have gotten these men and the money." "Oh, I guess we're about even on that score," responded the official. "I'm glad to break up that gang."
Penny pulled his long length from the ground. "This is none of your business." "I'm making it my business," replied Clint hotly. "You keep out of it, Durkin. I'll look after this fellow. If he wants a scrap he can have it." Clint peeled off his coat and tossed it aside. But Penny calmly and good-naturedly thrust him away. "It's my row, Thayer," he said. "Thanks, just the same."
"All right," answered Steve impatiently. "Where are you going to be for the next hour?" "Upstairs, practising. Come and see it any time you like. It really is a peach, Edwards, and it's scarcely worn at all. It it's a prayer rug, too, and they're scarcer than hens' teeth nowadays!" But Steve was already yards away and Durkin shrugged his shoulders and turned back into Torrence.
They were skirting three early delivery-wagons, waiting to unload at the supply door of the hotel. A boy passing in the street beyond was shrilly whistling "Tammany." "Tell me now!" demanded Durkin. "When you fainted MacNutt reached back for the revolver. He would have shot you, only Keenan called for him. He cried down the shaft that he was dying. He he must have pushed the button as he fell.
Then they fled to the huddled little hotels and pensions of the narrow and dark wooded valley of Karlsbad, under skies which Frank declared to be bluer than the blue of forget-me-nots, where, amid Brahmins from India and royalty from Austria and audacious young duchesses from Paris and students from Petersburg and Berlin, and undecipherable strangers from all the remotest corners of the globe, it seemed to Durkin they were at last alone.
For it was in Morse, and to his trained and adept ear it read: "This is Keenan keep away!" It was two days later, and they had been days of blank suspense for him, that Durkin made his way to Frank's room, unobserved. His first resolution had been to wait for a clearer coast, but his anxiety overcame him, and he could hold off no longer.
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