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They've had dinner by this time." Together we went and were presently climbing the stairs that led to the second floor of the City Hotel. Mrs. Potts received us graciously. Upon me she bestowed a glance of friendly curiosity, as does a kind physician who waits to be told of symptoms before prescribing. Upon Solon she bent a more knowing look, as upon one whose frailties have already been revealed.
She knew their secret the secret of secrets; she had proclaimed it to their faces. She had called Potts a Thug and disowned him as her father; what now remained? But one thing flight. And this she was fully resolved to try. She prepared nothing. To gain the outside world was all she wished. The need of money was not thought of; nor if it had been would it have made any difference.
That must be the opiate of the poor, driven by labor to feed and clothe themselves; of the ambitious, driven by hope and desire.... She must work, too; work was a good thing. Why had Potts not included it in his panaceas? ... Later when she walked back into the still ward, she thought she heard a stifled breathing, but when she went the rounds of the cots, all was still.
It was at this time, I remember, that the Argus first spoke of our town as "a gem at beauty's throat," and, touching the rare enterprise of our citizens, declared that, "If you put a Slocum County man astride a streak of lightning, he'd call for a pair of spurs." For myself, I frankly mourned Potts.
"Granting what you say to be correct, the devil must have little regard for his servants if he abandons them so easily," observed Richard, drily. "What else can you expect from him?" cried Potts. "It is his custom to ensnare his victims, and then leave them to their fate." "You are rather describing the course pursued by certain members of your own profession, Master Potts," said Richard.
The entire crowd became emotional, and a dozen lighted matches were thrust forward toward an apparently incombustible cigar with which Potts had long striven. Recovering from these first ravages of his self-analysis, the Colonel became just a bit critical. "But you see, boys, a man of my attributes is hampered and kept down in a one-horse place like this.
"Never mind be quick, and step next door, and ask the old German to come in and wait at table. He shall have a pint of strong beer." Sally did as she was bid. Mr Potts, whose wine had been decanted long before, and Mrs Potts, who had vented her spleen upon her husband, returned into the parlour together.
They shake hands with Colonel MacLeod, and then, receiving the pipe of peace from the interpreter, Jerry Potts, they each smoke a few seconds and pass it around.
And how it was done or who did it nobody quite knew, but Potts, still clinging by one hand to the bucket-rope, was hauled out and laid on the ice before it was discovered that he had Kaviak under his arm Kaviak, stark and unconscious, with the round eyes rolled back till one saw the whites and nothing more.
Present with him in the street and witness to the shutting of the carriage-door on Countess Fanny, were brother officers of his, General Abrane, Colonel Jack Potts, and Sir Upton Tomber.
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