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There was some laughter, mingled with jeers, and while this was at its height a man broke from the mass and walked rapidly toward Corrigan and Benham. It was Braman. Corrigan questioned him. "It's two professional gamblers. They've been fleecing Manti's easy marks with great facility. Tonight they had Clay Levins in the back room of the Belmont. It looked square, and Levins didn't kick.
He did not know that the man who had greeted him as "ol' 'Brand'" had smashed the banker in the forehead with the butt of a pistol when the banker had tried to bar his progress at the doorway; he was not aware that the force of the blow had hurled Braman against him, and that the latter, half unconscious, was not defending himself.
He grabbed his hat and stepped out of the front door. Left alone, Corrigan paced slowly back and forth in the room, his brows furrowed thoughtfully. Trevison had become an important figure in his mind. Corrigan had not hinted to Braman, to Trevison, or to Miss Benham, of the actual situation nor would he.
Whoever had broken the lock had fixed Braman. He knelt swiftly and ran his hands over the prone form, drawing back at last with the low ejaculation: "He's a goner!" He had no time or inclination to speculate over the manner of Braman's death, and made catlike progress toward the crevice in the partition. Reaching it, he dropped on his hands and knees and peered through.
First I miss seein' this fire-eater bate the face off the big ilephant, Corrigan, an' yisterday I was figgerin' on goin' to town but didn't; an' I miss seein' that little whiffet of a Braman flyin' through the windy. Do ye's know that there's a feelin' ag'in Corrigan an' the railroad in town, an' thot this mon Trevison is the fuse that wud bust the boom av discontint.
Failing in that, he knocked poor, inoffensive little Braman down who had interfered in my behalf and threw him bodily through the front window of the building, glass and all. It's lucky for him that Braman wasn't hurt. After that he tried to incite a riot, which Judge Lindman nipped in the bud by sending a number of deputies, armed with rifles, to the scene.
When Braman returned from his errand he found Corrigan staring out of the window. The banker announced that Miss Benham had received Corrigan's message with considerable equanimity, and was rewarded for his levity with a frown. "What's Carson and his gang doing in town?" he queried. Corrigan told him, briefly. The banker whistled in astonishment, and his face grew long.
And much of the credit is due to your efforts," he added, generously. Corrigan murmured a polite disclaimer, and plunged into dry details. J. C. had a passion for dry details. For many hours they sat in the office, their heads close together. Braman was occasionally called in. Judge Lindman was summoned after a time.
And though he sensed that there could be but one end to such a struggle, he hammered away with ferocious malignance, and in the abandon of his passion in this extremity he was recklessly swinging his broken left arm, driving it at Braman, groaning each time the fist landed.
"That's what you wanted to know, isn't it, Jeff what Braman told me? Well, you know it. I knew you couldn't play square with me. You thought you could dupe me again, didn't you? Well, you didn't, for I snared Braman and pumped him dry. He's kept me posted on your movements; and his little board telephone Ha, ha! that makes you squirm, doesn't it?
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