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Bill gazed upon her features with devouring eyes, and thoughts of the wrongs committed by Lablache against her and hers teemed through his brain and set his blood surging through his veins in a manner that threatened to overbalance his usual cool judgment. He forced himself to an outward calmness, however, and the lazy tones of his voice remained as easy as ever.
"I guess you mean well enough, Lablache. But say, ask the child yourself." The other shook his massive head. "I have she has refused." "Then why in thunder do you come to me?" The angry light was again in the rancher's bloodshot eyes. "Why? Because she will marry me if you choose. She can't refuse she dare not." "Then, by God, I'll refuse for her " He paused disconcertedly in his wrath.
He knew Lablache well. He laughed cynically. "That's more like you," he said roughly. "One moment," said the money-lender; the smile vanished from his lips. "Fair play's good medicine. We'll wipe out your debts if you'll tell your niece that you want her to marry me." "I'll I'll " "Hold on, John," with upraised hand, as the old man purpled with rage and started to shout.
The half-breed promptly dictated, and the other wrote. The compulsion was exasperating, and the great man scrawled with all the pettishness of a child. The message read "Retief is here. I am a prisoner. Follow up with all speed." "Now sign," said the Breed, when the message was written. Lablache signed and flung down the pen. "What's that for?" he demanded huskily. "For?" His captor shrugged.
There was a moment's silence in that rough homely little kitchen. The expression of the faces of those around the board indexed a general thought. Lablache, if it were he, would not receive the cordial welcome which had been meted out to the others. Norton broke the silence. "Dang it! That's what I ses, dang it! You'll pardon me, ladies, but my feelings get the better of me at times.
Then he breathed a great sigh, and his face wore a look of satisfaction. There could be no doubt as to the tenor of his thoughts. Money, money. It was as life to him. The distant rattle of the spring lock of the store front door being snapped-to disturbed the quiet of the office. Lablache heard the sound. Then followed the bolting of the door. The money-lender turned again to his figures.
Lablache dubiously eyed the deck chair, then selected one of the unyielding Windsor chairs as more safe for the burden of his precious body, tested it, and sat down, emitting a gasp of breath like an escape of steam from a safety-valve. The younger man propped himself on the corner of his desk. Lablache looked furtively into his companion's face.
It has been frankly conceded even among the members of his own profession, where envy, calumny, and invidious sneers so often belittle the judgment, that Lablache never performed a character which he did not make more difficult for those that came after him, by elevating its ideal and grasping new possibilities in its conception.
'I'm perfectly miserable! he concluded, with a strong emphasis on the 'miserable. 'What's the matter? asked Jack, who was half-asleep himself. 'Oh, that Mister Something! he'll be the death of me! observed his lordship. 'I thought so, replied Jack; 'what's the chap been after now? 'I dreamt he'd killed old Lablache best hound I have, replied his lordship. 'He be , grunted Jack.
"It's as well." "Yes." "I go to join the boys," the half-breed said slowly. "And you?" "I oh, I go to settle a last account with Lablache," replied Bill, with a mirthless laugh. "Where?" Bill looked sharply at the man. He understood the native distrust of the Breed. Then he nodded vaguely in the direction of the Foss River Ranch. "Yonder. In old John's fifty-acre pasture.
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