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"I've no time for fooling!" said Van Loo, endeavoring to pass. But Jack's hand had slipped to Van Loo's wrist, although he still smiled cheerfully. "Ah! Then you DID mean it, and you propose to give me satisfaction?" Van Loo paled slightly; he knew Jack's reputation as a duelist. But he was desperate. "You see my position," he said hurriedly. "I'm in a hurry; I have a lady with me.
As for the forged words by Van Loo, and the use he had put them to, he cared little. He believed the man was capable of forgery; indeed, he suddenly remembered that in the old days his son had spoken innocently, but admiringly, of Van Loo's wonderful chirographical powers and his faculty of imitating the writings of others, and how he had even offered to teach him.
Peter had entered the room unobserved and heard the last words. Holding his breath, he gazed down at his darling, his broad shoulders shook, and in a stifled, faltering voice he asked the physician: "Must she die?" "Yes, old friend; I think so! Hold up your head! You have much still left you. All five of Van Loo's children have died of the plague."
There was a certain amount of conviction in what he said. He had never met this kind of creature before. He had surpassed even Hamlin's first intuition of his character. He amused and interested him. But Mr. Hamlin was also a man of the world, and knew that Van Loo's reasoning might be good. He put his hands in his pockets, and said gravely, "What IS your little game?"
She bit her lip as she remembered how for the last three months she had been slowly yielding to Van Loo's cautious but insinuating solicitation, from a flirtation in the San Francisco hotel to a clandestine meeting in the street; from a ride in the suburbs to a supper in a fast restaurant after the theatre. Other women did it who were fashionable and rich, as Van Loo had pointed out to her.
It was enough, however, to cause him to lay his hand lightly on Van Loo's arm as the latter, leaping down, was about to follow Mrs. Barker into the hotel. "You'll have time enough now," said Hamlin. "Time for what?" said Van Loo savagely. "Time to apologize for having cut my horse with your whip," said Jack sweetly. "We don't want to quarrel before a woman."
Always wanting to protect chaps that can't look after themselves, whether it's Whiskey Dick there when he has a pull on, or some nigger when he's made a little strike, or that straying lamb of Van Loo's when he's puppy drunk. But you're wrong about me, boys. You can't draw me in any game to-night. This is one of my nights off, which I devote exclusively to contemplation and song.
But the savage was no match for the athletic pastor, who compressed his throat with a grip that soon caused him to relax his hold. "Here, give me your kerchief, Loo," gasped the pastor; "I'll tie his hands." "Why don't you stick him?" asked one of Loo's bridesmaids with great simplicity. "Because I won't take life if I can help it," replied Mr Tucker as he bound the Indian's wrists.
The only thing that appeared to trouble him was Loo's absence and the fear lest she should have been "fussed;" but when Morris declared that neither his wife nor Loo knew what was going on, and Bancroft announced his intention of driving over to fetch her, he seemed to be satisfied. "Jack, I reckon, has had enough," he said to his boarder. "You'd better take the white mare; she's quiet."
Frequently I addressed her with a long face and an air of the profoundest and most distant respect but in vain; she wouldn't even turn up her pretty olive nose. Ah! it's quite plain, thought I; she knows very well what graceless dogs sailors are, and won't have anything to do with us. But thus thought not my comrade. Bent he was upon firing the cold glitter of Loo's passionless eyes.
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