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Updated: May 8, 2025
He was quick to see the use to which he might put it, and it was only for an instant that he hesitated. Then "Four to one?" he repeated. "Five, if you like!" Payton sneered. "If you will wager," the Colonel said slowly, "if you will wager the grey mare you were riding this morning, sir " Payton uttered an angry oath. "What do you mean?" he said.
"We should be getting him below," Flavia said in an undertone. Payton looked from one to the other. He was in a fog. "Has he been here long?" he asked. "Nearly four days," she replied, with a shiver. "And nothing to eat?" "Nothing." "The devil! And why?" She did not stay to think how much it was wise to tell him. In her repentant mood she was anxious to pour herself out in self-reproach.
Each saw the prize clear before him; each saw the other in the way and wondered how he could best brush him from it. Payton cared for the girl herself, only as a toy that had caught his fancy; but he was sunk in debt, and his mouth watered for her possessions.
James McMurrough had no option but to do so looking foolish; while Luke Asgill stood by with rage in his heart, cursing the evil chance which had brought Flavia downstairs. "I assure you," Payton said, bowing low before her, but not so low that the insolence of his smile was hidden from all, "I think myself happy.
Will you be making as little noise as you can?" Asgill did not answer, but Payton did. "Happy man!" he said. And, being in his cups, he said it in such a tone and with such a look that a deep blush crimsoned the girl's face. Her eyes snapped. "Good-night," she said coldly. Asgill continued to keep silence. Unfortunately Payton did not. "Wish I'd such a guardian!" he said with a chuckle.
While Asgill reflected that if he could find Payton alone on a dark night it would not be his small-sword would help him or his four troopers would find him! But it must not be at Morristown. Each owned, with reluctance, that the other had advantages. Asgill was Irish, and known to Flavia, and had come to be favoured by her.
Meanwhile the O'Beirnes and their fellows grinned their open-mouthed admiration of the bear-tamer; and by-and-by, concluding the fun was at an end, they went out one by one, until the two men were left together. They sat some way apart, Payton brooding savagely, with his eyes on the table, Asgill toying with the things before him and from time to time glancing at the other.
"And if I did " she continued, with a glance at Payton that reminded the unhappy McMurrough that, with the secret known, the key was no longer of use "if I did, how would it serve you?" The McMurrough turned his rage upon the intruder. "Devil take you, what business will it be of yours?" he cried. "Who are you to come between us, eh?" Payton bowed.
"I believe," Colonel John said, gazing solemnly at him, "that we shall meet again." And he went out. Payton turned to the table, and, with an unsteady hand, filled a glass. He read disapprobation in the eyes about him, but he had shaken the momentary chill from his own spirits, and he stared them down. "Sink the old Square-Toes!" he cried. "He got what he deserved! Who'll throw a main with me?"
At the other extreme there were apparently no slaves on the plantation above sixty years old except Randal, a stone mason, who in spite of his sixty-six years was valued at $300, and the following who had no appraisable value: Old Jim the shepherd, Old Maria the dairy maid, and perhaps two of the spinners. The highest appraisal, $800, was given to Payton, an ox driver, twenty-eight years old.
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