The Just and the Unjust Part 40

Although the handy-man's first impulse had been that of revolt, he now followed the gambler meekly back across the Square. They entered the building at the corner of Main Street and mounted to Mr. Gilmore's rooms. The latter silently unlocked the door and motioned Montgomery to precede him into the apartment, then he followed, pausing midway of the room to turn up the gas which was burning low. Next he divested himself of his hat and coat, and going to a buffet which stood between the two heavily curtained windows that overlooked the Square, found a decanter and gla.s.ses. These he brought to the center-table, where he leisurely poured his unwilling guest a drink.

"Here, you old sot, soak this up!" he said genially.

"Boss, I want to go home to my old woman!" began the handy-man, after he had emptied his gla.s.s.

"Your old woman will keep!" retorted Gilmore shortly.

"But, boss, I got to go to her; the judge says I must! She's been there to see him; d.a.m.n it, she cried and hollered and took on awful because she ain't seein' me; it was pitiful!"

"What's that?" demanded Gilmore sharply.

"It was pitiful!" repeated Montgomery, shaking his great head dolorously.

"Oh, cut that! Who have you seen?"

"Judge Langham."

"When did you see him?"

Mr. Gilmore spoke with a forced calm.

"To-night. My old woman--"

"Oh, to h.e.l.l with your old woman!" shouted the gambler furiously. "Do you mean that you were at Judge Langham's to-night?"

"Yes, boss; he sent for me, see? I had to go!" explained Montgomery.

"Why did you go there without letting me know, you drunken loafer?"

stormed Gilmore.

He took the handy-man by the arm and pushed him into a chair, then he stood above him, black-browed and menacing.

"Boss, don't you blame me, it was my old woman; she wants me home with the kids and her, and the judge, he says I got to go!"

"If he wants to know why I'm keeping you here, send him round to me!"

said Gilmore.

"All right, I will." And Montgomery staggered to his feet.

But Gilmore pushed him back into his chair.

"What else did you talk about besides your old woman?" asked the gambler, after an oppressive silence in which Montgomery heard only the thump of his heart against his ribs.

"I told him you'd always been like a father to me--" said the handy-man, ready to weep.

"I'm obliged to you for that!" replied Gilmore with a smile of grim humor.

"He said he always knowed it," added Montgomery, misled by the smile.

"Well, what else?" questioned Gilmore.

"Why, I reckon that was about all!" said Joe, who had ventured as far afield into the realms of fancy as his drunken faculties would allow.

"You're sure about that?"

"I hope I may die--"

"And the judge says you're to go home?"

"Say, Shrimp took my old woman there, and she cried and bellered and carried on awful! She loves me, boss--the judge says I'm to go home to her to-night or he'll have me pinched. He says that you and Marsh ain't to keep me here no longer!"

His voice rose into a wail, for blind terror was laying hold of him.

There was something, a look on Gilmore's handsome cruel face, he did not understand but which filled him with miserable foreboding.

"What's that, about Marsh and me keeping you here?" inquired Gilmore.

"You got to leave me loose--"

"So you told him that?"

"I had to tell him somethin'. My old woman made an awful fuss! They had to throw water on her; Shrimp took her home in an express-wagon. h.e.l.l, boss, I'm a married man--I got a family! I know what I ought to do, and I'm goin' home, the judge says I got to! Him and me talked it all over, and he's goin' to speak to Marsh about keepin' me here!"

"So you've told him we keep you here?" And the gambler glowered at him.

He poured himself a drink of whisky and swallowed it at a gulp. "Well, what else did you tell him?" he asked over the rim of his gla.s.s.

"That's about all; only me and the judge understand each other," said the handy-man vaguely.

"Well, it was enough!" rejoined Gilmore. "You are sure you didn't say anything about North?"

Montgomery shook his head in vigorous denial.

"Sure?" repeated Gilmore, his glance intent and piercing. "Sure?"

A sickly pallor was overspreading the handy-man's flame-colored visage.

It began at his heavy puffy jaws, and diffused itself about his cheeks.

He could feel it spread.

"Sure?" said the gambler. "Sure?"

There was an awful pause. Gilmore carefully replaced his gla.s.s on the table, then he roared in a voice of thunder:

"Stand up, you hound!"

Montgomery realized that the consequences of his treachery were to be swift and terrible. He came slowly to his feet, but no sooner had he gained them than Gilmore drove his fist into his face, and he collapsed on his chair.

"Stand up!" roared Gilmore again.

And again Montgomery came erect only to be knocked back into a sitting posture, with a long gash across his jaw where the gambler's diamond ring had left its mark.