‘You may well ask that,’ replied Blodget, stopping to listen; ‘these are unusual sounds to proceed from this house. Here seems to be more of Mars than Venus.’
As they came to the door it was violently thrown open, and several females ran screaming into the street.
‘Go in there!’ cried one of the girls, recognizing Blodget; ‘for God’s sake go in, or there will be murder done.’
Blodget and Monteagle hastened to the apartment from which the noise proceeded, and there they beheld a table overturned and China ware scattered about the floor, while a stout, middle-aged man, with every appearance of a gentleman, lay on the floor, and another, equally respectable in appearance, was kneeling on his breast, with a revolver in his hand, and aimed at the throat of the prostrate man.
‘What! gentlemen!’ exclaimed Monteagle, ‘forbear!’ and he was proceeding to the relief of the fallen man when Blodget caught him by the arm, and whispered, ‘Let them alone. It is all right. I know them both!’
‘You know them?’ cried Monteagle, struggling to throw off his friend’s firm grasp, ‘but is that any reason that they should murder each other?’
‘That fellow seduced his wife!’ cried Blodget.
‘Promise, villain! promise!’ roared the man with a pistol. ‘Promise, or I finish you on the spot.’
‘Help, I say,’ cried the undermost man, frothing with rage and pale with terror—‘Release me from this madman.’
‘Madman!’ cried he with the pistol. ‘Is it mad that I am when I claim that you shall marry the woman whom you have stolen away from home and happiness. Gentlemen, you see here a villain—a banker of this city—who bloated with pride, and presuming on his wealth, seduced my wife and brought her to this city. I procured a divorce in such a manner that my ruined wife can marry again. I followed her and her paramour to this city, and here I find him rioting in a house of ill fame, while the woman that he has blasted—my late wife—pines in solitude at home, where she is scarcely allowed the necessaries of life. Now, you villain, see if these gentlemen will aid you.’