“Hello, Blacarda!” he said effusively, “Hear you’ve been laid up. Too bad! What was it that knocked you out?”
“Nothing that deserves mention from any honest man,” retorted Blacarda, his voice trembling with rage and an irresistible fear.
“As bad as that?” cried Conover, with pleasant badinage, “Be careful to keep out of its way in the future, then, son. These things that don’t ‘deserve mention’ are sometimes apt to be dangerous. ’Specially when you get a second attack of ’em. Hey?”
The words, blatantly meaningless to all save Caine and the man Caleb addressed, deprived Blacarda of speech. The injured guest had an insane impulse to run away. The coarse joviality of his conqueror seemed more fraught with menace than an open threat would have been. The situation was saved by the arrival of Reuben Standish. The banker after a word of recognition to Blacarda, greeted Caleb with a warmth that sent ice to Letty’s heart. Not knowing that her father, like Caine, was also gleaning in the Conover field (and with a profit that bade fair to rehabilitate the crumbling Standish fortune), the girl read in his cordiality only the news that another had fallen under the master sway of the Fighter’s will.
In the confusion of several guests’ simultaneous departure Letty found a chance to slip away to her own room. Nor did she reappear until the sound of a loud “Goodnight!” and the crunch of heavy feet upon the walk told her that Conover had at last gone. On the veranda she found Caine waiting in hope of another glimpse of her.
“What was the matter?” he asked, solicitously, “Why did you run away from us all? Conover waited a long time, hoping you’d come back. At last I told him you had a sick headache. Then—”
“It happened to be true,” she answered brokenly. “Oh, Amzi, I’m so miserable! Why did that man come here? I’ve left word I’m never at home to him.”
“Be nice to him for my sake, won’t you, darling?” pleaded Caine, “I can’t explain. But I—need him very much just now. I can’t afford, for business reasons, to have him offended.”
“But if you only knew—!” she cried; then stopped.
“Knew what? Tell me,” he begged, “Is anything troubling you?”