At the noise Grimes came hurrying from his office. For a moment he stood astonished, and then he ran and caught Dan by the arm. "I won't have it!" he cried. "If you want to fight you go somewhere else. You—why—why, damme, the man's blind!"
Favoured by the interruption, Blind George crawled a little off, smearing his hand through the blood on his face, breathless and battered, but facing his enemy still, with unabashed malevolence. For a moment Ogle turned angrily on Grimes, but checked himself, and let fall his hands. "Blind?" he snarled. "He'll be dead too, if he don't keep that stick to hisself; that's what he'll be!"
The blind man got on his feet, and backed away, smearing the grisly face as he went. "Ah! hold him back!" he cried, with a double mouthful of oaths. "Hold him hack for his own sake! I ain't done with you, Dan Ogle, not yet! Fight? Ah, I'll fight you—an' fight you level! I mean it! I do! I'll fight you level afore I've done with you! Dead I'll be, will I? Not afore you, an' not afore I've paid you!" So he passed over the bank, threatening fiercely.
"Look here," said Grimes to Ogle, "this ends this business. I've had enough o' you. You find some other lodgings."
"All right," Ogle growled. "I'm going: after to-night."
"I dunno why I was fool enough to let you come," Grimes pursued. "An' when I did, I never said your pals was to come too. I remember that blind chap now; I see him in Blue Gate, an' I don't think much of him. An' there was another chap this morning. Up to no good, none of ye; an' like as not to lose me my job. So I'll find another use for that shed, see?"
"All right," the other sulkily repeated. "I tell ye I'm going: after to-night."