“Hold on,” Gladwin checked him. “Wait a minute. Don’t unpack it. Leave it in the hall. I may want it at a minute’s notice.”
“Ees, sair,” and the wondering valet steamed out into the hallway and vanished.
“What are you going to do now?” asked Barnes, lighting a cigarette and offering one to his friend.
Gladwin took a turn about the room, puffing nervously at the cigarette. Coming to a sudden stop he faced Barnes and reeled off in a quick volley:
“I’m going to marry that girl! I’ve been all over the world, seen all kinds of ’em, and right here in my own house I find the one––the only one, on the verge of eloping with a bogus me. But I’m going to expose that man whoever he is––I’m going to rescue her from him.”
“For yourself?”
“Yes, for myself, and I’m going to put him where he can never annoy her any more.”
“How the deuce are you going to do all this?” asked Barnes, planking himself down into a chair.
“I don’t know,” said the other, “but I’m going to move the whole Western Hemisphere to do it, if necessary.”