“Oh, Tom!”
“Yes, Matty, I can keep my temper, and he cannot keep his. He has one advantage over most knaves, that he is not only a knave of the first water, but he is sometimes a fool, too. If it were only decent and right to take him into Downing’s saloon, and give him just one more glass of whiskey than the blackguard would care to pay for, I could get at his whole story.”
“But, Tom, I thought you were so sure the Navy had the papers!”
“Well! well!” said Tom, a little annoyed, as eager people are when other eager people remember their words against them. “I was sure—I was wholly sure—till I left Eben Ricketts. But after that—well, of course, we ought to pull every string.”
“Tom!” This with a terrible gulp.
“Tom, you don’t think I ought to speak with him!”
“Matty!”
“Why, Tom, yes; if he does know—if he is holding this up in terror, Tom, I could make him do what I chose once, Tom. You don’t think I ought to try?”
“Matty, if you ever speak to that snake again, I will thrash him within an inch of his life, and I will never say a word to you as long as you live.”
“That’s my dear Tom!” And, hidden as they were, and crying as she was under her veil, she flung her arms around him and kissed him.