At this the brow of the hotel keeper darkened.
“Who then will pay your bill?” he asked sharply.
“My bill?”
“Yes, señor. I am a poor man, for the hotel business is not very good this year. I cannot afford to lose what is coming to me.”
“You’ll have to lose it!” cried Hockley, angrily. “I’ve been duped, don’t you understand? Cleaned out. How can I pay you?”
“But you are with another party, at the big hotel. They told me up there of it.”
“That’s true, but I’m not going to pay Markel’s bill, I can tell you that,” snorted Hockley.
“If you do not pay I shall tell the police it is a scheme to cheat me out of my money,” was the sullen answer. “You have some baggage, that bag, I shall hold it until I am paid. You shall not remove it.”
“You have some baggage in that bag. I shall hold it.”