“Come, Rebstock,” he smiled, calling to the fugitive. “Your breakfast is getting cold.”
The man, turning as red as a beet, looked over the heads of those that sat between him and his tantalizing captor. But putting the best face he could on the dilemma and eying Scott nervously he walked over and, with evident reluctance, made ready to sit down beside him.
“Take your time,” suggested Scott pleasantly. Then, as Rebstock, quite crestfallen, seated himself, 236 he added: “Hadn’t I better order a hot cup of coffee for you?” He took hold of the cup as he spoke, and looked hard at the gambler while making the suggestion.
“No, no,” responded Rebstock, equally polite and equally insistent, as he held his hand over the cup and begged Scott not to mind. “This is all right.”
“How was the walking last night?” asked Scott, passing the fugitive a big plate of bread. Rebstock lifted his eyes from his plate for the briefest kind of a moment.
“The––eh––walking? I don’t know what you mean, captain. I slept here last night.”
Scott looked under the table at his victim’s boots. “John,” he asked without a smile, “do you ever walk in your sleep?”
Rebstock threw down his knife and fork. “Look here, stranger,” he demanded with indignation. “What do you want? Can’t a man eat his breakfast in this place? I ask you,” he demanded, raising his right hand with his knife in it as he appealed to the waiter, “can’t a man 237 eat his breakfast in this place without interruption?”
The waiter, standing with folded arms, regarded the two men without changing his stolid expression. “A man can eat his breakfast in this place without anything on earth except money. If you let your ham get cold because you were going to beat me out of the price, and you try to do it, I’ll drag you out of here by the heels.”
These unsympathetic words attracted the attention of every one and the breakfasters now looked on curiously but no one offered to interfere. Quarrels and disputes were too frequent in that country to make it prudent or desirable ever to intervene in one. A man considered himself lucky not to be embroiled in unpleasantness in spite of his best efforts to keep out. Rebstock turned again on his pursuer. “What do you want, anyhow, stranger?” he demanded fiercely. “A fight, I reckon.”