“You fool, you muddle-headed blunderer!” he exclaimed, with a string of oaths. “Take these cuffs off! You’ll lose your job for this trick. When I see Sorenson–––”
“When you see him, you’ll see him; and that will be inside a cell,” was the cool rejoinder. “I didn’t know you were a dynamiter and would-be murderer until to-night, but I watched you at work and saw you shoot twice at Weir.”
“You’ll unlock these, I say, here and now!” And the raging voice went off in a further stream of biting curses. “Look at me; I’m Burkhardt. You’re crazy to talk of throwing me in jail, with my influence and–––”
“Your influence be damned,” was the imperturbable answer. “You’ll have a long time in a penitentiary to see how much influence you have, if you don’t swing first.”
Burkhardt struggled fiercely for a moment against the steel bands about his wrists and the men who held him.
“No crook like this Weir shall ever send me behind bars, or any other man put me there. Wait till Sorenson and Vorse and Judge Gordon learn what you’re trying! Wait till they find out you’ve double-crossed us for this engineer! Wait till Gordon turns me loose with a habeas corpus, you’ll sweat blood for this night’s work, Madden!”
The sheriff shook out the red handkerchief with which he expected to bind the prisoner’s mouth.
“I’ll wait for a long time if I wait for Gordon to issue the writ,” he remarked. “Seeing that he’s dead.”
“Dead! You’re a liar, you sneaking cur; you can’t bluff me. And when I’m loose, if I don’t fill you full of lead it will be because–––”