“I’ll not repeat what he says,” announced Mrs. Reed. “I will–not–repeat–it!”
They turned to the officer, who wore his tarnished badge–evidently bought after long service in a pawn-shop at Cheyenne–pinned to his suspender at a point where he could turn his eye down on it whenever the longing, or a desire to feed upon the pride of his official importance, overcame him.
“I was tellin’ her that the chief sent me over to say that your friend, the doctor, was seen last night at 131 half-past two in the mornin’, jagged up so tight he took two steps back’ards for every one he went ahead. The chief told me to tell you he was layin’ under a tent somewhere, and that he’d be as safe as a calf in a barn. I hope that’s what you wanted to know.”
The policeman turned and went his dusty way after delivering his message from the chief, the wagon-spoke which he carried at the end of a thong twirling at his wrist.
Walker looked around with a little flash of triumph in his eyes, for a man likes to be vindicated in his opinion, even at the expense of his friends’ honor. But the gust of pain and disappointment which he saw sweep over Agnes’ face set him back with a sudden wrench.
“Say,” said he with an assumption of indignation which he did not altogether feel, “I don’t believe that!”
“Nor I,” declared Bentley, with no need of assuming a part to say it. “I heard a man describing a crook the other day. He said the fellow was so crooked that if you were to shoot him in the top of the head the bullet would make seven holes in his body before it hit the ground. That’s the kind of a man that chief is.”
“Well, it’s scandalous!” declared Mrs. Reed. “Even it he comes back, his conduct is simply disgusting, and I’ll never permit him to address a word to my daughter again!” 132
Agnes had drawn a little apart from them. She had no heart to come to Dr. Slavens’ defense, although she knew that the charge was calumnious. But it furnished her a sudden and new train of thought. What interest had the chief of police in circulating such a report? Was the motive for Dr. Slavens’ disappearance behind that insidious attempt to discredit him, and fasten a character upon him wholly foreign to his own?
It was a matter worth looking into. Had Dr. Slavens incurred, somehow, the disfavor of the vicious element which was the backbone of the place? And had he paid the penalty of such temerity, perhaps with his life?