"Then, sir, you'll not be suited! I'm going to stay here and see what my enemies are up to; and if they're up to what I think they are, I'll break their backs if I have to do it single-handed and alone! Good-day, sir."
"Good-day, John; that's the way you'll have to do it, sir."
"Devil take him," added the General as he found himself alone, "he's crossed the bar. It's his heart that's safe. O, Fan, my poor child!"
LXVII.
PROBLEM: IS AN UNCONFIRMED DISTRUST NECESSARILY A DEAD ASSET?
John went away heavy and bitter. Yet he remembered, this time, to take more care of his facial expression. He met Shotwell and Proudfit coming out of the best saloon. They stopped him, complimented his clothes and his legs, asked a question or two of genuine interest, poked him in the waistband, and regretted not meeting him sooner. Proudfit suggested, with the proper anathema, to go back and take a re-invigorator with Vice-President March. But the pleasant Shotwell said:
"You forget, Colonel, that ow a-able young friend belongs to Gideon's ba-and, now, seh."
Proudfit made a vague gesture of acknowledgment. "And anyhow"—his tongue thickened and his head waggled playfully—"anyhow, Shot, a ladies' man's just got to keep his breath sweet, ain't he?"
Shotwell looked as though the rolling earth had struck something. March paled, but he took the Captain's cigar to light his own as he remarked: