“What the devil do you mean by making such a noise?” he said angrily.
“Pardon, pardon!” said the other humbly, “but I couldn’t find the gas this time, Doc. This is a small room, but things do get away somehow.”
He looked stupidly about with his bleared eyes. The room was small and miserably dirty and uninviting.
“There’s a room,” he said suddenly in a loud, dramatic tone and with a sweep of his arm, “for a man who might er been a bonanza king!”
Essex turned to go.
“If you make any more of this row to-night I’ll see that you’re turned out to-morrow,” he said haughtily.
He wheeled about on the drunkard as he spoke. The man’s sodden face was lit with a flash of malevolent intelligence, to be superseded immediately by a wheedling smile.
“I seen you before to-day,” he said.
“Well, you’ll see me again to-night if you don’t keep quiet, and this time you won’t like it.”
“You was with a lady, a fine-looking lady.”