“Take a smoke. Miss Harding does not mind!” he said.
Appleby made excuses, but Harper laid the cigars the landlord had supplied them with on the table.
“You’ll try one of these,” he said. “I think they’re good.”
Harding lighted a cigar, and then it seemed to Appleby that a change came over his attitude, though he also fancied that Miss Harding had expected it.
“They are,” he said. “You got them cheap?”
There was no mistaking the significance of his tone, and Appleby straightened himself a trifle. Still, he felt he could not well rebuke the man whose dinner he had just eaten.
“Isn’t that a little beyond the question, sir?” he asked quietly.
“I don’t quite know that it is. I’m going to talk now, and it may save time and worry if I put it straight. What’s the matter with the Sin Verguenza?”
“Busted!” said Harper. “Smashed up a company of cazadores, and lit out. Nobody’s going to worry over them.”
“Which is why you are here?”