But Ryan, who wanted something much better than that, sprang around the bar like lightning, and caught Hackley roughly by the shoulder, at the door.
"What, here in the square!" he hissed sharply. "With the po-lice in sight a'most! Why, you fool, it'll mean the pen for you as sure as your name's Jim Hackley!"
Hackley paused, his resolution unsettled by the other's superior knowledge of the law.
"No, no, Jim—it won't do," went on Ryan with bland decisiveness. "What you want is the two of them together, hey?—on a nice dark stretch o' road, and old Orrick and a few good fellows along to help. You ain't the only one that's got it in for Stanhope, are you? An' you want Maginnis too, I guess? Come on in the orfice and talk about it over a seegar."
CHAPTER XV
IN WHICH VARNEY DOES NOT PAY A VISIT, BUT RECEIVES ONE
Coligny Smith had told the truth. Peter Maginnis had bought the Gazette, and the Cyprianl's troubles, from this source at any rate, were at an end.
Varney found the new proprietor at the hotel, completing a hurried supper, and Peter hailed him with astonishment and delight. All afternoon he had been bursting with his great news, eager to get word of it to Varney on the yacht. But there had been no trustworthy messenger to send; his own time had been rilled to overflowing, with contracts, bills of sale and deeds; and, besides, his certain knowledge that everything was all right made it seem a minor matter that Varney should know it too.
"But what the deuce," he exclaimed at once, "brings you at this hour to the Palace Hotel and Restaurant?"
"I, too," quoted Varney, "have not been idle."