“Break o’ day, no wind but garsoline, oil on the heave, and ‘Hard-Times’ went aboard with him wrapped in a shawl. And he wouldn’t let me come on to see the tchock, tchock, tchocker.”
The Squire’s suspicions required no further confirmation. He hastened away up the wharf.
“The sneak!” he hissed through set teeth. “The pup!” But he did not refer to Captain Nymphus Bodfish of the “Effort.”
The man that was in his mind was just tying his horse at the post in front of Brickett’s store, and as the Squire approached, hurrying up the road, he shook the dust from his gloves and started leisurely along ahead of him, blandly oblivious of the other, to all appearances.
“Good-morning, Bradish,” said the lawyer, curtly, as he came up behind him. He slackened his pace for a moment. Then he set his lips as though to hold back something that he had intended to say, and hastened past.
“Business seems to be rushing with you this morning,” observed Bradish, with his tantalising drawl. The Squire walked on.
“I say, Look!” The man’s tone was insolent. The lawyer’s evident anxiety to avoid him spurred his bravado. “You’ve put your nose into my affairs this time so far that you can’t pull it out by dodging me.” The Squire held up and the man came close to him. “What do you mean, Bradish?”
“I mean that the other evening you made me the laughing-stock of the gossips of this town by stepping in between me and the lady I was escorting. You have compromised her, and now her father——”
“Look here, my fellow,” roared the lawyer, “my family isn’t a very patient one, and you have got to about your limit with me. I never intended to pass another word with you, for it’s getting to be dangerous for both of us. But when you talk of my companionship, compromising any lady, I’m going to put you before your own eyes as just what you are in a community. You’re a low-lived, dirty hound that this very morning has stolen another man’s wife and sent her away by Bodfish’s underground railroad, as you’ve done once before if the truth were known.” Bradish’s face was purple with rage, but he looked the Squire straight in the eye.
“So you’ve become a lunatic along with your other qualifications! Now tell me what you mean or I’ll post you for a blackmailer.”