King flushed under the look, but nodded and managed a calm "Yes, Jim."
Summerling cleared his throat and thereafter scratched his head.
"It's irregular. I told Gratton that. But he said there was—was extenuatin' circumstances and all that. Hadn't been time for a licence. It's irregular; don't know as I mightn't get in trouble for it——"
"The marriage would be binding, wouldn't it?" demanded King.
"Sure it would; once I said 'man and wife' nary man could set that aside. But, if any one wanted to get me in bad, seeing there's no licence—well, it would make trouble with my bondsmen and they'd make trouble with me."
King silenced the man with a scowl and led him and Jim into the living-room, closing the door. It was unthinkable that Gloria should hear a lot of talk about why's and how's. For Gloria, it struck him, had undergone enough for one day. "Look here," he said to Summerling then, "either you will or you won't. If you won't, then Miss Gaynor and myself will go elsewhere. Now, which is it?"
"Gratton promised me a hundred dollars," muttered the "judge." "And he cleared out without taking the trouble to pay me."
King's face cleared. His cheque for a hundred dollars decided the "judge."
"That's a might of money to pay the old duffer for one night's work,
Mark," muttered Jim. "Strikes me that way, anyhow."
A might of money! King laughed.