Ned Chandler looked toward the place indicated by his friend and, sure enough, he saw Huntley and Barker approaching.
“Take care,” said Ned, warningly, but with his blue eyes snapping. “Don’t get yourself hurt. But if they crowd trouble on you, don’t step back. Give them all they want.”
If Walter Jordan expected Colonel Huntley to open hostilities when he approached, he merely showed that he did not know the methods of that gentleman. As a matter of fact, Huntley did not appear to notice either of the two young fellows; Barker, however, gave Walter a lowering sidelong look as he took a vacant chair near the one newly occupied by the colonel.
“Well, Huntley,” said one of those near by, “it’s rather a surprise to see you on board.”
“I didn’t expect to be, up to a very few days ago,” said the colonel. He placed his feet, with insolent deliberation, upon the small table upon which young Jordan was leaning, and began to slap at his boot leg with the light stick which he carried. “A thing came up which I had to attend to in a hurry.”
“I see,” said the other. “Going down to New Orleans, I suppose?”
“No,” replied Colonel Huntley, “I’m going to Texas.”
The cold eyes of the man, as he said this, fixed themselves upon Walter; the sneer was once more upon his lips. The young fellow regarded him with no trace of the hot anger of a short time before; nevertheless there was that in his manner which said as plainly as words that he was no more inclined to accept an affront then than he had been before.
“Go on,” said the steady, watchful eyes. “I’ll say nothing if I’m not pushed to it. But, you know, there’s a line which you must not cross.”
The man whom Huntley addressed looked amazed at his statement.