CHAPTER XXXV
At the entrance of Joe Ellison instead of the expected Dick, Barney and Old Jimmie had sprung up from the table in amazement. Joe strode past Maggie, hardly heeding his daughter, and faced the two men.
“I guess you know me, Jimmie Carlisle!” said Joe with a terrifying restraint of tone. “The pal I trusted—the pal I turned everything over to—the pal who double-crossed me in every way!”
“Joe Ellison!” gasped Jimmie, suddenly as ghastly as a dead man. “I—I didn't know you were out.”
“I'm out, all right. But I'll probably go in again for what I'm going to do to you! And you there”—turning on Barney—“you're got up enough like a professional dancer to be the Barney Palmer I've heard of!”
“What business is it of yours who I am?” Barney tried to bluster. “Perhaps you won't mind introducing yourself.”
“I'm the man who's going to settle with you and Old Jimmie Carlisle! Is that introduction enough. If not, then I'm Joe Ellison, the father of this girl here you call Maggie Carlisle and Maggie Cameron, that you two have made into a crook.”
“Your daughter!” exclaimed Barney in stupefaction. “Why, she's Jimmie Carlisle's—”
“He's always passed her off as such; that much I've learned. Speak up, Jimmie Carlisle! Whose daughter is this girl you've turned into a crook?”
“Your daughter, Joe,” stammered Old Jimmie. “But about my making her into a crook—you're—you're all wrong there.”