That the two women were as low-bred and disreputable as had been reported to Nick appeared in their utter disregard of his wretched condition, and the malicious satisfaction with which they stared at him, as they might have stared at a caged beast which they had had occasion to fear.
“You’ve got him back to earth, have you?” asked Claudia, with a glance at Badger’s grim face. “Jerry just came and told us, so we thought we’d have a look at him.”
Vic Clayton, however, came and bent above Nick, peering down at his stern features, now white from loss of blood; while her own evil eyes, with the mocking smile that curled her cruel lips, plainly evinced her despicable and malignant nature.
“Well, you’ve got as many lives as a cat, haven’t you?” she demanded, in taunting tones.
Nick returned her evil stare with hardly a change of countenance, yet there was in his lifted eyes an ominous, fiery gleam, from which those who knew him best had learned to shrink with fear.
“I shall live long enough to repay with interest the blows you dealt me, and to land you where you belong?” he sternly rejoined.
“You will, eh?” sneered Vic, with a derisive laugh.
“Without the slightest doubt.”
“Evidently you’ve forgotten what I predicted for you.”
“The predictions of a charlatan are seldom fulfilled.”