Then Jervais made a lunge toward him, but was held back by two men who were supporting him. His face was distorted into the trembling features of rage, flushed a purple crimson, and from his eyes shot out the fury of unchained hatred. Sargent involuntarily looked away, sickened.
"You damned cripple!—to insult me in the street!" Jervais shouted in his fury. "You can't fight like a man with a man. You'd claim you were not able, I suppose! But I demand satisfaction! I'll have it, too. There's one way to settle this thing—d'you hear? A way to settle this for good!"
"Very well—we'll settle it whenever you wish." Sargent wheeled quickly and walked from the crowd.
Half a block away he found himself suddenly standing before some one who barred the way. When he had felt both his arms in a tight grip, and heard the sound of a familiar, hearty laugh, he looked up and recognized Captain Mentdrop.
For a moment his excitement and surprise kept back a greeting, so that the old Captain's face lost its geniality and the twinkle in his eyes became frank disappointment. "So you've forgotten me, have you?" he said, with an odd little ring in his voice.
"No—no, Captain!" Sargent struggled to force the words. "Of course I have not forgotten you, but I don't want to talk to you here. Can't we get away somewhere?"
The old fellow's keen eyes swept Sargent's face, reading there the signs of the recent struggle.
"What's up, youngster?" He bent a little forward. "What's a troublin' you? Your face is as red as a beet, and you've got a mighty bad glare in your eyes. Come on up to my room here in the Mansion House. I was resting very comfortable-like up there, till I saw some sort of a scuffle going on out here." Then with a quick intuition, he searched Sargent's face again. "It ain't possible you were mixed up in it!"
They went up the tavern steps and altered the Captain's room. When the old fellow had closed the door after them, he turned back to Sargent, who had sunk into a chair near the window, and watched the young fellow, his lips twitching slightly and his eyes crisply twinkling with the humour he was struggling to keep back.
"You weren't mixed up in it, youngster, were you?" he repeated, with his lips twitching again.