“Very well.” O’Hagan took up his cane. “The alternative is equally pleasing to me.”
“Look here!” Repton was on his feet again, hands twitching. “I’ve got no chance with you! You’re a bully!——”
“I warn you that I regard those words as a new insult. Indeed, that is the greatest insult of all. Should you term one a bully who sued you for slander?” O’Hagan’s eyes were bright. “Learn, that when you insult a gentleman, the choice of weapons is his! The law is a weapon for those who cannot fight their own battles, not for such as I!”
Ah! what would you have given to have heard him deliver that speech? But you cannot even picture him, head aloft, foot advanced; hear the ringing voice; quail before the flashing eye.
Repton wrote.
“Now, a letter to McIvor, giving him the appointment at the same salary as his predecessor.”
Repton grasped at the desk. The ferrule of O’Hagan’s cane tapped upon the writing-pad.
“At the same salary as his predecessor, Mr. Repton.”
The note was written.
“Ring up all your fellow-directors, or all whom you can,” ordered the Captain, “and tell them of this appointment.”