Langham's face was white and drawn with apprehension, yet he surveyed the ruin the gambler had wrought with something like pity.
"Why, what's happened to him, Andy?" he asked.
His companion laughed brutally.
"Oh, I punched him up some, I couldn't keep my hands off him, I only wonder I didn't kill him—"
"Let me out of this, boss—" whined the handy-man.
"Shut up, you!" said the gambler roughly.
He drew back his hand, but Langham caught his arm.
"Don't do that, Andy!" he said. "He isn't in any shape to stand much more of that; and what's the use, the harm's done!"
The gambler scowled on his cousin Joe with moody resentment.
"All the same I've got a good notion to finish the job!" he said.