“Come, Mary, out with it,” he urged. “You’re concealing something. Let me know what it is.”
“I’m sorry I spoke,” said Mary reluctantly, “I was right when I said that I didn’t know any of them. But one of them spoke to me in town to-day and tried to strike up an acquaintance. Of course, I froze him and got away from him as fast as I could.”
“The hound!” cried Tom furiously. “Which one of them was it? I’ll have his hide!”
“It was the fat, coarse one,” replied Mary. “I don’t know his name.”
“Hankinshaw!” cried Tom. “The low brute! Just wait till I can lay my hands on him!”
“Now, Tom, you must promise me not to do anything rash,” pleaded Mary, laying her hand on his arm. “There’s been no real harm done, and I squelched him so hard that I guess he’ll never annoy me again. It would only give me unpleasant publicity if you attempted to punish him. And then, too, I don’t want anything to be done that may interfere with your business deal.”
“What do you suppose I care for the business deal?” exclaimed Tom. “If that were the only thing concerned, I’d go to him and thrash him within an inch of his life. I disliked the fellow from the minute I saw him, anyway, and if I’d known what I know now I’d have bundled him out of the house neck and heels.”
“I wish I’d held my tongue,” sighed the girl. “But don’t you see, Tom, that if you did anything now it would hurt me more than any one else?”
Tom did see, and reluctantly relinquished his desire to inflict summary punishment on the fellow, though he fumed inwardly and vowed to himself that he would keep a close watch on the cad during the rest of his stay in Shopton.
Suddenly a thought struck him.