“So you’re here, after all!” he roared. “Those d––d fools out there tried to give me the wrong steer, but I was wise to ’em. You buffaloed Rockamore, and that senile old idiot, Mallowe, but you can’t bluff me! I came here to see you, and I usually get what I go after!”
“Having seen me, Carlis, will you kindly state your business and go? This promises to be one of my busiest days. What can I do for you?” Blaine leaned back in his chair, with a bland smile of pleased expectancy.
“It ain’t what you can do; it’s what you’re goin’ to do, and no mistake about it!” the other glowered. “You’re goin’ to keep your mouth shut as tight as a trap, and your hands off, from now on! Oh, you know what I mean, right enough. Don’t try to work the surprised gag on me!”
He added the latter with a coarse sneer which further distorted his inflamed visage. Blaine, with an expression of sharp inquiry, had whirled around in his swivel chair to face his excited visitor, and as he did so, his hand, with seeming inadvertence, had for an instant come in contact with the under ledge of his desk-top.
“I’m afraid, much as I desire not to prolong this unexpected interview, that I must ask you to explain just what it is that I must keep my hands off of, as you say. We will go into the wherefore of it later.”
Carlis glanced back of him into the empty hallway, then closed the door and came forward menacingly.
“What’s the good of beating about the bush?” he demanded, in a fierce undertone. “You know d––n’ well what I mean: you’re butting in on the Lawton affair. You’ve bitten off more than you can chew, and you’d better wise yourself up to that, here and now!”
“Just what is the Lawton affair?”
“Oh, stow that bluff! You know too much already, and if I followed my hunch, I’d scrag you now, to play safe. Dead men don’t blab, as a rule––though one may have, last night. I came here to be generous, to give you a last chance. I’ve fought tooth and nail, myself, for my place at the top, and I like a game scrapper, even if he is on the wrong side. You’ve tried to get me for years, but as I knew you couldn’t, I didn’t bother with you, any more than I would with a trained flea, and I bear no malice. D––d if I don’t like you, Blaine!”