He nodded, winked impudently and walked away. A thought struck me. I overtook him.
"Where are you staying in Havre?"
He looked at me suspiciously. "What do you want to know for?"
"To save you from being murdered, as you would most certainly be if we chanced upon the same hotel."
"I'm staying at the Phares—the swagger one on the beach near the Casino."
"Excellent," said I. "Go on swaggering. Good-bye."
"Good-bye, old pal," said he.
He tilted his white hat to a rakish angle and marched away.
I rejoined Jaffery and Liosha. He still held her wrists; but she stood unresisting, tense and rigid, with averted head, looking sidewise down. Her lip quivered, her bosom heaved. Jaffery had mastered her fury, but now we had to deal with her shame and humiliation.
"Let her go!" I whispered.