“And if I neglected my duties you could always send a man out to shoot me.”
“Ah! That only shows my solicitude to detain you. One couldn’t bear the idea of having you leave our party, and yet one couldn’t in common politeness desert Mr. Gray to follow you. It remained only to send a message via John requesting you to return.”
“Well, he delivered it,” the girl said, dimpling reminiscently.
Halloway smiled. “I’m afraid John is a little abrupt sometimes.”
Her eyes mocked him boldly. “In your profession of highwayman, abruptness, one would think, might sometimes be essential.”
“It was cruel of you to desert us without warning,” he said, ignoring her irony.
“I went to get help.”
“That was good of you, but we did not really need it,” he returned, misunderstanding her promptly. “Though of course we are very glad to have Damron with us.”
“I suppose you know that it will be a criminal offense to keep Mr. Gray here till night as you threaten. You invited him here to a picnic. You have no right to detain him a moment longer than he desires. Your outrageous course is very much against the law, Mr. Halloway,” I said stiffly.
He looked politely interested. “Is it? No, I didn’t know just how illegal it was. Of course I guessed I was skating on thin ice, but the truth is that I didn’t get legal advice. That shows the advantage of having a lawyer along when one goes buccaneering. How much could they give me, Damron?”