"I ain't. I only thought you might be interested in knowin' that she and Bill are thick again, like they used to be. Thicker, you might say."
Jack Murray's thin lips became thinner. "Skinny Shindle told me somethin' about him switching to Hazel Walton."
"Don't you believe it," blattered the district attorney, continuing to rapidly pump the bellows on the fire of Jack Murray's hatred. "Hazel Walton was only a passing fancy. Sally Jane is the girl for him, you can gamble on it. Tough luck, Jack. I'll bet you'd have stood better than a fighting chance with her if she hadn't listened to his lies."
"He'll never have her!" snarled Jack Murray, wagging a vicious head. "By Gawd, he won't!"
"I guess she thinks he will—when this muss is cleared up," said the district attorney, with admirably simulated carelessness. "Hazel—I mean Sally Jane——"
"Yeah, Hazel! I'd say Hazel, I would. I should think her name would stick in your craw!"
"Well, never mind about that. I fixed it once to turn her loose, but here this Jonesy comes squallin' for her scalp to-night, and I had to promise to have her arrested to-morrow. What else could I do?"
"Just as if you wanted it any other way! Why, I'll bet you even fixed it with Jonesy to raise a roar so that you'd get this second chance at her. What did that li'l girl ever do to you? Not that I give a damn—just between friends."
"She cost me some money, if you want to know," snarled the district attorney, who saw red every time he thought of the two thousand dollars he had been taxed by Billy Wingo for Hazel's benefit. "And anybody that costs me money will pay for what they get. Look here," he added with an abrupt change of subject, "how did you find out Bill was still in this county?"
Jack Murray gripped the district attorney's wrist. "Do you know where he is?"