Page:The ransom of Red Chief and other O. Henry stories for boys.djvu/339

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A Blackjack Bargainer 315

leave out that 'defend/" said Goree with a loud laugh. "You'll have to defend this title yourself/'

The mountaineer received the amazing screed that the lawyer handed him, folded it with immense labour, and placed it carefully in his pocket.

Goree was standing near the window. " Step here," he said, raising his finger, "and I'll show you your recently purchased enemy. There he goes, down the other side of the street."

The mountaineer crooked his long frame to look through the window in the direction in- dicated by the other. Colonel Abner Col- trane, an erect, portly gentleman of about fifty, wearing the inevitable long, double- breasted frock coat of the Southern lawmaker, and an old high silk hat, was passing on the opposite sidewalk. As Garvey looked, Goree glanced at his face. If there be such a thing as a yellow wolf, here was its counterpart. Garvey snarled as his unhuman eyes followed the moving figure, disclosing long, amber- coloured fangs.

"Is that him? Why, that's the man who sent me to the pen'tentiary once!"

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