第33章

"Get out of here!"I cried."Go--go,Tom Dorgan.I'll send every cent I've got to you to Mother Douty's within two hours,but don't you dare--""Don't YOU dare,you she-devil!Just make up your mind to drop these newfangled airs,and mighty quick.I tell you you'll come with me 'cause I need you and I want you,and I want you now.And I'll keep you when once I get you again.We'll hang together.No more o'this one-sided lay-out for me,where you get all the soft and it's me for the hard.You belong to me.Yes,you do.Just think back a bit,Nance Olden,and remember the kind of customer I am.If you've forgot,just let me remind you that what I know would put you behind bars,my lady,and it shall,I swear,if I've got to go to the Chair for it!"Tom!It was Tom talking that way to me.I couldn't bear it.

I made a rush for the door.

He got there,too,and catching me by the shoulder,he lifted his fist.

But it never fell,Mag.I think I could kill a man who struck me.

But just as I shut my eyes and shivered away from him,while Iwaited for the blow,a knock came at the door and Fred Obermuller walked in.

"Eh?Oh!Excuse me.I didn't know there was anybody else.Nance,your face is ghastly.What's up?"he said sharply.

He looked from me to Tom--Tom,standing off there ready to spring on him,to dart past him,to fly out of the window--ready for anything;only waiting to know what the thing was to be.

My senses came back to me then.The sight of Obermuller,with those keen,quick eyes behind his glasses,his strong,square chin,and the whole poise of his head and body that makes men wait to hear what he has to say;the knowledge that that man was my friend,mine--Nancy Olden's--lifted me out of the mud I'd sunk back in,and put my feet again on a level with his.

"Tom,"I said slowly,"Mr.Obermuller is a friend of mine.

No--listen!What we've been talking about is settled.Don't bring it up again.It doesn't interest him and it can't change me;Iswear to you,it can't;nothing can.I'm going to ask Mr.

Obermuller to help you without telling him just what the scrape is,and--and I'm going to be sure that he'll do it just because he--""Because you've taken up with him,have you?"Tom shouted savagely."Because she's your--""Tom!"I cried.

"Tom--oh,yes,now I remember."Obermuller got between us as he spoke."Your friend up--in the country that you went to see and couldn't.Not a very good-looker,your friend,Nance.

But--farming,I suppose,Mr.--Tom?--plays the deuce with one's looks.And another thing it does:it makes a man forget sometimes just how to behave in town.I'll be charmed,Mr.Tom,to oblige a friend of Miss Olden's;but I must insist that he does not talk like a--farmer."He was quite close to Tom when he finished,and Tom was glaring up at him.And,Mag,I didn't know which one I was most afraid for.Don't you look at me that way,Mag Monahan,and don't you dare to guess anything!

"If you think,"growled Tom,"that I'm going to let you get off with the girl,you're mighty--""Now,I've told you not to say that.The reason I'll do the thing she's going to ask of me--if it's what I think it is--is because this girl's a plucky little creature with a soul big enough to lift her out of the muck you probably helped her into.

It's because she's got brains,talent,and a heart.It's because--well,it's because I feel like it,and she deserves a friend.""You don't know what she is."It was a snarl from Tom."You don't--""Oh,yes,I do;you cur!I know what she was,too.And I even know what she will be;but that doesn't concern you.""The hell it don't!"

Obermuller turned his back on him.I was dumb and still.Tom Dorgan had struck me after all.

"What is it you want me to do,Nance?"Obermuller asked.

"Get him away on a steamer--quick,"I murmured--I couldn't look him in the face--"without asking why,or what his name is."He turned to Tom."Well?"

"I won't go--not without her."

"Because you're so fond of her,eh?So fond,your first thought on quitting the--country was to come here to get her in trouble.

If you've been traced--"

"Ah!You wouldn't like that,eh?"sneered Tom."Would you?""Well,I've had my share of it.And she ain't.Still--I .

Just what would it be worth to you to have me out of the way?""Oh,Tom--Tom--"I cried.

But Obermuller got in front of me.

"It would be worth exactly one dollar and seventy-five cents.

I think it will amount to about that for cab-hire.I guess the cars aren't any too safe for you,or it might be less.It may amount to something more before I get you shipped before the mast on the first foreign-bound boat.But what's more important,"he added,bringing his fist down with a mighty thump on the table,"you have just ten seconds to make up your mind.At the end of that time I'll ring for the police."I went down to the boat to see it sail,Mag,at seven this morning.No,not to say good-by to him.He didn't know I was there.It was to say good-by to my old Tommy;the one I loved.

Truly I did love him,Mag,though he never cared for me.No,he didn't.Men don't pull down the women they love;I know that now.

If Tom Dorgan had ever cared for me he wouldn't have made a thief of me.If he'd cared,the last place on earth he'd have come to,when he knew the detectives would be on his track,would have been just the first place he made for.If he'd cared,he--But it's done,Mag.It's all over.Cheap--that's what he is,this Tom Dorgan.Cheaply bad--a cheap bully,cheap-brained.Remember my wishing he'd have been a ventriloquist?Why,that man that tried to sell me to Obermuller hasn't sense enough to be a good scene-shifter.Oh--The firm of Dorgan &Olden is dissolved,Mag.The retiring partner has gone into the theatrical business.As for Dorgan--the real one,poor fellow!jolly,handsome,big Tom Dorgan--he died.

Yes,he died,Maggie,and was buried up there in the prison graveyard.A hard lot for a boy;but it's not the worst thing that can happen to him.He might become a man;such a man as that fellow that sailed away before the mast this morning.