!" said Van Loo, endeavoring to pass.

But Jack's hand had slipped to Van Loo's wrist, although he still
smiled cheerfully. "Ah! Then you DID mean it, and you propose to give me
satisfaction?"

Van Loo paled slightly; he knew Jack's reputation as a duelist. But
he was desperate. "You see my position," he said hurriedly. "I'm in a
hurry; I have a lady with me. No man of honor"--

"You do me wrong," interrupted Jack, with a pained expression,--"you do,
indeed. You are in a hurry--well, I have plenty of time. If you cannot
attend to me now, why I will be glad to accompany you and the lady
to the next station. Of course," he added, with a smile, "at a proper
distance, and without interfering with the lady, whom I am pleased
to recognize as the wife of an old friend. It would be more sociable,
perhaps, if we had some general conversation on the road; it would
prevent her being alarmed. I might even be of some use to YOU. If we are
overtaken by her husband on the road, for instance, I should certainly
claim the right to have the first shot at you. Boy!" he called to the
hostler, "just sponge out Pancho's mouth, will you, to be ready when the
buggy goes?" And, loosening his grip of Van Loo's wrist, he turned away
as the other quickly entered the hotel.

But Mr. Van Loo did not immediately seek Mrs. Barker. He had already
some experience of that lady's nerves and irascibility on the drive, and
had begun to see his error in taking so dangerous an impediment to
his flight from the country. And another idea had come to him. He
had already effected his purpose of compromising her with him in that
flight, but it was still known only to few. If he left her behind for
the foolish, doting husband, would not that devoted man take her back
to avoid a scandal, and even forbear to pursue HIM for his financial
irregularities? What were twenty thousand dollars of Mrs. Barker's money
to the scandal of Mrs. Barker's elopement? Again, the failure to realize
the forgery had left him safe, and Barker was sufficiently potent with
the bank and Demorest to hush up that also. Hamlin was now the only
obstacle to his flight; but even he would scarcely pursue HIM if Mrs.
Barker were left behind. And it would be easier to elude him if he did.

In his preoccupation Van Loo did not see that he had entered the
bar-room, but, finding himself there, he moved towards the bar; a glass
of spirits would revive him. As he drank it he saw that the room was
ful