“You missed me?”

“Yes.”

“You were worried?”

“No.”

He felt himself put quietly at a distance.  So he took her up the hill to her new home—­the shack beside his own; and George cooked her breakfast.  When she had been served, Donnegan drew the big man to one side.

“She’s your mistress,” said Donnegan.  “Everything you do for her is worth two things you do for me.  Watch her as if she were in your eye.  And if a hair of her head is ever harmed—­you see that fire burning yonder—­the bed of coals?”

“Sir?”

“I’ll catch you and make a fire like that and feed you into it—­by inches!”

And the pale face of Donnegan became for an instant the face of a demon. 
George Washington Green saw, and never forgot.

Afterward, in order that he might think, Donnegan got on one of the horses he had taken from Godwin and rode over the hills.  They were both leggy chestnuts, with surprising signs of blood’ and all the earmarks of sprinters; but in Godwin’s trade sharp getaways were probably often necessary.  The pleasure he took in the action of the animal kept him from getting into his problem.

How to startle The Corner?  How follow up the opening gun which he had fired at the expense of Gloster and the three miners?

He broke off, later in the day, to write a letter to Colonel Macon, informing him that Jack Landis was tied hard and fast by Nelly Lebrun and that for the present nothing could be done except wait, unless the colonel had suggestions to offer.

The thought of the colonel, however, stimulated Donnegan.  And before midafternoon he had thought of a thing to do.

17

The bar in Milligan’s was not nearly so pretentious an affair as the bar in Lebrun’s, but it was of a far higher class.  Milligan had even managed to bring in a few bottles of wine, and he had dispensed cheap claret at two dollars a glass when the miners wished to celebrate a rare occasion.  There were complaints, not of the taste, but of the lack of strength.  So Milligan fortified his liquor with pure alcohol and after that the claret went like a sweet song in The Corner.  Among other things, he sold mint juleps; and it was the memory of the big sign proclaiming this fact that furnished Donnegan with his idea.

He had George Washington Green put on his town clothes—­a riding suit in which Godwin had had him dress for the sake of formal occasions.  Resplendent in black boots, yellow riding breeches, and blue silk shirt, the big man came before Donnegan for instructions.

“Go down to Milligan’s,” said the master.  “They don’t allow colored people to enter the door, but you go to the door and start for the bar.  They won’t let you go very far.  When they stop you, tell them you come from Donnegan and that you have to get me some mint for a julep.  Insist.  The bouncer will start to throw you out.”

George showed his teeth.