“I have?”

“I want it,” was the other’s immediate reply.

“It was paid me for a debt,” the old man said.

“It was stolen from me first,” Morgan Pell stated, calmly.  “Come across.”  He put one hand out.  The other still held the cloth to his wounded forehead.

“I’ll be cussed if I will!” the invalid cried.  He clapped his hands over his vest pocket, where the money was safely hidden.

“Why, you poor old crook—­” Pell began, rose, and snatched the money from Uncle Henry before anyone knew what he was doing.  All his old fire was back.  He seemed the most alive man in the room.

Uncle Henry cried out, wildly, “Hey, ain’t there no Americans present?” He saw Gilbert’s gun which was on the seat beneath the stairway.  He was close enough to grasp it.  He did so, pointed it at the room in general, and yelled, “Now I got yuh!  Hands up, everybody!”

But no one moved.  A disdainful silence followed.  “Didn’t yuh hear what I said?” Uncle Henry inquired, looking at everybody.

“Put that down,” said Hardy contemptuously.  “You might hurt somebody,” he added, smiling.

“Ain’t yuh goin’ to do it?” Uncle Henry asked.

“As I was going to say—­” Hardy started, when Uncle Henry interrupted him with: 

“But it was what he done!”

“Who?” asked Hardy.

“The bandit,” Uncle Henry answered.

“Will you keep still?” Hardy urged.

“Certainly not!” Uncle Henry went on.  “I got a gun here and I—­”

Hardy reached for the weapon.  “I’m holdin’ you up, gol darn it!” Jasper Hardy took the gun as he would have taken a bag of peanuts from a child, and handed it to Gilbert with a wink.

“Hey!  You can’t do that!” wailed the invalid.  He wheeled his chair toward his nephew.  “You wouldn’t do that if my friend Lopez was here, you big bum!” he ended, as peevish as an infant.

Pell turned upon his wife.  “Well, my dear—­” he began, and once more his lips curled at the irony of the last phrase.

“What!” Lucia said; and there was terror in her voice.

Pell did not mince words.  “Having both the Option and a clearer understanding of each other, there’s nothing to detain us.”  He measured everything he uttered, and watched the effect upon her.

“It’s no use,” Hardy broke in.  “You’re too late.”

“Not if I got there by eight o’clock,” Pell said.

“But you won’t!” Jasper Hardy quickly said, glancing at the clock which ticked on, inexorably.

Pell pulled out his watch.  Then he looked at the option, deliberately, carefully, and seemed to read a final sentence.  Having done so, he tore the piece of paper to bits slowly, and scattered them on the floor at his feet.  At that very instant the clock struck eight.

“It’s eight o’clock!” “Red” exclaimed on the last peal of the bell.

“Eight o’clock!” Hardy cried.  “And the place belongs to me!” He turned to Pell.  “Anything more from you?” he inquired, and smiled.