“I’ve got warrants for both of you and I’m tempted to take you in, but I won’t.  I’m not through yet—­not by any means.  I’ll get you—­ get you both.”  He turned out of the door, followed by the marshal, who called off his guards, and the group filed back along the walk.

“Say, you’re a jewel, Cherry.  You’ve saved us twice.  You caught Voorhees just in time.  My heart hit my palate when he looked into that stove, but the next instant I wanted to laugh at Dextry’s expression.”

Impulsively Glenister laid his hands upon her shoulders.  At his look and touch her throat swelled, her bosom heaved, and the silken lids fluttered until she seemed choked by a very flood of sweet womanliness.  She blushed like a little maid and laughed a timid, broken laugh; then pulling herself together, the merry, careless tone came into her voice and her cheeks grew cool and clear.

“You wouldn’t trust me at first, eh?  Some day you’ll find that your old friends are the best, after all.”

And as she left them she added, mockingly: 

“Say, you’re a pair of ‘shine’ desperadoes.  You need a governess.”

CHAPTER XI

WHEREIN A WRIT AND A RIOT FAIL

A Raw, gray day with a driving drizzle from seaward and a leaden rack of clouds drifting low matched the sullen, fitful mood of Glenister.

During the last month he had chafed and fretted like an animal in leash for word of Wheaton.  This uncertainty, this impotent waiting with folded hands, was maddening to one of his spirit.  He could apply himself to no fixed duty, for the sense of his wrong preyed on him fiercely, and he found himself haunting the vicinity of the Midas, gazing at it from afar, grasping hungrily for such scraps of news as chanced to reach him.  McNamara allowed access to none but his minions, so the partners knew but vaguely of what happened on their property, even though, under fiction of law, it was being worked for their protection.

No steps regarding a speedy hearing of the case were allowed, and the collusion between Judge Stillman and the receiver had become so generally recognized that there were uneasy mutterings and threats in many quarters.  Yet, although the politician had by now virtually absorbed all the richest properties in the district and worked them through his hirelings, the people of Nome as a whole did not grasp the full turpitude of the scheme nor the system’s perfect working.

Strange to say, Dextry, the fire-eater, had assumed an Oriental patience quite foreign to his peppery disposition, and spent much of his time in the hills prospecting.

On this day, as the clouds broke, about noon, close down on the angry horizon a drift of smoke appeared, shortly resolving itself into a steamer.  She lay to in the offing, and through his glasses Glenister saw that it was the Roanoke.  As the hours passed and no boat put off, he tried to hire a crew, but the longshoremen spat wisely and shook their heads as they watched the surf.