“Why, if you refuse, I shall at once charge you with this abduction. My right to take Gerald Saxton is another matter. I may or may not go into that. The claim against you is enough. Come, boy――for you are a boy and I a man, prepared to hold his ground against a hundred like you! You shall be in irons in half an hour if you try to play the hero here. Remember, I know you.”
“And you will actually dare to bring such a charge against me here, and at this time of night?” cried Philip, vehemently. “And you believe you can fight the plain story that Gerald and I can tell? Do your worst! I’m not afraid to face it. In irons? That is talk out of a dime-novel, Mr. Belmont.”
The boy was unnerved and terribly perplexed; but he was more sure than ever that his enemy’s scheme was hollow, even if he could not tell how far Belmont would support it.
Belmont was beginning to lose his temper because Philip so stood out against any thing like buncombe. His voice became suddenly so hoarse with passion that it was hard to believe that it came from the smooth-talking “Mr. Hilliard” of the express-train.
“You young rascal!” he exclaimed, above the sound of the fog-whistle, “what a fool you are making of yourself! One would think you actually were all that you have been pretending. Did Saxton commission you? How? When? Or did Marcy? Did you ever see Saxton? Do you know any thing about Saxton, except from this boy, or the hotel people? Have you so much as a single letter in your pocket to bear you out?”
This unlucky lack already had occurred to Philip. He had allowed his foe artfully to destroy the letter that indirectly might have helped him. Still, there would be the telegraph and the mail, if necessary, before long.
“Why, I’ll knock your Saxton or Marcy rigmarole higher than a kite. I know what I am about. O, you are cool, Touchtone, but I am more than your master in this business, and I have right on my side all through.”
Right on his side? After all, how little did Philip know of the history of these Saxtons. But he reminded himself once more of the simple statements of Mr. Marcy and of Gerald, and of the cleverness of Belmont in acting a part. Besides, had the latter not betrayed himself with that promise to make Philip’s yielding “worth his while?”