"You swore to me you would never see her again," Jack presently resumed. "Yet an hour ago you were on your way downtown to get a license, weren't you?"
Bobo's hang-dog silence was equal to a confession.
"How did you expect to keep it out of the papers?"
"Do you know what the penalty is for marrying a woman under another man's name?"
"What cock and bull story did she tell you to-day to change you again?"
"She admitted she'd been working for the old man. But when she found out what his game really was she chucked him. Now she's actually in danger of her life from him."
"Not too much danger, I guess," said Jack. "You still intend to marry her?" he asked.
"Lord preserve us!" cried Jack in a kind of helpless exasperation. "I really don't see what there is to do, then, but kick you out!"
"You won't do that," said Bobo sullenly. "You bluffed me just now down at the Bienvenu, but I've been thinking it over. I know you won't do it now."
"You can't afford to. It would spoil all your plans."
This was true, but Jack had not given Bobo credit for the shrewdness to perceive it. He tried a new course.
"Do you still believe that Miriam is marrying you for love alone?"
"I don't care!" said Bobo recklessly. "I'm willing to take her on any terms. What chance has a man like me of winning a woman like her ordinarily? It's gone too far now. I've got to have her. She's in my blood!"
Jack looked at him with a kind of respect. "Well, anyhow you're in earnest. I will give you credit for that. But seriously, what are you going to do afterwards? You don't suppose I'm going to lend you my name and my money for the rest of your life?"
Bobo shook his head. "I know the show-down's got to come some day, perhaps soon. But I'll make a sneak before that comes. At least I'll be happy for awhile."
"Oh, what's a few thousands to you? Anyhow you got me into this."
There was truth in this, and Jack felt certain compunctions. But he was amused at the naïve villainy Bobo proposed.
"I don't grudge you the money," he said smiling. "In a way I sympathize with you, since I see you're really hard hit. But I can't be a party to any such scheme. In the first place as your friend I've got to save you from yourself. You'll get over this, hard as it seems. Secondly, even though she is a crook, she's entitled to be protected from a game like this. Why it wouldn't be a marriage at all!"
