"What do you want to go to Hunter's for?" he asked bluntly. "You and he haven't had any dealings since he beat you out of the creamery."
Thorne watched Nevis closely, and imagined that the ominous look in his face grew plainer still.
"Well," he said, with a jarring laugh, "Mrs. Hunter is a customer of mine."
There was a murmur of astonishment and the men gathered round the speaker, evidently in the expectation of hearing something more.
"Is that a cold fact?" one of them inquired.
"Certainly," answered Nevis; and Thorne joined the group.
"Even if it is, this isn't the place to discuss it!" he broke in. "Perhaps I'd better mention that if Hunter isn't in town already he will be very soon."
Nevis looked around at him, and Thorne fancied that the man, who was evidently filled with savage resentment, intended, with some vindictive purpose, to take the gathering group of bystanders into his confidence. Several more men were ascending the steps.
"Have you any reason to doubt what I'm saying?" he asked.
"Well," drawled Thorne, "there's your general character, for one thing."
Some of the others laughed, but it occurred to Thorne that his interference had not been particularly tactful when one of them asked a question.
"Are you telling us that Hunter, who has plenty of money, lets his wife go borrowing from people like you?"
"I can't say that he lets her," Nevis retorted meaningly. "I've the best of reasons, however, for being certain that she does so."
There was an awkward silence, which indicated that all who had heard it grasped the full significance of the last statement. Nevis smiled as he glanced round at them.
"You mean he doesn't know anything about it?" somebody exclaimed.
"If you insist, that's about the size of it," Nevis answered. "Since her husband cuts down her allowance to the last dollar, it's not an altogether unnatural thing that Mrs. Hunter should borrow from her friends without mentioning it to him."
The speech was offensive on the face of it, but there was in addition something in the man's manner which endued it with a gross suggestiveness. It implied that he could furnish a reason why the woman should have no hesitation in borrowing from him. Thorne stood still fuming. He recognized that an altercation with Nevis would in all probability only provide the latter with an opportunity for making further undesirable insinuations.