"Harbert has a purpose in coming here, Elias. We must prepare for him."
"We are as well prepared as we can expect to be. I guess it means that we'll have to get out of Chicago."
"Curse him!" snarled Bansemer. "I don't care a rap about myself; but it will be all up with Graydon if anything--er--unpleasant should happen to me," said Bansemer, with a wistful glance at his glass. Then, in subdued tones, he told of the meeting with Harbert. Droom agreed that the situation looked unpleasant, and all the more so in view of what Eddie Deever had mentioned in connection with the Marshal's office. He repeated the story as it had come from the babbling, youngster's lips, utterly deceived by the guileless emissary from the office downstairs.
"What do you expect to do?" he asked, studying the tense face of his employer.
"I'm going to stand my ground," said Bansemer, steadily drumming on the table with his stiff fingers. "They can't prove anything, and the man who makes a charge against me will have to substantiate it. I'll not run a step."
"Then," said Droom, coarsely, "you must let Mrs. Cable alone. She is your danger signal. I tell you, Mr. Bansemer, she'll fight if you drive her into a corner. She's not a true aristocrat. She comes of a class that doesn't give up."
"Bah! She's like the rest. If Harbert doesn't get in his nasty work, she'll give in like all the others."
"I thought you said you'd do nothing to mai" the happiness of Graydon," sneered Droom.
"I don't intend to, you old fool. This affair is between Mrs. Cable and me. If she wins, I'll give up. But, understand me, I'm perfectly capable of knowing just when I'm beaten."
"I only know your financial valour," said Elias drily.
"That's all you're expected to know, sir."
"Then, we won't quarrel about it," said the other with his sweetest grin.
"Umph! Well, pleasantries aside, we must look ourselves over carefully before we see our New York friend. He must not find us with unclean linen. Elias, I'm worried, I'll confess, but I'm not afraid. Is there anything that we have bungled?"
"I have always been afraid of the chorus-girl business. I don't like chorus girls." Bansemer, at another time, would have smiled.
It was past midnight when the two left the stall and started in separate ways for their North Side homes. The master felt more secure than when he left the home of David Cable earlier in the night. Elias Droom said at parting: "I don't like your attitude toward Mrs. C. It's not very manly to make war on a woman."