Next he divested himself of his hat and coat, and going to a buffet which stood between the two heavily curtained windows that overlooked the Square, found a decanter and glasses.

These he brought to the center-table, where he leisurely poured his unwilling guest a drink.
"Here, you old sot, soak this up!" he said genially.
"Boss, I want to go home to my old woman!" began the handy-man, after he had emptied his glass.
"Your old woman will keep!" retorted Gilmore shortly.
"But, boss, I got to go to her; the judge says I must! She's been there to see him; damn it, she cried and hollered and took on awful because she ain't seein' me; it was pitiful!" "What's that ?" demanded Gilmore sharply.
"It was pitiful!" repeated Montgomery, shaking his great head dolorously.
"Oh, cut that! Who have you seen ?" "Judge Langham." "When did you see him ?" Mr.Gilmore spoke with a forced calm.
"To-night.

My old woman--" "Oh, to hell with your old woman!" shouted the gambler furiously.

"Do you mean that you were at Judge Langham's to-night ?" "Yes, boss; he sent for me, see?
I had to go!" explained Montgomery.
"Why did you go there without letting me know, you drunken loafer ?" stormed Gilmore.
He took the handy-man by the arm and pushed him into a chair, then he stood above him, black-browed and menacing.
"Boss, don't you blame me, it was my old woman; she wants me home with the kids and her, and the judge, he says I got to go!" "If he wants to know why I'm keeping you here, send him round to me!" said Gilmore.
"All right, I will." And Montgomery staggered to his feet.
But Gilmore pushed him back into his chair.
"What else did you talk about besides your old woman ?" asked the gambler, after an oppressive silence in which Montgomery heard only the thump of his heart against his ribs.
"I told him you'd always been like a father to me--" said the handy-man, ready to weep.
"I'm obliged to you for that!" replied Gilmore with a smile of grim humor.
"He said he always knowed it," added Montgomery, misled by the smile.
"Well, what else ?" questioned Gilmore.
"Why, I reckon that was about all!" said Joe, who had ventured as far afield into the realms of fancy as his drunken faculties would allow.
"You're sure about that ?" "I hope I may die--" "And the judge says you're to go home ?" "Say, Shrimp took my old woman there, and she cried and bellered and carried on awful! She loves me, boss--the judge says I'm to go home to her to-night or he'll have me pinched.

He says that you and Marsh ain't to keep me here no longer!" His voice rose into a wail, for blind terror was laying hold of him.
There was something, a look on Gilmore's handsome cruel face, he did not understand but which filled him with miserable foreboding.
"What's that, about Marsh and me keeping you here ?" inquired Gilmore.
"You got to leave me loose--" "So you told him that ?" "I had to tell him somethin'.