I should say not. I have
been slashed at and shot at somewhat promiscuously during the last five
years, but I never permitted such little affairs to interfere with
either business, pleasure, or friendship. If this fellow Murphy, or
whoever the man I am after may prove to be, had contented himself with
endeavoring playfully to carve me, the account would be considered
closed. But this is a duty I owe a friend, a dead friend, to run to
earth this murderer. Do you understand now? The fellow who did that
shooting up at Bethune fifteen years ago had the same sort of a mark on
his right hand as this one who killed Slavin. That's why I'm after
him, and when I catch up he'll either squeal or die. He won't be very
likely to look on the matter as a joke."
"But how do you know?"
"I never told you the whole story, and I don't mean to now until I come
back, and can make everything perfectly clear. It would n't do you any
good the way things stand now, and would only make you uneasy. But if
you do any praying over it, my girl, pray good and hard that I may
discover some means for making that fellow squeal.
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