"Come,
Christine!" He had looked uneasily down the street. "We can't stay
here. If some one should happen to shout from the windows upstairs,
we'd be mixed up in--"
"Say, Jack," said Dick, detaining him an instant, "come to Joey's room
in half an hour. I've got something important to tell you. Good-night,
Miss Christine. Sleep tight."
"Do be careful, Dick," she cried anxiously, over her shoulder.
He laughed jerkily. "The devil takes care of his deputies. Look to
yourself. God don't always take such excellent care of his angels."
David and Christine hurried off down the street. They looked back once
during a faint glow of lightning. Dick had disappeared.
While they were explaining their plight to Mrs. Braddock at the hotel
entrance, Dick Cronk was leading his frenzied brother by back streets
to the railroad yards. He had rushed across the street just in time to
restrain Ernie in his blind rage. The hunchback, sobbing with
jealousy, had started out to follow David, his pistol clutched to his
misshapen breast.
All the way through the dark streets the cripple was moaning: "I'd
have shot him only I was afraid of hittin' her.
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