Braddock, it
appeared, had gone, early in the afternoon, to the apartment hotel in
which Grand lived. Fortunately the Colonel was not about the place.
Dick, on missing the ex-convict, had hurried at once to Grand's hotel,
finding his man there, seated in the small lobby, a sinister example
of respectability, waiting patiently for the return of his enemy. The
self-appointed guardian coaxed him away from the place, conducting him
to the cheap, ill-favored thieves' lodging-house where he had taken a
single room for temporary occupancy. Braddock, after a show of
obduracy, finally had consented to make an effort to see his wife
before visiting his wrath upon Colonel Grand.
Dick informed David: "He's set on doing something nasty, kid, that's
all there is to it. He _won't_ be turned aside. Those years in the pen
have put something into his backbone that never was there before. Maybe
Mrs. Braddock can talk him out of it, but I dunno. She always had
influence over him, but that was before he took to getting tight. It's
different now. If we can't do anything else we'll have to warn Grand,
that's all.
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