Blodget and Monteagle hastened to the apartment from which the noise proceeded, and there they beheld a table overturned and China ware scattered about the floor, while a stout, middle-aged man, with every appearance of a gentleman, lay on the floor, and another, equally respectable in appearance, was kneeling on his breast, with a revolver in his hand, and aimed at the throat of the prostrate man.
‘What! gentlemen!’ exclaimed Monteagle, ‘forbear!’ and he was proceeding to the relief of the fallen man when Blodget caught him by the arm, and whispered, ‘Let them alone. It is all right. I know them both!’
‘You know them?’ cried Monteagle, struggling to throw off his friend’s firm grasp, ‘but is that any reason that they should murder each other?’
‘That fellow seduced his wife!’ cried Blodget.
‘Promise, villain! promise!’ roared the man with a pistol. ‘Promise, or I finish you on the spot.’
‘Help, I say,’ cried the undermost man, frothing with rage and pale with terror—‘Release me from this madman.’
‘Madman!’ cried he with the pistol. ‘Is it mad that I am when I claim that you shall marry the woman whom you have stolen away from home and happiness. Gentlemen, you see here a villain—a banker of this city—who bloated with pride, and presuming on his wealth, seduced my wife and brought her to this city. I procured a divorce in such a manner that my ruined wife can marry again. I followed her and her paramour to this city, and here I find him rioting in a house of ill fame, while the woman that he has blasted—my late wife—pines in solitude at home, where she is scarcely allowed the necessaries of life. Now, you villain, see if these gentlemen will aid you.’
‘No,’ said Monteagle. ‘We cannot interfere here; but pray don’t shoot the villain in cold blood.’
‘His life is safe, if he promises to marry the woman,’ cried the wronged husband; ‘Otherwise he dies! Promise!’ and he thrust the muzzle of the pistol against the seducer’s forehead.
‘Murder—help!’ cried the man, struggling desperately to regain his feet.
‘Promise, rascal, promise to marry the woman, and I release you.’
Perhaps with the hope of making his escape if he consented, the banker at length said, ‘Let me up, and I will marry the—’