“Evidently he is the same man. He is the cause of all my misfortunes.”
“Here he is coming back!” said Gerald suddenly.
“Good!” exclaimed the tourist. “I have some business with him.”
Jake had evidently visited Pete Johnson’s saloon again, judging from his flushed face and unsteady gait. Still he was in a condition to get around.
“Stay in the cabin till I call you!” whispered Noel Brooke to Carter.
“Well,” he said, turning to meet Amsden, “have you come back for another boxing lesson?”
“I thought you might like a guide, considerin’ this is your first visit to Colorado. Don’t you want to go up Pike’s Peak?”
“I have engaged Gerald here to go about with me.”
“He’s a boy. He don’t know nothin’ of the country.”
“He will satisfy me as a companion better than you.”
“If you’re goin’ away, Gerald,” said Amsden with unabashed assurance, “won’t you let me live in the cabin till you come back?”
“It has been engaged by another tenant,” answered Gerald.
“Who is it? It isn’t Pete Johnson, is it?”
“No, I don’t propose to let my cabin for a saloon.”
“You’re right, boy. You’d better let me have it.”
“But I told you that it was already promised to another party.”
At a signal from Noel Brooke John Carter came out, leading Oscar by the hand. He looked earnestly at Jake Amsden. It was the first time in many years that he had seen the man who was the prime mover in the events that had brought about his financial ruin. He would hardly have known Jake, so much had his appearance suffered from habitual intemperance.
Jake Amsden on his part scanned Carter with curious perplexity.
“You knew me once. I have good reason to remember you,” answered John Carter gravely.
Something in his voice recalled him to Amsden.
“Why, it’s Carter,” he said, “John Carter. How are you, Carter, old fellow? It does me good to set eyes on an old friend.”
Carter was unprepared for this cordial welcome, and when Jake Amsden approached with hand extended, he put his own behind his back.
“I can’t take your hand, Jake,” he said. “You’ve done me too much harm.”
“Oh, you mean that old affair,” said Jake in an airy tone. “I did act meanly, that’s a fact, but we’re both older now. Let bygones be bygones. It’s all over now.”
“It isn’t all over. That false accusation of yours has blighted my life. It has driven me from factory to factory, and finally driven me out here in the hope that I might begin a new life where it would no longer be in my way.”