If he left her behind for
the foolish, doting husband, would not that devoted man take her back
to avoid a scandal, and even forbear to pursue HIM for his financial
irregularities? What were twenty thousand dollars of Mrs. Barker's money
to the scandal of Mrs. Barker's elopement? Again, the failure to realize
the forgery had left him safe, and Barker was sufficiently potent with
the bank and Demorest to hush up that also. Hamlin was now the only
obstacle to his flight; but even he would scarcely pursue HIM if Mrs.
Barker were left behind. And it would be easier to elude him if he did.
In his preoccupation Van Loo did not see that he had entered the
bar-room, but, finding himself there, he moved towards the bar; a glass
of spirits would revive him. As he drank it he saw that the room was
full of rough men, apparently miners or packers--some of them Mexican,
with here and there a Kanaka or Australian. Two men more ostentatiously
clad, though apparently on equal terms with the others, were standing in
the corner with their backs towards him. From the general silence as he
entered he imagined that he had been the subject of conversation, and
that his altercation with Hamlin had been overheard. Suddenly one of the
two men turned and approached him. To his consternation he recognized
Steptoe,--Steptoe, whom he had not seen for five years until last night,
when he had avoided him in the courtyard of the Boomville Hotel.
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