"
McGowan shoved his hat back on his forehead as if to give himself
more air.
"That kind of guff won't go with me no longer," he snarled, his
face growing redder every instant. "This ill business is played
out. He promised me three nights ago he'd make out a certificate
next day--you heard him say it--and I waited for him all the
morning and he never showed up. And then he sneaks off to New York
at daylight and stays away for two nights more, and then sneaks
home again in the middle of the day when you don't expect him, and
goes to bed and sends for the doctor. How many kinds of a damned
fool does he take me for? That work's been finished three weeks
yesterday; the money is all in the bank to pay for it just as soon
as he signs the check, and he don't sign it, and ye can't get him
to sign it. Ain't that so, Jim Murphy?"
Murphy nodded, and McGowan blazed on: "If you want to know what I
think about it--there's something crooked about the whole
business, and it gets crookeder all the time. He's drunk, if he's
anything--boiling drunk and--"
Jack laid the full weight of his hand on the speaker's shoulder:
"Stop short off where you are, Mr.
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