Page:Christopher Wren--the wages of virtue.djvu/271

Rh is ter fill our Loojey up with lead as you perposed ter do.… Look at here, John. I'll do it. I could hit all Loojey's buttons with my little gun, one after the other, at thirty yards—and I'd done it long ago, but I know'd it meant the frozen mit fer mine from Carmelita, and I wasn't man enuff ter kill him fer Carmelita's good and make my name mud to her fer keeps."

"Same thing now, Buck," was the answer. "Challenge Luigi, and you can never set foot in the Café de la Légion again. If you killed him—it would be Carmelita's duty in life to find you and stab you."

"Sure thing, John—an' what about yew? Ef our Looj was to be 'Rivoli the Coward' ef he wouldn't fight, who's to be 'coward' now? … Yew've bitten off more'n yew can chew."

"Anyhow, Buck, if you're any friend of mine—you'll let Rivoli alone. Qui facit per alium facit per se, and that's Dutch for 'I might as well kill Rivoli with my own hand as kill him through yours.'"

The Bucking Bronco broke into song—

chanted he, as he placed his beloved "gun"—an automatic pistol—under his pillow. "I'll beat him up, Johnnie. Fer Carmelita's sake I ain't shot him up, an' fer her sake and yourn I won't shoot him up now, but the very first time as he flaps his mouth about this yer dool, I'll beat him up—and there'll be some fight," and the Bucking Bronco dived into his "flea-bag."

The next day the news spread throughout the caserne