Page:Rowland--The Mountain of Fears.djvu/224

  curious to see what he would do about it, because, in spite of his effeminacy, my instinct told me that he was not weak. The whiskey was set upon the table. Lentz helped himself; I did likewise, and as I did so I heard Claud's feet scuffle a trifle on the rug, and knew that his impulse was to arise and leave the table. I knew that he was staring indignantly at Deshay; there was a reflection of this look in the lurking gleam of contempt in Deshay's dark eyes and the sardonic lines at the corners of his mouth, and when he spoke, in the pleasantest voice which one can conceive, the words and the expression which accompanied them was the drop in excess needed to crystallize the solution of my dislike and distrust of Deshay.

" 'Oh, come, Dillingham, ' said he, lightly, 'we all know that you're on a swear-off, but just a glass for bon voyage will do you no harm. Once we're under way you can settle down to a life of undiluted virtue—say when.'

"He reached across the table, decanter in [ 208 ]