Or rather he met me--as you see."
"Did you fight with him?" she panted.
"He was too drunk to fight. He ran at me and gave me this, and my first
inclination was to give him a sound thrashing. Then I saw it would be no
good, in the condition he was in, so I just kept him at arm's length
till he tired of it. He went off at last, and I was so afraid he might
tumble off the Coupee that I followed him, and he hurled rocks at me
whenever he came to a stand. But he got across all right, and I went
back and went to bed. Now, what's all the trouble about?"
"He never came home," she jerked, with a catch in her voice which
thought only of Tom had never put there.
"Never came home?"
"And they're all out looking for him."
"I wonder if he went back to Peter Mauger's.... If he tried to cross
that Coupee again--in the condition he was in--"
"He didn't go back to Peter's. Julie went there first of all to ask."
"Good Lord, what can have become of him?"
The answer came unexpectedly round the corner of the house--Julie
Hamon, in a state of utmost dishevelment and agitation, which turned
instantly to venomous fury at the sight of Gard and Nance.
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