"I was never
one to be baulked, as you know."
"Come, come. Let us be friends," said Mullet; "the girl is young, and
has had her way."
He looked almost pleadingly at the other, and his voice trembled. Gunn
drew himself up, and regarding him with a satisfied sneer, quitted the
room without a word.
Affairs at the "Golden Key" grew steadily worse and worse. Gunn
dominated the place, and his vile personality hung over it like a shadow.
Appeals to the innkeeper were in vain; his health was breaking fast, and
he moodily declined to interfere. Gunn appointed servants of his own
choosing-brazen maids and foul-mouthed men. The old patrons ceased to
frequent the "Golden Key," and its bedrooms stood empty. The maids
scarcely deigned to take an order from Joan, and the men spoke to her
familiarly. In the midst of all this the innkeeper, who had complained
once or twice of vertigo, was seized with a fit.
Joan, flying to him for protection against the brutal advances of Gunn,
found him lying in a heap behind the door of his small office, and in her
fear called loudly for assistance. A little knot of servants collected,
and stood regarding him stupidly. One made a brutal jest. Gunn,
pressing through the throng, turned the senseless body over with his
foot, and cursing vilely, ordered them to carry it upstairs.
Until the surgeon came, Joan, kneeling by the bed, held on to the
senseless hand as her only protection against the evil faces of Gunn and
his proteges.
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