k outside the bank.

Oakhurst. Good! You have fulfilled your orders well, and your chief
shall know it. Go now. Be as cautious in going out as you were
on entering. Here is the private staircase. (Opens door L.) [Exit
policeman.

Oakhurst (listening). Gone! and without disturbing any one. So far, luck
has befriended me. He will sleep to-night beneath his father's roof. His
father! umph! would the old man recognize him here? Would he take to his
heart this drunken outcast, picked from the gutters of the street, and
brought here by the strong arm of the law? Hush! (A knock without.) Ah,
it is the colonel: he is prompt to the hour. (Opens door cautiously, and
admits COL. STARBOTTLE.)

Starbottle (looking around, and overlooking SANDY). I presume the
other--er--principal is not yet on the ground?

Oakhurst (motioning to sofa). He IS!

Starbottle (starting as he looks towards sofa). Ged, you don't mean to
say it's all OVER, without witnesses, without my--er--presence?

Oakhurst. Pardon me, Col. Starbottle; but, if you look again, you will
perceive that the gentleman is only drunk.

Starbottle. Eh? Ged! not uncommon, sir, not uncommon! I remember
singular incident at--er--Louisville in '47. Old Judge Tollim--know old
Judge Tolly?--Ged! he came to ground drunk, sir; couldn't stand! Demn
me, sir, had to put him into position with kitchen poker down his back,
and two sections of lightning-rod in his--er--trousers, demn me!
Firm, sir, firm, you understand, here (striking his breast), but--here
(striking his legs)--er--er--wobbly! No, sir! Intoxication of principal
not a bar, sir, to personal satisfaction! (Goes towards sofa with
eyeglass.) Good Ged! why, it's Diego! (Returning stifly to OAKHURST.)
Excuse me, sir, but this is a case in which I cannot act. Cannot,
sir,--impossible! absurd! pre--post--or--ous! I recogmze in
the--er--inebriated menial on yonder sofa a person, sir, who, having
already declined my personal challenge, is--er--excluded from the
consideration of gentlemen. The person who lies there, sir, is Diego,--a
menial of Don Jose Castro,---alias "Sandy," the vagabond of Red Gulch.

Oakhurst. You have omitted one title, his true one. He is Alexander
Morton, the son of the master of this house.

Starbottle (starting in bewilderment). Alexander Morton! (Aside.) Ged!
my first suspicions were correct. Star, you have lost the opportunity
of making your fortune as a scoundrel; but you have at a pecuniary
sacrifi