“Oh yes,” Darius answered pleasantly, going all in, “yes, I most certainly do—a damned... cowardly... murderer. I am not one of your farm-boy victims, Captain, if, in fact, you really are a captain. Tomorrow you shall meet your better upon the field of honor... and this time, honor will be satisfied—your murders atoned for in blood.”
Throwing his drink to the floor to the accompaniment of feminine screams, Noddy lunged for Darius, but his second restrained him once more. “You damned scoundrel!” Noddy screamed at the little gambler. “I don’t have to tolerate this!”
“It seems that you already have,” Darius rejoined, while using his only clean handkerchief to pat the drops of liquor that had spattered his clothing. “However, I am done with you for now.”
Straightening up from his task, he a
