Dave Darrin at Vera Cruz | Page 2

heard a woman's stifled cry of alarm.
Halting, bringing his heels together with a click, and throwing his shoulders back, Darrin stopped on the corner and looked down the street.
Five or six doors away, close to a building, stood a young woman of not more than twenty-two. Though she was strikingly pretty, Dave did not note that fact in the first glance. He saw, however, that she was well dressed in the latest spring garments, and that her pose was one of retreat from the man who stood before her.
That the man had the external appearance of the gentleman was the \ first fact Darrin observed.
Then he heard the young woman's indignant utterance:
"You coward!"
"That is a taunt not often thrown at me," the young man laughed, carelessly.
"Only a coward would attempt to win a woman's love by threats," replied the girl, more calmly, though bitterness rang in her tone. "As for you, I wish to assure you that I am quite through with you!"
"Oh, no, you're not!" rejoined the annoyer, with the air of one who knows himself to be victor. "In fact, you will do very much as I wish, or your brother---"
"You coward!" spoke the girl, scornfully again.
"If your brother suffers, your pride will be in the dust," insisted the annoyer, "and, remember, I, alone, can save your brother from disgrace."
"I am not even going to ask you to do it," retorted the young woman. "And now our interview is over. I am going to leave you, and I shall not see you again. I-----"
"Going to leave me, are you?" leered her tormentor. He stepped forward, holding out his hand, as though to seize the young woman's wrist, but she alertly eluded him.
"If you try again to touch me, or if you attempt to follow me," warned the young woman, "I shall appeal for assistance."
So absorbed were the disputants in their quarrel that neither had noticed Darrin, standing on the corner.
The tormentor's face flushed, then went white, "Make your appeal," he dared, "and see what happens!"
Again he attempted to take the girl by the wrist.
"Can I be of service, madam?" inquired Darrin, as he strode toward them.
Like a flash, the annoyer wheeled upon Darrin, his eyes flashing dangerously.
"Young man," he warned, threateningly, "the best thing you can possibly do will be to make yourself scarce as quickly as possible. As for this young woman-----"
The tormentor moved a step nearer to the young woman, whose face had turned very pale.
Dave slipped quietly between them.
"As this young woman does not wish to talk with you," Darrin suggested, "you may address all your remarks to me."
While the two young men stood eyeing each other Darrin noted that the young woman's annoyer was somewhat taller than himself, broader of shoulder and deeper of chest. He had the same confidence of athletic poise that Dave himself displayed. In a resort to force, it looked as though the stranger would have the better of it.
Yet this stranger seemed suddenly deprived of much of his assurance. Plainly, there was some good reason why he did not wish to fight on this side street so close to Broadway.
"Madam," inquired Darrin, half turning, "may I have the pleasure of escorting you to your friends?"
"If you will call a taxi-----" she began, eagerly.
At that moment a fareless taxicab turned the corner of Broadway and came slowly down the street.
"Hold on, chauffeur!" cried Darrin, in a voice of command. Then, as the cab stopped at the curb, Dave turned his back upon the tormentor for a moment, while he assisted the young woman into the taxicab.
"Do you feel satisfied to go without escort," asked Darrin, "or may I offer my services in seeing you safely to your home?"
"I shall be all right now," replied the young woman, the troubled look in her lustrous brown eyes vanishing as she favored her unknown defender with a smile. "If the driver will stop, two blocks from here, I will direct him where to take me."
"Step aside, boy!" ordered the unknown man, as he tried to brush Dave away and enter the cab.
It was no time for gentle measures. Ensign Darrin's right fist landed heavily on the face of the stranger, sending him prone to the sidewalk.
At a wave of Dave's hand the chauffeur started away. Scenting trouble, the chauffeur drove as fast as he could down the side street, making the round of the block, then heading into Broadway and going uptown, for the young woman had called out her destination.
As for the stranger whom Dave had knocked down, the fellow was on his feet like a flash. Ignoring Darrin, he tried to dash down the side street after the taxicab.
"Step back!" ordered Dave, catching hold of the fellow, and swinging him around. "You're not going to follow."
"I must have the number of