As Hank Bitters, therefore, stepped into the stable, Franklin retreated a few steps. Near at hand lay a heavy whip, and this he took up and prepared to defend himself.
"So we meet again, hey?" said Hank Bitters, harshly, by way of an opening.
"What do you want here?" demanded Franklin, coming at once to the point. He saw that Bitters was a fellow who must be handled without undue consideration.
"You know well enough what I came for, young fellow!"
"Perhaps I do," returned Franklin, calmly. "And let me advise you that the best thing you can do is to leave quietly and at once."
"I'll leave when I feel like it, mind that!" stormed the discharged truckman. "You ain't going to take the bread out of a poor man's mouth, and not get touched for it."
"It was your own fault that you were discharged."
"Say, do you know what I'm going to do?" growled Bitters, savagely. "I'm going to make you feel sick all over, and I'm going to do it right now!"
