Then the door leading to the street slammed; Marcus had disappeared.
Thereon a great babel of exclamation arose.

The tension of that all but fatal instant snapped, and speech became once more possible.
"He would have knifed you." "Narrow escape." "What kind of a man do you call THAT ?" "'Tain't his fault he ain't a murderer." "I'd have him up for it." "And they two have been the greatest kind of friends." "He didn't touch you, did he ?" "No--no--no." "What a--what a devil! What treachery! A regular greaser trick!" "Look out he don't stab you in the back.

If that's the kind of man he is, you never can tell." Frenna drew the knife from the wall.
"Guess I'll keep this toad-stabber," he observed.

"That fellow won't come round for it in a hurry; goodsized blade, too." The group examined it with intense interest.
"Big enough to let the life out of any man," observed Heise.
"What--what--what did he do it for ?" stammered McTeague.

"I got no quarrel with him." He was puzzled and harassed by the strangeness of it all.