" "I can't endure the odious baggage. I expect company. Valade, who was standing by her chair, glancing around the packed pink-papered saloon with a heavy frown on his face, was a thickset man of coarse, reddened feature, with a discontented air. Wrenched from their holds, the iron palisades in front of the thief-taker's dwelling were used as weapons to burst open the door.