"I do--and don't be long."
"Oh, no, I shan't be a minute."
There were other lights in the other cottage. It was not at all late. A
warm parallelogram appeared and disappeared as Langholm opened his door
and went in. Was it a sound of bolts and bars that followed? Abel was
still wondering when his prospective paymaster threw up the window and
reappeared across the sill.
"It was a three-figured check you had from Mr. Steel, was it?"
"Yes--yes--but not so loud!"
"And then he sent you to the devil to do your worst?"
"That's your way of putting it."
"I do the same--without the check."
And the window shut with a slam, the hasp was fastened, and the blind
pulled down.
CHAPTER XXVI
A CARDINAL POINT
The irresistible discomfiture of this ruffian did not affect the value
of the evidence which he had volunteered. Langholm was glad to remember
that he had volunteered it; the creature was well served for his spite
and his cupidity; and the man of peace and letters, whose temperament
shrank from contention of any kind, could not but congratulate himself
upon an incidental triumph for which it was impossible to feel the
smallest compunction.
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