It
had grown there like Jonah's gourd; only his flippancy affected it; and
Steel was far from flippant now. Langholm signed to him to lead the way,
and in a very few minutes they were scaring the wildfowl in mid-water,
Steel sculling from the after thwart, while Langholm faced him from the
crimson cushions.
"I thought," said the latter, "that I would like to tell you what sort
of evidence I could get against him before--before going any further.
I--I thought it would be fair."
Steel raised his bushy eyebrows the fraction of an inch. "It would be
fairest to yourself, I agree. Two heads are better than one, and--well,
I'm open to conviction still, of course."
But even Langholm was not conscious of the sinister play upon words; he
had taken out his pocket-book, and was nervously turning to the leaves
that he had filled during his most sleepless night in town.
"Got it all down?" said Steel.
"Yes," replied Langholm, without raising his eyes; "at least I did make
some notes of a possible--if not a really damning--case against the man
I mean."
"And what may the first point be?" inquired Steel, who was gradually
drifting back into the tone which Langholm had resented on the shore; he
took no notice of it now.
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