"
Steel sat motionless, his eyes upon the bottom of the boat. It was
absolutely impossible to read the lowered face; even when at length he
raised it, and looked Langholm in the eyes once more, the natural
inscrutability of the man was only more complete than ever.
"So that is your case!" said he.
And even his tone might have been inspired either by awe or by contempt,
so truly rang the note between the two.
"I should be sorry to have to meet it," observed Langholm, "if I were
he."
"I should find out a little more," was the retort, "if I were you!"
"And then?"
"Oh, then I should do my duty like a man--and take all the emoluments I
could."
The sneer was intolerable. Langholm turned the color of brick.
"I shall!" said he through his mustache. "I have consulted you; there
will be no need to do so again. I shall make a point of taking you at
your word. And now do you mind putting me ashore?"
A few raindrops were falling when they reached the landing-stage; they
hurried to the house, to find that Langholm's bicycle had been removed
from the place where he had left it by the front entrance.
"Don't let anybody trouble," he said, ungraciously enough, for he was
still smarting from the other's sneer.
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