He eyed me in that disdain for my stupidity which
I have never suffered from any other man.
"Well, no; to tell the truth, I was thinking of other
things during the interview."
"Your grandfather should have provided a guardian
for you, lad. You oughtn't to be trusted with money.
Is that bottle empty? Well, if that person with the fat
neck was your friend Pickering, I'd have a care of
what's coming to me. I'd be quite sure that Mr. Pickering
hadn't made away with the old gentleman's
boodle, or that it didn't get lost on the way from him
to me."
"The time's running now, and I'm in for the year.
My grandfather was a fine old gentleman, and I treated
him like a dog. I'm going to do what he directs in that
will no matter what the size of the reward may be."
"Certainly; that's the eminently proper thing for
you to do. But,-but keep your wits about you. If a
fellow with that neck can't find money where money
has been known to exist, it must be buried pretty deep.
Your grandfather was a trifle eccentric, I judge, but
not a fool by any manner of means. The situation appeals
to my imagination, Jack. I like the idea of it,-
the lost treasure and the whole business. Lord, what a
salad that is! Cheer up, comrade! You're as grim as
an owl!"
Whereupon we fell to talking of people and places we
had known in other lands.
We spent the next day together, and in the evening,
at my hotel, he criticized my effects while I packed, in
his usual ironical vein.
"You're not going to take those things with you, I
hope!" He indicated the rifles and several revolvers
which I brought from the closet and threw upon the
bed. "They make me homesick for the jungle."
He drew from its cover the heavy rifle I had used
last on a leopard hunt and tested its weight.
"Precious little use you'll have for this! Better let
me take it back to The Sod to use on the landlords.
I say, Jack, are we never to seek our fortunes together
again? We hit it off pretty well, old man, come to think
of it,-I don't like to lose you."
He bent over the straps of the rifle-case with unnecessary
care, but there was a quaver in his voice that was
not like Larry Donovan.
"Come with me now!" I exclaimed, wheeling upon
him.
"I'd rather be with you than with any other living
man, Jack Glenarm, but I can't think of it. I have my
own troubles; and, moreover, you've got to stick it out
there alone. It's part of the game the old gentleman
set up for you, as I understand it. Go ahead, collect
your fortune, and then, if I haven't been hanged in the
meantime, we'll join forces later. There's no chap anywhere
with a pleasanter knack at spending money than
your old friend L. D."