Page:Ballantyne--The Battery and the Boiler.djvu/322



Stumps went back to the hotel to brood over his misfortunes, and hatch out the plan which his rather unfertile brain had devised.

Seated on a chair, with his elbows on his knees, his chin in his hands, and his nails between his teeth, he stared at a corner of the room, nibbled and meditated. There was nothing peculiar about the corner of the room at which he stared, save that there stood in it a portmanteau which Sam had bought the day before, and in which were locked his and Robin's bags of treasure.

"If I could only manage to get away by rail to—to—anywhere, I 'd do it," he muttered.

Almost simultaneously he leaped from his chair, reddened, and went to look out at the window, for some one had tapped at the door.

"Come in," he said with some hesitation. "Gen'l'man wants you, sir," said a waiter, ushering