Page:Chesterton - The Club of Queer Trades.djvu/63

Adventures of Major Brown "A fine chap, that major; when one hasn't a touch of the poet one stands some chance of being a poem. But to think of such a clockwork little creature of all people getting into the nets of one of Grigsby's tales!" and he laughed out aloud in the silence.

Just as the laugh echoed away, there came a sharp knock at the door. An owlish head, with dark mustaches, was thrust in, with deprecating and somewhat absurd inquiry.

"What! back again, major?" cried Northover, in surprise. "What can I do for you?"

The major shuffled feverishly into the room.

"It's horribly absurd," he said. "Something must have got started in me that I never knew before. But upon my soul I feel the most desperate desire to know the end of it all."

"The end of it all?"

"Yes," said the major, Jackals,' and the title-deeds, and 'death to Major Brown.

The agent's face grew grave, but his eyes were amused.

"I am terribly sorry, major," said he, 49