Page:Dave Porter in the Gold Fields.djvu/65

Rh literally ran down the hallway and down the stairs and out of the hotel.

"Say, he's some mad, believe me!" was Roger's grim comment.

"I think he is more scared than anything else," returned Dave. "He acted as if he thought we had trapped him in some way."

"Just how it struck me," put in Phil. "He certainly didn't lose any time in getting away, did he?" and the shipowner's son grinned broadly.

"He had a guilty conscience," was Mr. Passmore's comment. "Mr. Fordham, I think you can congratulate yourself that he has left."

"I think so myself, sir," replied the old gentleman. He looked kindly at Dave and his chums. "It looks to me as if you had saved me from being swindled," he continued. "If he had a fair sort of a proposition I think he would have stayed."

"I think so myself," added Mr. Passmore. "Just the same, supposing I look into this Sunset Company for you?"

"As you please, Mr. Passmore. But I doubt if I care to invest—after what I have heard and seen of this fellow, Haskers," answered the old gentleman.

The matter was talked over a little more and then the boys and Bert's father departed, first, however, receiving the warm thanks of Mr. Ford-