Page:Melville Davisson Post--The Man of Last Resort.djvu/168

144 “that you are a young person of great discernment.”

“When one needs horse sense,” said the prosecuting attorney, “your acquaintance is valuable. At other times it is a luxury.”

“Together,” observed the sheriff, mildly, “we create a sort of equoasinus intellectual atmosphere, I suppose.”

The attorney took up a chair and placed it by the window.

“Sit there,” he said, “and listen.” Then he closed the door, and, crossing the room, began to open the safe by his desk.

The sheriff sat down meekly and turned his dreamy blue eyes on the young lawyer.

The prosecuting attorney of the county of McDowell was an imported article. Like the ancient wise men, he came from the East, but the manner of his coming was not quite that of the early sages. The sheriff had come up from the hills of Virginia, while the prosecuting attorney had come up from the sea. Not that this young scion of the law' was a sailor or the son of a sailor, but on a certain summer afternoon at a certain fashionable resort, Fate