Page:Morley roberts--Painted Rock.djvu/110

 wild life to such as have not been destroyed utterly by the baser uses of the life in towns. I gasped, and then held out my hand. Then I had to laugh.

"You lawyer," I said, "you legal imp, you dusty creature of calf-bound, hide-bound books, you haunter of courts, you case of precedents, you jargon-loving solicitor, where did you dig yourself up?" And Tom looked at me oddly. His very smile was Jack's.

"Haven't you seen this?" I asked Northrop.

"Seen what, partner?"

"Has Briggs seen him?"

They both said, "No."

"But I've seen him," said Tom.

"Haven't you seen, Mr. Northrop, that our friend Thompson is too like your late partner?"

But the man beneath had come out too slowly under Northrop's eye for him to see it as I did. "If Briggs sees him, he'll know," I said. "Let's walk where we can speak freely."

We went down the middle of the street,