Page:Richard Marsh--The joss, a reversion.djvu/312

300 cursing gentleman and his two friends were awaiting us upon the pavement. I said a word of a kind to the long ’un.

“Look here, my bald-headed friend, I don’t quite know who you are, or what you want, but I’ve seen enough of your little ways to know they’re funny; so if you take my advice you’ll make yourself scarce before there’s trouble.”

He held out his hands. Looking, on the dirty pavement of that shabby street, like a fish out of water.

“The Great Joss! The Great Joss! He is in there—give him back to us—then we go.”

I reflected. After all there was some reason in the creature. He was almost as much interested in Mr. Batters as I was. Considering how Mr. Batters had treated me I didn’t see why he shouldn’t learn what an object of interest he really was. It might occasion him agreeable surprise. The fellow was in such dead earnest. It beat me how he and his friends had got where they were. Reminding me of the flocks of migratory birds which one meets far out at sea. Goodness only knows by what instinct they pursue the objects of their search. I turned to Mr. Paine.

“This gentleman was high priest, or something of the kind, in the temple in which Mr. Batters was Number One God.”