Page:Ritchie - Trails to Two Moons.djvu/193

 had impressed him as a blunt country oaf, but

Mr. Von Tromp, of Cheyenne, Washington and London, was in a state of nerves wholly surprising to one of his schooled temper.

Perhaps Von Tromp gave Orpheus C. Strayman credit for much more acumen than the little prosecutor possessed. One element in the man's make-up the wiser lawyer from Cheyenne completely overlooked: Strayman was careless in his handling of the spoken word.

For instance, after his fiery interview with Von Tromp, Strayman said casually to his assistant—A-Long-Drink-of-Water the town denominated this spare, rather sickly young man—"Something strange about that lawyer from the outside being Johnny-on-the-spot just when we 've nabbed the Killer."

That was all he said; perhaps that was the sum of what he thought, for this was a day big with mental explosions for Strayman. But when The-Long-Drink-of- Water went out for his noon dinner he whispered to a friend in the Rhinoceros Eating House the circumstances of Von Tromp's visit and quoted his chief as saying there was something strange about him.