WYLDER'S HAJVD.
155
gentleman is liberal, and if you can just hold your
tongue, you will have little trouble in satisfying him upon
all other points. But if you can't be quite silent, you
had better, I frankly tell you, decline the situation, ex-
cellent in all respects as it is."
"I'm a man, sir, as can be close enough."
"So much the better. You don't drink?"
Dutton colored a little and coughed and said —
"No, sir."
"You have your papers?"
"Yes, sir."
So Jim Dutton made his bow, and departed; and Cap-
tain Lake continued to watch the door for some seconds
after his departure, as if he could see his retreating figure
through it. And, said he, with an oath, and his hand to
his forehead, over his eyebrow —
"It is the most unaccountable thing in nature!"
Then, after a reverie of some seconds, the young gen-
tleman applied himself energetically to his toilet; and
coming down to his sittting room, he looked into his
morning paper, and then into the street and told the ser-
vant as he sat down to breakfast, that he expected a gen-
tleman named Wylder to call that morning, and to be
Buro to show him up directly.
CHAPTER XXVII.
LAWYER LARKIN'S MIND BEGINS TO WORK.
That morning Lake's first report upon his inquisition
into the whereabouts of Mark Wylder — altogether disap-