WYLDER'S HAJVD.
203
er a changed tone. Larkin looked up, and Lake laughed
in his face quietly the most impertinent laugh he had ever
seen or heard, with his yellow eyes fixed on the lawyer's
pink little optics. "I was there, and Hockley was there,
and Mark Wylder was there — was not he?" and Lake
stared and laughed, and the attorney stared; and Lake
added, "What ad— d cunning fellow you are; ha, ha,
ha!"
Larkin was not easily put out, but he was disconcerted
now; and his cheeks and forehead grew suddenly pink,
and he coughed a little, and tried to throw a look of mild
surprise into his face.
"Why, you have this moment had a letter from Hock-
ley. Don't you think I knew his hand and the post-mark,
and your look said quite plainly, 'Here's news of my
friend Stanley Lake and Mark Wylder.' I really think
I have brought my little evidences very prettily together,
and jumped to a right conclusion — eh?"
A flicker of that sinister shadow I have sometimes
mentioned crossed Larkin's face, and contracted his eyes
as he said, a little sternly —
"I have nothing on earth to conceal, sir. All my con-
duct has been as open as the light; there's not a letter,
sir, I ever write or receive, that might not, so far as / am
concerned, lie open on that table for every visitor that
comes in to read; " and the attorney waved his hand grand-
"Hear, hear, hear," said Lake, languidly, and tapping
a little applause on the table, while he watched the solici-
tor's rhetoric with his sly, disconcerting smile.
"It was but conscientious, Captain Lake, that I should
make enquiry respecting the genuineness of a legal instru-
ment conferring such powers. How on earth, sir, could I
have the slightest suspicion that you had seen my client,