“Well, it’s just as you say, then.”
“Yes, let him in,” directed Ralph.
He regarded his tramp friend with some surprise and curiosity as the foreman admitted him. The man had got a clean shave and his face patched up, and apparently had a very satisfactory meal inside of him, for he was blandly cheerful and complacent.
“Saw three of our friends on my way here,” he said to Ralph.
“You mean Dorsett’s friends?”
“Yes. Two of them were down by the turnpike, probably watching to see if the lawyer or others might come here. The other fellow I spied hanging around the furnace room. He was on the roof once, but he just sneaked away.”
“What did you come here for?” inquired Bartlett bluntly.
“Oh, I took a kind of fancy to this young fellow. He did me a kind turn, and I’d like to return the compliment. Thought maybe there might be a ruction later, and if there is, I’m on your side. So count on me.”
With a grin and chuckle the speaker bunched up a fist that resembled a huge knot of mahogany.
“I think I had better ’phone the lawyer’s wife again,” suggested Ralph after a moment of thought. “Those fellows lurking around here might do the lawyer some harm.”