"Yes," said Mr. Chefoo, who now spoke for the first time, "he will return." All turned to look at him inquiringly. He had spoken very positively.
"What makes you say that?"
"Because, honorable sirs, he went away as one who will come back. There was no parting word. He will return."
"He didn't have sense for any parting word," commented Clarence. "It seemed all taken from him."
"No," asserted Mr. Chefoo, "it was only the excitement that comes when one knows there has been a loss."
"'A loss'!" echoed Clarence.
"Yes; Mr. Kit-ze has either lost something of very great value, for which he has now gone to make search, or else he has forgotten something that he has gone to bring. It is one or the other as you will in time discover, son of the honorable teacher."
"But why act in that demented way? Couldn't he have explained to us, and then gone after it in a respectable fashion?"
"It was something by which he set so great a store, youthful sir, that he was overcome by what its loss signified to him. I should say," continued Mr. Chefoo, "that it is something without which he could not proceed, or without which he——"
Here Mr. Chefoo paused.