surprised to see you. We've both lost our situation, is that it, Major?"
Insensibly the Major began to find him rather pleasanter, not a man he would ever like really, but all the same more tolerable than he had been at Blent; so Harry's somewhat audacious reference was received with a grim smile.
"I knocked you out, you know," Harry pursued. "Left to himself, I don't believe old Bob Broadley would ever have moved. But I put him up to it."
"What?" Duplay had not expected this.
"Well, you tried to put me out, you see. Besides, Janie Iver liked him, and she didn't care about you—or me either, for that matter. So just before I—well, disappeared—I told Bob that he'd win if he went ahead. And I gather he has won, hasn't he?"
A brief nod from Duplay answered him; he was still revolving the news about Bob Broadley.
"I'm afraid I haven't made you like me any better," said Harry with a laugh. "And I don't go out of my way to get myself disliked. Do you see why I mentioned that little fact about Bob Broadley just now?"
"I confess I don't, unless you wished to annoy me. Or—pardon—perhaps you thought it fair that I should know?"
"Neither the one nor the other. I didn't do it from the personal point of view at all. You see, Bob had a strong position—and didn't know it."
Duplay glanced at him. "Well," he said, "what you did didn't help you, though it hurt me perhaps."