Once again did he enter and pass along to the library where the colonel spent most of his time when at home. Elmer remembered that the last occasion of his entering that room was when he accompanied Mark there, as the other was responding to the request of the colonel that he would call and see him.
"Glad to see you, Elmer; and this is nice of you, humoring a cranky old fellow like me when you deserved your rest to-night," was the way the gentleman met him as he entered.
"I rather guess, sir, that I'm the one to feel grateful, because of your letting me be with you when you open that big box"; and he eyed the case with the foreign markings, knowing that it held many almost priceless objects, which the other had secured when last in India and left there until he chose to send for them.
A servant came in with a pitcher of iced grape juice and some cake.
"Before we get to work, suppose we sample this, my son," remarked the gentleman, smilingly; for Colonel Hitchins knew boys from the ground up, even though he had never had any of his own.
A little later the lid of the case, which had been loosened previously by one of the servants probably, was lifted off, and the colonel began to take out the costly little articles that were so snugly packed in nests of paper and cloth.
These he placed upon the table as he brought them forth. They were of ebony, copper, brass, and ivory. Elmer had never before looked upon such a queer assortment of curios. And the best of it was that nearly every one represented some sort of adventure in which the present owner had taken part.
He related the story of each as he placed it there on the table and fingered it, while allowing memory to once more recall the lively incidents.
Elmer never passed a more enjoyable evening in all his life. Why, it seemed to him that Colonel Hitchins must be one of those wonderful story-tellers he had read about in the Arabian Nights Entertainment. And yet, strange though many of these narratives might be, he knew they were absolutely true, which made them seem all the more remarkable.
So deeply interested had the boy become that he hardly noted the flight of time. When a clock struck eleven he drew a long breath.