“Surely! Surely!” exclaimed the Colonel eagerly.
“A medium-sized box,” said Toole, turning his head to hide his smile, “should be opened only in the presence of an attorney-at-law. That is legal advice and worth five dollars, but I charge you nothing for it, you being my friend. Consider it a gift from me to you.”
“I'm much obliged,” said the Colonel gruffly.
“And now,” said the attorney briskly, “for the MODUS OPERANDI, as we lawyers say. Has the client, the lady in the case, a hatchet?”
The Colonel thought.
“I ain't right sure,” he said at length, after he had searched his brain; “seems like she ought to have, but I've got one, an' I'll loan it to her.”
“Good!” exclaimed Toole briskly. “That is better yet. A medium-sized box left by a transient in payment of default of a board bill should always be opened, if possible, with a hatchet not the property of the plaintiff. Chitty says that. It was so ruled in the case of MUGGINS vs. MUGGINS.”
He took from his desk a bulky volume, and ran over the pages rapidly.
“Box,” he said, “small box-medium box. Here it is. Humph!”
The Colonel leaned over the book, but the attorney closed it quickly.