Thorpe having turned eastward, Pringle came back and trailed along far behind. He dared not follow closely; if Thorpe’s suspicions should be aroused it would go hard with Jeff. He preferred to risk losing his man rather than to risk the consequences of an alarm.
And lose him he did. The Judge turned to the left at Terrazas Street. Pringle was just a little too far behind. He made haste to come up, but when he reached the corner the Judge was out of sight; nor could he catch the trail again. And the Judge returned to El Paso without being seen again.
Of the other labors of the four friends during this weary time; of myriad casual questions that came to naught; of unnumbered fat men traced, unsuspecting, to their blameless homes; of hope deferred, disappointments, fastings, vain vigils, and all their acts—behold! are they not written in the book of Lost Endeavor?
Meanwhile Jeff read many books, he practised his typewriting, he baited Mac mercilessly, he experimented with new dishes procured by that trusty henchman; and day by day he noted in the papers little personals: “Understand situation perfectly that quick move will jeopardize”; “Making haste slowly to come to aid of party, whereabouts unknown sit steady”; and others, variously worded to report no progress, to extol the difficult virtue of patience and to recommend its practice—always with a fragment from one of the catchword sentences for an identification tag. One of them gave no news at all. It read: “Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs. Practise that for quick movement. Lots of time.”
But as John Wesley sagely remarked, “It’s a long worm that has no turning.” And as he said again, “The end doesn’t come till along towards the last.”
Chapter XIII
“You’ve been listening at doors—and behind trees—and down chimneys—or you couldn’t have known it!”
—Humpty-Dumpty.
AT last, on a happy day, there came to the Judge’s office, demanding and receiving brief audience, a fat man with an indictable face; a man disreputable, vast and unkempt, with a sloven’s shoebrush for beard. Him, so propitiously ill-favored, Aughinbaugh dogged to Leo’s satrapy. There Leo took cognizance of him and, after a window-breaking progress, companied him to Juarez.