“Of course I have no right to inquire,” said Mr. Muller, “but I am burning with curiosity.”
“I am so glad you found me,” said Mr. Berkeley, “although you did it accidentally, that I feel quite willing to tell you all about my coming here. I will do so as we walk through the woods.”
“I am also extremely glad I found you,” remarked Mr. Muller, who had said nothing yet about his own reasons for wishing to see Mr. Berkeley, preferring to wait until the mind of the other should not be so occupied and excited by the affairs of which he had just heard. “And what is more,” he continued, “I am greatly rejoiced that this gun did not go off.”
“And I more than you,” said Mr. Berkeley. “I knew Old Bruden could not be depended on for sure fire, but I never expected to derive any advantage from that fact. And now,” added he, taking up his valise, and preparing to padlock the door of his hut, “I think we are ready to go.”
“Do you intend to leave all those books here?” asked Mr. Muller, in surprise.
“Yes,” said Mr. Berkeley, “I brought them here by degrees, and I can’t carry them all away at once. Besides, I may want to come back here again. I think they will be quite safe, for I am certain that no one but you and myself has yet discovered that fallen tree among the bushes.”
As the two walked away—the one carrying the gun and the other the valise—Mr. Berkeley told his little story.
“I came out here,” he said, “to study law.”
“To study law!” exclaimed Mr. Muller.
“Yes,” said the other. “You need not be surprised, and you need not laugh. The idea is not original with me, and the thing has been done before. A young friend of mine read law for four months in that very hut, which he built. He approached it, however, by a difficult path through the woods, not knowing of our convenient bridge. He came for the same reason that I came,—to study undisturbed. His provisions were brought to him on certain days by his brother, who left them under a tree more than a mile from here, where my friend went to get them. His brother never knew where the hut was situated. I go over to the little village of Bridgeville for my provisions. It is a long walk, but I don’t have to go often.”