Upon calling at the office of Darius Quarles he was disappointed to learn that the lawyer had gone off in his closed buggy early that morning, and would not be back all day—he had to foreclose a mortgage the clerk remarked, and never allowed that duty to be performed by a subordinate, for it gave him too much satisfaction to attend to it personally.
Even his employees had a secret contempt for his mean ways, it seemed.
"He expects to be home to supper, and if your business is pressing you might call at his house, which is just out of the village on the road to Harden," the young clerk said in concluding.
"Thank you, I believe I shall call, as I wish to see him very much," replied Darry, and left the place.
He made his way along the rather lonely road that led to the humble home of the Peakes, bowing his head to the storm, and yet with a song of thanksgiving swelling in his heart, for he knew he was carrying with him the means of lifting the load that had for some time oppressed his kind benefactors.
Suddenly something struck him a stunning blow and looking up as he staggered he heard a chorus of shrill laughs, and realized that a rope had been thrown around him in such a way that his arms were pinioned down at his sides.
At the same moment several impish figures sprang out of the dense brush and fell upon him with vicious blows, as though bent upon knocking him down.
Though they had their faces concealed after a ridiculous fashion he recognized the malicious laugh of one as belonging to Jim Dilks.