“Telegram? No, my dear. I left home two hours ago. Now, Mr Saul, what have you to say?”
“Oh, I do not want to interfere,” said Saul quickly. “But there was no one here to protect Miss Bellwood.”
“Surely she needed no protection?” said the doctor, looking from one to the other.
“How do you know that, sir, when a man comes here assuming to be my cousin.”
“Assuming!” cried the new-comer very fiercely.
“Yes, assuming, sir. You refused to show any credentials.”
“Oh, no, I didn’t, and I don’t. But when a fellow begins to bully me, and to come the high-handed, I hit back. Look here, Mr Lawrence, has this Mr Saul Harrington any right to insist upon my clearing up to him?”
“None whatever, sir.”
“That’s enough. As to my refusing—not such a fool. Only we learn too much out in the West to begin opening out to every one who says, ‘I’m the proper moral custom-house officer: give up your keys.’”
“I only interfered as the executors were not present,” said Saul Harrington. “If this gentleman is what he professes to be, I shall only be too glad to give him the hand of welcome.”