“What is absurd?” said the professor quietly.
“Why, to see him walking on like that. Ill! Invalid! He is an impostor.”
The professor smiled.
“I say, is it safe to let him go on like that?”
“So long as he feels no fear. See how confident he is!” said Mr Preston.
Just then Lawrence stopped for the others to overtake him.
“Have you noticed what beautiful white stone this is, Mr Preston?” he said.
He pointed down at the path they were on, for every here and there the rock was worn smooth and shiny by the action of the air and water, perhaps, too, by the footsteps of men for thousands of years, and was almost as white as snow.
“Yes,” said the professor, “I have been making a mental note of it, and wishing I had a geologist’s hammer. You know what it is, I suppose?”
“White stone, of course,” said Mr Burne.