The Count turned again to the excited Frenchman and began another torrent of apparent explanation, but it was in a different tone. He was now suave and polite. As he talked he held out his hand to the proprietor of the stable and smiled.
“He’s been drinking again,” whispered Roy to Norman, a fact which was quite apparent to the latter.
Then to the surprise of both boys, with Norman still holding the money in his hand, the excited Frenchman grasped his customer’s hand, and he and Paul hurried from the barn. A block away, the disturbed Norman and Roy saw the two men arm in arm disappear behind the swinging door of the big hotel bar room. Ascertaining the amount of their friend’s bill from one of the stable employees, Norman paid it and he and his companion left.
That evening, Norman handed Paul five dollars he had received in change and the incident was closed.
For three more days the loading of the scows continued slowly. It finally became apparent that the little flotilla would set out Saturday evening. In these days Count Paul’s manner of life was so different from that of the boys that they did not see a great deal of him. Now and then he was on the river front, but more frequently he was a patron of the livery stable, and even in the evening he was frequently not in the hotel when Norman and Roy retired.
His acquaintance with the mounted policeman put him much in that man’s company. This officer, always in immaculate uniform, was very English in appearance, and he wore a striking tawny moustache. Being in charge of the local police station, as the sergeant, he was the highest police authority in that district. As the boys noticed him on the street at times, gloved and swishing his light cane, they were surprised at the open signs of his indulgence in drink. But what surprised them even more, knowing as they now did of the arrangement between Paul’s father and Colonel Howell, was the colonel’s apparent indifference to young Zept’s conduct.
“I have a theory,” said Norman to his friend at one time. “You know Colonel Howell told us he wasn’t taking Paul in hand to act as his guardian. I think he’s letting him go the pace until he gets him where he’ll have to quit what he’s doing. Then it’s going to be up to Paul himself. If he doesn’t make a man of himself, it’ll be his own fault.”
“I think a good call-down is what he needs,” answered Roy, “and the colonel ought to give it to him.”
“I reckon he thinks that isn’t his business,” commented Norman. “It’s certainly not ours. I reckon it’ll work out all right.”
“Like as not this is Paul’s idea of roughing it in the wilds,” suggested Roy.