Therefore he kept on hammering the great trusts before that Creosote Supreme Bench, cherished the diversion as his chief recreation—lived in a dream world of amazing activity and usefulness. And in the meantime he humbly and contentedly drew deeds, conveyances and wills, appraised estates, presided sagely over “leave-it-out” questions of dispute, and spent most of his time keeping would-be litigants in Palermo out of the law.
The voices under his window kept on their monotonous rumble as he meditated. There was the occasional spit of an oath from Willard, following the irritating drawl of Bradish, who seemed to relish the skipper’s rage.
“Your honours,” murmured Squire Phin, “I want to thank God in your presence that I never yet ste-boyed a bulldog into a fight, rubbed a tomcat’s ears, nor scuffed a rooster’s feathers and set him over into a neighbour’s barnyard.”
He tossed his pipe into the tin box and went along and threw up the front window as though he had arrived at his resolution.
“Bradish!” he called, and when the man poked his head around the side of the Goddard and peered at the window, the Squire beckoned and went back to his chair.
“I was intending to come up right away, Squire,” said the visitor, with an irritating air of condescension, standing with one foot on a chair and slapping his glove against his leg. His garments seemed peculiarly fresh and smart in the dingy office, in contrast with the lawyer’s careless attire. “But I got pretty much interested in hearing Klebe give personal recollections of ‘When I was a circus animal for five minutes!’ It strikes me that your brother——”
“I didn’t call you up here to talk about my brother,” broke in the lawyer, brusquely.
“Sure enough,” replied Bradish, airily, “I’d be ashamed of him if I were you. So, then, to business! Have you collected from Buffum and Crummett and those others?”
“No,” said the lawyer, “and it isn’t about them I want to talk. I——”
“But I propose to talk about ’em,” snapped Brad-ish, interrupting in turn. “Here I’ve put a lot of bills in your hands to collect—collect! I want all that’s due me and I’ve got to have it. I’m in a hurry and I told you so. This is the fourth time I’ve ordered you to put ’em to the wall, and you haven’t done it.”