“Ah, well, it makes no great difference, either way. It was but a stupid sort of jest to say the best of it. At another time, we’ll have our laugh out to the full. But come, let us be going. I have some business to see to.”
“I have but begun my dinner,” said Slade in protest.
“Dinners,” spoke the major, “can be had at any time; but these affairs of mine must not be kept waiting.”
With much complaint Slade left the table, casting longing looks at the smoking dishes thereon. They had reached the door of the public room as George arose and began readjusting his shoulder belt, of which he had freed himself when he sat down. He saw Hyde lean toward Slade and say something in a low tone; then he noted the latter’s quick, furtive, over-the-shoulder look in his direction; after this they passed out, and he could see them through the window, walking arm in arm down Broadway, their heads very close together.
When George in his turn left the “King’s Arms” he was busily revolving what he had seen and heard.
“It has an odd look,” mused he. “And I don’t just get the meaning of it all. There can be no doubt that Major Hyde sent this man into the inn for a purpose. But what was this purpose? Hyde’s words might lead one to believe that it was the carrying out of some sort of idle jest. But I doubt that. He gave that turn to the matter only when he recognized me, and felt that I had overheard what he had said.”
Slowly he walked along Broadway past Wall Street and the English Church, still going over the situation.
“The first words that Hyde said to Slade upon entering were: ‘Did you find your opportunity?’ And Slade answered that he had, but had let it pass. Then he said he’d found there was no occasion to follow Hyde’s plans, and that he had heard something——Now the only thing which he heard that seemed to greatly interest him was that——”
Here the young man’s muttering stopped; his thoughts took a wild leap; for a moment or two they were a jumble of extravagances; then order began to reappear.
“Mr. Camp, it seems, is enormously rich,” was the new train of thought. “Major Hyde is his nephew, as is also this young man called Herbert. And Herbert, apparently, was to be the heir; a thing which was distasteful to Major Hyde. So the major sent this bully who sat at table with me to pick a quarrel with the lucky nephew. A duel would perhaps have been the result; and the course of the old man’s money shifted.