“Yes, sir, I’ll write to you every day.”
There are few boys of seventeen who would not have experienced pleasure in such an expedition. To have the command of a horse and buggy, to drive from town to town, putting up at hotels by night, would to most be a pleasant prospect. But Julius thoroughly understood that, however pleasant it might be, the motive of his journey was business; and he resolved to exert himself to the utmost in the interests of his guardian and benefactor.{205}
CHAPTER XXIX.
MARLOWE.
Four days later Julius arrived about dusk in the village of Lawrenceburg. There was a citizen of this place against whom Mr. Taylor had given him a note to collect. He put up at the hotel, and after entering his name inquired where Mr. Philip Thompson resided.
“Two miles distant, on the Northcote road,” said the landlord. “Have you business with him?”
Julius answered in the affirmative.
“If you want to go over there after supper, I will send my boy to show you the way.”
“I think I will wait till morning,” said Julius, who felt tired. “My business will wait till then.”
There was a man sitting on the piazza of the tavern when Julius drove up. He was a tall man, rather shabbily built, with a slouching gait, who kept his eyes bent downward, while his face was partly shaded by a soft felt hat. Julius did not notice him, or rather did not do so particularly; but the stranger fixed his eyes eagerly on the boy’s face, and started perceptibly, while a look partly of recognition, partly of hatred, swept over his countenance.
I do not intend to make this man’s personality a mystery.{206} It was Dan Marlowe, the burglar, whom, three years before, Julius had been instrumental in trapping, and who, until within two or three months, had been confined in Sing Sing prison. His escape has already been referred to.