Five minutes later, Dr. Bethel and 'Squire Brookhouse were going up the hill toward the house of the latter, while I, still smoking, sauntered in the opposite direction, lazily, as beseemed an idle man.
I felt very well satisfied just then, and was rather glad that my disclosure to the doctor had been interrupted. A new thought had lodged in my brain, and I wished to consult Carnes.
Just at sunset, while I sat on the piazza of the hotel, making a pretence of reading the Trafton Weekly News, I saw Charlie Harris, the operator, coming down the street with a yellow envelope in his hand.
He came up the steps of the hotel, straight to me, and I noted a mischievous smile on his face as he proffered the envelope, saying:
"I am glad to find you so easily. I should have felt it my duty to ransack the town in order to deliver that."
I opened the telegram in silence, and read these words:
The widow B. is in town and anxious to see you. T. C.
Then I looked up into the face of young Harris, and smiled in my turn.
"Harris," I said, "this is a very welcome piece of news, and I am much obliged to you."