I told him that I was called to the city in the interest of the case I had abandoned after getting my wound, and that unless my continued presence there was absolutely indispensable, I would return in three days, at the farthest.
I gave him a detailed account of my visit to Bethel, with its attendant circumstances.
"Bethel will hardly make a decided move in the matter for a day or two, I think," I said, after we had discussed the propriety of taking the doctor into our counsel. "I will write him a note which you shall deliver, and the rest must wait."
I wrote as follows:
Dr. Carl Bethel,
Dear Sir—Am just in receipt of a telegram which calls me to the city. I go by the early train, as there is a lady in the case. Shall return in a few days, I trust, and then hope to finish our interrupted conversation. I think your success will be more probable and speedy if you delay all action for the present.
This is in confidence.
Yours fraternally, etc., etc.
"There," I said, folding the note, "That is making the truth tell a falsehood." And I smiled as I pictured the "lady in the case," likely to be conjured up by the imaginations of Harris and Dr. Bethel, and contrasted her charms with the sharp features, work-hardened hands, and matter-of-fact head, of Mrs. Ballou.