"Long," I said, sharply, "what do you mean?"
"I mean this," he replied, his tone changing suddenly. "I mean that it's time for you and I to understand each other!"
CHAPTER XXV.
IN WHICH I TAKE JIM ON TRUST.
"It is time for you and I to understand each other. Don't stop there looking moon-struck! Go ahead, and don't waste time. I'll run back and ask for the address. Miss Barnard, if she scented a secret, might be trusted with it. But, Dr. Hess—his brain has not kept pace with the steps of the universe."
With these remarkable words, Jim Long lowered his head, compressed his elbows after the fashion of a professional prize-runner, and was off like a flying shadow, while I stood staring after him through the darkness, divided betwixt wonder at his strange words and manner, and disgust at my own stupidity.
What did he mean? Had he actually discovered my identity? And, if so, how?
While waiting for a solution to these riddles, it would be well to profit by Jim's advice. So I turned my face toward the village, and hurried forward.