Lem seemed agitated. He shuffled his feet in the dust.
"Me find a pocketbook?" he said at length with a short laugh. "Well,
I guess not. I ain't in the habit of findin' such things as that.
What kind was it, and what was in it?"
"It was a long one of brown leather," replied Jack, describing Ed's pocketbook and ignoring the question of what was in it. "A friend of mine dropped it along here, and we're helping him hunt for it. My sister and Mr. Pennington are going to look in one direction, and you and I'll look in the other."
Jack tried to make his voice sound friendly, but it was difficult work.
"You'll look on one side of the road, and I'll keep watch on the other," he went on.
"All right; I'm agreeable," said Lem with a leer. "I don't believe we'll find it, though—I ain't never very lucky."
He got into the auto beside Jack, and the two started off slowly. Cora and Walter also started, and the search for the missing twenty thousand dollars was continued.
Jack and Lem did not talk much on the way back. Lem Gildy was not an accomplished conversationalist, and Jack was too anxious to find the wallet to care for the distraction of talk. Several times he thought he saw the pocketbook, but each time it was a flat stone or a clod of dirt that misled him.
They reached Chelton, and Lem asked to be set down in a secluded street.
"Why?" asked Jack curiously.