"I will tell him."
Mrs. Sykes did tell him, and the strange man swore he would not see any one, not even his grandmother, come down from heaven. She reported this answer in substance to Laud.
"I wish to see him on a matter in which he is deeply concerned," said the troubled visitor. "Tell him, if you please, in regard to the Hasbrook affair."
Perhaps Mrs. Sykes knew something about the Hasbrook affair herself, for she promptly consented to make this second application for the admission of the stranger, for such he was to her.
She returned in a few moments with an invitation to enter, and so it appeared that there was some power in the "Hasbrook affair." Laud was conducted to the library,—as the retired shipmaster chose to call the apartment, though there were not a dozen books in it,—where the captain sat in a large rocking-chair, with his feet on the table.
"Who are you?" demanded the strange man; and we are obliged to modify his phraseology in order to make it admissible to our pages.
"Mr. Laud Cavendish, at your service," replied he, politely.
"Mister Laud Cavendish!" repeated the captain, with a palpable sneer; "you are the swell that used to drive the grocery wagon."
"I was formerly employed at Miller's store, but I am not there now."
"Well, what do you want here?"