They had not surmised that he was a lawyer, for never had he told them of his personal activities, or occupations; but now they turned toward him as does a swimming, shipwrecked man to a life raft. He sat and listened as they gave him the details of the situation, sometimes asking a shrewd question, sometimes smoking silently and thoughtfully, a stolid, motionless figure lolling back in his chair. The glow of his pipe alternated with darkness as regularly as the blinking of a lighthouse lamp at a distance.
When they had concluded, they waited for him to speak in a prolonged silence, and hung upon his words as if upon a decision. Ignorant of the complexities of the law, they hoped that he might at once advise them and set their minds at rest, and were annoyed when he said, at last, “Of course, I can’t very well say, offhand, what should be done. I suggest”—he stopped, puffed some more, discovered that his pipe was nearly empty, leaned over and thumped the bowl against the chair leg, refilled it, and by the time the partners were straining with impatience resumed—“I suggest that you take me over so that I can talk with this old man Harmon, and see what he has to say about it. A lawyer can scarcely have a client without consulting him, can he?”
His dry, matter-of-fact tone did not offer the partners as much hope as they craved; but they had to admit his logical attitude.
“We’ll go over there to-morrow night,” said David. “That is, if you can stick such a long walk.”
Heald laughed.
“I’ve walked a few hundred miles in my time,” he said. “I don’t think I’m too old to do a few miles more. It seems you fellows are mightily interested in this man you call Old Harmless, and—I owe you a lot—it strikes me; a lot that I’ve never found any way to repay. Why, if it weren’t for you two, I’d not be here to-night. I’d be dust under a Mexican wall long before now. And so—if I can do anything for you, or a friend of yours—— Yes, I think we must go over to-morrow, so that I may become acquainted with Uncle Bill. I think I’ll like him. There are some real and simple souls left in this world, after all.”
On the following day he proved to be a far more competent pedestrian than the partners had surmised, and when they stopped at the edge of the clearing and looked up the narrow gulch that, bottle-necked, opened out to their view, he stood and for a long time looked at it, his eyes roving from the great stone gates upward to the crests of the hills, to the great snowclad peaks in the background, and thence slowly across to fix themselves on the homely old log cabin from whose stone chimney smoke lazily curled, indicating that Uncle Bill was preparing his evening meal.
“It’s a beautiful place. It does seem almost a pity to spoil it,” he said quite as if soliloquizing, and then slowly trudged forward.
“You’ll maybe have to go slow with Uncle Bill,” David cautioned him, “because he’s sort of sparin’ of talk with strangers. But if——”
“He can talk enough once he knows and likes a man,” Goliath hastened to add, as if fearful that Heald might be discouraged; but Heald merely nodded his head and appeared thoughtful.