An hour later, about the time that the young mountaineers were beginning to look out for their second wind on the lower slope, Dangle came across in a vicious temper.
He had not come to look for Corder, the sight of whom in the sanctuary of a Classic study took him aback.
“That’s where you’re sneaking, is it?” said he. “I’m not surprised.”
“Not much need to sneak from you. It’s three against one I object to,” said Corder. “But if you like to fetch Clapperton and Brinkman over here, we can have it out comfortably now.”
“You must think yourself uncommonly important if you suppose we’re going to trouble about an ass like you,” said Dangle. “I never once thought of you.”
“What have you come for, then?” said Fisher. “Hadn’t you better wait till you’re invited before you come where you’re not wanted?”
“I’ve come on club business, and I’ve a perfect right to come. You fellows, I hear, have taken it into your heads to dissolve the club.”
“What of that? Why didn’t you come and vote against it if you didn’t like it?”
“Thank you. It wasn’t quite good enough. What I want to know is, what is the treasurer going to do with the money? I suppose that’s hardly going to be treated as a perquisite for him?”
Fisher major looked troubled. He had dreaded this awkward question for days. For the lost money was still missing.