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"You see, doctor," said Captain Dall, as they cantered easily over the soft turf of a wide plain, which, a little beyond the entrance to the gulch, spread out for a considerable distance along the base of the Sierra Nevada, "you see, when we discovered that this valley, or gulch, as they call it here, was yours or your father's, which I suppose means the same thing Captain Blathers, Mr Cupples, Muggins, Old Peter, and I held a council of war, and came to the conclusion that we would go up an' have a look at it, hopin' to find gold, but first of all we went to the regular diggin's on the Sacramento River to learn how to wash out the dirt an' make enough to keep us goin'. When we had done this an' lined our pockets with enough of gold-dust to set us up, we started for Grizzly Bear Gulch, where we found nobody but Old Timothy, the native that had been your uncle's servant."
'Then you don't know what has become of him? 'No, but I dare say Uncle Burton Mr Cupples, you know-could tell you. Some time ago he told me that he had met Mr Marlowe in London, and had some talk with him. I changed the conversation. She paused and smiled with a trace of mischief.
He drew one of the defamed chairs to the table and sat down to test the broad ivory blade of the paper knife. Mr Cupples, swallowing his amazement, bent forward in an attitude of deep interest and handed Trent the bottle of lamp-black. Mrs Manderson stood at the window of her sitting-room at White Gables gazing out upon a wavering landscape of fine rain and mist.
If he had been told that Cosmo Cupples had more than once, after the first tumbler of toddy and before the second, betaken himself to his prayers for his poor Alec Forbes, and entreated God Almighty to do for him what he could not do, though he would die for him to rescue him from the fearful pit and the miry clay of moral pollution if he had heard this, he would have said that it was a sad pity, but such prayers could not be answered, seeing he that prayed was himself in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity.
Anyhow, he made no difficulties, nor did the constable on duty, though he was careful to insist on my not giving him away in the paper. 'I saw the body before it was removed, remarked Mr. Cupples. 'I should not have said there was anything remarkable about it, except that the shot in the eye had scarcely disfigured the face at all, and caused scarcely any effusion of blood, apparently.
He tilted some of the powder out upon one surface of the paper, then, turning it over, upon the other; then shook the leaf gently to rid it of the loose powder. He held it out to Mr. Cupples in silence. On one side of the paper appeared unmistakably, clearly printed in black, the same two finger-prints that he had already seen on the bowl and on the photographic plate.
Gin ye lippen to them, ye'll be i' the water in a cat-loup." Alec was beginning to enter into the humour of the man. "I see something like poetry lying about the table, Mr Cupples," said he, with a sly allusion to the rainbows. "Would you let me look at it?" Mr Cupples glanced at him sharply; but replied immediately: "Broken bits o' them!
'That is precisely the point, he said, 'on which I can be of some assistance to you. Trent glanced up in surprise. 'I told you I half expected you. I will explain the situation. Mrs. Manderson, who is my niece 'What! Trent laid down his knife and fork with a clash. 'Cupples, you are jesting with me. 'I am perfectly serious, Trent, really, returned Mr. Cupples earnestly.
Then I told her you were a personal friend of mine, and gave you a good character for tact and consideration of others' feelings; and it ended in her saying that, if you should come, she would like you to be helped in every way. Trent leaned across the table and shook Mr. Cupples by the hand in silence. Mr.
She went about everything just as before, because it had to be done; but it seemed foolish to do anything. The spring might as well stay away for any good that it promised either of them. As Mr Cupples was taking his farewell on board, "Ye'll gang and see my mother?" said Alec. "Ay, ay, bantam; I'll do that.�-Noo tak care o' yersel; and dinna tak leeberties wi' behemoth.
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