He stopped short and gazed at me in blank astonishment.
"Why-- why-- where did you come from?" he stammered.
"From Smalleyville," I returned as coolly as I could. "And that's
where you came from, too," I added.
"I didn't see you on the train," he went on, ignoring my last remark.
"I didn't come up by train."
"Maybe you walked," he went on, with some anxiety.
"Oh no; I rode in a carriage."
"Humph! It seems to me you must have been in a tremendous hurry."
"Perhaps I was."
"Why, you excite my curiosity. May I ask the cause of your sudden
impatience?"
He put the question in an apparently careless fashion, but his sharp
eyes betrayed his keen interest.
"You may."
"And what, was it?"
I looked at him for a moment in silence.
"I came to see a man."
"Ah! A friend? Perhaps he is seriously sick."
"I don't know if he is sick or not."
"And yet you hurried to see him?"
"Yes."
"Well, that-- that is out of the ordinary." He hesitated for a moment.
"Of course it is none of my business, but I am interested. Perhaps I
know the party and can help you. May I ask his name?"
"It's the same man you telegraphed to," I returned.
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