He looked
at him now and found his glance returned by an illegible smile. The
question flashed through his mind and showed itself on his face as to
why Roden had made such a mistake as to introduce a man like this into
the Malgamite scheme. Von Holzen invited the gentlemen into the office.
"It is small, but it will accommodate us," he said, with a smile.
He drew forward chairs, and offered one to Cornish in particular, with
a grim deference. He seemed to have divined that their last meeting in
this same office had been, by tacit understanding, kept a secret.
There is for some men a certain satisfaction in antagonism, and a stern
regard for a strong foe--which reached its culmination, perhaps, in
that Saxon knight who desired to be buried in the same chapel as his
lifelong foe--between him, indeed, and the door--so that at the
resurrection day they should not miss each other.
Von Holzen seemed to have somewhat of this feeling for Cornish. He
offered him the best seat at the table. Roden was taking his books from
a safe--huge ledgers bound in green pigskin, slim cash-books,
cloth-bound journals. He named them as he laid them on the table before
Mr. Wade. Major White looked at the great tomes with solemn and silent
awe. Mr. Wade was already fingering his gold pencil-case. He eyed the
closed books with an anticipatory gleam of pleasure in his face--as a
commander may eye the arrayed squadrons of the foe.
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