The Just and the Unjust | Page 7

first floor, of the one building in Mount Hope
that was distinctly an office building, since its sky-scraping five stories
were reached by an elevator. Here North found Langham--a man only
three or four years older than himself, tall, broad-shouldered, with an
oratorical air of distinction and a manner that proclaimed him the
leading young lawyer at the local bar.
He greeted North cordially, and the latter observed that his friend's face
was unusually flushed, and that beads of perspiration glistened on his
forehead, which he frequently wiped with a large linen handkerchief.
"What have you been doing with yourself, Jack?" he demanded, sliding
his chair back from the desk at which he was seated. "I haven't had a
glimpse of you in days."
"I have been keeping rather quiet."
"What's the matter? Liver out of whack?" Langham smiled
complacently.
"Worse than that!" North rejoined moodily.
"That's saying a good deal? What is it, Jack?"
But North was not inclined to lay bare his heart; he doubted if
Langham could be made to comprehend any part of his suffering.
"I am getting down to my last dollar, Marsh. I don't know where the
money went, but it's gone," he finally said.
Langham nodded.
"You have certainly had your little time, Jack, and it's been a perfectly
good little time, too! What are you going to do when you are cleaned
out?"
"That's part of the puzzle, Marsh, that's the very hell and all of it."
"Well, you have had your fun--lots of it!" said Langham, swabbing his

face.
North noticed the embroidered initial in the corner of the handkerchief.
"Fun! Was it fun?" he demanded with sudden heat.
"You took it for fun. Personally I think it was a pretty fair imitation."
"Yes, I took it for fun, or mistook it; that's the pity of it! I can forgive
myself for almost everything but having been a fool!"
"That's always a hard dose to swallow," agreed Langham. He was
willing to enter into his friend's mood.
"Have you ever tried to swallow it?" asked North.
"I can't say I have. Some of us haven't any business with a
conscience--our blood's too red. I've made up my mind that, while I
may be a man of moral impulses I am also a creature of purest accident.
It's the same with you, Jack. You are a pretty decent fellow down under
the skin; there's still the divine spark in you, though perhaps it doesn't
burn bright enough to warm the premises. But it's there, like a shaft of
light from a gem, a gem in the rough--though I believe I'm mixing my
metaphors."
"Why don't you say a pearl in the mire?"
"But that doesn't really take from your pearlship, though it may dim
your luster. No, Jack, the accidents have been to your morals instead of
your arms and legs. That's how I explain it in my own case, and it's
saved me many a bad quarter of an hour with myself. I know I'd be on
crutches if the vicissitudes of which I have been the victim could be
given physical expression."
"Marsh," said North soberly, "I am going away."
"You are going to do what, Jack?" demanded the lawyer.
"I am going to leave Mount Hope. I am going West for a bit, and after I

am gone I want you to sell the stuff in my rooms for me; have an
auction and get rid of every stick of the fool truck!"
"Why, what's wrong? Going away--when?"
"At once, to-morrow--to-night maybe. I don't know quite when, but
very soon. I want you to get rid of all my stuff, do you understand?
Before long I'll write you my address and you can send me whatever it
brings. I expect I'll need the money--"
"Why, you're crazy, man!" cried Langham.
North moved impatiently. He had not come to discuss the merit of his
plans.
"On the contrary I am having my first gleam of reason," he said briefly.
"Of course you know best, Jack," acquiesced Langham after a
moment's silence.
"You'll do what I ask of you, Marsh?"
"Oh, hang it, yes." He hesitated for an instant and then said 'frankly.
"You know I'm rather in your debt; I don't suppose five hundred dollars
would square what I have had from you first and last."
"I hope you won't mention it! Whenever it is quite convenient, that will
be soon enough."
"Thank you, Jack!" said Langham gratefully. "The fact is the pickings
here are pretty small."
Again the lawyer mopped his brow and again North moved
impatiently.
"Don't say another word about it, Marsh," he repeated. "McBride has
agreed to take the last of my gas bonds off my hands; that will get me
away from here."

"How many have you left?"