"
"Hullo, Baker," said Bob; "what are you doing 'way off here?"
"Just drifting down the Grand Canal and listening to the gondoliers; and
incidentally, waiting for you. Climb off your horse and come up here and
get a tailor-made cigarette."
"I'm on my way over to Spruce Top," said Bob, "and I've got to keep
moving."
"Haste not, hump not, hustle not," said Baker, with the air of one
quoting a hand-illuminated motto. "It will only get you somewhere. Come,
gentle stranger, I would converse with thee; and I've come a long way to
do it."
"I live nearer home than this," grinned Bob.
"I wanted to see you in your office," grinned back Baker appreciatively,
"and this is strictly business."
Bob dismounted, threw the reins over his horse's head, and ascended to
the top of the boulder.
"Fire ahead," said he; "I keep union hours."
[Footnote A: Pronounced Hone-kal.]
XVII
"Union hours suit me," said Baker. "Why work while papa has his health?
What I want to know is, how high is the limit on this game anyway?"
"What do you mean?"
"This confounded so-called 'investigation' of yours? In other words, do
you intend to get after me?"
"As how?"
Baker's shrewd eyes looked at him gravely from out his smiling fat face.
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