"Look at that now!" exclaimed the member elect. "Say, boys, you'd know
he had been a Grit--no honest, open-faced Conservative would ever think
of a trick like that!"
"There is nothing like experience to make a man able to see every
side," said the reformed one, with becoming modesty.
An hour later Angus was roused from his bed by a loud knock on the
door. Angus had gone to bed with his clothes on, knowing that these
were troublesome times.
"What's the row?" he asked, when he had cautiously opened the door.
"Row!" exclaimed the friend who was no longer a friend, "You're the man
that's makin' the row. The Conservatives have 'phoned in to the
Attorney-General's Department to-night to see what's to be done with
you for standin' between a man and his heaven-born birthright, keepin'
and confinin' of a man in a cellar, owned by and closed by you!"
This had something the air of a summons, and Angus was duly impressed.
"I don't want to see you get into trouble. Angus," Mr. Batters went on;
"and the only way to keep out of it is to give him to me, and then when
they come out here with a search-warrant they won't find nothin'."
Angus thanked him warmly, and, going upstairs, roused the innocent John
from his virtuous slumbers. He had some trouble persuading John, who
was a profound sleeper, that he must arise and go hence; but many
things were strange to him, and he rose and dressed without very much
protest.
Angus was distinctly relieved when he got John Thomas off his hands--he
felt he had had a merciful deliverance.
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