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
agr