Page 166 - The snake's pass

154 — THE SNAKE'S PASS. — " ;
git to work?" He was so transparently inclined to be
rude, and possibly to pick a quarrel, that I whispered a
warning to Dick. To my great satisfaction he whispered
back :
" I see he wants to quarrel ; nothing in the world will
make me lose temper to-day." Then he took out his
pocket-book, searched for and found a folded paper
"
opening this he read : ' and the said Eichard Suther-
land shall be at liberty to make use of such assistant as
he may choose or appoint whensoever he may wish during
the said engagement at his own expense.' You see,
Mr. Murdock, I am quite within the four walls of the
agreement, and exercise my right. I now tell you for-
mally tbat Mr. Arthur Severn has kindly undertaken to
assist me for to-day." Murdock glared at him for a
minute, and then opened the gate and said:
"Come in, gintlemin." We entered.
"Now, Mr. Murdoch!" said Dick, briskly, "what do
you wish done to-day ? Shall we make further exami-
nation of the bog where the iron indication is, or shall
we finish the survey of the rest of the land ?
"
" Finish the rough survey
!
The operation was much less complicated than when
we had examined the bog. We simply "quartered" the
land, as the Constabulary say when they make search for
hidden arms ; and taking it bit by bit, passed the
magnet over its surface. We had the usual finds of
nails, horseshoes, and scrap iron, but no result of im-
portance. The last place we examined was the house.