In the Best Families

Then I was permitted to stay for the session with Leeds, who had arrived early in my recital but had been held outside until I was done. At last I was one of the party, but too late to hear anything that I didn't already know. With Leeds, who was practically one of the family, they had to cover not only his visit with his cousin to Wolfe's office, but also the preliminaries to it, so he took another half-hour and more. He himself had no idea, he said, where Rackham had been getting money. He had learned nothing from the personal inquiry he had undertaken at his cousin's request. He had never heard, or heard of, any serious quarrel between his cousin and her husband. And so on. As for his failure to tell Noonan of the visit to Wolfe's office and the real reason for my presence at Birchvale, he merely said calmly that Noonan hadn't asked and he preferred to wait until he was asked.

District Attorney Archer finally called it a night, got up and stretched, rubbed his eyes with his fingertips, asked Dykes and Noonan some questions and issued some orders, and addressed me. “You're staying at Leeds' place?

I said I hadn't stayed there much so far, but my bag was there.

“All right. I'll want you to-morrow-to-day. I said of course and went out with

Leeds. Ben Dykes offered to give us a lift, but we declined.

Together, without conversation, Leeds and I made for the head of the trail at the edge of the woods, giving the curving paths a miss. Dawn had come and was going; it was getting close to sunrise. The breeze was down and the birds were up, telling about it. The pace Leeds set, up the long easy slope and down the level stretch, was not quite up to his previous performances, which suited me fine. I was not in a racing mood, even to get to a bed.

Suddenly Leeds halted, and I came abreast of him. In the trail, thirty paces ahead, a man was getting up from his hands and knees to face us. He called,

“Hold it! Who are you?

We told him.

“Well, he said, “you'll have to keep off this section of trail. Go around.

We're just starting on it. Bright and early!

We asked how far, and he said about three hundred yards, to where a man had started at the other end. We stepped off the trail, to the right into the rough, and got slowed down, though the woods were fairly clean. After a couple of minutes of that I asked Leeds if he would know the spot, and he said he would. j^