If you won't go, I
will."
He made three jumps of it up the boulder, bearing a stick in his
hand. Presently his face, preternaturally solemn and gnomish
behind the goggles, protruded over the rim. The girl was sitting
with her hands folded in her lap, contemplating the scenery as if
she'd never had another interest in her life. Apparently she had
forgotten his very existence.
"Ahem!" he began nervously.
"Ahem!" she retorted so promptly that he almost fell off his
precarious perch. "Did you ring? Number, please."
"I wish I knew whether you were laughing at me or not," he said
ruefully.
"When?"
"All the time."
"I am. Your darkest suspicions are correct. Did you abolish my
devilkin?"
"I drove him back into his trapdoor home and put a rock over it."
"Why didn't you destroy him?"
"Because I've appointed him guardian of the rock, with strict
instructions to bite any one that ever comes there after this
except you."
"Bravo! You're progressing. As soon as you're free from the blight
of my regard, you become quite human. But I'll never come again."
"No, I suppose not," he said dismally.
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