The thin fingers tightened like cold clamps of steel.

For a moment the face of Obadiah Price underwent a strange change.

The hardness and glitter went out of his eyes and in place there came a questioning, almost an appealing, look.

His tense mouth relaxed.

It was as if he was on the point of surrendering to some emotion which he was struggling to stifle.
And Nathaniel, meeting those eyes, felt that somewhere within him had been struck a strange chord of sympathy, something that made this little old man more than a half-mad stranger to him, and involuntarily the grip of his fingers tightened around those of his companion.
"Now we will go to St.James, Captain Plum!" He attempted to withdraw his hand but Captain Plum held to it.
"Not yet!" he exclaimed.