He regarded the section of Eastboro before him with condescending scorn, and then, catching sight of the doleful figure on the baggage truck, strolled over and addressed it.
"I say, my friend," he observed briskly, "have you a match concealed about your person?
If so, I--" He stopped short, for Mr.Atkins, after one languid glance in his direction, had sprung from the truck and was gazing at him as if he was some apparition, some figure in a nightmare, instead of his blase self.
And he, as he looked at the lightkeeper's astounded countenance, dropped the cigar stump from his fingers and stepped backward in alarmed consternation.
"You--you--YOU ?" gasped Seth.
"YOU!" repeated the stranger.
"You!" cried Seth again; not a brilliant nor original observation, but, under the circumstances, excusable, for the nonchalant person in the plaid suit was Emeline Bascom's brother-in-law, the genius, the "inventor," the one person whom he hated--and feared--more than anyone else in the world--Bennie D.himself.
There was a considerable interval during which neither of the pair spoke.

Seth, open-mouthed and horror-stricken, was incapable of speech, and the inventor's astonishment seemed to be coupled with a certain nervousness, almost as if he feared a physical assault.

However, as the lightkeeper made no move, and his fists remained open, the nervousness disappeared, and Bennie D.characteristically took command of the situation.
"Hum!" he observed musingly.

"Hum! May I ask what you are doing here ?" "Huh--hey ?" was Seth's incoherent reply.
"I ask what you are doing here?
Have you followed me ?" "Fol-follered you?
No." "You're sure of that, are you ?" "Yes, I be." Seth did not ask what Bennie D.was doing there.

Already that question was settled in his mind.