For myself, I never trouble to do so. I
count a leech a needless encumbrance."
Tom looked curiously at the two foremost men as they drew near. One
of them struck him in particular. He was very tall and very
strongly made, though clumsy in figure and swarthy in face. He had
the look almost of a foreigner, Tom thought, with black eyes that
twinkled with an evil and sinister expression, and never showed
more than as a slit between half-shut lids. He was marked with
smallpox, and had taken no pains, today at any rate, to disguise
the ravages of that malady. He walked a little in advance of his
companions, and when he got near to Lord Claud he stopped and made
a sweeping bow, his eyes the while scanning Tom's face and figure
most closely.
"This is not the gentleman who waited on me," he said in a rasping
voice.
"No; that gentleman is laid up in his bed, and cannot keep his
appointment; but this one will do the business equally well.
"Mr. Tufton of Gablehurst; let me present him to you, Sir James."
The swarthy man looked Tom over from head to foot with an insolent
stare.
"A fine young cub," he said at length, "and well grown for his
years. One of the gang, I suppose?" and there was an ugly sneer
upon his thick lips.
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