Marksman finding the
way into the painting-room clear once more, had rolled himself quietly
round the door-post again; and had then, just as quietly, bent forward
a little, so as to look sideways into the bureau with those observant
eyes of his which nothing could escape, and which had been trained by
his old Indian experience to be always unscrupulously at work, watching
something. Little did Mr. Blyth think, as he walked away, talking with
Mr. Gimble, and carefully hooking his key on to its swivel again, that
Zack's strange friend had seen as much of the inside of the bureau as
he had seen of it himself.
"He shut up his big box uncommon sharp, when that smilin' little chap
come near him," thought Mat. "And yet there didn't seem nothing in it
that strangers mightn't see. There wasn't no money there--at least none
that _I_ set eyes on. Well! it's not my business. Let's have another
look at the picter."
In the affairs of art, as in other matters, important discoveries are
sometimes made, and great events occasionally accomplished, by very
ignoble agencies. Mat's deplorable ignorance of Painting in general,
and grossly illiterate misunderstanding of the subject represented by
Columbus in particular, seemed to mark him out as the last man in the
world who could possibly be associated with Art Mystic in the character
of guardian genius.
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