Page:The Secret of the Caves.djvu/38

"For instance, he was very careless about his shoes."

"His shoes?" echoed the boys.

"He would not keep them laced. It was simply impossible to keep an eye on that man, and if I didn't watch him he was just as likely as not to go out to classes in the morning with his shoelaces dragging on the ground, and he wouldn't notice them unless he tripped over them. He was very absent-minded."

"That's a pretty good clue to go on. What did your brother look like, Miss Todd?"

"He was tall and rather thin. His hair was white and he was clean-shaven. His eyes and his teeth were very good. Even in spite of his age and all the reading and studying, he never had to wear glasses. Oh, yes—there's something else. He had an expression he often used, about as near swearing as he ever went. 'By jing!' it was. Whenever he was excited about anything or wanted to emphasize something he had said, he would always exclaim 'by jing!' I remember that he forgot himself in a lecture one day and said that. The dean spoke to him about it."

"'By jing!'" remarked Frank thoughtfully. "It isn't an expression one hears every day."

"It was the only expression I can remember that was quite characteristic of Todham."

Miss Todd had little of further value to tell