"Don't
kill him!" cried some one. "He fought for us!"
6
An hour later Benham returned in an extraordinarily dishevelled and
battered condition to his hotel. He found his friend in anxious
consultation with the hotel proprietor.
"We were afraid that something had happened to you," said his
friend.
"I got a little involved," said Benham.
"Hasn't some one clawed your cheek?"
"Very probably," said Benham.
"And torn your coat? And hit you rather heavily upon the neck?"
"It was a complicated misunderstanding," said Benham. "Oh! pardon!
I'm rather badly bruised upon that arm you're holding."
7
Benham told the story to White as a jest against himself.
"I see now of course that they could not possibly understand my
point of view," he said. . . .
"I'm not sure if they quite followed my German. . . .
"It's odd, too, that I remember saying, 'Let's burn these
mortgages,' and at the time I'm almost sure I didn't know the German
for mortgage. . . ."
It was not the only occasion on which other people had failed to
grasp the full intention behind Benham's proceedings.
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