"When you can I'll listen, but there's nothing you could tell me would make any difference between you and me." Seaforth laughed mirthlessly.

"I'm glad of that, but it wasn't you I was thinking of just then," he said.

"Still it seems to me that we are both a little off our balance this morning, and may be sorry for it afterwards." Alton rose up and moved somewhat stiffly towards the window, where he leaned against the log casing, looking out greedily upon the sunlit valley.

Then he limped back to the table and rested both hands upon it.
"I figure it's because I haven't used it, but this leg doesn't feel the same as it used to," he said.

"Did it strike you that I walked kind of stiffly ?" Seaforth knew that the moment he feared had come, but he felt his courage fail him and turned his head aside.