Wade always kept his head cocked a little to one side, in the attitude of one listening, and so long had he been at it that it is doubtful if he could have cocked it the other way without snapping something in his neck.

That right ear of his was open for business twenty-four hours out of the day.
The rest of his body may have slept as soundly as any man's, but his ear was always awake, on land or sea.

It was his boast that he had never had a vacation.
Braden, after his long ride down Fifth Avenue on the stage, found Wade in the hall.
"Is my grandfather in the library, Wade ?" he asked, surprised to find the man at the foot of the stairs, quite a distance from his accustomed post.
"He is, sir," said Wade.

"He asked me to wait here until you arrived and then to go upstairs for a little while, sir.

I fancy he has something to say to you in private." Which was a naive way of explaining that Mr.
Thorpe did not want him to have his ear cocked in the hall during the conversation that was to be resumed after an advisable interval.