RINN'S SECRET AMBITIONS
MILLIONAIRE SPORTSMAN WHO WANTS TO SHOOT
NIAGARA!

Mr. Nicol Brinn of Cincinnati, who is at present in New York, opened his
heart to members of the Players' Club last night. Our prominent citizen,
responding to a toast, "the distinguished visitor," said:

"I'd like to live through months of midnight frozen in among the polar
ice; I'd like to cross Africa from east to west and get lost in the
middle. I'd like to have a Montana sheriff's posse on my heels for horse
stealing, and I've prayed to be wrecked on a desert island like Robinson
Crusoe to see if I am man enough to live it out. I want to stand my
trial for murder and defend my own case, and I want to be found by the
eunuchs in the harem of the Shah. I want to dive for pearls and scale
the Matterhorn. I want to know where the tunnel leads to--the tunnel
down under the Great Pyramid of Gizeh--and I'd love to shoot Niagara
Falls in a barrel."

"It sounds characteristic," murmured Harley, laying the slip on the
coffee table.

"It's true!" declared Brinn. "I said it and I meant it. I'm a glutton
for danger, Mr. Harley, and I'm going to tell you why. Something
happened to me seven years ago--"

"In India?"

"In India. Correct. Something happened to me, sir, which just took
the sunshine out of life. At the time I didn't know all it meant. I've
learned since. For seven years I have been flirting with death and
hoping to fall!"

Harley stared at him uncomprehendingly. "More than ever I fail to
understand."

"I can only ask you to be patient, Mr. Harley. Time is a wonderful
doctor, and I don't say that in seven years the old wound hasn't healed
a bit. But to-night you have, unknowingly, undone all that time had
done. I'm a man that has been down into hell. I bought myself out. I
thought I knew where the pit was located. I thought I was well away from
it, Mr. Harley, and you have told me something tonight which makes me
think that it isn't where I supposed at all, but hidden down here right
under our feet in London. And we're both standing on the edge!"

That Nicol Brinn was deeply moved no student of humanity could have
doubted. From beneath the stoic's cloak another than the dare-devil
millionaire whose crazy exploits were notorious had looked out.
Persistently the note of danger came to Paul Harley. Those luxurious
Piccadilly chambers were a focus upon which some malignant will was
concentrated. He became conscious of ang