er haughtily.

Then Melville himself came in, brushing back his white tufted burnsides and
licking his lips and blinking his eyes--looking for all the world like a
cat at its toilet.

"Oh! ah! Blacklock!" he exclaimed, with purring cordiality--and I knew he
had heard of the big deposit I was making. "Come into my office on your way
out--nothing especial--only because it's always a pleasure to talk with
you."

I saw that his effusive friendliness confirmed Tom Langdon's fear that I
had escaped from his brother's toils. He stared sullenly at the carpet
until he caught me looking at him with twinkling eyes. He made a valiant
effort to return my smile and succeeded in twisting his face into a knot
that seemed to hurt him as much as it amused me.

"Well, good-by, Tom," said I. "Give my regards to your brother when he
lands, and tell him his going away was a mistake. A man can't afford to
trust his important business to understrappers." This with a face free from
any suggestion of intending a shot at him. Then to Sam: "See you to-night,
old man," and I went away, leaving Lewis looking from one to the other as
if he felt that there was dynamite about, but couldn't locate it. I stopped
with Melville to talk Coal for a few minutes--at my ease, and the last man
on earth to be suspected of hanging by the crook of one finger from the
edge of the precipice.

I rang the Ellerslys' bell at half-past nine that evening. The butler faced
me with eyes not down, as they should have been, but on mine, and full
of the servile insolence to which he had been prompted by what he had
overheard in the family.

"Not at home, sir," he said, though I had not spoken.

I was preoccupied and not expecting that statement; neither had I skill,
nor desire to acquire skill, in reading family barometers in the faces of
servants. So, I was for brushing past him and entering where I felt I had
as much right as in my own places. He barred the way.

"Beg pardon, sir. Mrs. Ellersly instructed me to say no one was at home."

I halted, but only like an oncoming bear at the prick of an arrow.

"What the hell does this mean?" I exclaimed, waving him aside. At that
instant Anita appeared from the little reception-room a few feet away.

"Oh--come in!" she said cordially. "I was expecting you. Burroughs, please
take Mr. Blacklock's hat."

I followed her into the reception-room, thinking the butler had made some
sort of mistake.

"How did you come out?" s