up to the door. I asked him in, of course. He
sniffed and coughed a good bit, because I was biting a big plate,
and the fumes are pretty thick even with nitric acid. He wanted to
know all about what I was doing. Of course I explained, asked him
to sit down and have a drink, and for a time we got on very well. I
said I supposed he was touring, and he remarked:

"'Oh, no. I'm living down here just at present,'

"'What, broke again?' I asked laughing. He looked at me in that
fiery damn-your-eyes way of his and then joined in the laugh. 'No,'
he said, 'experimenting. I've taken up flying.'

"He said it just as you might say, 'I've taken up tennis.' He gives
you the impression that if he remarked that he had taken up
cathedral-building or unicorn-breeding, you would believe him. A
most remarkable man!

"I said, 'Oh, I've heard something about your people, I believe,
Carville,' and took up your letter. He put his whisky down on the
floor (he was sitting in my low window seat) and glared at me. 'At
least,' I said, funking, you know, 'I see it's the same name.' And
I went on to tell him how I'd been so impressed with my first
adventure with him that I'd written to you about it. He held out
his hand for the letter. I just sat and watched him. He read the
whole thing rapidly, his eyes going back again and again to some
parts of it; and then he gave it back to me.

"'So that's where he is, eh?' he said, and smiled. He took out a
pocket-book and made a note of the address.

"'Who,' I said.

"'Charley, dear old Charley,' he said, 'I haven't seen him or heard
from him for years.'

"'Then it is your brother?' I asked. He nodded.

"'He always was a bit of a duffer,' he said. 'What's N. J.?' he
asked suddenly.

"'New Jersey,' I replied, 'in the United States.'

"'Oh,' said he, 'I thought it meant New Jerusalem. It would be like
Charley.'

"He shut up his pocket-book and said no more about it. Cool, eh? I
wanted to ask him no end of questions about his past life, but
didn't care to. He was ready enough to talk of his experiments
though, and asked me to go over to Mersea Island to see his shop.
'Thanks, I will some time,' I said. 'Come now!' he rapped out, and
that was what I did. Took the plates out, washed my hands, and
scar