wicker cradle, he handled with jealous care.

"Mr. Burton," he began, settling down in his chair, "we have been
unjust to you, Mr. Bomford and I. We apologize. We ask your
forgiveness."

"Unjust?" Burton murmured.

"Unjust," the professor repeated. "I allude to this with a certain
amount of shame. We made you an offer of a thousand pounds for a
portion of that--er--peculiar product to which you owe this wonderful
change in your disposition. We were in the wrong. We had thoughts in
our mind which we should have shared with you. It was not fair, Mr.
Burton, to attempt to carry out such a scheme as Mr. Bomford here had
conceived, without including you in it." The professor nodded to
himself, amiably satisfied with his words. Burton remained mystified.
Mr. Bomford took up the ball.

"We yielded, Mr. Burton," he said, "to the natural impulse of all
business men. We tried to make the best bargain we could for ourselves.
A little reflection and--er--your refusal of our offer, has brought us
into what I trust you will find a more reasonable frame of mind. We
wish now to treat you with the utmost confidence. We wish to lay our
whole scheme before you."

"I don't know what you mean," Burton declared, a little wearily. "You
want one of my beans, for which you offered a certain sum of money. I
am sorry. I would give you one if I could, but I cannot spare it. They
are all that stand between me and a relapse into a state of being which
I shudder to contemplate. Need we discuss it any further? I think, if
you do not mind--"

He half rose to his feet, his eyes were searching the shadows of the
garden. The professor pulled him down.

"Be reasonable, Mr. Burton--be reasonable," he begged. "Listen to what
Mr. Bomford has to say."

Mr. Bomford cleared his throat, scratched his chin for a moment
thoughtfully, and half emptied his glass of claret.

"Our scheme, my young friend," He said condescendingly, "is worthy even
of your consideration. You are, I understand, gifted with some powers
of observation which you have turned to lucrative account. It has
naturally occurred to you, then, in your studies of life, that the
greatest accumulations of wealth which have taken place during the
present generation have come entirely through discoveries, which either
nominally or actually have affected the personal well-being of the
individual. Do I make myself clear?

"I have no doubt," Burton murmured, "that I shall understand presently."