nt in my breast, for the
relations between the author and his publishers are among the most sacred
confidences of life, and the peeping Tom who peers through a keyhole at the
courtship of a young man engaged in wooing his fiancee is no worse an
intruder than he who would tear aside the veil of secrecy which screens the
official returns of a "best seller" from the public eye. Feeling,
therefore, that I had permitted matters to proceed as far as they might
with propriety, I instantly entered the room and confronted my uninvited
guest, bracing myself, of course, for the defensive onslaught which I
naturally expected to sustain. But nothing of the sort occurred, for the
intruder, with a composure that was nothing short of marvelous under the
circumstances, instead of rising hurriedly like one caught in some
disreputable act, merely leaned farther back in the chair, took the cigar
from his mouth, and greeted me with:

"Howdy do, sir. What can I do for you this beastly hot night?"

The cold rim of a revolver-barrel placed at my temple could not more
effectually have put me out of business than this nonchalant reception.
Consequently I gasped out something about its being the sultriest 47th of
August in eighteen years, and plumped back into a chair opposite him. "I
wouldn't mind a Remsen cooler myself," he went on, "but the fact is your
butler is off for to-night, and I'm hanged if I can find a lemon in the
house. Maybe you'll join me in a smoke?" he added, shoving my own bundle of
brevas across the table. "Help yourself."

"I guess I know where the lemons are," said I. "But how did you know my
butler was out?"

"I telephoned him to go to Philadelphia this afternoon to see his brother
Yoku, who is ill there," said my visitor. "You see, I didn't want him
around to-night when I called. I knew I could manage you alone in case you
turned up, as you see you have, but two of you, and one a Jap, I was afraid
might involve us all in ugly complications. Between you and me, Jenkins,
these Orientals are pretty lively fighters, and your man Nogi particularly
has got jiu-jitsu down to a pretty fine point, so I had to do something to
get rid of him. Our arrangement is a matter for two, not three, anyhow."

"So," said I, coldly. "You and I have an arrangement, have we? I wasn't
aware of it."

"Not yet," he answered. "But there's a chance that we may have. If I can
only satisfy myself that you are the man I'm looking for, there is no
ea