s the worst of it," cried Mr. Tooting.

"I'll see what I can do," said the Honourable Tim. "He's always talking
about thorough, let him do it thorough." And Mr. Watling winked.

"Thorough," repeated Mr. Tooting, delightedly.

"That's it--Colonel," said Mr. Watling. "Have you ordered your uniform
yet, Ham?"

Mr. Tooting plainly appreciated this joke, for he grinned.

"I guess you won't starve if you don't get that commissionership, Tim,"
he retorted.

"And I guess," returned Mr. Watling, "that you won't go naked if you
don't have a uniform."

Victoria's surmise was true. At ten o'clock at night, two days before
the convention, a tall figure had appeared in the empty rotunda of
the Pelican, startling the clerk out of a doze. He rubbed his eyes and
stared, recognized Hilary Vane, and yet failed to recognize him. It was
an extraordinary occasion indeed which would cause Mr. McAvoy to lose
his aplomb; to neglect to seize the pen and dip it, with a flourish,
into the ink, and extend its handle towards the important guest; to omit
a few fitting words of welcome. It was Hilary who got the pen first, and
wrote his name in silence, and by this time Mr. McAvoy had recovered his
presence of mind sufficiently to wield the blotter.

"We didn't expect you to-night, Mr. Vane," he said, in a voice that
sounded strange to him, "but we've kept Number Seven, as usual. Front!"

"The old man's seen his day, I guess," Mr. McAvoy remarked, as he
studied the register with a lone reporter. "This Crewe must have got in
on 'em hard, from what they tell me, and Adam Hunt has his dander up."

The next morning at ten o'clock, while the workmen were still tacking
down the fireproof carpets in headquarters upstairs, and before even the
advance guard of the armies had begun to arrive, the eye of the clerk
was caught by a tall young man rapidly approaching the desk.

"Is Mr. Hilary Vane here?"

"He's in Number Seven," said Mr. McAvoy, who was cudgelling his brains.
"Give me your card, and I'll send it up."

"I'll go up," said the caller, turning on his heel and suiting the
action to the word, leaving Mr. McAvoy to make active but futile
inquiries among the few travelling men and reporters seated about.

"Well, if you fellers don't know him, I give up," said the clerk,
irritably, "but he looks as if he ought to be somebody. He knows his
business, anyway."

In the meantime Mr. Vane's caller had reached the first floor; he
hesitated just a