aculated. "What does it suggest?"

I told him that it suggested a parcel from the druggist's. I had often
seen just such twine about a druggist's parcel.

Perkins sniffed disdainfully.

"Druggists?" he exclaimed with disgust. "Mystery! Blood! 'The Crimson
Cord.' Daggers! Murder! Strangling! Clues! 'The Crimson Cord'--"

He motioned wildly with his hands as if the possibilities of the phrase
were quite beyond his power of expression.

"It sounds like a book," I suggested.

"Great!" cried Perkins. "A novel! The novel! Think of the words 'A
Crimson Cord' in blood-red letters six feet high on a white ground!" He
pulled his hat over his eyes and spread out his hands, and I think he
shuddered.

"Think of 'A Crimson Cord,'" he muttered, "in blood-red letters on a
ground of dead, sepulchral black, with a crimson cord writhing through
them like a serpent."

He sat up suddenly and threw one hand in the air.

"Think," he cried, "of the words in black on white with a crimson cord
drawn taut across the whole ad!"

He beamed upon me.

"The cover of the book," he said quite calmly, "will be white--virgin,
spotless white--with black lettering, and the cord in crimson. With each
copy we will give a crimson silk cord for a book-mark. Each copy will be
done up in a white box and tied with crimson cord."

He closed his eyes and tilted his head upward.

"A thick book," he said, "with deckel edges and pictures by Christy.
No, pictures by Pyle. Deep, mysterious pictures! Shadows and gloom! And
wide, wide margins. And a gloomy foreword. One fifty per copy, at all
booksellers."

Perkins opened his eyes and set his hat straight with a quick motion of
his hand. He arose and pulled on his gloves.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"Contracts!" he said. "Contracts for advertising! We must boom 'The
Crimson Cord.' We must boom her big!"

He went out and closed the door. Presently, when I supposed him well on
the way down town, he opened the door and inserted his head.

"Gilt tops," he announced. "One million copies the first impression!"

And then he was gone.

II

A week later Chicago and the greater part of the United States was
placarded with "The Crimson Cord." Perkins did his work thoroughly and
well, and great was the interest in the mysterious title. It was an old
dodge, but a good one. Nothing appeared on the advertisements but the
mere title. No word as to what "The Crimson Cord" was. Perkins merely
announced th