of the details. 'I don't think,' I said artfully, 'that I'll put
out my tongue--it's rather overdone, eh? _Everybody_ is taken with his
tongue out nowadays.'

'It is true,' he said, 'but I am not well enough known in the profession
yet to depart entirely from the conventional. Your tongue out as far as
it will go, please.'

'I shall have a rush of blood to the head, I know I shall,' I protested.

'Look here,' he said; 'am I taking this photograph, or are you?'

There was no possible doubt, unfortunately, as to who was taking the
photograph. I made one last remonstrance. 'I put it to you as a sensible
man,' I began; but it is a waste of time to put anything to a raving
lunatic as a sensible man. It is enough to say that he carried his
point.

'I wish you could see the negative!' he said as he came back from his
laboratory. 'You were a little red in the face, but it will come out
black, so it's all right. That carte will be quite a novelty, I flatter
myself.'

I groaned. However, this was the end; I would get away now at all
hazards, and tell the police that there was a dangerous maniac at large.
I got down from the mast with affected briskness. 'Well,' I said, 'I
mustn't take advantage of your good nature any longer. I'm exceedingly
obliged to you for the--the pains you have taken. You will send _all_
the photographs to this address, please?'

'Don't go yet,' he said. 'Are you an equestrian, by the way?'

If I could only engage him in conversation I felt comparatively secure.

'Oh, I put in an appearance in the Row sometimes, in the season,' I
replied; 'and, while I think of it,' I added, with what I thought at the
time was an inspiration, 'if you will come with me now, I'll show you my
horse--you might take me on horseback, eh?' I did not possess any such
animal, but I wanted to have that door unlocked.

'Take you on horseback?' he repeated. 'That's a good idea--I had rather
thought of that myself.'

'Then come along and bring your instrument,' I said, 'and you can take
me at the stables; they're close by.'

'No need for that,' he replied cheerfully. 'I'll find you a mount here.'

And the wretched lunatic went behind the screen and wheeled out a small
wooden quadruped covered with large round spots!

'She's a strawberry roan,' he said; 'observe the strawberries. So, my
beauty, quiet, then! Now settle yourself easily in the saddle, as if you
were in the Row, with your face to the tail.'

'Listen to me f