low, was printed in smaller type:
"Improvements in the World of Business," and, beneath that, came the
rubric: "Also, the Cradle, the Altar, and the Tomb."

The first of Fisbee's items was thus recorded: "It may be noted that
the new sign-board of Mr. H. Miller has been put in place. We cannot but
regret that Mr. Miller did not instruct the painter to confine himself
to a simpler method of lettering."

"Ah, Fisbee," murmured the editor, reproachfully, "that new sign-board
is almost the only improvement in the World of Business Plattville has
seen this year. I wonder how many times we have used it from the first,
'It is rumored in business circles that Herve Miller contemplates'--to
the exciting, 'Under Way,' and, 'Finishing Touches.' My poor White
Knight, are five years of training wasted on you? Sometimes you make me
fear it. Here is Plattville panting for our story of the hanging of
the sign, and you throw away the climax like that!" He began to write
rapidly, bending low over the pad in the half darkness. His narrative
was an amplification of the interesting information (already possessed
by every inhabitant) that Herve Miller had put up a new sign. After a
paragraph of handsome description, "Herve is always enterprising," wrote
the editor. "This is a move in the right direction. Herve, keep it up."

He glanced over the other items meditatively, making alterations here
and there. The last two Fisbee had written as follows:

"There is noticeable in the new (and somewhat incongruous) portico
erected by Solomon Tibbs at the residence of Mr. Henry Tibbs Willetts,
an attempt at rococo decoration which cannot fail to sadden the
passer-by."

"Miss Sherwood of Rouen, whom Miss Briscoe knew at the Misses Jennings'
finishing-school in New York, is a guest of Judge Briscoe's household."

Fisbee's items were written in ink; and there was a blank space beneath
the last. At the bottom of the page something had been scribbled in
pencil. Harkless tried vainly to decipher it, but the twilight had
fallen too deep, and the writing was too faint, so he struck a match
and held it close to the paper. The action betokened only a languid
interest, but when he caught sight of the first of the four subscribed
lines he sat up straight in his chair with an ejaculation. At the bottom
of Fisbee's page was written in a dainty, feminine hand, of a type he
had not seen for years:

"'The time has come,' the Walrus said,