dent."

"Telegraph him at once. Ask him to come down on the evening train. Tell
him to say nothing about knowing you or me, but to come to your rooms
this evening. I'll see him there."

Duncan took up a pad of telegraph blanks and a pencil. He had scarcely
begun to write when Hallam stopped him.

"Never do that," he exclaimed. "Never write a message on a pad,
especially with a pencil."

"But why not?"

"See!" answered Hallam, tearing off the blank on which Duncan had begun
to write, and directing attention to the blank that lay beneath. "The
impression made by the pencil on the under sheet is as legible as the
writing above. It would be awkward if Tandy should pick up that pad and
find out what you had telegraphed. Always tear the top blank off the
pad and lay it on the desk before you write on it."

"Thank you! That's another of your wise precepts. I wonder I didn't
think of it before."

"Oh, hardly anybody ever does think of such things, but they make
trouble."

That night Hallam, Duncan, and Temple met in Duncan's rooms. Hallam
promptly took possession by requesting Duncan to "go away somewhere,
while I explain matters to Temple."

When Duncan had taken his leave Hallam plunged at once into the heart of
things.

"Duncan tells me you're his friend--one who will stand by him?"

"I am all that, you may be sure, Captain Hallam."

"Very good. Now is the time to show yourself such. Duncan has got
himself into something worse than a hole, and his whole career, to say
nothing of his honorable reputation, is in danger. You and I can save
him."

"Would you mind telling me the exact situation? Not that I need to know
it in order to do anything you think would be helpful, but if I fully
understand the matter, I shall know better what to do in any little
emergency that may come about."

"Of course, of course. It's simply this way. Duncan is so straight
himself that it never occurs to him that other people are different.
There are some things so utterly mean that he simply can't imagine any
man capable of doing them. So he doesn't take necessary precautions. It
was all right for him to offend Napper Tandy by doing his own best up
there at the mines. But he ought to have known enough of human nature
not to put himself in old Napper's power when he felt bound to offend
him worse than ever."

Then Captain Will told in detail the story of the visit to Tandy, the
bribe offer, the adverse report, and the way in whic