cut-off in the Solomons before he had reached
finality. I carried it on after that, came all the way from the Klondyke
to take it up. I got through but it took every penny I had, and that's
why this morning when I came across you I only had a boot and a half to
my feet."

"Well, well," he said kindly, "that's all changed now."

"I don't know so much about it," I told him. "You might have been the
best friend the Dad ever had, but that doesn't say you're going to keep
me. What I get I work for. I'll take charity from no man living."

Again he laughed, and his fat face crinkled up into little rolls of
flesh until he looked as if he had double chins all the way up to his
eyes. I knew now why he had been so familiar with me earlier in the day.
He was a sunny-natured old chap always, even in the hard, toilsome New
Guinea days, and I suppose his heart went out to me as the son of an old
comrade in arms, doubly so--perhaps because I had saved his life. On the
whole I rather wished I hadn't. It complicated matters so. It made me
feel bound to give him a hand, whether his enterprise was shady or not.

If he had turned to me then and said, "I suppose I can count on you all
right?" I would have been torn between duty and inclination. He did
nothing of the sort. He made no reference to his offer of service, in
fact he seemed to have completely forgotten it, and I thought it just as
well to say nothing. The way he forebore from seizing a perfectly
obvious advantage sent him up fifty per cent. in my estimation, and by
the time we had reached the heart of the city I was quite willing to do
anything he asked me.

"I'll park the car," he said, "and then we'll go off and have some
dinner."

"Will we?" I said and eyed my tattered raiment ruefully. "I don't fancy
I'm dressed for dinner."

"Um!" he said. "You're not. I'd quite overlooked that. That bars a
public dinner. I don't fancy you'll be able to make much of one if you
come down to my place. The cook's away. I didn't expect to be back so
soon."

"Cook or no cook," I told him, "if you've got anything eatable in the
house I'll guarantee to turn it up right. Give me the run of the kitchen
and put me next to the meat-safe, and you'll see wonders. I don't know
how you feel, but I'm so hungry that I'd make a meal off a pair of kid
boots."

"In that case, Carstairs, I think I'd better take you home and see what
sort of a culinary expert you are."

With that he twisted the car ab