ection
dumbly.

"Oh, what-ho!" he observed at length, feebly.

A distinct chill manifested itself in the region of Archie's spine. This
could mean only one thing. His fears had been realised. The strain of
modern life, with all its hustle and excitement, had at last proved too
much for Mr. Brewster. Crushed by the thousand and one anxieties and
worries of a millionaire's existence, Daniel Brewster had gone off his
onion.

Archie was nonplussed. This was his first experience of this kind of
thing. What, he asked himself, was the proper procedure in a situation
of this sort? What was the local rule? Where, in a word, did he go from
here? He was still musing in an embarrassed and baffled way, having
taken the precaution of kicking the knife under the sofa, when Mr.
Brewster spoke. And there was in, both the words and the method of
their delivery so much of his old familiar self that Archie felt quite
relieved.

"So it's you, is it, you wretched blight, you miserable weed!" said
Mr. Brewster, having recovered enough breath to be going on with. He
glowered at his son-in-law despondently. "I might have, expected it! If
I was at the North Pole, I could count on you butting in!"

"Shall I get you a drink of water?" said Archie.

"What the devil," demanded Mr. Brewster, "do you imagine I want with a
drink of water?"

"Well--" Archie hesitated delicately. "I had a sort of idea that you had
been feeling the strain a bit. I mean to say, rush of modern life and
all that sort of thing--"

"What are you doing in my room?" said Mr. Brewster, changing the
subject.

"Well, I came to tell you something, and I came in here and was waiting
for you, and I saw some chappie biffing about in the dark, and I thought
it was a burglar or something after some of your things, so, thinking it
over, I got the idea that it would be a fairly juicy scheme to land on
him with both feet. No idea it was you, old thing! Frightfully sorry and
all that. Meant well!"

Mr. Brewster sighed deeply. He was a just man, and he could not but
realise that, in the circumstances, Archie had behaved not unnaturally.

"Oh, well!" he said. "I might have known something would go wrong."

"Awfully sorry!"

"It can't be helped. What was it you wanted to tell me?" He eyed his
son-in-law piercingly. "Not a cent over twenty dollars!" he said coldly.

Archie hastened to dispel the pardonable error.

"Oh, it wasn't anything like that," he said. "As a matter of f