heir profession strewn around them.

Meanwhile Pierre and Baptiste themselves stood transfixed by the sheer
novelty of the situation.

Without any kind of speech or warning, or without making any attempt at
bravado, the book-keeper walked deliberately to his desk and rang an
electric call for the police. Simultaneously it seemed, for so rapid and
quiet was the action, he opened a drawer, took out a small revolver, and
covered both burglars with a fatal precision. As he did so he uttered
these remarkable words:--

"Gentlemen, I would, indeed, be the basest of men if I did not feel
profoundly grateful for the service you have just rendered me. I shall
always regard you as any right-minded man should regard those who have
saved his life with imminent peril to themselves or, which is just the
same, to their liberty. Any demand in reason you make of me I shall make
an effort to perform--but my duty to my employers I regard as
_paramount_. I have accumulated a little money, and with it I propose to
engage the best counsel in your defence, which is certainly marked by
mitigating circumstances. If, on the other hand, you are convicted----"

Here the officers of justice entered, having broken open the door with a
crash.

[Illustration]

Future Dictates of Fashion

BY W. CADE GALL.

An elderly gentleman of our acquaintance, whose reading has been rather
desultory than profound, and tending rather to the quaint and
speculative, was astonished recently at coming across a volume in his
library of whose very existence he had been completely unaware. This
volume was oblong in shape, was bound in mauve morocco, and was called
"Past Dictates of Fashion; by Cromwell Q. Snyder, Vestamentorum Doctor."

Glancing his eye downwards past a somewhat flippant sub-title, the
elderly gentleman came, with intense amazement, to understand that the
date of this singular performance was 1993. Other persons at a similar
juncture would have pinched themselves to see if they were awake, or
have tossed the book into the street as an uncanny thing. But our
elderly gentleman being of an inquisitive and acquisitive turn of mind,
despite his quaintness, recognised the fact that if he was not of the
twentieth century the volume obviously was; seized pen and paper, and
began to make notes with the speed of lightning. Being also something of
a draughtsman he was able to embellish his notes with sketches from the
engravings with which "Past Dic