ographer" takes dramatic advantage of high lights and shadows, so
did Reid the reporter put to their best use the splashes of whitewash
on his celebrity's black hair and scarred brown face, and spots of pink
paint on his shirt sleeves. He described the Mirador as it had been
after the fire, and as it had become since John Sanbourne bought the
little ruined "doll house" with its patch of garden walled off from the
Drake (once the Fay) place, near Santa Barbara. He mentioned his own
surprise at finding so famous a man voluntarily hidden from the world,
in these quaint surroundings, when, if he chose, he could be feted by
"everybody who was anybody" for miles around.

When Reid had finished his "study," he was as proud of it as his victim
was of the plaster and paint on the Mirador walls. It was too good,
thought the journalist, for a local paper. Why, it was a regular
"scoop"! He would send it "on spec." to the _New York Comet_ which
occasionally accepted an article from him. This, he had no doubt, would
not only be accepted but snapped at, for the great Sunday supplement
which the _Comet_ brought out. In that case, he would get a good price
for his work, far better than local pay, to say nothing of the kudos;
and as a queer fish like Sanbourne wasn't likely to "run to" the Sunday
_Comet_, or to a press-cutting subscription, he would probably never
see the "stuff." This thought relieved Reid of his one anxiety.
Sanbourne had trusted him. And the difference between an "interview"
and a "study" was perhaps too subtle for an outsider to understand.

As it happened, Mr. Reid was right in all three of his suppositions.
The New York _Comet_ did approve his manuscript: theirs was a dignified
cross between accepting and snapping. John Sanbourne did not see the
Sunday supplement, nor did he take in any of the many newspapers which
quoted it. He did not subscribe to a press-cutting bureau; and the
agencies which had applied for his patronage, being discouraged by his
silence, did not send to him.

Eversedge Sibley, on the other hand, always saw the Sunday supplement
of the _Comet_, which specialized on literary subjects. He read the
"Study of John Sanbourne, Author and Hermit," and was astonished that
so retiring, almost mysterious a person, had granted it. On further
deliberation, however, Sibley decided that material for the article
must have been got on false pretenses. He read the "stuff" through
again, and felt that, though