testament that the sum or sums bequeathed to him shall be
given to him only after he has faithfully, and upon the
sworn testimony of an eye-witness, bathed for twelve
minutes, every morning for one month of thirty days, in
ice-cold water.

"Cleanliness may be next to godliness," said Mr. Master, "but
ice-water baths are my shortest road to a future state, and I'm not
ready for that yet. Still, I did not like to give up $450,000. To
Billy Gribble," he added, with a meaning smile, "all baths are cold
baths. I hold a mortgage on his laundry machinery."

"And so you came up here to my office to hide whilst bathing in
so-called ice-water at Mister Gribble's?" said Philo Gubb.

"Exactly!" said Mr. Master.

"If you ain't got six thousand and seventy-five dollars by you," said
Philo Gubb simply, "you can give me a check for the whole amount in
the morning, but if you go to take the bullet out of this pistol
you'll have to get an auger. I made the bullet myself and it was too
big, and I had to pound it into the gun with a hammer and
screw-driver. It's in good and safe."

"And you would have dared to pull the trigger?" asked Mr. Master.

"I would have dared so to do," said Mr. Gubb.

"It would have blown the pistol to atoms!" exclaimed Mr. Master.

"It would so have done," said Mr. Gubb, "except for the time I loaded
it being the first beginning time I ever loaded a pistol. In loading a
Briggs & Bolton, I have since subsequently learned, the powder ought
to go into it first, and the bullet second. I put the bullet in
first."

"Well, bless my stars!" exclaimed Mr. Master. "Bless my stars! If that
is the case--if that is the case, I'm going to bed again. I have to
get up before daylight to take a bath."

WAFFLES AND MUSTARD

It would not be true to say that Mr. Gubb had become suspicious of Mr.
Medderbrook's honesty. The fact that the cashier of the Riverbank
National Bank told him the Utterly Hopeless Gold-Mine stock was not
worth the paper it was printed on did pain him, however.

It pained Mr. Gubb to think his father-in-law-to-be might be guilty of
even unconscious duplicity, and when Mr. Master paid him the six
thousand and seventy-five dollars Mr. Gubb decided that only three
thousand dollars of it should pass immediately into Mr. Medderbrook's
hands. Mr. Gubb put two thousand dollars in the bank and invested the
balance in furniture for his office and in articles and instruments
t