f unpleasantness should prevent a man doing his
duty. I thought that was one of the things which military life
impressed on me. Suppose now that it was your duty to stand in a pool
of water on a wintry night looking out for the approaching army of a
powerful enemy. You wouldn't like doing it because you'd know that
you'd have a cold in your head next day which would probably last you
for the rest of that particular campaign. But would you allow that
fact to interfere with your duty? I'll give you credit, Major, for not
even considering your own comfort in the matter. You'd stand in the
pool. You wouldn't so much as splash about, and when your feet got wet
you'd bear it without grumbling. Why can't you admit that I am
actuated by the same sort of motives in doing my duty?"

"But is it your duty? I can't see, really, that there's any need for
you to mix yourself up in it at all."

"It is my duty," said Meldon, "for several reasons. In the first place
you are my friend, and you've always been kind to me; so it's plainly
my duty to do you a good turn when I can. Next, I liked what I saw of
Miss King. I'm convinced that she's in earnest about her art, and is
really working at it simply for art's sake and not from any selfish
motives. Therefore, as an educated man, it's my duty to help her if I
can, without outraging my own conscience or acting in any way
unsuitable for a clergyman. Assuming Simpkins to be the kind of man
you describe, it is a public duty, the duty of every good citizen, to
put him out of the world altogether. He's nothing but a nuisance here,
and he can't be really happy. I imagine that even for his own sake
he'd be a great deal better dead. He may not see that himself, but
it's very likely to be true. What's the use of his dragging out a
miserable existence in a place where he is getting more and more
unpopular every year? He can't like it. Where does he live?"

"He lives," said Major Kent, "in that little house just beyond the
police barrack."

"That won't save him," said Meldon. "Miss King would laugh at our
police after slipping through the fingers of the Scotland Yard
authorities, and any way he'd have to go and live with her once they're
married. I'll call there."

"At this time of day," said the Major, "he'll probably be in his
office, next to Doyle's hotel."

"I'll leave a card at his house first," said Meldon. "It's only civil.
Then I'll go on to the office. I suppose