thing bad, something that he couldn't
fix. This went on without any break; it was the same down town as it
was up home, he acted just as if there was something lying heavy on his
mind. But it wasn't until a few weeks back that his self-restraint began
to go; and let me tell you this, Mr Trent'--the American laid his bony
claw on the other's knee--'I'm the only man that knows it. With every
one else he would be just morose and dull; but when he was alone with
me in his office, or anywhere where we would be working together, if the
least little thing went wrong, by George! he would fly off the handle to
beat the Dutch. In this library here I have seen him open a letter with
something that didn't just suit him in it, and he would rip around and
carry on like an Indian, saying he wished he had the man that wrote
it here, he wouldn't do a thing to him, and so on, till it was just
pitiful. I never saw such a change. And here's another thing. For a week
before he died Manderson neglected his work, for the first time in my
experience. He wouldn't answer a letter or a cable, though things looked
like going all to pieces over there. I supposed that this anxiety of
his, whatever it was, had got on to his nerves till they were worn out.
Once I advised him to see a doctor, and he told me to go to hell. But
nobody saw this side of him but me. If he was having one of these rages
in the library here, for example, and Mrs Manderson would come into the
room, he would be all calm and cold again in an instant.'

'And you put this down to some secret anxiety, a fear that somebody had
designs on his life?' asked Trent.

The American nodded.

'I suppose,' Trent resumed, 'you had considered the idea of there being
something wrong with his mind--a break-down from overstrain, say. That
is the first thought that your account suggests to me. Besides, it is
what is always happening to your big business men in America, isn't it?
That is the impression one gets from the newspapers.'

'Don't let them slip you any of that bunk,' said Mr Bunner earnestly.
'It's only the ones who have got rich too quick, and can't make good,
who go crazy. Think of all our really big men--the men anywhere near
Manderson's size: did you ever hear of any one of them losing his
senses? They don't do it--believe me. I know they say every man has
his loco point,' Mr Bunner added reflectively, 'but that doesn't mean
genuine, sure-enough craziness; it just means some personal