, that Mr. Bartlet, the president, was
attending a corporation meeting in an office in the same building. I
immediately hunted him up, and, upon hearing my story he hastily ordered
a carriage and we drove to the house as described.

"On our way out we stopped and picked up Dr. Marsh, who as you know is
very much interested in such matters. It was quite a long drive, but we
found the place without difficulty. It was unoccupied, and many of the
windows were broken, and altogether it presented a very dilapidated
appearance, such as the cheap houses on the outskirts of a great city
often do after having been unoccupied for a year or two. We tried the
door and found it unlocked. On the first floor the rooms were entirely
empty, loose papers scattered about, and no signs of any one having
entered the house. Upon going upstairs we found the door on the first
landing at the head of the stairs closed, but not locked. At the back of
the room was a cracked wooden stool and a dilapidated hair sofa, which
had evidently been considered too used up to be of any value. Part of
the cover was torn away, one of the legs was broken, and some of the
hair stuffing was lying scattered about the floor. On this lounge lay
Mr. Herrick apparently sound asleep; his lips blue with cold, his face
pale, and the general appearance of a man half frozen to death. He was
breathing very quietly, however, and his heart action was still fairly
good, although somewhat slow. By his side lay a small bag, which, it is
needless to say, was pounced upon by Mr. Bartlet. It contained some
valuable securities, and a great bundle of bank bills of large
denomination. Both Marsh and I considered Herrick's condition as
decidedly interesting and unusual, and we were both of the opinion that,
as part of the story had proved true, it was very likely the whole would
turn out just as described.

"If this proved to be the case, all that now remained to be done was to
restore Herrick to his normal condition, which might or might not be
easy to accomplish. The first thing to be done was to get him out of
such a low temperature. We tried various methods of restoring
consciousness, but without success. What we did not like was that his
heart action was gradually becoming weaker. We gave a hypodermic
injection of strychnia, and the heart was soon acting in a much more
satisfactory manner. There was no return to consciousness, however, so
taking him in the carriage we drove back t