; not less, sir," Flannigan said encouragingly.
"You'll drop it in chunks."

Jim looked at the tin as if he expected to see the chunks lying at his
feet.

"Yes," he said, wiping the back of his neck. "If we're in here thirty
days that will be one hundred and fifty pounds. Don't forget to stop in
time, Flannigan. I don't want to melt away like a candle."

He was cheered, however, by the promise of reduction.

"What do you think of that, Kit?" he called to me. "Your uncle is going
to look as angular as a problem in geometry. I'll--I'll be the original
reductio ad absurdum. Do you want me to stand on my head, Flannigan?
Wouldn't that reduce something?"

"Your brains, sir," Flannigan retorted gravely, and presented a pair of
boxing gloves. Jim visibly quailed, but he put them on.

"Do you know, Flannigan," he remarked, as he fastened them, "I'm
thinking of wearing these all the time. They hide my character."

Flannigan looked puzzled, but he did not ask an explanation. He demanded
that Jim shed the bath robe, which he finally did, on my promise to
watch the sunset. Then for fully a minute there was no sound save of
feet running rapidly around the roof, and an occasional soft thud. Each
thud was accompanied by a grunt or two from Jim. Flannigan was grimly
silent. Once there was a smart rap, an oath from the policeman, and a
mirthless chuckle from Jim. The chuckle ended in a crash, however, and I
turned. Jim was lying on his back on the roof, and Flannigan was wiping
his ear with a towel. Jim sat up and ran his hand down his ribs.

"They're all here," he observed after a minute. "I thought I missed
one."

"The only way to take a man's weight down," Flannigan said dryly.

Jim got up dizzily.

"Down on the roof, I suppose you mean," he said.

The next proceedings were mysterious. Flannigan rolled the barrel into
the tent, and carried in a small glass lamp. With the material at hand
he seemed to be effecting a combination, no new one, to judge by his
facility. Then he called Jim.

At the door of the tent Jim turned to me, his bathrobe toga fashion
around his shoulders.

"This is a very essential part of the treatment," he said solemnly. "The
exercise, according to Flannigan, loosens up the adipose tissue. The
next step is to boil it out. I hope, unless your instructions compel
you, that you will at least have the decency to stay out of the tent."

"I am going at once," I said, outraged. "I'm not here because I'