ss
than it takes me to tell you about it, there wasn't a sound to be heard
but the lapping of the river. The last thing I heard you say, Mr.
Howard, was----"

"I used language which no self-respecting chauffeur could possibly
repeat," broke in Devar despairingly.

"That's as may be, sir. Circumstances alter cases, as you will see
before I've done. Well, I listened to the river, which resembled
nothing in all the world so much as the sobbing of a child, but no one
stirred for such a time that I began to feel stiff, and I was thinking
that I might be acting like a fool for my pains when a head popped up
over the edge of the wharf."

Obviously, this sentence demanded a dramatic pause, and Brodie knew his
business. Perhaps he expected cries of horror from his audience, but
none was forthcoming, so, with a sigh, he continued:

"That cured the stiffness, gentlemen, I can assure you. I balanced one
of the half bricks in my left hand--I'm a left-handed man in many
things--and watched the head, while it was easy to see that the head
watched the car. 'Now,' sez I to meself, 'that's the whelp who
mistreated a car which had served him well, and he's reckoning in his
own mind that my car would suit his needs just as well as the one he
has lost.' I do believe I read that man's mind correctly. He might
have said out loud: 'That party of sports were muts. They're all
aboard the Hudson River liner, chauffeur and all.' I beg your pardon,
gentlemen, if I have put it awkwardly, but I am sort of feeling my way
towards the feller's sentiments, groping in the dark, as you might say."

Notwithstanding his effort at self-restraint, Devar felt that he must
speak or explode.

"Go right ahead, Arthur," he said. "Explain the position thoroughly.
The fog is lifting, and we have heaps of time before sunrise."

"The whole affair is a mighty queer business, sir," said Brodie
seriously. "The roundsman here will tell you how careful one has to be
in such matters. I have had a law-case or two in my time, and them
lawyers turn you inside out if you begin romancing. For instance, what
I've just told you isn't evidence. The man said nothing; neither did
I. We played a fine game of cat and mouse, only it happened that I was
the cat. . . . Well, it is getting late, so I'll get on with the
story. The head didn't budge for quite a while, but at last it made a
move, and soon the identical chauffeur who hit up the pace from 23rd
Street c