he crumpled the paper to a ball. "My gracious powers!" he
cried; and then, dashing to the window, which stood open on the garden,
he clapped forth his head and shoulders and whistled long and shrill.
Challoner fell back into a corner, and resolutely grasping his staff,
prepared for the most desperate events; but the thoughts of the man with
the chin-beard were far removed from violence. Turning again into the
room, and once more beholding his visitor, whom he appeared to have
forgotten, he fairly danced with trepidation. "Impossible!" he cried.
"Oh, quite impossible! O Lord, I have lost my head." And then, once
more striking his hand upon his brow, "The money!" he exclaimed. "Give
me the money."

"My good friend," replied Challoner, "this is a very painful exhibition;
and until I see you reasonably master of yourself, I decline to proceed
with any business."

"You are quite right," said the man. "I am of a very nervous habit; a
long course of the dumb ague has undermined my constitution. But I know
you have money; it may be still the saving of me; and oh, dear young
gentleman, in pity's name be expeditious!"

Challoner, sincerely uneasy as he was, could scarce refrain from
laughter; but he was himself in a hurry to be gone, and without more
delay produced the money. "You will find the sum, I trust, correct," he
observed; "and let me ask you to give me a receipt."

But the man heeded him not. He seized the money, and disregarding the
sovereigns that rolled loose upon the floor, thrust the bundle of notes
into his pocket.

"A receipt," repeated Challoner, with some asperity. "I insist on a
receipt."

"Receipt?" repeated the man, a little wildly. "A receipt? Immediately!
Await me here."

Challoner, in reply, begged the gentleman to lose no unnecessary time,
as he was himself desirous of catching a particular train.

"Ah, by God, and so am I!" exclaimed the man with the chin-beard; and
with that he was gone out of the room, and had rattled upstairs, four at
a time, to the upper story of the villa.

"This is certainly a most amazing business," thought Challoner;
"certainly a most disquieting affair; and I cannot conceal from myself
that I have become mixed up with either lunatics or malefactors. I may
truly thank my stars that I am so nearly and so creditably done with
it." Thus thinking, and perhaps remembering the episode of the whistle,
he turned to the open window. The garden was still faintly clear; he
could