d evenly, "I've called."

Sidwell roused himself. His face flushed. Despite the liquor in his
brain, he felt the inauspicious chance of the meeting.

"Glad you did," he said, with an attempt at ease. "Deucedly glad. I
don't know of anyone in the world I'd rather see. Just speaking of you,
weren't we?" he said, appealing to Hough. "By the way, Mr.--er--Blair,
shake hands with Mr. Hough, Mr. Winston Hough. Mighty good fellow,
Hough, but a bit melancholy. Needs cheering up a bit now and then.
Needed it badly to-night--almost cried for it, in fact"; and the speaker
smiled convivially.

Hough extended his hand with elaborate formality. "Delighted to meet
you," he managed to articulate.

"Thank you," returned the other shortly.

Sidwell meanwhile was bringing a third chair and glass. "Come over,
gentlemen," he invited, "and we'll celebrate this, the proudest moment
of my life. You drink, of course, Mr. Blair?"

Ben did not stir. "Thank you, but I never drink," he said.

"What!" Sidwell smiled sceptically. "A cattle-man, and not refresh
yourself with good liquor? You refute all the precedents! Come over and
take something!"

Ben only looked at him steadily. "I repeat, I never drink," he said
conclusively.

Sidwell sat down, and Hough followed his lead.

"All right, all right! Have a cigar, then. At least you smoke?"

"Yes," assented Blair, "I smoke--sometimes."

The host extended the box hospitably. "Help yourself. They're good ones,
I'll answer for that. I import them myself."

Ben took a step forward, but his hands were still in his pockets. "Mr.
Sidwell," he said, "we may as well save time and try to understand each
other. In some ways I am a bit like an Indian. I never smoke except with
a friend, and I am not sure you are a friend of mine. To be candid with
you, I believe you are not."

Hough stirred in his chair, but Sidwell remained impassive save that the
convivial smile vanished.

A quarter of a minute passed. Once the host took up his glass as if to
drink, but put it down untasted. At last he indicated the vacant chair.

"Won't you be seated?" he invited.

Ben sat down.

"You say," continued Sidwell, "that I am not your friend. The statement
and your actions carry the implication that of necessity, then, we must
be enemies."

The speaker was sparring for time. His brain was not yet normal, but it
was clearing rapidly. He saw this was no ordinary man he had to deal
with, no ordinary circumstanc