ers, invisible
and unscalable, which ignorance, properly paid, can erect. With an empty
bag, Mr. Harvey made off; not far, however, a few squares below to the
Athenaeum Club.

There, the hall-porter succeeded in being magnificent The strange and
early visitor he rebuked. It was not customary for members to be
murdered!

A badge, carelessly disclosed, disconcerted him. For a second only.
However unusual a member might be, no information could be supplied
concerning him. There was another rule, equally strict. Strangers were
not admitted. Though, whether the rule applied to a bull, he was
uncertain. Momentarily, the hall-porter, previously magnificent, became
an unhappy man. Misery is fertile. A compromise surprised him.

He crooked a thumb. "Here! Go 'round by the back way and ask for Mr.
Johnson--he's one of the captains."

From the steps, in the slanting rays of the morning sun, he saw him off.
But the gaiety of the eager rays that charged the air with little gold
motes, did not cheer him. The lustre of his office was tarnished. A
member had been murdered! It was most unusual.

Meanwhile, down the area steps, a hostile and hasty youth in
shirt-sleeves and a slashed waistcoat barred the way. The barring was
brief. The badge and a smile demolished it. Within, beneath a low
ceiling, at a long table, other youths, equally slashed but less
hostile, were at breakfast.

Affably, the intruder raised a hand. "Gentlemen, don't let me disturb
you. I'm just having a look-in on Mr. Johnson."

Mr. Johnson did not breakfast with slashed young men; it would have been
subversive to discipline, and it was negligently, through a lateral
entrance, that presently he appeared. In evening clothes on this early
morning, he surveyed his visitor, a big fellow with a slight moustache,
an easy way and a missing front tooth, who went straight at it.

"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Johnson. My name's Harvey. It's about young
Paliser. There may be something in it for you. I'm from Headquarters."

The captain coughed. "It's awful. I can't tell you anything though. He
wasn't here often. Doubt if I've seen him in a week." He looked about.
The slashed youths were edging up. "Come in here."

In an adjoining room, he took a chair, waved politely at another,
coughed again and resumed. "You say there may be something in it for
me?"

Mr. Harvey sat down. "Cert. There'll be a reward--a big one."

The captain turned it over. "It is as much as my plac