et your breath, you fool!" growled the usurer. "What business had you
running like a maniac? Something very extraordinary must be the matter,
is it not?"

Braun assented with violent nodding.

"Anything terrible?" asked he further.

More nodding from Braun. The usurer began to feel uneasy. Many a
nefarious deed stuck to his hands, but not one that had not been
committed with all possible caution and secured against any afterclaps
of the law. Yet might he not for once have been off his guard? "What
has been detected? Speak!" urged the conscience-stricken villain
anxiously.

"Mr. Shund, you are to be--in this place--"

"Arrested?" suggested the other, appalled, as the agent's breath failed
him again.

"No--mayor!"

Shund straightened himself, and raised his hands to feel his ears.

"I am surely in possession of my hearing! Are you gone mad, fellow?"

"Mr. Shund, you are to be mayor and member of the legislature. It is a
settled fact!"

"Indeed, 'tis quite a settled fact that you have lost your wits. It is
a pity, poor devil! You once were useful, now you are insane; quite a
loss for me! Where am I to get another bloodhound as good as you? Your
scent was keen, you drove many a nice bit of game into my nets. Hem--so
many instances of insanity in these enlightened times of ours are
really something peculiar. Braun, dearest Braun, have you really lost
your mind entirely? Completely deranged?"

"I am not insane, Mr. Shund. I have been assured from various sources
that you are to be elected mayor and delegate to the legislative
assembly."

"Well, then, various persons have been running a rig upon you."

"Running a rig upon me, Mr. Shund? Bamboozle me--me who understand and
have practised bamboozling others for so long?"

"Still, I maintain that people have been playing off a hoax on you--and
what an outrageous hoax it is, too!

"I believe a hoax? Just listen to me. I have never been more
clearheaded than I am to-day. Acquaintances and strangers in different
quarters of the town have assured me that it is a fixed fact that you
are to be mayor of this city and member of the legislative assembly.
Now, were it a hoax, would you not have to presuppose that both
acquaintances and strangers conspired to make a fool of me? Yet such a
supposition is most improbable."

"Your reasoning is correct, Braun. Still, such a conspiracy must really
have been gotten up. _I_ mayor of this city? _I_? Reflect for an
instant, Bra