hair, 'I 'm a head and shoulders
taller than you are.'

'I 'm sure Mr. Ogilvie's remark was only in fun,' interposed Purvis.
He rose and went to summon his boy to come and have coffee, and the
three men left behind under the trees watched him disappearing into the
house.

'If it were a matter of real necessity,' said Ross, 'I believe I could
endure the loss of Purvis; he becomes a bore, and tears and tabloids
combined are really very depressing.'

'Poor beast!' said Toffy charitably.

'I can't make out,' said Ross, 'what the trouble is at present on his
estancia. I have only heard some native gossip, and I don't know what
it is all about; but there seems to be an idea that Purvis is lying on
the top of a mine which may "go off sudden."'

'I believe,' began Peter, 'that Purvis is going to be of use, as Sir
John thought he might be. There is a very odd tale he was telling me
just now.' He broke off suddenly as Purvis reappeared in his usual
quiet, shadowy way. He brought a small saddle-bag with him when he
travelled, which seemed to be filled for the most part with papers.
His dark clothes were always neatly brushed and folded by himself, and
he generally spent his days riding to and fro between the house and the
nearest telegraph-office.

'You should take a holiday while you are here,' said Toffy, seeing
Purvis sitting down immediately to write one of his interminable
telegrams. 'It would do you good.'

'It's my nerves,' said Purvis hopelessly.

Ross laughed and said, 'If I lived on weak tea and tabloids as you do,
Purvis, I should be in my grave in ten days.'

'I think,' said Purvis, 'that these new phospherine things are doing me
some good. But I sleep so little now. I don't suppose there's an hour
of the night when I 'm so sound asleep a whisper would not wake me.'

'It takes a good loud gong,' said Ross, 'to make me even realize that I
am in bed.'

'At home,' said Peter, 'I once had an alarm-clock fixed above my bed to
wake me, and at last I told the man who sold it to me that it never
struck; and really I thought it did not until he showed me that it
worked all right.'

'There is a beastly bell for the out-of-door servants at Hulworth,'
said Toffy, 'which is beside my window, and----'

'I know that bell,' said Peter. 'I tie it up regularly every time I am
at Hulworth.'

'Have you also got a country seat?' asked Mr. Purvis.

'Oh, Hulworth is a mouldy old barrack,' replied Toffy. '"Country