and gave tersely a variety of orders. These she
and the butler obeyed with an air that plainly showed they thought their
master had taken leave of his senses.

They brought him his breakfast and a bath-robe and slippers. And the
butler carried in a mattress and a pair of blankets, laying them with a
sigh on the hardwood floor in a corner of the room.

Then the Banker waved them away. He undressed, put on his bath-robe and
slippers and sat down calmly to eat his breakfast. When he had finished
he lighted a cigar and sat again in his easy-chair, staring at the ring,
engrossed with his thoughts. Three days he would give them. Three days,
to be sure they had made the trip successfully. Then he would take the
ring to the Museum. And every Sunday he would visit it; until they came
back--if they ever did.

* * * * *

The Banker's living-room with its usually perfect appointments was in
thorough disorder. His meals were still being served him there by his
dismayed servants. The mattress still lay in the corner; on it the
rumpled blankets showed where he had been sleeping. For the hundredth
time during his long vigil the Banker, still wearing his dressing-gown
and slippers and needing a shave badly, put his face down close to the
ring. His heart leaped into his throat; his breath came fast; for along
the edge of the ring a tiny little line of figures was slowly moving.

He looked closer, careful lest his laboured breathing blow them away. He
saw they were human forms--little upright figures, an eighth of an inch
or less in height--moving slowly along one behind the other. He counted
nine of them. Nine! he thought, with a shock of surprise. Why, only
three had gone in! Then they had found Rogers, and were bringing him and
others back with him!

Relief from the strain of many hours surged over the Banker. His eyes
filled with tears; he dashed them away--and thought how ridiculous a
feeling it was that possessed him. Then suddenly his head felt queer; he
was afraid he was going to faint. He rose unsteadily to his feet, and
threw himself full-length upon the mattress in the corner of the room.
Then his senses faded. He seemed hardly to faint, but rather to drift
off into an involuntary but pleasant slumber.

* * * * *

With returning consciousness the Banker heard in the room a confusion of
many voices. He opened his eyes; the Doctor was sitting on the mattress