ow he's an unconscious
agent of book-destiny. There's an old sea-captain who drops in here
now and then. He's simply the novels of Captain Marryat put into
flesh. He has me under a kind of spell; I know I shall have to read
Peter Simple before I die, just because the old fellow loves it so.
That's why I call this place the Haunted Bookshop. Haunted by the
ghosts of the books I haven't read. Poor uneasy spirits, they walk and
walk around me. There's only one way to lay the ghost of a book, and
that is to read it."

"I know what you mean," said Titania. "I haven't read much Bernard
Shaw, but I feel I shall have to. He meets me at every turn, bullying
me. And I know lots of people who are simply terrorized by H. G.
Wells. Every time one of his books comes out, and that's pretty often,
they're in a perfect panic until they've read it."

Roger chuckled. "Some have even been stampeded into subscribing to the
New Republic for that very purpose."

"But speaking of the Haunted Bookshop, what's your special interest in
that Oliver Cromwell book?"

"Oh, I'm glad you mentioned it," said Roger. "I must put it back in
its place on the shelf." He ran back to the den to get it, and just
then the bell clanged at the door. A customer came in, and the
one-sided gossip was over for the time being.

Chapter VII

Aubrey Takes Lodgings

I am sensible that Mr. Aubrey Gilbert is by no means ideal as the
leading juvenile of our piece. The time still demands some explanation
why the leading juvenile wears no gold chevrons on his left sleeve. As
a matter of fact, our young servant of the Grey-Matter Agency had been
declined by a recruiting station and a draft board on account of flat
feet; although I must protest that their flatness detracts not at all
from his outward bearing nor from his physical capacity in the ordinary
concerns of amiable youth. When the army "turned him down flat," as he
put it, he had entered the service of the Committee on Public
Information, and had carried on mysterious activities in their behalf
for over a year, up to the time when the armistice was signed by the
United Press. Owing to a small error of judgment on his part, now
completely forgotten, but due to the regrettable delay of the German
envoys to synchronize with over-exuberant press correspondents, the
last three days of the war had been carried on without his active
assistance. After the natural recuperation necessary on the 1