urned on Perkins with a scowl something
awful, and his langwige--well, it wasn't langwige at _all_! Perkins
thought--" He paused.

"Um!" The judge had drawn me aside. "The alienation is unusual--what do
you think, Lightnut?"--he looked grave--"it doesn't seem the ordinary
hiatus--the passing alcoholic dementia, you know--there seems in it
something hydrophobic--eh?"

"Oh, dash it, yes--_that's_ all!" I said offhand--just took a chance,
don't you know!

"Um!" He blinked at me; then faced square about. "I guess I'd better go
up; perhaps when he sees me--"

He halted, leveling a stern glance at Wilkes.

"What the dev--what are you grinning about?" he rasped.

"I'm not, sir!" And the butler's hand came down, revealing a sobered
countenance. "I was just a-wondering if he would try to get you to put
on the pajamas--he did all the rest of us, even--" His eye angled
cautiously at the housekeeper, then batted at us significantly as her
red head wriggled deeper. "Fact is, I think he's kinder gone off about
pajamas--just as I told you, sir." His glance appealed to me. "Yes, sir,
when I took you his message--you know--and brought back yours, it was
even more so then."

I felt myself get devilish red, then pale, for the judge's eyes were on
me.

"Yes," he muttered, still looking at me, "he _was_ telling me something
the other day about some silk pajamas."

And then I knew he _knew_!

"Yes, sir," continued Wilkes, "when I got back with _your_ message, Mr.
Lightnut, he seemed to get more excited about them--about pajamas, I
mean. He talked to me and Perkins through the door crack and wanted one
of us to put 'em on--'in the interests of science,' _he_ called it--and
offered to pass 'em out."

"Poor fellow--_poor_ fellow!"--and the judge looked pitiful--"well, why
didn't you humor him?"

"I--I don't know, sir!" The butler looked embarrassed. "And, anyhow, it
was just then Mrs. Warfield came, and he tried to get--"

"Oo-o-o-o!" from the black bundle.

"And then--" Wilkes hesitated, looking uneasy.

"_Go_ on, man!"

The butler coughed faintly. "Well, sir, when she--h'm--refused--it was
then he asked for Flora. 'All right, then you bring me my Flora,' was
what he said, and he sounded irritated like. 'Beg pardon, sir?' says
Perkins, putting his head to the crack kinder inquiringly. 'My Flora,
man!' he comes back sharp; 'just find and bring my Flora--and some
_pins_;'--he seemed particular about the pins--'if I've got