affair than the man 'n the moon. I asked him
today--but he couldn't tell me anything about the business--what it was
I'd been sent for, or anything."

"But he--he knew you'd been sent for," Thorpe commented upon brief
reflection.

"Why, he sent the second cable himself----"

"What second cable?"

"Why it was the next day,--or maybe it was sent that same night, and
not delivered till morning,--I got another cable, this time from my
brother-in-law, telling me to cable him what ship I sailed on and when.
So of course he knew all about it--but now he says he don't. He's a
curious sort of fellow, anyway."

"But how is he mixed up in it?" demanded Thorpe, impatiently.

"Well, as nearly as I can figure it out, he works for one of the men
that's at the head of this rubber company. It appears that he happened
to show this man--he's a man of title, by the way--a letter I wrote to
him last spring, when I got back to Mexico--and so in that way this man,
when he wanted me to come over, just told Gafferson to cable to me."

"Gafferson," Thorpe repeated, very slowly, and with almost an effect
of listlessness. He was conscious of no surprise; it was as if he
had divined all along the sinister shadows of Lord Plowden and Lord
Plowden's gardener, lurking in the obscurity behind this egregious old
ass of a Tavender.

"He's a tremendous horticultural sharp," said the other. "Probably
you've heard tell of him. He's taken medals for new flowers and things
till you can't rest. He's over at--what do you call it?--the Royal
Aquarium, now, to see the Dahlia Show. I went over there with him, but
it didn't seem to be my kind of a show, and so I left him there, and
I'm to look in again for him at 5:30. I'm going down to his place in the
country with him tonight, to meet his boss--the nobleman I spoke of."

"That's nice," Thorpe commented, slowly. "I envy anybody who can get
into the country these days. But how did you know I was here?" "The
woman in the book-store told me--I went there the first thing. You might
be sure I'd look you up. Nobody was ever a better friend than you've
been to me, Thorpe. And do you know what I want you to do? I want you to
come right bang out, now, and have a drink with me."

"I was thinking of something of the sort myself," the big man replied.
"I'll get my hat, and be with you in a minute."

In the next room he relinquished his countenance to a frown of fierce
perplexity. More than a minute passed in thi