no
faults whatever; and while such an encomium seems, on the face of it, to
be extravagant, its probability is much strengthened by the fact that
whatever he had they always came into the possession of sooner or later.
If he had any faults, therefore, they must have known it. They would
never have allowed anything so valuable as a fault to escape them.

Mr. O'Royster was sitting, one afternoon, in the private office of his
bankers, Coldpin & Breaker. Mr. Coldpin sat with him, discussing the
advisability of his investing $250,000 in the bonds of the East and West
Telegraph Company. It was a safe investment, in Mr. Coldpin's judgment,
and Mr. O'Royster was about to order the transaction carried out, when
the office door was thrust open and a long, black-bearded, wiry-haired,
savage-looking man walked in.

[Illustration: BLUDOFFSKI.]

His head was an irregular hump set fixedly on his shoulders so that
one almost expected to hear it creak when he moved it. His eyes were
little, and curiously stuck on either side of his thick, stumpy nose, as
if it were only by the merest accident that they hadn't taken a position
back of his ears or up in his forehead or down in his hollow cheeks. His
entrance put a sudden and disagreeable stop to the conversation. Mr.
O'Royster adjusted his eyeglass and looked with a sort of serene
curiosity at the man. Mr. Coldpin moved nervously in his chair.

"Vell," the fellow said, after a pause, "I haf come to sbeak mit you."

"You come very often," replied Mr. Coldpin in a mildly remonstrative
tone.

No answer was returned to this suggestion. The intruder simply settled
himself on his feet in an obstinate sort of way.

Mr. Coldpin produced a dollar-bill and handed it over, remarking
testily, "There, now, I'm very busy!"

"Nein, nein!" said the man. "It vas not enough!"

"Not enough?"

"I vants dwenty tollar."

"Oh, come now; this wont do at all. You mustn't bother me so. I can't
be--"

The man did something with his mouth. Possibly he smiled. Possibly he
was malevolently disposed. At all events, whatever his motive or his
humor, he did something with his mouth, and straightway his two rows of
teeth gleamed forth, his eyes changed their position and also their hue,
and the hollows in his cheeks became caverns.

"Great Caesar!" cried Mr. O'Royster. "Look here, my good fellow, now
don't! If you must have the money, we'll try to raise it. Don't do that.
Take in your teeth, my man, take