time took his hands down.
Tall and unnaturally thin, his sallow cheeks framed in lank, sandy
hair, his eyes turned down, it was hard to realise that this almost
slouching fellow held the attention of the shrewd in these matters as
the certain head of them all, when the present great leader should have
dropped his sceptre. But this was the Webb in whose labyrinthine
meshes the cartoonists delighted to picture the unhappy flies of their
country's financial system; this was the weaver whose warp was of
railroads and his woof the unhappy populace, in yet other pictorial
fancies. This was that Webb before which many patient Penelopes had
sat through many Sunday editions, dressed in stars and stripes, a
sorrowing, perplexed America, and gaped to find it unwoven by day,
though thick patterned with rich promises in the evening.

"All over, is it?" he said in his dry, sceptical voice, "too bad, too
bad."

His eye shot out from its heavy lid and took them all in. It lingered
on Weldon.

"This the young man with him at the time? Sudden shock, eh?"

Weldon told his story again. They had talked of business. The
president had put his hand in his pocket. Handkerchief, probably. Had
experienced some shock and fallen, dead-weight, on his bent arm. As
you see him now. Unable to lift him. Notified Mr. Dupont immediately.
Nothing more.

"Dear, dear!" said Mr. Webb. "As quickly as that! Hard on you.
Nothing handy, I suppose; only window up and water and such things?"

For the life of him Weldon could not help the slow red in his face. He
glanced at the window: it was locked. For Heaven's sake, why lie? He
was no murderer. And yet--any one, _any one_ would have opened that
window.

"I did what I could," he said in a low voice, "but it was plain that
Mr. Deeping was dead. He never drew another breath."

"No brandy about, I suppose?" pursued Webb.

But Potter interrupted.

"For Heaven's sake, Webb," he implored, "let all that go! He's gone.
You know he never touched a drop of anything. Of course there was no
brandy."

"Of course," Weldon interrupted, relieved. Every one knew the
president's views on that subject; he had forgotten them.

"Of course," repeated Mr. Webb softly and glanced again at the window.
An intense irritation flared up in Weldon: this man flicked him on the
raw with every syllable.

"If you have no further use for me, gentlemen," he began, but Webb
waved his thin, small-boned hand negl