nted by pleased surprise when the caller laid in his hand a
clipping from a small country town paper, to this effect:

RANSOM--Lost lad from Harwick not drowned
or harmed. Retained for ransom. Safe and
sound to parents for $50,000. Write,
Mortimer Morley, General Delivery, N. Y.
Post-Office.

"Thought that'd catch you," chuckled Mr. Spofford, in great
self-congratulation. "'Jones'll see into this,' I says to myself. 'If he
don't, I'll explain.' Somethin' to that, ay?"

Average Jones looked from the advertisement to the vacuous smile of
Mr. Algernon Spofford. "Oh, you'll explain, will you?" he said softly.
"Well, the thing I'd like to have explained is--come over here to the
window a minute, will you, Algy?"

Mr. Spofford came, and gazed down upon a dispiriting area of rain-swept
street and bedraggled wayfarers.

"See that ten-story office building across the way?" pursued Average
Jones. "What would you do if, coming in here at midnight, you were to
see twenty-odd rats ooze out of that building and disperse about their
business?"

"I--I'd quit," said the startled promptly.

"That's the obvious solution," retorted "but my question wasn't intended
to elicit a brand of music-hall humor."

Spofford contemplated the building uneasily. "I don't know what you're
up to, Average," he complained. "Is it a catch?"

"No; it's a test case. What would you do?"

"I'd think it was Billy-be-dashed queer," answered Spofford with
profound conviction.

"You're getting on," said Jones tartly. "And next?"

"Ay? How do I know? What're you devilin' me this way for?"

"You wouldn't call a policeman?"

"No," said Spofford, staring.

"You wouldn't hustle around and 'phone Central?"

"Bosh!"

"Yet if any one told you you hadn't the sense a policeman, you'd resent
it."

"Of course, I would!"

"Well, Jimmy McCue, the night special, who patrols past the corner,
saw that very thing happen a few nights ago at the Sterriter Building.
Knowing that rats don't go out at midnight for a saunter, two dozen
strong, he began to suspect."

"Suspect what?" growled Spofford.

"That there must be some abnormal cause for so abnormal a proceeding.
Think, now, Algy."

"I've heard of rats leavin' a sinkin' ship. The building might have been
sinkin'," suggested the visitor hopefully.

"Is that the best you can do? I'll give you one more try."

"I know," said Spofford. "A cat."

"On my soul," declared Average J