would be an evasion. It would prove nothing. If I discover
responsibilities surviving from the past, I must take them up."

"What did the physicians say?"

"They didn't know." Saxon shook his head. "Perhaps, some strong
reminder may at some unwarned moment open the volume where it was
closed; perhaps, it will never open. To-morrow morning, I may awaken
Robert Saxon--or the other man." He paused, then added quietly: "Such
an unplaced personality had best touch other lives as lightly as it
can."

Steele went silently over, and cranked the machine. As he straightened
up, he asked abruptly:

"Would you prefer calling off this dinner?"

"No." The artist laughed. "We will take a chance on my remaining
myself until after dinner, but as soon as convenient----"

"To-morrow," promised Steele, "we go to the cabin."

CHAPTER III

Perhaps, the same futile vanity that led Mr. Bellton to import the
latest sartorial novelties from the _Rue de la Paix_ for the adornment
of his person made him fond of providing foreign notables to give
color to his entertainments.

Mr. Bellton was at heart the _poseur_, but he was also the fighter.
Even when he carried the war of political reform into sections of the
town where the lawless elements had marked him for violence, he went
stubbornly in the conspicuousness of ultra-tailoring. Though he loved
to address the proletariat in the name of brotherhood, he loved with a
deeper passion the exclusiveness of presiding as host at a board where
his guests included the "best people."

Senor Ribero, who at home used the more ear-filling entitlement of
Senor Don Ricardo de Ribero y Pierola, was hardly a notable, yet he
was a new type, and, even before the ladies had emerged from their
cloak-room and while the men were apart in the grill, the host felt
that he had secured a successful ingredient for his mixture of
personal elements.

After the fashion of Latin-American diplomacy, educated in Paris and
polished by great latitude of travel, the attache had the art of small
talk and the charm of story-telling. To these recommendations, he
added a slender, almost military carriage, and the distinction of
Castilian features.

A punctured tire had interrupted the homeward journey of Steele and
Saxon, who had telephoned to beg that the dinner go on, without
permitting their tardiness to delay the more punctual.

The table was spread in a front room with a balcony that gave an
outlook across