remembered, he wore a thick and solid air of good-natured prosperity.
The hair had receded an inch or so from his forehead. Only his face
seemed as it had always been--sharply handsome and strong. Whitaker
remembered that he had always somewhat meanly envied Drummond his good
looks; he himself had been fashioned after the new order of
architecture--with a steel frame; but for some reason Nature, the master
builder, had neglected sufficiently to wall in and conceal the skeleton.
Admitting the economy of the method, Whitaker was inclined to believe
that the effect must be surprising, especially if encountered without
warning....

He discovered that they were both talking at once--furiously--and, not
without surprise, that he had a great deal more enlightenment to impart
to Drummond than he had foreseen.

"You've got an economical streak in you when it comes to
correspondence," Drummond commented, offering Whitaker a sheet of paper
he had just taken from a tin document-box. "That's Exhibit A."

Whitaker read aloud:

"'DEAR D., I'm not feeling well, so off for a vacation. Burke has
just been in and paid $1500 in settlement of our claim. I'm
enclosing herewith my check for your share. Yours, H. M. W.'"

"Far be it from me to cast up," said Drummond; "but I'd like to know why
the deuce you couldn't let a fellow know how ill you were."

Whitaker frowned over his dereliction. "Don't remember," he confessed.
"I was hardly right, you know--and I presume I must have counted on
Greyerson telling."

"But I don't know Greyerson...."

"That's so. And you never heard--?"

"Merely a rumour ran round. Some one--I forget who--told me that you and
Stark had gone sailing in Stark's boat--to cruise in the West Indies,
according to my informant. And somebody else mentioned that he'd heard
you were seriously ill. More than that nothing--until we heard that the
_Adventuress_ had been lost, half a year later."

"I'm sorry," said Whitaker contritely. "It was thoughtless...."

"But that isn't all," Drummond objected, flourishing another paper. "See
here--Exhibit B--came in a day or so later."

"Yes." Whitaker recognized the document. "I remember insisting on
writing to you before we turned in that night."

He ran through the following communication:

"DEAR DRUMMOND: I married here, to-night, Mary Ladislas. Please
look out for her while I'm away. Make her an allowance out of my
money--five hundred a