r Mr. Graves is still ill, and the matter of your brother's
estate must be discussed without further delay. Please sit down and I
will telephone."

The captain seated himself on the leather-covered bench, and the clerk
entered the inner office. He returned, a few moments later, to say:

"Mr. Sylvester is at the Central Club. He wished me to ask if you could
conveniently join him there."

Captain Elisha pondered. "Why, yes," he replied, slowly, "I s'pose I
could. I don't know why I couldn't. Where is this--er--club of his?"

"On Fifth Avenue, near Fifty-second Street. I'll send one of our boys
with you if you like."

"No, no! I can pilot myself, I guess. I ain't so old I can't ask my
way. Though--" with a reminiscent chuckle--"if the folks I ask are all
sufferin' from that 'Ugh' disease, I sha'n't make much headway."

"What disease?" asked the puzzled clerk.

"Oh, nothin'. I was just thinkin' out loud, that's all. Mr. Sylvester
wants to see me right off, does he?"

"Yes, he said he would wait if I 'phoned him you were coming."

"Um-hm. Well, you can tell him I've left the dock, bound in his
direction. Say, that young chap that was here when I called the fust
time--studyin' to be a lawyer, is he?"

"Who? Tim? No, indeed. He's only the office boy. Why did you ask?"

"Oh, I was just wonderin'. I had a notion he might be in trainin' for a
judgeship, he was so high and mighty. Ho! ho! He's got talent, that boy
has. Nobody but a born genius could have made as many mistakes in one
name as he did when he undertook to spell Elisha. Well, sir, I'm much
obliged to you. Good day."

The Central Club is a ponderous institution occupying a becomingly
gorgeous building on the Avenue. The captain found his way to its door
without much trouble. A brass-buttoned attendant answered his ring and
superciliously inquired his business. Captain Elisha, not being greatly
in awe of either buttons or brief authority, calmly hailed the attendant
as "Gen'ral" and informed him that he was there to see Mr. Sylvester, if
the latter was "on deck anywheres."

"Tell him it's Cap'n Warren, Major," he added cheerfully; "he's
expectin' me."

The attendant brusquely ushered the visitor into a leather-upholstered
reception room and left him. The captain amused himself by looking at
the prints and framed letters and autographs on the walls. Then a round,
red, pleasant-faced man entered.

"Pardon me," he said, "is this Captain Warren?"

"Yes,