sted in giving no hint of his business.

"It must be something rather big and annoying," thought Mr. Prohack, and
ordered another portion of his daughter's new frock in the shape of
excellent cigars.

"You don't mean to say we can smoke _here_," exclaimed Mr. Bishop.

"Yes," said Mr. Prohack. "Not in the members' coffee-room, but we can
here. Stroke of genius on the part of the Committee! You see it tends to
keep guests out of the smoking-room, which for a long time has been
getting uncomfortably full after lunch."

"Good God!" murmured Mr. Bishop simply.

IV

And he added at once, as he lighted the Corona Corona: "Well, I'd better
tell you what I've come to see you about. You remember that chap, Silas
Angmering?"

"Silas Angmering? Of course I do. Used to belong here. He cleared off to
America ages ago."

"He did. And you lent him a hundred pounds to help him to clear off to
America."

"Who told you?"

"He did," said Mr. Bishop, with a faint, mysterious smile.

"What's happened to him?"

"Oh! All sorts of things. He made a lot of money out of the war. He
established himself in Cincinnati. And there were opportunities...."

"How came he to tell you that I'd lent him anything?" Mr. Prohack
interrupted sharply.

"I had business with him at one time--before the war and also just after
the war began. Indeed I was in partnership with him." Mr. Bishop spoke
with a measured soothing calmness.

"And you say he's made a lot of money out of the war. What do you
mean--a lot?"

"Well," said Mr. Bishop, looking at the tablecloth through his
glittering spectacles, "I mean a _lot_."

His tone was confidential; but then his tone was always confidential.
He continued: "He's lost it all since."

"Pity he didn't pay me back my hundred pounds while he'd got it! How did
he lose his money?"

"In the same way as most rich men lose their money," answered Mr.
Bishop. "He died."

Although Mr. Prohack would have been capable of telling a similar story
in a manner very similar to Mr. Bishop's, he didn't quite relish his
guest's theatricality. It increased his suspicion of his guest, and
checked the growth of friendliness which the lunch had favoured. Still,
he perceived that there was a good chance of getting his hundred pounds
back, possibly with interest--and the interest would mount up to fifty
or sixty pounds. And a hundred and fifty pounds appeared to him to be an
enormous sum. Then it occurred to him that