States commissioner who heard my case, the district attorney, and
the United States marshal. I wanted to ask the yeggs too--it seemed only
square--but the judge was out of town, and the marshal was afraid his
Honor might cite him for contempt if he brought his prisoners to my
party. These things probably seem to you most banal, but take it all
round I do manage to keep amused. Of course, now and then I pay more for
my fun than it's worth. Last summer I mixed in with some moonshiners in
Tennessee. Moonshining is almost a lost art, and I wanted the experience
before the business became extinct. An unsociable lot, the lone still
boys, and wouldn't warm up to me a bit. The unhappy result was a bullet
through my left lung. I got patched up by a country doctor, but had to
spend two months in a Philadelphia hospital for the finishing touches."

Deering's uneasiness increased. This man who spoke so blithely of
imprisonment and bullets in his lung must have a motive for his visit.
With a jerk of the head he sent Briggs from the room.

"This is all very amusing," he remarked with decision as he put down his
salad-fork, "but will you pardon me for asking just why you came here? I
have your own word for it that your favorite amusement is consorting with
criminals, and that money you flashed may have been stolen for all I
know! If you have any business with me----"

"My dear boy, I don't blame you for growing restless," replied Hood
amiably. "Of course, I know that your father and sister are away, and
that you are alone. Your family history I am pretty familiar with; your
antecedents and connections are excellent. Your mother, who died four
years ago, was of the Rhode Island Ranger family--and there is no better
blood in America. Your sister Constance won the Westchester golf
championship last year--I learned that from the newspapers, which I read
with a certain passion, as you have observed. If I hadn't thought you
needed company--my company particularly--I shouldn't have landed on your
door-step. You dined Monday night at the Hotel Pendragon--at a table in
the corner on the Fifth Avenue side, and your dejection touched me
deeply. Afterward you went down to the rathskeller, and sat there all
alone drinking stuff you didn't need. It roused my apprehensions. I
feared things were going badly with you, and I thought I'd give you a
chance to unburden your soul to me, Hood, the enchanted hobo----"

"For sheer cheek--" began Deering ho