not know. 'THE Editor,' I proclaimed stoutly. 'The ONLY
Editor.'

"'Aw, Spargo!' he sniffed.

"'Of course, Spargo,' I answered. 'Who else?'

"'Gimme yer card,' says he.

"'My what?'

"'Yer card--Say! Wot's yer business, anyway?'

"And the anaemic Cerberus sized me up with so insolent an eye that I
reached over and took him out of his chair. I knocked on his meagre
chest with my fore knuckle, and fetched forth a weak, gaspy cough; but
he looked at me unflinchingly, much like a defiant sparrow held in the
hand.

"'I am the census-taker Time,' I boomed in sepulchral tones. 'Beware
lest I knock too loud.'

"'Oh, I don't know,' he sneered.

"Whereupon I rapped him smartly, and he choked and turned purplish.

"'Well, whatcher want?' he wheezed with returning breath.

"'I want Spargo, the only Spargo.'

"'Then leave go, an' I'll glide an' see.'

"'No you don't, my lily-white.' And I took a tighter grip on his collar.
'No bouncers in mine, understand! I'll go along.'"

Leith dreamily surveyed the long ash of his cigar and turned to me.
"Do you know, Anak, you can't appreciate the joy of being the buffoon,
playing the clown. You couldn't do it if you wished. Your pitiful little
conventions and smug assumptions of decency would prevent. But simply to
turn loose your soul to every whimsicality, to play the fool unafraid of
any possible result, why, that requires a man other than a householder
and law-respecting citizen.

"However, as I was saying, I saw the only Spargo. He was a big, beefy,
red-faced personage, full-jowled and double-chinned, sweating at his
desk in his shirt-sleeves. It was August, you know. He was talking into
a telephone when I entered, or swearing rather, I should say, and
the while studying me with his eyes. When he hung up, he turned to me
expectantly.

"'You are a very busy man,' I said.

"He jerked a nod with his head, and waited.

"'And after all, is it worth it?' I went on. 'What does life mean that
it should make you sweat? What justification do you find in sweat? Now
look at me. I toil not, neither do I spin--'

"'Who are you? What are you?' he bellowed with a suddenness that was,
well, rude, tearing the words out as a dog does a bone.

"'A very pertinent question, sir,' I acknowledged. 'First, I am a
man; next, a down-trodden American citizen. I am cursed with neither
profession, trade, nor expectations. Like Esau, I am pottageless.
My residence is everywhere; the sky is my