his flow of speech, losing himself in details, involving his talk in a
hopeless maze of trivialities to which nobody paid any attention.

"I don't drink myself," observed Dyke, "but just a taste of that with
a lot of water wouldn't be bad for the little tad. She'd think it was
lemonade." He was about to mix a glass for Sidney, but thought better of
it at the last moment.

"It's the chartreuse that's lacking," commented Caraher, lowering at
Annixter. The other flared up on the instant.

"Rot, rot. I know better. In some punches it goes; and then, again, in
others it don't."

But it was left to Hooven to launch the successful phrase:

"Gesundheit," he exclaimed, holding out his second glass. After
drinking, he replaced it on the table with a long breath. "Ach Gott!"
he cried, "dat poonsch, say I tink dot poonsch mek some demn goot
vertilizer, hey?"

Fertiliser! The others roared with laughter.

"Good eye, Bismarck," commented Annixter. The name had a great success.
Thereafter throughout the evening the punch was invariably spoken of as
the "Fertiliser." Osterman, having spilt the bottom of a glassful on
the floor, pretended that he saw shoots of grain coming up on the spot.
Suddenly he turned upon old Broderson. "I'm bald, ain't I? Want to know
how I lost my hair? Promise you won't ask a single other question and
I'll tell you. Promise your word of honour."

"Eh? What--wh--I--I don't understand. Your hair? Yes, I'll promise. How
did you lose it?"

"It was bit off."

The other gazed at him stupefied; his jaw dropped. The company shouted,
and old Broderson, believing he had somehow accomplished a witticism,
chuckled in his beard, wagging his head. But suddenly he fell grave,
struck with an idea. He demanded:

"Yes--I know--but--but what bit it off?"

"Ah," vociferated Osterman, "that's JUST what you promised not to ask."

The company doubled up with hilarity. Caraher leaned against the door,
holding his sides, but Hooven, all abroad, unable to follow, gazed from
face to face with a vacant grin, thinking it was still a question of his
famous phrase.

"Vertilizer, hey? Dots some fine joke, hey? You bedt."

What with the noise of their talk and laughter, it was some time before
Dyke, first of all, heard a persistent knocking on the bolted door. He
called Annixter's attention to the sound. Cursing the intruder, Annixter
unbolted and opened the door. But at once his manner changed.

"Hello. It's Presley. Com