ic had bitten off either end of the stramonium cigarette,
and was soon choking himself with the crude fumes, which he inhaled in
desperate gulps, to exhale in furious fits of coughing. Never was more
heroic remedy; it seemed a form of lingering suicide; but by degrees
some slight improvement became apparent, and at length the sufferer
was able to sit upright, and to drain his glass with a sigh of rare
relief. I sighed also, for I had witnessed a struggle for dear life by
a man in the flower of his youth, whose looks I liked, whose smile
came like the sun through the first break in his torments, and whose
first words were to thank me for the little I had done in bare
humanity.

That made me feel the thing I was. But the feeling put me on my guard.
And I was not unready for the remark which followed a more exhaustive
scrutiny than I had hitherto sustained.

"Do you know," said young Medlicott, "that you aren't a bit like the
detective of my dreams?"

"Only to proud to hear it," I replied. "There would be no point in my
being in plain clothes if I looked exactly what I was."

My companion reassured me with a wheezy laugh.

"There's something in that," said he, "although I do congratulate the
insurance people on getting a man of your class to do their dirty
work. And I congratulate myself," he was quick enough to add, "on
having you to see me through as bad a night as I've had for a long
time. You're like flowers in the depths of winter. Got a drink?
That's right! I suppose you didn't happen to bring down an evening
paper?"

I said I had brought one, but had unfortunately left it in the train.

"What about the Test Match?" cried my asthmatic, shooting forward in
his chair.

"I can tell you that," said I. "We went in first----"

"Oh, I know all about that," he interrupted. "I've seen the miserable
score up to lunch. How many did we scrape altogether?"

"We're scraping them still."

"No! How many?"

"Over two hundred for seven wickets."

"Who made the stand?"

"Raffles, for one. He was 62 not out at close of play!"

And the note of admiration rang in my voice, though I tried in my
self-consciousness to keep it out. But young Medlicott's enthusiasm
proved an ample cloak for mine; it was he who might have been the
personal friend of Raffles; and in his delight he chuckled till he
puffed and blew again.

"Good old Raffles!" he panted in every pause. "After being chosen
last, and as a bowler-man! That's the