ble, could give him no information about anything. But at the
Reading-room the erstwhile yacht-owner was known. Borrowing money is a
sure method of impressing one's personality.

The Frenchman had been in the neighborhood two or three days, latterly
becoming very impatient for a reply to his New York telegram. A good
deal of money had been applied for, was the opinion of the
money-lender. This person, caretaker and librarian, was a tall,
ineffective individual, with eyes set wide apart. His slow speech was
a mixture of Doctor Johnson and a judge in chancery. It was
grandiloquent, and it often took long to reach the point. He informed
Chamberlain, with some circumlocution, that the Frenchman had been
extremely anxious over the telegram.

"I tried to persuade him that it was useless to be impatient over such
things," said he. "And I regret to say that the man allowed himself to
become profane."

"I dare say."

"But it would appear that he has received his telegram by this time,"
continued the youth, "for it is now but a short time since he was
summoned to the station."

Chamberlain, thinking that the sooner he got to the telegraph station
the better, was about to depart, when the placid tones of the librarian
again casually broke the silence.

"If I mistake not, the gentleman in question is even now hastening
toward the village." He waved a vague hand toward the open door
through which, a little distance away, a man's figure could be seen.

"Why don't you run after him and get your money?" asked Chamberlain;
but he didn't know the youth.

"What good would that do?" was the surprising question, which
Chamberlain could not answer.

But the Englishman acted on a different principle. He thanked the
judge in chancery and made after the Frenchman, who was casting a
furtive eye in this and that direction, as if in doubt which way he
ought to go. Nevertheless, he seemed bent on going, and not too
slowly, either.

The Englishman swung into the road, but did not endeavor to overtake
the other. They were traveling toward the main village, along a road
that more or less hugged the shore. Sometimes it topped a cliff that
dropped precipitately into the water; and again it descended to a sandy
level that was occasionally reached by the higher tides.

Near the main village the road ascended a rather steep bluff, and at
the top made a sudden turn toward the town. As Chamberlain approached
this point, he yielde