devil;--and she caught on to that 'point' about the slope of
forty-five degrees."

Chapter V

Condy began his week's work for the supplement behindhand. Naturally
he overslept himself Tuesday morning, and, not having any change in his
pockets, was obliged to walk down to the office. He arrived late, to
find the compositors already fretting for copy. His editor promptly
asked for the whaleback stuff, and Condy was forced into promising it
within a half-hour. It was out of the question to write the article
according to his own idea in so short a time; so Condy faked the stuff
from the exchange clipping, after all. His description of the boat and
his comments upon her mission--taken largely at second hand--served
only to fill space in the paper. They were lacking both in interest
and in point. There were no illustrations. The article was a failure.

But Condy redeemed himself by a witty interview later in the week with
an emotional actress, and by a solemn article compiled after an hour's
reading in Lafcadio Hearn and the Encyclopedia--on the "Industrial
Renaissance in Japan."

But the idea of the diver's story came back to him again and again, and
Thursday night after supper he went down to his club, and hid himself
at a corner desk in the library, and, in a burst of enthusiasm, wrote
out some two thousand words of it. In order to get the "technical
details," upon which he set such store, he consulted the Encyclopedias
again, and "worked in" a number of unfamiliar phrases and odd-sounding
names. He was so proud of the result that he felt he could not wait
until the tale was finished and in print to try its effect. He wanted
appreciation and encouragement upon the instant. He thought of Blix.

"She saw the point in Morrowbie Jukes' description of the slope of the
sandhill," he told himself; and the next moment had resolved to go up
and see her the next evening, and read to her what he had written.

This was on Thursday. All through that week Blix had kept much to
herself, and for the first time in two years had begun to spend every
evening at home. In the morning of each day she helped Victorine with
the upstairs work, making the beds, putting the rooms to rights; or
consulted with the butcher's and grocer's boys at the head of the back
stairs, or chaffered with urbane and smiling Chinamen with their
balanced vegetable baskets. She knew the house and its management at
her fingers' ends, and super