chie.

"Sare?"

"A most extraordinary thing has happened. Good old Brewster has suddenly
popped up through a trap and is out in the lobby now. And what's still
more weird, he's apparently bucked."

"Sare?"

"Braced, you know. In the pink. Pleased about something. If you go to
him now with that yarn of yours, you can't fail. He'll kiss you on both
cheeks and give you his bank-roll and collar-stud. Charge along and ask
the head-waiter if you can have ten minutes off."

Salvatore vanished in search of the potentate named, and Archie returned
to the lobby to bask in the unwonted sunshine.

"Well, well, well, what!" he said. "I thought you were at Brookport."

"I came up this morning to meet a friend of mine," replied Mr. Brewster
genially. "Professor Binstead."

"Don't think I know him."

"Very interesting man," said Mr. Brewster, still with the same uncanny
amiability. "He's a dabbler in a good many things--science, phrenology,
antiques. I asked him to bid for me at a sale yesterday. There was a
little china figure--"

Archie's jaw fell.

"China figure?" he stammered feebly.

"Yes. The companion to one you may have noticed on my mantelpiece
upstairs. I have been trying to get the pair of them for years. I should
never have heard of this one if it had not been for that valet of mine,
Parker. Very good of him to let me know of it, considering I had fired
him. Ah, here is Binstead."-He moved to greet the small, middle-aged
man with the tortoiseshell-rimmed spectacles who was bustling across the
lobby. "Well, Binstead, so you got it?"

"Yes."

"I suppose the price wasn't particularly stiff?"

"Twenty-three hundred."

"Twenty-three hundred!" Mr. Brewster seemed to reel in his tracks.
"Twenty-three HUNDRED!"

"You gave me carte blanche."

"Yes, but twenty-three hundred!"

"I could have got it for a few dollars, but unfortunately I was a little
late, and, when I arrived, some young fool had bid it up to a thousand,
and he stuck to me till I finally shook him off at twenty-three hundred.
Why, this is the very man! Is he a friend of yours?"

Archie coughed.

"More a relation than a friend, what? Son-in-law, don't you know!"

Mr. Brewster's amiability had vanished.

"What damned foolery have you been up to NOW?" he demanded. "Can't I
move a step without stubbing my toe on you? Why the devil did you bid?"

"We thought it would be rather a fruity scheme. We talked it over and
came to the conclusion tha