the
bookkeeper's ear.

Mullins started, and looked agitated.

"What would you have me do?" he inquired.

"Borrow a little money from the office," answered Dick, coolly.

"But, good heavens, man, it would ruin me. Must you have me risk
prison?"

"Don't be alarmed! I only want you to borrow two or three hundred
dollars. You can return it before Fairchild gets back."

"How am I to return it?"

"You can win it back in one evening at the gaming table."

"Or lose more."

There was considerable further conversation, Dick Ralston urging, and
Mullins feebly opposing something which the gambler proposed. Then a
customer came in, who had to receive attention. Inside of an hour
Chester re-entered the office, accompanied by a sandy-complexioned
stranger, his head covered with a broad, flapping, Western sombrero,
and wearing a long, brown beard descending at least eighteen inches.

"I hear you want to see me," he said to Mullins.

"Who are you?" asked the astonished bookkeeper.

"I am Paul Perkins, of Minneapolis," was the surprising reply.

CHAPTER XX.

PAUL PERKINS, OF MINNEAPOLIS.

If a bomb had exploded in the office David Mullins and his friend
Ralston could not have been more astonished than by the appearance of
Paul Perkins, whose name was invented without the slightest idea that
any such person existed.

Before relating what followed, a word of explanation is necessary.

Chester went to the Fifth Avenue Hotel without the slightest suspicion
that he had been sent on a fool's errand. He imagined, indeed, that Mr.
Mullins wanted to get rid of him, but did not doubt that there was such
a man as Paul Perkins, and that he was expected to arrive at the Fifth
Avenue Hotel.

He walked up Broadway in a leisurely manner, feeling that his hasty
return was not desired. He reached the Fifth Avenue, and entering--it
was the first time he had ever visited the hotel--went up to the desk.

The clerk was giving instructions to a bell boy, who was directed to
carry a visitor's card to No. 221. When at leisure, Chester asked:

"Has Mr. Paul Perkins, of Minneapolis, arrived at the hotel?"

The clerk looked over the list of arrivals. Finally his forefinger
stopped at an entry on the book.

"Yes," he answered, "he arrived last evening. Did you wish to see him?"

About this Chester was in doubt. He had only been asked to inquire if
Mr. Perkins had arrived. He assumed, however, that the bookkeeper
wished to see Mr