ell he can
produce. I hope he will ask me out yachting. I should like to have a
nice long day alone with Mr. Meldon. He's a man worth knowing."

The conversation drifted on to other topics. The judge, after the
manner of fishermen, rehearsed the capture of his two salmon, compared
them to similar fish caught elsewhere, and made enquiries about the
netting at the mouth of the river. At about ten o'clock he lit a fresh
cigar and returned to the subject of Meldon.

"You say," he said, "that he's likely to call here to-morrow morning."

"He's almost certain to. Except the day when he went to meet you at
Donard he has never missed paying me a visit."

"About four o'clock, I suppose, is his regular hour?"

"He has no regular hour," said Miss King. "He's quite unconventional.
He may drop in for breakfast, or he may turn up suddenly while we're
dressing for dinner."

"I hope he'll do one or the other. I don't want to sit waiting for him
all day. If he comes while I'm fishing you must bring him up the river
after me. By the way, how is your novel getting on, Milly? Have you
finished it off?"

"I've hardly done a stroke of work since I came here. I'm dissatisfied
with the whole thing. I'm thinking of beginning it again."

"If you do," said the judge, "put Meldon into it."

"I should like to."

"Do. Tell the story of his bribing the cook to poison me, and I'll buy
two hundred copies straight away. I've always wanted to be put into a
novel, and I should like to go down to posterity side by side with
Meldon."

"I wish I could."

"There's no difficulty that I can see. He'll do equally well for a
hero or a villain."

"I'm afraid all the other characters would look like fools. That's the
difficulty."

"They would," said the judge. "I'm very much afraid they would.
Perhaps after all you'd better not put me in. Let him poison some one
else. I shouldn't be an attractive figure if I were posed as one of
Meldon's victims."

"Perhaps," said Miss King, "I might work out the plot in such a way
that you'd get the better of him in the end."

"I fully intend to. I shall see him to-morrow, and if the thing is
possible at all, I shall make him thoroughly ashamed of himself."

"Then I'll wait till after to-morrow," said Miss King, "before I decide
on my plot. It will be much easier for me if I get the whole thing
ready-made."

Sir Gilbert Hawkesby finished his cigar and went to bed. He was
tolerably we