be clasped."

"And--wha--wha--what becomes of all this when I get back home?" I
gasped, a vision of future ease rising before my tired eyes.

"You take it with you, if you can," laughed the Major Domo, with a sly
wink at one of the Amazons who accompanied him as a sort of aide.

It was all as he said. In two minutes I had entered the room of Midas;
in three minutes, my golf-coat having been removed, a flowing gown of
silk, touched by his magic hand and turned to glittering gold, rested
upon my shoulders. It was pretty heavy, but I bore up under it; the
helmet and the necklace, the shoes and the girdle were adjusted; the
staff was placed in my hand, and with beating heart I emerged once
more into the corridor and stood before the door leading into the
audience-chamber.

"Remove the goggles," whispered the Major Domo.

"Never!" I cried. "I shall be blinded."

"Nonsense!" said he, quickly. "Off with them," and he flicked them
from my nose himself.

A great blare of trumpets sounded, the door was thrown wide, and with
a cry of amazement I stepped backward, awed and afraid; but one glance
was reassuring, for truly a wonderful sight confronted me, and one
that will prove as surprising to him who reads as it was to me upon
that marvellous day.

X

An Extraordinary Interview

I had expected to witness a scene of grandeur, and my fancy had
conjured up, as the central figure thereof, the majestic form of Jove
himself, clad in imperial splendor. But it was the unexpected that
happened, for, as the door closed behind me, I found myself in a plain
sort of workshop, such as an ordinary man would have in his own house,
at one end of which stood a rolling-top desk, and, instead of the
dazzling throne I had expected to see, there stood in front of it an
ordinary office-chair that twirled on a pivot. Books and papers were
strewn about the floor and upon the tables; the pictures on the walls
were made up largely of colored sporting prints of some rarity, and in
a corner stood a commonplace globe such as is to be found in use in
public schools to teach children geography. As I glanced about me my
first impression was that by some odd mischance I had got into the
wrong room, which idea was fortified by the fact that, instead of an
imperial figure clad in splendid robes, a quiet-looking old gentleman,
who, except for his dress, might have posed for a cartoon of the
accepted American Populist, stood before me. He was dres