customer too."

"Is he sober?"

"I think so, sir. At least he seems pretty steady on his pins."

"Name?"

"Bexley. Jim Bexley. Said you knew him, sir, and would be sure to see
him."

"Right. Show him up when I ring, not before."

When the clerk had gone out Warren replaced the portrait in the drawer,
even as we saw him do on a former occasion. He was in no hurry to
interview his caller, on the contrary he sat, thinking profoundly, for
quite a while. Then he banged on his handbell.

There was a creaking of heavy footsteps on the wooden stairs, and the
clerk reappeared, ushering in the visitor. Even as the clerk had said
he was a roughish looking customer, and he was sober. Him we have seen
before, for it was no less a personage than our old friend Bully Rawson.

But the "bully" side of him seemed to have departed. His manner was
positively cringing as the door closed behind him, leaving him alone
with Warren. The latter gazed at him fixedly for a moment. Then he
said:

"Sit down."

Rawson obeyed. But the expression of his face as he stared at Warren
was that of a cornered animal, cowed as well, or of one in a trap.

"Have you been keeping sober?"

"Yes, Mr Warren. But Lord love ye, if I was never so `on' I wouldn't
blab."

"No, you wouldn't, because you've nothing to blab about."

The tone was absolutely cool and unmoved. With one hand Warren was
playing with a paper weight which lay on the table. Rawson fidgetted
uneasily.

"I've taken care of him," he said at last. "Oh three times I `took care
of him,' but it were no go. That blanked Fleetwood come in the way
twice, the third time I turned it over to a nigger of mine and he got
`took care of' instead. Haw-haw-haw!"

"Howling joke, isn't it?"

"Rather. Them blanked Usutus rushed my kraal, and I just took 'em on to
Wyvern and Fleetwood's camp and--well, they took care of 'em."

"You saw it done?"

"Didn't I! And while they was doing it I lit out, slid up a big baobab
which looked hollow, and sure enough it was; and there I lay snug while
they was huntin' around in every direction for me. Ho-ho! There was a
nest of red ants in the hole though, and I jolly well got nearly eaten."

"Yes? Well, you stay around here a little longer--where, I don't mind
one way or the other. Only--keep sober. D'you hear? Keep sober. I
may want you at any minute. Meanwhile I'll just take down all
particulars of your yarn."

He got a sheet