t," said Hipps ominously. "Conditions won't
improve by outstaying your welcome. It'll be sweet if you make it
short--if not----"

He did not complete the sentence.

"A declining stock," Richard smiled then shook his head reproachfully.
"You know, gentlemen, yours is an extremely heterodox way of doing
business. You must be feeling pretty hopeless to have resorted to
measures of this kind."

"I guess the market'll improve," said Hipps and relapsed into silence.

It seemed ages before the car slowed down and entered the gates of a
solid mid-Victorian house, isolated from similar houses by two or three
acres of treeful grounds. The front door was opened by two
men-servants of none too prepossessing appearance, who came down the
steps as the car pulled up. It was significant of precaution that they
tacitly formed up one on each side of Richard and escorted him within.

"The only thing lacking," he remarked, "is a red carpet and an awning."

But his disposition toward gaiety was unshared by his companions. The
two servants conducted him mutely into the dining room where a meal was
awaiting them. Van Diest beckoned him to a place at the table and,
tucking a napkin under his left ear, seated himself and began to attack
the victuals without comment. Ezra P. Hipps turned the key in the lock
and dropped it in his pocket before occupying the chair facing Richard.
As the ostensible host Laurence sat at the head of the table and
instructed the servants to open the wine. The change of courses was
effected by means of a small service lift inset in one of the walls.

Not the smallest effort was made at conversation--dishes came and went,
glasses were filled and emptied in absolute silence. There was
something ominous in this freedom from talk and the quiet broken only
by the tinkle of table implements and the rather noisy character of Van
Diest's feeding. Richard was struck by the old man's prodigious
capacity for devouring food. He ate with a calculated energy as though
the safety of nations depended upon his sustenance. Apart from the
ordinary fare, he demolished about eighteen inches of a long French
loaf at his side, tearing pieces from it with his short stubby fingers
and filling his mouth with great wads of crust and dough. Richard
afterwards learnt that this voracity of appetite was nerve begotten.
In moments of acute agitation it was Van Diest's custom to eat
enormously on the theory that a full belly beget