u sit down? Here is some
excellent wine, and if this brand of cigars does not suit you, I will
send for another."

"Send for the devil!" I cried, greatly exasperated. "What do you mean
by keeping me in this place against my will? Open that door and let me
out, or--"

I was ready to spring and he saw it. Smiling more atrociously than
ever, he slipped behind the table, and before I could reach him, had
quietly drawn a pistol, which he cocked before my eyes.

"You are excited," he remarked, with a suavity that nearly drove me
mad. "Now excitement is no aid to good company, and I am determined
that none but good company shall be in this room to-night. So if you
will be kind enough to calm yourself, Mr. Atwater, you and I may yet
enjoy ourselves, but if not--" the action he made was significant, and
I felt the cold sweat break out on my forehead through all the heat of
my indignation.

But I did not mean to show him that he had intimidated me.

"Excuse me," said I, "and put down your pistol. Though you are making
me lose irredeemable time, I will try and control myself enough to
give you an opportunity for explaining yourself. Why have you
entrapped me into this place?"

"I have already told you," said he, gently laying the pistol before
him, but within easy reach of his hand.

"But that is preposterous," I began, fast losing my self-control
again. "You do not know me, and if you did--"

"Pardon me, you see I know your name."

Yes, that was true, and the fact set me thinking. How did he know my
name? I did not know him, nor did I know this house, or any reason for
which I could have been beguiled into it. Was I the victim of a
conspiracy, or was the man mad? Looking at him very earnestly, I
declared:

"My name is Atwater, and so far you are right, but in learning that
much about me you must also have learned that I am neither rich nor
influential, nor of any special value to a blackmailer. Why choose me
out then for--your society? Why not choose some one who can--talk?"

"I find your conversation very interesting."

Baffled, exasperated almost beyond the power to restrain myself, I
shook my fist in his face, notwithstanding I saw his hand fly to his
pistol.

"Let me go!" I shrieked. "Let me go out of this place. I have
business, I tell you, important business which means everything to me,
and which, if I do not attend to it to-night, will be lost to me for
ever. Let me go, and I will so far reward you that