n away?"

"The Christian act. . . . I say, Otty," he reproached me, "wake up!
You're not attending."

"On the contrary," I assured him, "I am waiting with some patience
for the explanation you owe me. After dragging me out of bed at one
o'clock in the morning, it's natural, perhaps, you should assume me
to be half-asleep--"

Jimmy broke in with a chuckle. "Poor old Otty! You've been most
awfully decent over this."

"Cut that short," I admonished him. "I am waiting for the story: and
you provide the requisite lightness of touch; but the trouble is, you
don't seem able to provide anything else."

"Don't be stern, Otty," he entreated. "It is past pardon. I know,
and to-morrow--later in the morning, I should say--you'll find that
the defendant feels his position acutely. Honour bright, I'll do you
credit in the dock. . . . Wish I was as sure of Farrell. But, as for
the story, as I am a sober man, I don't know where to begin. There's
a wicked uncle mixed up in it, and a wicked nephew and a taxi, and a
lady with a reticule, and a picture palace, and a water-pipe, and
heaps upon heaps of policemen--they're the worst mixed up of the
lot--"

"Begin at the beginning," I commanded. "That is, unless you'd rather
defer the whole story for the magistrate's ear."

"The whole story?" He chuckled. "I'd like to see the Beak's face.
. . . No, I couldn't possibly. My good Otty, how many people d'you
reckon it would compromise?"

"You've compromised Farrell pretty thoroughly, anyhow," said I
grimly: "and you've compromised the cause in which I happen to be
interested. Has it occurred to you, my considerate young friend,
that Farrell has receded to 1000 to 1 in the betting?--that, in
short, you've lost us the seat?"

"_I_ compromise Farrell?"--Jimmy sat up and exclaimed it indignantly.
"_I_ lose you his silly seat? . . . Rats! The little bounder
compromised himself! He's been doing it freely--doing it since ten
o'clock--two crowded hours of glorious life . . . 'stonishing, Otty,
what a variegated ass a man can make of himself nowadays in two short
hours, with the help of a taxi and if he wastes no time. When I
think of our simple grandfathers playing at Bloods, wrenching off
door-knockers. . . . Oh, yes--but you're waiting for the story.
Well, it happened like this,--

"Farrell called on you this morning, soon after breakfast-time, and
found me breakfasting. He was in something of a perspiration.
It appeared