ew arrival grew excited.

"This is very unusual," he fumed, walking up and down. "I wired him
only three hours ago. I've been here now fully three-quarters of an
hour! A most unheard-of method of doing business, I should say!"

Presently our stern, steely-eyed host returned. He seemed to be going
somewhere, to be nowise interested in us. Yet into our presence,
probably into the consciousness of this new "guest," he carried that air
of savage strength and indifference, eyeing the stranger quite sharply
and making no effort to apologize for our long wait.

"You wish to see me?" he inquired brusquely once more.

Like a wasp, the stranger was vibrant with rage. Plainly he felt himself
insulted or terribly underrated.

"Are you Mr. Culhane?" he asked crisply.

"Yes."

"I am Mr. Squiers," he exclaimed. "I wired you from Buffalo and ordered
a room," this last with an irritated wave of the hand.

"Oh, no, you didn't order any room," replied the host sourly and with an
obvious desire to show his indifference and contempt even. "You wired to
know if you _could engage_ a room."

He paused. The temperature seemed to drop perceptibly. The prospective
guest seemed to realize that he had made a mistake somewhere, had been
misinformed as to conditions here.

"Oh! Um--ah! Yes! Well, have you a room?"

"I don't know. I doubt it. We don't take every one." His eyes seemed to
bore into the interior of his would-be guest.

"Well, but I was told--my friend, Mr. X----," the stranger began a
rapid, semi-irritated, semi-apologetic explanation of how he came to be
here.

"I don't know anything about your friend or what he told you. If he told
you you could order a room by telegraph, he's mistaken. Anyhow, you're
not dealing with him, but with me. Now that you're here, though, if you
want to sit down and rest yourself a little I'll see what I can do for
you. I can't decide now whether I can let you stay. You'll have to wait
a while." He turned and walked off.

The other stared. "Well," he commented to me after a time, walking and
twisting, "if a man wants to come here I suppose he has to put up with
such things, but it's certainly unusual, isn't it?" He sat down, wilted,
and waited.

Later a clerk in charge of the registry book took us in hand, and then I
heard him explaining that his lungs were not in good shape. He had come
a long way--Denver, I believe. He had heard that all one needed to do
was to wire, especially one in his