ou must--"

"Damn!" said Tommy Reames. He had just seen that his radiator was
punctured. A spout of ruddy, rusty water was pouring out on the grass.

The youngish man came up furiously. A pale young man, Tommy noticed. A
young man with bristling, close-cropped hair and horn-rimmed
spectacles before weak-looking eyes. His mouth was very full and very
red, in marked contrast to the pallor of his cheeks.

"Did you not see the sign upon the gate?" he demanded angrily, in
curiously stilted English. "Did you not see that trespassers are
forbidden? You must go away at once! You will be prosecuted! You will
be imprisoned! You--"

Tommy said irritably:

"Are you Von Holtz? My name is Reames. You telegraphed me."

The waving, lanky arms stopped in the middle of an excited gesture.
The weak-looking eyes behind the lenses widened. A pink tongue licked
the too-full, too-red lips.

"Reames? The Herr Reames?" Von Holtz stammered. Then he said
suspiciously, "But you are not--you cannot be the Herr Reames of the
article on dominant coordinates!"

"I don't know why," said Tommy annoyedly. "I'm also the Herr Reames of
several other articles, such as on the mechanics of continua and the
mass and inertia of the tesseract. And I believe the current
_Philosophical Journal_--"

* * * * *

He surveyed the spouting red stream from the radiator and shrugged
ruefully.

"I wish you'd telephone the village to have somebody come out and fix
my car," he said shortly, "and then tell me if this telegram is a joke
or not."

He pulled out a yellow form and offered it. He had taken an
instinctive dislike to the lean figure before him, but suppressed the
feeling.

Von Holtz took the telegram and read it, and smoothed it out, and said
agitatedly:

"But I thought the Herr Reames would be--would be a venerable
gentleman! I thought--"

"You sent that wire," said Tommy. "It puzzled me just enough to make
me rush out here. And I feel like a fool for having done it. What's
the matter? Is it a joke?"

Von Holtz shook his head violently, even as he bit his lips.

"No! No!" he protested. "The Herr Professor Denham is in the most
terrible, most deadly danger! I--I have been very nearly mad, Herr
Reames. The Ragged Men may seize him!... I telegraphed to you. I have
not slept for four nights. I have worked! I have racked my brains! I
have gone nearly insane, trying to rescue the Herr Professor! And I--"

*