But you take an old lawyer's advice, and get to Midway Island as fast as you can.

There's a pot of money on the table, and Bellairs and Co.

are not the men to stick at trifles." With this parting counsel Judge Morgan shook hands and made off along Montgomery Street, while I entered the Occidental Hotel, on the steps of which we had finished our conversation.

I was well known to the clerks, and as soon as it was understood that I was there to wait for Pinkerton and lunch, I was invited to a seat inside the counter.

Here, then, in a retired corner, I was beginning to come a little to myself after these so violent experiences, when who should come hurrying in, and (after a moment with a clerk) fly to one of the telephone boxes but Mr.Henry D.Bellairs in person?
Call it what you will, but the impulse was irresistible, and I rose and took a place immediately at the man's back.
It may be some excuse that I had often practised this very innocent form of eavesdropping upon strangers, and for fun.