'I don't know,' says he.

'_ I_ do,' says I--'humbug!' I'll bet you the long odds, gentlemen, that _you_ find it humbug, too." Before the wager could be accepted or declined, the door of the inner room was opened again.

The tall, spare, black figure of a new personage appeared on the threshold, relieved darkly against the light in the room behind him.

He addressed the visitors in these words: "Gentlemen, I must beg your indulgence.

The accident--as we now suppose it to be--which has given to the last comer the number already held by a gentleman who has unsuccessfully consulted me, may have a meaning which we can none of us at present see.