store opens on Monday the vase will reach your hostess twenty-four hours
after her anniversary party."

"Exactly, Bill. Now, I've simply got to have that vase. If I had
discovered it yesterday I wouldn't be asking you to get it for me today,
Bill."

"Please do not make any explanations or apologies, Mr. Ricks. You have
described the vase--no you haven't. What sort of blue is it, how tall is
it and what is, approximately, its greatest diameter? Does it set on a
base, or does it not? Is it a solid blue, or is it figured?"

It's a Cloisonné vase, Bill--sort of old Dutch blue, or Delft, with some
Oriental funny-business on it. I couldn't describe it exactly, but it
has some birds and flowers on it. It's about a foot tall and four inches
in diameter and sets on a teak-wood base."

"Very well, sir. You shall have it."

"And you'll deliver it to me in stateroom A, car 7, aboard the train at
Third and Townsend Streets, at seven fifty-five tonight?"

"Yes, sir."

"Thank you, Bill. The expense will be trifling. Collect it from the
cashier in the morning, and tell him to charge it to my account." And
Cappy hung up.

At once Mr. Skinner took up the thread of the interrupted conference,
and it was not until three o'clock that Bill Peck left his house and