and by a hand unseen. Watch has been kept, yet no one has been
detected; and, as you know, only a few persons have free access here.
Still the thing continues. At regular periods these absurd bouquets
appear on this desk, seemingly from nowhere at all. Hence this
inquiry."

I'd heard Piddie spout a good many times before, but never quite so
eloquent, and I expect I was gawpin' at him some dazed and admirin'.

"Well," says Old Hickory, squintin' sharp at me from under his bushy
eyebrows, "what have you to offer?"

"It's by me," says I, shruggin' my shoulders.

"Oh, come now!" he goes on. "With that high tension brain of yours,
surely you can advance some idea."

"Why," says I, "offhand I should say that some of them mushy lady
typists out there might be smugglin' in floral tributes to you, Sir."

Old Hickory grins sarcastic. "Without going into the question of
motive," says he, "that suggestion may be worth considering. What say,
Mr. Piddie?"

"It might be that Miss Smicks," says Piddie. "She's quite sentimental,
Sir, and I've thought at times she----"

"Stop!" roars Old Hickory, almost workin' up a blush. "Mr. Piddie, I
am a fat, cross-grained old man, about as attractive personally as a
hippopotamus. Great stuttering tadpoles! Can't you think of anything