store. There he was wont to cash his check, pay his longstanding
bill, order his new supplies--and then, with a free heart, sally
forth to the Hampton tavern. But to-night, having money in his
pocket apart from the check, he decided to pay a preliminary call
at the tavern, just by way of warming up, before going on to the
store.

There were few people in the barroom at so early an hour of the
evening and on so early an evening of the week. Link nodded
affably to one or two men he knew and bade them line up at the
bar with him. After the second drink he prepared to leave. To the
tavern's proprietor, who was mildly surprised at the brevity of
his call, Ferris explained that he was going across to the store
to get his check cashed and that he would be back later.

Whereat the proprietor kindly offered to save Link the journey by
cashing the check for him; a suggestion Ferris gladly accepted.
He passed the indorsed check across the bar and received for it a
comfortably large wad of wilted greenbacks which he proceeded to
intern with tender care in an inside pocket of his vest, where
he moored them with a safety-pin. Then he ordered another drink.

But to this new order there was an instant demurrer. Two
strangers, who had been drinking at a corner table, bore down
upon Link right lovingly; and recalled themselves to his memory
as companions of his on a quite forgotten debauch of a year or
two back.

Link did not at all remember either of the two. But then he often
failed to recall people he had met on a spree, and he did not