The consul believed that Sir James had the reputation of being
exceedingly sagacious in financial and mercantile matters, and that he
was a man of some wealth.

"Naturally. I wonder what he'd take to come over to America, and give
the boys points," continued Custer, in meditative admiration. "There
were two or three men on Scott's River, and one Chinaman, that we used
to think smart, but they were doddering ijuts to HIM. And as for me--I
say, Jack, you didn't see any hayseed in my hair that day I walked inter
your consulate, did you?"

The consul smilingly admitted that he had not noticed these signs of
rustic innocence in his friend.

"Nor any flies? Well, for all that, when I get home I'm going to resign.
No more foreign investments for ME. When anybody calls at the consulate
and asks for H. J. Custer, say you don't know me. And you don't. And I
say, Jack, try to smooth things over for me with HER."

"With Miss Elsie?"

Custer cast a glance of profound pity upon the consul. "No with Mrs.
Kirkby, of course. See?"

The consul thought he did see, and that he had at last found a clue to
Custer's extraordinary speculation. But, like most theorists who
argue from a single fact, a few months later he might have doubted his
deduction.

He was staying at a large country-house many miles distant from the