wore an expression inimical to all mankind. The conductor threw his
bundle on the bank and laid his hand on the Celebrity's shoulder.

"Halloa, old man!" said he, cheerily. "You must have had a hard night
of it. But we couldn't make you any sooner, because that hawk of an
officer had his eye on us."

The Celebrity shook himself free. And in place of the gratitude for
which the Fraction had looked, and which he had every reason to expect,
he got something different.

"This outrage has gone far enough," said the Celebrity, with a terrible
calmness. The Fraction was a man of the world.

"Come, come, old chap!" he said soothingly, "don't cut up. We'll make
things a little more homelike here." And he pulled a bottle from the
depths of the hamper. "This will brace you up."

He picked up the hamper and disappeared into the place of retention,
while the Celebrity threw the bottle into the brush. And just then (may
I be forgiven if I am imaginative!) I heard a human laugh come from that
direction. In the casting of that bottle the Celebrity had given vent to
some of the feelings he had been collecting overnight, and it must have
carried about thirty yards. I dived after it like a retriever puppy for
a stone; but the bottle was gone! Perhaps I could say more, but it
doesn't do to believe in yourself too thoroughly when you get up early.
I had nothing to say when I returned.

"You here, Crocker?" said the author, fixing his eye on me. "Deuced
kind of you to get up so early and carry a basket so far for me."