"Well, then, if I build another," corrected Hawkins, sobering suddenly, "I
shall be careful not to use that rear arrangement at all. I shall place
the valve of the balloon where I can get at it more easily. I shall----"

"Mr. Hawkins," said Brotherton, abruptly, "I thought I asked you to keep
that cloth over your mouth until I get you where I can sew up that lip."

Apart from any medical bearing, it struck me that that remark indicated
good, sound sense on Brotherton's part.




CHAPTER IV.


There are some men to whom experience never teaches anything.

Hawkins is one of them; I am another.

As concerns Hawkins, I feel pretty sure that some obscure mental
aberration lies at the seat of his trouble; for my own part, I am inclined
to blame my confiding, unsuspicious nature.

Now, when the Hawkins' cook and the Hawkins' maid came "'cross lots" and
carried off our own domestic staff to some festivity, I should have been
able to see the hand of Fate groping around in my locality, clearing the
scene so as to leave me, alone and unprotected, with Hawkins.