Simkins was in a dilemma, and could not make up his mind what to do.
The Anarchists apparently were not to be shaken off. He applied to his
editor for advice on the situation, but that good man could think of no
way out of the trouble.

"You ought to have known better," he said, "than to mix up with such
people."

"But how was I to get the news?" asked Simkins, with some indignation.
The editor shrugged his shoulders. That was not his part of the
business; and if the Anarchists chose to make things uncomfortable for
the young man, he could not help it.

Simkins' fellow-lodger, a student who was studying chemistry in London,
noticed that the reporter was becoming gaunt with anxiety.

"Simkins," said Sedlitz to him one morning, "you are haggard and
careworn: what is the matter with you? Are you in love, or is it merely
debt that is bothering you?"

"Neither," replied Simkins.

"Then cheer up," said Sedlitz. "If one or the other is not interfering
with you, anything else is easily remedied."

"I am not so sure of that," rejoined Simkins; and then he sat down and
told his friend just what was troubling him.

"Ah," said Sedlitz, "that accounts for it. There has been an unkempt