"Hoss-play of this so't, suh," said he, "ought not to be tolerated among civilized people, and I believe is not! In the state of society in which I was reahed such niggah-shines would mean pistols at ten paces, within fo'ty-eight houahs, with the lady's neahest male relative! And propahly so, too, suh; quite propahly!" "Shall we go to the train, Albert?" said Alice, as the party made ready to go. "No," said I, "unless you particularly wish it; we shall go home." "Mr. Barslow," said one of the maids, "you are wanted at the telephone." "Is this you, Al?" said Jim's voice over the wire. "I'm up here at Josie's, and I am afraid there's trouble with her father. When we got here we found him gone. Hadn't you better go out and look around for him?" "Have you any idea where I'm likely to find him?" I asked. I saw at once the significance of Bill's absence. He had taken advantage of the fact of his wife and daughter's going to the wedding, and had yielded to the thing which drew him away from them. "Try the Club, and then O'Brien's," answered Jim. "If you don't find him in one place or the other, call me up over the 'phone. Call me up anyhow; I'll wait here." The _Times_ man heard my end of the conversation, saw me hastily give Alice word as to the errand which kept me from going home with her, observed my preparations for leaving the company, and, scenting news, fell in with me as I was walking toward the Club. "Any story in this, Mr. Barslow?" he asked. "Oh, is that you, Watson?" I answered. "I was going on an errand which concerns myself. I was going alone." "If you're looking for any one," he said, trotting along beside me, "I can find him a good deal quicker than you can, probably. And if there's news in it, I'll get it anyhow; and I'll naturally know it more from your standpoint, and look at it more as you do, if we go together. Don't you think so?" "See here, Watson," said I, "you may help if you wish. But if you print a word without my consent, I can and will scoop the _Times_ every day, from this on, with every item of business news coming through our office. Do you understand, and do you promise?" "Why, certainly," said he. "You've got the thing in your own hands. What is it, anyhow?" I told him, and found that Trescott's dipsomania was as well known to him as myself. "He's been throwing money to the fowls for a year or two," he remarked. "It's better than two to one you don't find him at the Club: the atmosphere won't be congenial for him there." At the Club we found Watson's forecast verified. At O'Brien's our knocking on the door aroused a sleepy bartender, who told us that no one was there, but refused to let us in. Watson called him aside, and they talked together for a few minutes. "All right," said the reporter, turning away from him, "much obliged, Hank; I believe you've struck it."