The look of pain that had distorted his features quickly disappeared, and in its place there came the comforting jubilance of an anticipated pleasure. Turning to a combination-lock to the cash drawer of his desk; he set the knob at “0,” turned it forward to “20,” back to “15,” forward again to “2,” back to “1,” again forward to “3,” back a full revolution again to “3” and lastly forward to the final “15.” Then he applied a firm, steady pressure to the knob, and a circular segment of the floor upon which the desk stood, and whose scarcely discernable outline blended so perfectly with the inlaid floral scroll design of the floor as to appear an integral part of it, revolved half-around, disclosing a considerable compartment filled with sealed tins of tobacco, and a varied assortment of pipes. Filling a “briar” from a half-empty tin, he adjusted the patent “Smoke Consumer,” pushed a button in the desk which caused the room to be sprayed with an atomized disinfectant which deodorized the fumes and prevented external detection of the felonious act, “lit up,” and took long, deep draughts at the pipe. The serene content of an anticipated joy realized, stole over his face; and, discreetly to himself, he murmured defiantly: “The skunks caught me napping with their ‘Anti-coffee’ law all right, but I was ‘Johnnie-on-the-spot’ when they prohibited tobacco, and I prepared myself for life.” Then, with clear-headed precision, he proceeded to business. Instructing his valet to make careful notations on a tablet to avoid mistakes, he dictated: “As soon as you are through with that booze-prohibition officer, prepare a message in code for this white-livered rat who sold me this trick (pointing to the urn). Tell him to take back this synthetic ‘Coffee Extract’ he stung me with, and credit its cost on my account. I won’t pay for it. Tell him to send me at once one gallon _genuine_ centuple extract of Mocha coffee, if he has it--and be sure to emphasize the ‘_genuine_.’ If he hasn’t the Mocha, tell him to get it as soon as possible; and, in the meantime, he shall send me one gill of any _genuine_ (emphasize that ‘_genuine_’) coffee extract that he has. If he claims that he can’t get the _genuine_ through--as he probably will, for the crook is without doubt trying to ‘bull the market’--tell him that I know positively that he is in with the opium smuggling gang, that I know he can get the genuine coffee through just as they get genuine dope through, if he wants to; and that I will set the federal officers after him, and see to it that he gets life, if he is gay with me. Get the fact into the numskull’s head, if you can, that he is dealing with Algernon Sidney St. Johnstone and not with one of the common people!”