He did not wait for Miss Sally to answer, but turned to the scowling Colonel. “Colonel,” he said, “I want you to walk down to the office with me. I shouldn't wonder if you could sell those fire-extinguishers right here in Kilo.” The four descended the stairs together, and the Colonel would willingly have lingered, but the attorney took him by the arm and jovially steered him out of the door. Miss Sally, too, would gladly have had the Colonel remain, to protect her from the book agent, and to say “no” when the appeal to buy was reached, but Eliph' retreated into the darkness of the parlor, and took a seat in the corner of the room, and Miss Sally, unable now to escape him, seated herself as far from him as she could. CHAPTER X. The Boss Grafter Eliph' Hewlitt was resolved that into this interview no words regarding Jarby's Encyclopedia of Knowledge and Compendium of Literature, Science and Art should enter. With two such favored rivals in the field, and with such difficulty in getting into the house as he had experienced, he meant to get well acquainted in a hurry. Miss Sally sat stiffly in her chair, steeling herself to refuse the request to buy a copy of the book. Her usually attractive face was stern, as she looked at Eliph' Hewlitt, and she watched him suspiciously as he slowly combed his whiskers with his fingers, as if she feared this was some part of the operation by which he was charming her into a hypnotic state in which she would sign for a book without knowing why. She nerved herself to ward off whatever insinuating words he should first say, and Eliph', as he studied her face, sought words that would advance him at one bound deep into the state of being well acquainted. It was a trying moment for both. Then, so suddenly that Miss Sally almost jumped from her chair, Eliph' coughed behind his hand, and spoke. “It seems like it would be as hot to-day as it was yesterday, if it don't shower before night,” he said, and smiled pleasantly as he said it. Miss Sally was taken off her guard, and before she was aware she had answered, quite as politely as she would have answered the minister himself. “It's awful hot,” she said. “I guess Kilo's the hottest place on earth in summer.”