The Doctor caught his throat convulsively. "Oh--ah--fourteen--fourteen." "Fourteen! You say so! I can remember when I wore fourteen. And come to think I must have back at home More than a hundred collars, size fourteen. Too bad to waste them all. You ought to have them. They're yours and welcome; let me send them to you. What makes you stand there on one leg like that? You're not much furtherer than where Kike left you. You act as if you wished you hadn't come. Sit down or lie down, friend; you make me nervous." The Doctor made a subdued dash for it, And propped himself at bay against a pillow. "Not that way, with your shoes on Kike's white bed. You can't rest that way. Let me pull your shoes off." "Don't touch me, please--I say, don't touch me, please. I'll not be put to bed by you, my man." "Just as you say. Have it your own way then. 'My man' is it? You talk like a professor. Speaking of who's afraid of who, however, I'm thinking I have more to lose than you If anything should happen to be wrong. Who wants to cut your number fourteen throat! Let's have a show down as an evidence Of good faith. There is ninety dollars. Come, if you're not afraid." "I'm not afraid. There's five: that's all I carry." "I can search you? Where are you moving over to? Stay still. You'd better tuck your money under you And sleep on it the way I always do When I'm with people I don't trust at night." "Will you believe me if I put it there Right on the counterpane--that I do trust you?" "You'd say so, Mister Man.--I'm a collector. My ninety isn't mine--you won't think that. I pick it up a dollar at a time All round the country for the Weekly News, Published in Bow. You know the Weekly News?" "Known it since I was young." "Then you know me. Now we are getting on together--talking. I'm sort of Something for it at the front. My business is to find what people want: They pay for it, and so they ought to have it. Fairbanks, he says to me--he's editor-- Feel out the public sentiment--he says. A good deal comes on me when all is said. The only trouble is we disagree In politics: I'm Vermont Democrat-- You know what that is, sort of double-dyed; The News has always been Republican. Fairbanks, he says to me, 'Help us this year,' Meaning by us their ticket. 'No,' I says, 'I can't and won't. You've been in long enough: It's time you turned around and boosted us. You'll have to pay me more than ten a week If I'm expected to elect Bill Taft. I doubt if I could do it anyway.'" "You seem to shape the paper's policy." "You see I'm in with everybody, know 'em all. I almost know their farms as well as they do." "You drive around? It must be pleasant work." "It's business, but I can't say it's not fun.