"Cap' Rickards slowed up and took me aboard," explained Tower volubly. "Then he filled me with rock and rye and packed me in blankets. Gee, how they smelt, but how grateful they were! What between prime old whiskey inside and greasy wool outside I dodged a probable attack of pneumonia. When the _Cygnet_ tied up at Barnegat at noon to-day I was fit as a fiddle. Cap' Rickards rigged me out in his shore-going suit and lent me twenty dollars, as that pair of blackguards in the launch had robbed me of every cent. They even took a crooked sixpence I found in London twenty years ago, darn 'em! I phoned Helen, of course, but didn't realize what a hubbub my sad fate had created until I read a newspaper in the train. When I reached home poor Helen was so out of gear that she hadn't told a soul of my escape. I do believe she hardly accepted my own assurance that I was still on the map. However, when I got her calmed down a bit, she remembered you and the rest of the excitement, so I phoned the detective bureau and the club, and came straight here." "That is very good of you, Tower," murmured Meiklejohn brokenly. He looked in far worse plight than the man who had survived such a desperate adventure. "Well, my dear chap, I was naturally anxious to see you, because--but perhaps you don't know that those scoundrels meant to attack you, not me?" Meiklejohn smiled wanly. "Oh, yes," he said. "The police found that out by some means. I believe the authorities actually suspected me of being concerned in the affair." Tower laughed boisterously. "That's the limit!" he roared. "Come with me to the club. We'll soon spoil that yarn. What a fuss the papers made! I'm quite a celebrity." "I'll follow you in half an hour. And, look here, Tower, this matter did really affect me. There was a woman in the case. I butted into an old feud merely as a friend. I think matters will now be settled amicably. Allow me to make good your loss in every way. If you can persuade the police that the whole thing was a hoax--" For the first time Tower looked non-plussed. He was enjoying the notoriety thrust on him so unexpectedly. "Well, I can hardly do that," he said. "But if I can get them to drop further inquiries I'll do it, Meiklejohn, for your sake. Gee! Come to look at you, you must have had a bad time.... Well, good-by, old top! See you later. Suppose we dine together? That will help dissipate this queer story as to you being mixed up in an attack on me. Now, I must be off and play ghost in the club smoking-room." Meiklejohn heard his fluttering man-servant let Tower out. He tottered to a chair, and Ralph Voles came in noiselessly. "Well, what about it?" chuckled the reprobate. "We seem to have struck it lucky." "Go away!" snarled the Senator, goaded to a sudden rage by the other man's cynical humor. "I can stand no more to-day."