Jay came across the room and clutched his arm, towering over him. “I didn’t shuck my wig this time, Mr. Marcus, honest. I really saw this. The guy had his clothes off, and he was all over spiders.” Mr. Marcus felt a touch of chill. Jay had been committed twice before coming to rest at Mrs. Ponder’s; if he were sent away again, it might be for good. “Sit down,” Mr. Marcus said. Hе sat down himself, on the room’s one chair. “Tell me about it, Jay, and from the beginning.” Jay sat on the bed, and rose, and sat again. “It’d be all right if he’d keep them to himself,” he said. “I wouldn’t mind that because I _like_ him. It’s Miss Kitty I’m worried about.” “Miss Kitty?” “Everybody likes Adrian, Mr. Marcus, but Miss Kitty’s in love with him. How’ll she feel when she finds out he’s got spiders?” Mr. Marcus nodded gravely. “I can understand your concern. But Miss Kitty is blind, Jay. How can she find out?” “I thought you’d see that right off,” Jay said, disappointed. “She’ll know when they get married, won’t she? She’ll _have_ to know.” Mr. Marcus permitted himself a small shudder. Jay had outdone himself this time. “You saw these spiders, you said,” he reminded. “Where, and when?” Jay got up and paced restlessly, limping. “Half an hour ago, when Adrian went up to shower and dress for his date with Miss Kitty. I was out on the porch roof, tightening a loose bathroom shutter I’d promised to fix for Mrs. Ponder, and--” “You spied on him, Jay? In the _bathroom_?” “I didn’t mean to,” Jay said defensively. “But I couldn’t look away after I saw the spiders. Could you?” He turned a stricken face to Mr. Marcus. “Mr. Marcus, he was all covered with them until he stepped into the shower. Then he held up a towel and they jumped on it to keep dry.” “I see,” Mr. Marcus said. “And when he came out?” “He dried himself off,” Jay said. “And they jumped on again.” Hе began to tremble with the violence of imminent seizure. “What am I going to do, Mr. Marcus? I like Adrian, but I like Miss Kitty, too. I can’t let him--” Mr. Marcus rose hastily and led him to his room down the hall. “You won’t have to do anything,” he promised before he left Jay to have his fit in privacy. “Trust me, Jay. I’ll take care of it.” It was not until later, when he had settled himself in his own room to a volume of Saki’s inhumanly perfect short stories, that he remembered the new boarder’s peregrinating mole. “Can’t happen outside fiction,” he assured himself. “Tricks of the eyes, or else the fellow has two moles.” But his eyesight was disturbingly good when he went down to breakfast next morning at seven and found himself seated beside Adrian Hall. Adrian was neatly dressed for work. He was a newspaper reporter, it developed, and was thinking seriously of launching a weekly of his own in Maysville--and he was every whit as likeable as he had been on the night before. But not as unremarkable. This morning, he had no moles at all. * * * * *