"I never saw Maugham around again after that," continued Harrigan. "He virtually went into seclusion and no one saw him at his old haunts. Not that he'd been in the habit of moving around a good deal--he hadn't. But now, abruptly, he appeared to give up all his customary walks and visits and to retire into his house. "You get used to situations like that involving inventive or creative people of course. You think nothing of it. I didn't, I know, though I was possessed of some curiosity about Herman. But out in his neighborhood, where people knew nothing about Herman, certain rumors began to circulate--that Maugham had hired an assistant, and that the assistant now did all Maugham's errands for him. And so on.... "I happened on a description of his assistant one afternoon and it sounded pretty much like Herman. I was amused at the way in which people can get things balled up. They do, you know. Take any court, any trial--the so-called 'circumstantial evidence,' correctly interpreted, is the most effectively damning. Eyewitness accounts vary as much as the weather and are as unreliable actually. "So that too passed over me. "I think it was about two months after I had last seen Maugham that I learned of his plans to move west. It was entirely an accident. I happened to be in the circulation department one morning when the circulation manager of the paper got a letter from Maugham asking him to change his address. "'You know that fellow Maugham, don't you, Harrigan?' asked Howells. "'Sure,' I said. 'What's he been up to now?' "'Don't know. He's moving away.' "He gave me the change of address as of the first of the coming month. I looked at his crisp letter and saw that Maugham was planning to pull up stakes for the west. It had the look of pretty isolated country in Nevada. It was only a week until the first and I thought that if I had time I'd look in on Maugham before he went. "So next morning, being in the neighborhood, I went out of my way a little to call on him. I rang his bell several times before I got an answer. Then it was only the tentative opening of the door on a chain. Maugham's head appeared in the opening. "'Good morning,' I said. 'How's the inventing business?' "'You'll have to ask Mr. Maugham,' he said. "'That's just what I'm doing,' I said. "'Oh, yes. Well, I'm busy now,' he answered. * * * * * "I could see that he was. He was wearing some sort of cap as if to keep his hair dust-free--he was carrying a broom--and he had an apron tied round his middle. Plainly he was getting ready to take his leave. Remembering his agitation at our last meeting I looked for more of the same. But instead there was only a kind of weary apathy. If he was nervous at sight of me he didn't show it. I could see that he didn't intend to let me in if he could help it and this time the chain across the door was an argument I couldn't very well get around. "'How's Herman?' I asked.