Josiah’s temper rose. He put his mouth to the transmitter and spoke softly, deliberately and with concentrated viciousness. “You’re a humbug! You’re some fool playing with the telephone because it’s Christmas Eve, and you don’t know what else to do with yourself! Probably you’re drunk! I don’t know you, and I don’t want to know you. Get off my private wire!” “Oh!” And then came a curious exclamation that sounded like “Hoo-roo!” “Don’t say you don’t want to know me! You’ve got to know me! I’m coming to you now! Be with you directly!” Josiah began to feel desperate. “Hello!” he called. “Hell-oh!” was the prompt response. “What’s your name?” “Tell you when I see you! Hand you my card!” “Hello! Can you hear what I say?” “As plain as a penny whistle!” “Well then, whoever you are, please understand that it’s no use your coming all the way here to see me to-night. It’s too late! This place is twenty miles from town and there are no trains. The house is shut up, and I’m going to bed. Your business must wait till to-morrow!” “To-morrow is Christmas Day!” replied the shrill voice; “To-morrow will be here in half-an-hour! But I shall be with you before then! My business won’t wait! It can’t! Don’t worry about getting supper for me,--I never take any! Ta!” Utterly mystified, McNason fell back from the telephone affected by that strange and disagreeable sensation commonly called “nerves.” He was not, constitutionally, a nervous man,--his mental and moral fibres were exceptionally tough and sinewy, and though he was distinctly snarley and irritable on the rare occasions when he could not altogether get his own way, his temperament was neither “highly strung” nor over-sensitive. Nevertheless, he was just now conscious of a vague uneasiness,--the sort of physical discomfort which usually precedes a severe chill. “I’ve caught cold in the motor,--that’s what it is,”--he said, with a slight shudder, “Such a beastly night as this is enough to freeze a man’s blood! And I’m not so young as I was”--here the ugly frown deepened on his brow--“not so young--no!--but young enough--young enough! I’ll get into the blankets as quickly as possible.” He glanced furtively at the telephone. “Some impudent idiot has been tampering with my wire, that’s pretty certain! I’ll find out who it is to-morrow! And I’ll make him pay for his fooling!” He turned his eyes towards the fire. It was brighter than ever. Slowly returning to the deep easy chair placed so cosily opposite the sparkling flames, he sat down again. “I’ll get myself thoroughly warmed through before going to bed,”--he decided, spreading out his hands to the red glow--“I’m actually shivering! There must be snow in the air as well as rain!” His teeth chattered, and though the blaze from the fire was already so strong and vivid, he used the poker again to break asunder a half-consumed lump of coal, which on being split emitted a leaping tongue of gaseous blue flame.