“Excuse me! I'm above that kind of thing--way above it,” said he, with a smile of regret for my ignorance. “Perhaps you wouldn't be above explaining.” “Not at all. If I told you that, I would be as bad as they are. Why, sir, I would be the yellowest yellow dog in the country.” “Frankness is not apt to have an effect so serious,” I said. Again the points of his forefingers came together as he gently answered: “You see, the first demand they made of me, after putting the story in my hands, was that I should never give out their names. I had to promise that.” “Oh, I see. They've elected you to the office of Guardian Angel and Secretary of the Treasury. How did it happen?” The query didn't annoy him. He was getting used to my sallies, and went on: “It was easy and natural as drawing your breath. Those men knew that I had met Mr. Norris--that I was a man of his class, and could talk to him on even terms. They had got the story from a man now dead--paid him five hundred dollars for it. They wanted my help to make a profit, see? I had met Mr. Norris and liked him. He is one of Nature's noblemen. So I played a friendly part in the matter, and bought the story and turned it over to Mr. Norris for what it cost me, and he gave me two hundred dollars for my time. Unfortunately, they have turned out to be rascals, and we have had to keep them in spending money, and prosperity has made them extravagant. The whole thing has become a nuisance to me, and I wish I was out of it.” “What do they want now?” I asked. “Ten thousand dollars.” That was all he said--just those three well-filled words--with a sad but firm look in his face and a neat little gesture of both hands. “When do they want it?” “To-day; they're getting impatient.” “Suppose you tell them that they'll have to practise economy for a week or so at least. I don't know but we shall decide to let them go ahead and do their worst. It isn't going to hurt Norris. He's been foolish about it; I'm trying to stiffen his backbone.” Wilton rose with a look of impatience in his face that betrayed him. “Very well; but _I_ shall not be responsible for the consequences.” The cat had hissed for the first time, but he quickly recovered himself; the tender look returned to his eyes. “I think you're foolish,” he began again, while his right forefinger caressed the point of his left. “These men are not going to last long. One of them has had delirium tremens twice, and the other is in the hospital with Bright's disease. They're both of them broke, and you know as well as I that they could get this money in an hour from some newspaper. It's almost dead sure that both of these men will be out of the way in a year or so. Norris wants to be protected, and it's up to you and me to do it.” “Personally I do not see the object,” I insisted. “Protecting him from one assault only exposes him to another.”