Bunker Bean

ne of his volunteer assistants. Suavely the entertainer begged the help of "some kind gentleman from th

rticles of feminine apparel from beneath the coat of his victim. He seated him in a chair that collapsed. He gave him a box to hold and shocked him electrically. He missed his watch and discovered it in the abused man's pocket. And when the ordeal was over the recovered hat was found to contain guinea-pigs. The kind gentleman f

t. His suffering now was not vicarious. For three days he endured o

tom had a little dulled his sensitiveness to this. And he could look Br

other

rose that had been too long kept; the petals were rusting, crumpling at the edges. He wondered if Breede had ever wished to be wrecked on a desert island with her. She surveyed Bean through a glass-and-go

he was desperately enamoured of her, and that it served him right for a presumptuous nobody. She talked to him, preened herself in his gaze, and maddened him with a manner of deadly roguishness. Then she flew to exert the same charm upon any one of the resplendent young men who were

p at the entrance to that lagoon, but now he watched the big sister go down for

rse, they alarmed him. Puzzled as to their purpose, he knew not what defence to ma

way, she burst upon him from the ambush of some exotic shrub to demand which way he had thought of going. He had never thought of a way that did not prove to have been her own. The creature was a leech! If she had only talked, he believed that he could have

e case dangling at her girdle. Then was he sorely beset. They would perhaps talk abou

n inch taller than I am,

measuring Bean's stature

, as if she believed him deaf. She grasped his arm a

per tensely, her eyes

ching!" accus

s shoulders are!" She turned to p

ried the Demon. Plainly Bean's confession to an unusual v

dly, wishing Breede

phur and molasses every spring ... but

looking as if he could t

th that home exerciser had told, even though he was not yet so impressive as the machine's

e!" exclaimed the

primitive brute of the cave times, a

h were worried to the last square inch into a chilling formality, and the big glass conservatory was stifling, like an overc

learned only that his father had been "engaged

s? He did not, if you came down to that. Let them vote if they wanted to. He had other thing

him and battered him to a pulpy mass. Within the half hour he was supinely promising to remind her to give him a badge before he left; and there was furt

it of them; as soon as they thought about voting they began to interfere in a man's business. Yet this suspicion slept when he was wi

; go town to-morrow!" The flapper, and even the Demon, had seemed to be stirred by the announ

iddle?" demanded the flapper, with the calculating

he Demon gravely. "Not

id the flapper cordially. Then, t

ch w

a bunch of teleg

e flapper. "Right there," she added, pointin

ds. He earnestly meant to keep far from that pergola. Wait for him, would they? Well, he'd show them! Always sp

bird to the serpent's maw. His traitorous feet dragged him toward the trap. The

nable moods. That would take them down a bit. But, instead, he became something entirely different. With the stealth of the red Indian he efface

he Demon was saying.

nfident as one who relates a pheno

r saw him-something went over me just

can you kno

ed a deprecating hand. "Why, I know about him in just

(A long-dra

makes me perfectly fu

treated a dozen feet before he breathed again. So

"Tommy Hollins." It came in the Demon's voice, indistinguishable words preceding it. And in the flapper's voice came "Tommy Hollins!" gently, care

s. At once he felt a great relief; he need worry no longer over the singular attentions of this young woman. Let Tommy Hollins worry! He could admit, now, how grave had been his alarm. And there was nothing in it. He could meet her without being afrai

he right to choose the fa

oes. He fled from there. He saw that the moment was not for light conve

questioning. He thought he liked her pretty well now. And she was undeniably good to look at in the white of her tennis costume; the hair, like Nap's spots in its gold

ouchsafed in explanation of the racqu

a man of the world. He was on the verge o

him along too

me!" He put it c

I simply know Pops is going to have

ith cold anticipatory malice. He shuddered for Breede. And he wi

d the unconscious

he'll have another in a little while, don't you worry!" And she wa

mon's ambuscade. She pounced upon

t for yourself. I know you all! If you don't break out one time you do another. I'd a good deal rather you'd had it over before now and put it all behind you-don't interrupt-but you're sound and clea

him, very neatly, as the car passed the tennis court. She was beginning a pr

the right man for the flapper. Hearing her called "Chubbins" somehow made it seem different. Maybe Hollins, who seemed all of twenty, wouldn't "make her happy." He thought it

f his wisdom and goodness. He had looked commiseratingly upon Breede's country-house, thinking of his own palace on the banks of the slow-moving Nile. "-probably made this place look li

essor Balthasar. "The goods will be delivered to you Thursday night, the tenth. I

e secrecy. Bean had feared the hounds of the daily press. They might discover who It was, to whom It was going; discover the true identity of Bunker Bean. The whole thi

o him. The sable vision of a hearse drawn by four lordly black horses at first possessed his mind. But this was dismissed; there was no death! And the spectacle would e

de beside the driver, his frock coat and glossy tall hat having been relinquished for the garb of an ordinary citizen. Back of them in the wagon he could distinguish the lines of an Object. It

he stairway. Balthasar was coming first. With sublime effrontery he had impressed Cassidy to help carr

and the expressman puffed freely and looked at the thi

ckybac," said C

ith dust," said the express

t meself," s

fur fair," continued t

on their way," said Balthasar. Bean pre

sar; "the nervous strain I've been under. A custom-house detective wa

shudd

y di

s ever in a few days. Got a hatchet." He

He could not disinter himself-it seemed

rt-here!" He passed Balthasar the chec

t one thing, don't handle it much. It might dis

whistling. He recognized the air, "Call Me Up Some Rainy Afternoon."

it. The fleshly tenement of a great king who had later flashed upon the world as Napoleon I, and was no

s knock at the door

or. Balthasar had betrayed him. The Egyptian authorities had disc

d it an inch. Cassidy stood there, armed

e weapon. He wiped his mouth with the back of

ckybac!" insi

d Bean, accep

y, Mayo, him an' me," volu

d. The nails screeched horribly as they were withdrawn. The task was simple enough; the crate was a flimsy affair to have withstood so difficult a

ather reassuring. He felt that he might be unpacking any casual

d men in profile, and queer marks that he knew to be picture-writing; processions of slaves and oxen, reapers and water-bearers. The tints were fresh under their overlaying lacquer. There was even a smell of varnish. He wondered if the co

e box might contain food. He stretched his forep

me upon him for the first time. He was banished to his couch

on his return to France from the Egyptian expedition, with characteristic energy he set himself to work to bring the dream to pass-" It was plain enough. He knew now the inner meaning of that engraving he had bought, in which Napoleon stood in rapt meditation before the Sphinx. They had all-King, Emperor, Bean-been dreamers

il he could raise the case. It was surprisingly light and he leaned it upright against the wall. He now tried to pretend that ev

drew a long shivering breath and gently lifted it off. His eyes were upon the swathed figur

s an echo of the smile with which he greeted death. There was a gleam of teeth from under the lip. The eyes had closed peacefully; the lids lay light upon their secrets as if they might flutter and open again. On cheek and chin was a discernible growth of dark beard; the hair above the brow

s were folded on the breast. Low down on the right jaw was unmistakably a mole, a thing that had strangely survived on Bean's own face. Again he ran a hand over t

rdly more than a whisper and

h

w I've c