commonplace most cordially.

"I'll give you the money on one condition," he said.

"I object to the condition," said Gys firmly. "Conditions are
dangerous."

"My proposition," went on Uncle John, "won't wait for weeks. When you
hear it, if you are not anxious to take it up, I don't want you. Indeed,
I'm not sure I want you, anyhow."

"Ah; you're frightened by my features. Most people with propositions
are. I'm an unlucky dog, sir. They say it's good luck to touch a
hunchback; to touch me is the reverse. Way up North in a frozen sea a
poor fellow went overboard. I didn't get him and he drowned; but I got
caught between two cakes of floating ice that jammed my nose out of its
former perfect contour. In Yucatan I tumbled into a hedge of poisoned
cactus and had to operate on myself--quickly, too--to save my life.
Wild with pain, I slashed my face to get the poisoned tips of thorn out
of the flesh. Parts of my body are like my face, but fortunately I can
cover them. It was bad surgery. On another I could have operated without
leaving a scar, but I was frantic with pain. Don't stare at that big
eye, sir; it's glass. I lost that optic in Pernambuco and couldn't find
a glass substitute to fit my face. Indeed, this was the only one in
town, made for a fat Spanish lady who turned it down because it was not
exactly the right color."

"You certainly have been--eh--unfortunate," murmured Uncle John.

"See here," said Gys, taking a leather book from an inside pocket of the