little panicky over the situation, they gave over urging the point.

"But you must join us later in the evening," said they.

The idea grew.

"I tell you what," said Rowlee, with half-drunken gravity; "he's got to
come back. We can't afford to lose him this early. And he can't afford to
lose us. The best life of this glorious commonwealth is as yet a sealed
book to him. It is our sacred duty, gentlemen, to break those seals. What
does he know of our temples of Terpsichore? Our altars to the gods of
chance? Our bowers of the Cyprians?"

He would have gone on at length, but Keith, laughingly protesting, trying
to disengage himself from the detaining hands, broke in with a promise to
return. But little Rowlee was not satisfied.

"I think we should take no chances," he stated. "How would it be to appoint
a committee to 'company him and see that he gets back?"

Keith's head was clear enough to realize with dismay that this brilliant
idea was about to take. But Ben Sansome, seizing the situation, locked his
arm firmly in Keith's.

"I'll see personally that he gets back," said he.




V