They were about to retire to the lounging room when a servant came up to Stillman and handed him a note on a salver. Stillman read it with a puzzled expression on his face.

“I say, Jack, what does this mean? There are several newspaper fellows in the hall who want to interview you. They learned at the hotel that you were here and have come in a body? I didn’t know you were a celebrity of that kind. What’s the game?”

“I haven’t the slightest idea. I suppose I’d better see them and find out. Can they come up to the reading-room?”

Stillman turned to the waiting servant and told him to bring the gentlemen into the reading-room—the small one, he added.

When they entered the room they found awaiting them four gentlemen of various ages who introduced themselves as representatives of the Associated Press, the