“I shouldn’t wonder.”

“I don’t guess any man knows enough to break such a rule.  Do you?”

“No.  But it’ll be fun to see him try.”

“Sure fun!  Well, I must be getting along.  See yu’ to-morrow.”

“See you to-morrow, Lin.”

He left me at a corner, and I stood watching his tall, depressed figure.  A hundred yards down the street he turned, and seeing me looking after him, pretended he had not turned; and then I took my steps toward the club, telling myself that I had been something of a skunk; for I had inquired for Mrs. McLean in a certain tone, and I had hinted to Lin that he had lacked caution; and this was nothing but a way of saying “I told you so” to the man that is down.  Down Lin certainly was, although it had not come so home to me until our little walk together just now along the boards.

At the club I found the Governor teaching Ogden a Cheyenne specialty—­a particular drink, the Allston cocktail.  “It’s the bitters that does the trick,” he was saying, but saw me and called out:  “You ought to have been with us and seen Jode.  I showed him the telegram, you know.  He read it through, and just handed it back to me, and went on monkeying with his anemometer.  Ever seen his instruments?  Every fresh jigger they get out he sends for.  Well, he monkeyed away, and wouldn’t say a word, so I said, ‘You understand, Jode, this telegram comes from Hilbrun.’  And Jode, he quit his anemometer and said, ’I make no doubt, sir, that your despatch is genuwine.’  Oh, South Carolina’s indignant at me!” And the Governor slapped his knee.  “Why, he’s so set against Hilbrun,” he continued, “I guess if he knew of something he could explode to stop rain he’d let her fly!”

“No, he wouldn’t,” said I.  “He’d not consider that honorable.”

“That’s so,” the Governor assented.  “Jode’ll play fair.”

It was thus we had come to look at our enterprise—­a game between a well-established, respectable weather bureau and an upstart charlatan.  And it was the charlatan had our sympathy—­as all charlatans, whether religious, military, medical, political, or what not, have with the average American.  We met him at the station.  That is, Ogden, McLean, and I; and the Governor, being engaged, sent (unofficially) his secretary and the requested cart.  Lin was anxious to see what would be put in the cart, and I was curious about how a rain-maker would look.  But he turned out an unassuming, quiet man in blue serge, with a face you could not remember afterwards, and a few civil, ordinary remarks.  He even said it was a hot day, as if he had no relations with the weather; and what he put into the cart were only two packing-boxes of no special significance to the eye.  He desired no lodging at the hotel, but to sleep with his apparatus in the building provided for him; and we set out for it at once.  It was an untenanted barn, and he asked that he and his assistant might cut a hole in the roof, upon which we noticed the