“Dear Madam,” said the letter.  “Regarding a certain cat sent to your address through our company by Hibbert & Jones of this city, while advising you of our entire freedom from responsibility in the matter, all animals being accepted by us at owner’s risk only, we beg to make the following communication:  The cat is now in storage at our express office in Westcote, and is sick.  A letter from our agent there leads us to believe that the cat may not receive the best of attention at his hands.  In order that it may be properly fed and cared for we would suggest that you accept the cat from our hands, under protest if you wish, until you can arrange with Messrs. Hibbert & Jones as to the ownership.  In asking you to take the cat in this way we have no other object in view than to stop the charges for storage and care, which are accumulating, and to make sure that the cat is receiving good attention.  We might say, however, that Hibbert & Jones assure us that the cat is your property, and therefore, until we have assurance to the contrary, we must look to you for all charges for transportation, storage, and care accruing while the cat is left with us.  Yours very truly.”

When she had read the letter Mrs. Warman’s emotions were extremely mixed.  She felt an undying anger toward the express company; she felt an entirely different and more personal anger toward the firm of Hibbert & Jones; but above all she felt a great surprise regarding the cat.  If ever she had seen a cat that she thought was a thoroughly dead cat this was the cat.  She had had many cats in her day, and she had always thought she knew a dead cat when she saw one, and now this dead cat was alive—­ailing, perhaps, but alive.  The more she considered it, the less likely it seemed to her that she could have been mistaken about the deadness of that cat.  It had been offered to her twice.  The first time she saw it she knew it was dead, and the second time she saw it she knew it was, if anything, more dead than it had been the first time.  The conclusion was obvious.  A cat had been sent to her in a box.  She had refused to receive a dead cat, and the expressmen had taken the box away again.  Now there was a live, but sick, cat in the box.  She had her opinion of expressmen, express companies, and especially of the firm of Hibbert & Jones.  This full opinion she sent to Hibbert & Jones by the next mail.

The next morning Flannery was feeling fine.  He whistled as he went to the nine—­twenty train, and whistled as he came back to the office with his hand-truck full of packages and the large express envelope with the red seals on the back snugly tucked in his inside pocket, but when he opened the envelope and read the first paper that fell out he stopped whistling.

“Agent, Westcote,” said the letter.  “Regarding W.B. 23645, Hibbert & Jones, consignor of the cat you are holding in storage, advises us that the consignee claims cat you have is not the cat shipped by consignor.  Return cat by first train to this office.  If the cat is not strong enough to travel alone have veterinary accompany it.  Yrs. truly, Interurban Express Company, per J.”