“I never discovered why Siders had sent for me.  When I arrived at the appointed time I found the door of the house closed.  I was obliged to ring several times before an old servant opened the door.  She seemed surprised that it had been locked.  She said that the door was always unlatched, and that Mr. Siders himself must have closed it, contrary to all custom, for she had not done it, and there was no one else in the house but the two of them.  Siders was waiting for me at the top of the stairs, calling down a noisy welcome.

“When I asked him finally what it was so important that he wanted to say to me, he evaded me and continued to chatter on about commonplace things.  Finally I insisted upon knowing why he had wanted me to come, and he replied that the reason for it had already been fulfilled, that he had nothing more to say, and that I could go as soon as I wanted to.  He appeared quite calm, but he must have been very nervous.  For as I stood by the desk, telling him what I thought of his actions, he moved his hand hastily among the papers there and upset the ink stand.  I jumped back, but not before I had received several large spots of ink on my trousers.  He was profuse in his apologies for the accident, and tried to take out the spots with blotting paper.  Then at last, when I insisted upon going, he looked out to see whether there was still a light on the stairs, and led me down to the door himself, standing there for some time looking after me.

“I was slightly alarmed as well as angry at his actions.  I believe that he could not have been quite in his right mind, that the strain of nervousness which was apparent in his nature had really made him ill.  For I remember several peculiar incidents of my visit to him.  One of these was that he almost insisted upon my taking away with me, ostensibly to take care of them, several valuable pieces of jewelry which he possessed.  He seemed almost offended when I refused to do anything of the kind.  Then, as I parted from him at the door, not in a very good humour I will acknowledge, he said to me:  ’You will think of me very often in the future—­more often than you would believe now!’

“This is all the truth, and nothing but the truth, about my visit to John Siders on the evening of September 23rd.  As it had been his wish I said nothing to the ladies at home, or to any one else about the occurrence.  And as I have told you, I destroyed his letter asking me to come to him.

“The following day about noon, the Commissioner of Police from G—­ called at my office in the factory, and informed me bluntly that John Siders had been found shot dead in his lodgings that morning.  I was naturally shocked, as one would be at such news, in spite of the fact that I had parted from the man in anger, and that I had no reason to be particularly fond of him.  What shocked me most of all was the sudden thought that John had taken his own life.  It was a perfectly natural thought when I considered