The latter was no one he knew, so much was sure, to begin with.  The first impression Raish gained was of an overcoat and a derby hat.  Then he caught the glitter of spectacles beneath the hat brim.  Next his attention centered upon a large and bright yellow suitcase which the stranger was carrying.  That suitcase settled it.  Mr. Pulcifer’s keen mind had diagnosed the situation.

“No,” he said, quickly, “I don’t want nothin’—­nothin’; d’you get me?”

“But—­but—­pardon me, I—­”

“Nothin’.  Nothin’ at all.  I’ve got all I want.”

The stranger seemed to find this statement puzzling.

“Excuse me,” he faltered, after a moment’s hesitation, during which Raish scratched another match.  “I—­ You see—­I fear—­I’m sure you don’t understand.”

Mr. Pulcifer bent and lighted the second lamp.  Then he straightened once more and turned toward his questioner.

“I understand, young feller,” he said, “but you don’t seem to.  I don’t want to buy nothin’.  I’ve got all I want.  That’s plain enough, ain’t it?”

“But—­but—­ All you want?  Really, I—­”

“All I want of whatever ’tis you’ve got in that bag.  I never buy nothin’ of peddlers.  So you’re just wastin’ your time hangin’ around.  Trot along now, I’m on my way.”

He stepped to the side of the car, preparatory to climbing to the driver’s seat, but the person with the suitcase followed him.

“Pardon me,” faltered that person, “but I’m not—­ah—­a peddler.  I’m afraid I—­that is, I appear to be lost.  I merely wish to ask the way to—­ah—­to Mr. Hall’s residence—­Mr. Hall of Wellmouth.”

Raish turned and looked, not at the suitcase this time, but at the face under the hat brim.  It was a mild, distinctly inoffensive face—­an intellectual face, although that is not the term Mr. Pulcifer would have used in describing it.  It was not the face of a peddler, the ordinary kind of peddler, certainly—­and the mild brown eyes, eyes a trifle nearsighted, behind the round, gold-rimmed spectacles, were not those of a sharp trader seeking a victim.  Also Raish saw that he had made a mistake in addressing this individual as “young feller.”  He was of middle age, and the hair, worn a little longer than usual, above his ears was sprinkled with gray.

“Mr. Hall, of—­ah—­of Wellmouth,” repeated the stranger, seemingly embarrassed by the Pulcifer stare.  “I—­I wish to find his house.  Can you tell me how to find it?”

Raish took the cigar, which even the bump against the lamp door had failed to dislodge, from the corner of his mouth, snapped the ash from its end, and then asked a question of his own.

“Hall?” he repeated.  “Hall?  Why, he don’t live in Wellmouth.  East Wellmouth’s where he lives.”

“Dear me!  Are you sure?”

“Sure?  Course I’m sure.  Know him well.”

“Oh, dear me!  Why, the man at the station told me—­”