“I’m not much for words, as you all know,” said he, with becoming modesty, “and I don’t set up to be an orator.  I am just what you see here,—­a damned plain man.  And there’s only one virtue that I lay any claim to,—­no one can say that I ever went back on a friend.  I want to thank all of you (looking at the senator) for what you have done for me and Allen.  It’s not for us to talk about that hundred thousand dollars.  —­My private opinion is (he seemed to have no scruples about making it public) that Allen is insane.  No, old man, don’t interrupt me; but you haven’t acted just right, and that’s a fact.  And I won’t feel square with myself until I put him where I found him, in safety.  I am sorry to say, my friends,” he added, with emotion, “that Mr. Allen is about to leave us.”

He paused for breath, palpably satisfied with so much of it, and with the effect on his audience.

“Now,” continued he, “we start this morning for a place which is only four miles or so from the town of Saville, and I shall then request my esteemed legal adviser, Mr. Crocker, to proceed to the town and buy a ready-made suit of clothes for Mr. Allen, a slouch hat, a cheap necktie, and a stout pair of farmer’s boots.  And I have here,” he said, holding up the package, “I have here the rest of it.  My friends, you heard the chief tell me that Drew was doing the lake for a summer hotel syndicate.  But if Drew wasn’t a detective you can throw me into the lake!  He wasn’t exactly Pinkerton, and I flatter myself that we were too many for him,” said Mr. Cooke, with deserved pride; “and he went away in such a devilish hurry that he forgot his hand-bag with some of his extra things.”

Then my client opened the package, and held up on a string before our astonished eyes a wig, a pair of moustaches, and two bushy red whiskers.

And this was Mr. Cooke’s scheme!  Did it electrify his hearers?  Perhaps.  Even the senator was so choked with laughter that he was forced to cast loose one of the buttons which held on his turn-down collar, and Farrar retired into the woods.  But the gravity of Mr. Cooke’s countenance remained serene.

“Old man,” he said to the Celebrity, “you’ll have to learn the price of potatoes now.  Here are Mr. Drew’s duplicates; try ’em on.”

This the Celebrity politely but firmly refused to do.

“Cooke,” said he, “it has never been my lot to visit so kind and considerate a host, or to know a man who pursued his duty with so little thought and care of his own peril.  I wish to thank you, and to apologize for any hasty expressions I may have dropped by mistake, and I would it were possible to convince you that I am neither a maniac nor an embezzler.  But, if it’s just the same to you, I believe I can get along without the disguise you mentioned, and so save Mr. Crocker his pains.  In short, if you will set me down at Saville, I am willing to take my chances of reaching the Canadian Pacific from that point without fear of detection.”