A STRANGE BET

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8189, 26 July 1906, Page 7

A STRANGE BET

'Specially written for the Age by Ruht Beloh.)

PART ll.—Continued.

Ab, Councillor, his lordship remembers your offers of good.service to Baron Nix. With a half-condescending, halfapologetio smile, Benny at last held out his fat little »iand in good-bye to Fastfoot with an intense feeling of satisfaction at getting rid o? him and lesolvea never to permit him to enter his house again. The lord gripped the prof erred hand with a grip like iron. "Thank you, thauk you, my dear Councillor,' he cried with fervour, '•for your great courtesy and generous offer which robs the little business yet to be gone through of its awkwardness," and with every word he squeezed the dumpy little hand of his host harder and harder, till the latter groaned with pain and tears stood in his eyes. "Do not take the matter so much to heart," continued Fastfoot. "Treat our little foramlily as a second edition of our ancient jok«.' We'll not make a real business matter of it. Let me only detain you one leetlo moment longer, dear friend, till I have inspected iuy property in a friendly way." "My very dear lord, really you are carrying the joke too far. You really must exouse me now. We will discuss this matter another time further. That will do, won't it? I am replly pressed for time,"-—this with much asperity. "No, my dear Councillor, 1 must do my duty now. In vain the unhappy man straggled against the Englishman's superior strength. Iu the end hagaaped: "Ob, well! If you will have it, I must humour you. You are a funny fellow." Fastfoot drew with much solemnity a magnifying 'glass from his fob, and, turning Bennyjj to the light, began leisurely to inspect his nose. "Hm," he said, in a dry business tone, "I'm afraid, sir, that you have not bestowed proper care on this delicate organ. It is a very expensive property, you know, very expensive. It is not so handsome as it used to be, and, making all Wreasooable allowance of deterioration, /inseparable from ordinary use, I object to the wine Dlush on it. All, dear Councillor, I am afraid you have lived to well. Hab, and here is a pimple. A pimple on my precious nosel It really will no do—allow me——" and with that he applied dexterously a pin to the offensive tubercle. .benny jumped back, livid with pain and shame. • His tormpntor gripped him fiercely. "Come, come," he said, soothingly, "it mast annoy yon to carry a pimple on my nose. It looks so bad. I must reduce it." In vain were the financiers' struggles. He was hel lasin a vice. Fastfoot squeezed and pulled "his property" till his victim collapsed and fell heavily into a chair. Before 'he recovered, Fastfoot

\ had politely taken his departure, re- » commending his very dear friend to V take greater care of his valuable organ, and promising another visit in the immediate future. What an awful experience lor our Councillor! Was it possible that he, the oracle of the "Boruse," the chOßen financial adviser of Royalty, the Oroesaß o£ the Kingdom, had undergone an indignity in his own house that Hadji Staoros, the notorious Greek brigand would not have dared to inflict upon his prisoners in the mountain vastnesses of the Haemon? It was incredible—was it true? Alas! The twinges in poor Benjaimn's nose testified to the reality of his awful adventure. tfow fortunate it was that Madam von Benjamin had not happened to become witness of ,hiß disgrace What, if she had chanoed to pay one of her unceremonious visits to him in want of a cheque, when even financial magnates had to yield precedence to her, when——. Thanks to his good Btar, that climax of misery he had not reached. Dazed and stunned as he was, our Commercial Councillor still remembered that he was the Presidenet of the Board of Magnates who were to meet in that very room, who were to deal with finance of many hundreds of thousands of pounds, and who relied on his coolness and sagacity to bring their financial operations i to a successful head. It speaks well for Benny's moral courage that he could, in spit© of his physoial and mental sufferings, gain the applause of the most sagacious body of financiers by his perspicacious coolness and acumen.

On the next morning the Royal Gazette informed its readers, that the Commercial Councillor von]Benjamin had niade the most daring and successful "coup de finance' known within the memory of his generation. He, the Napoleon of that ccup had an inner consciousness that only the despair caused by the unmerciful tweeking .of his nose had engendered the recttessneaa that resulted in his dashing success. Thus even that catastrnphical event had turned out to his advantage. .Ml the same, that fact did not make him less anxious to escape future persecution of his enemy. What more natural that to lay his case before the chief legal authorities of the realm? Mr Stronglex was one of these authorities. Moreover, Mr Stronglex was most intimate with Mr Aoutue, once Lord Fastfoot's legal adviser. Both these great luminaries of the law were enaged by the Councillor to examine his case in all its bearings. Both declared his lordship's title to and right of guardance of his property to be valid. Both declared that notwithstanding the said validity a verdict in open court would be given against Fastfoot for unwarranted interference with the sensory nerves of the organ in question, these not being oonflned to the said organ alone, but apt and certain to carry any sensation of pain oonmmunicated to the part claimed by, the purchaser of that part of anatomy beyond the boundary the purchaser and possessor could in equity claim. (To be Continued).

While thin hair and baldness ar» undesirable for men, they are vastly more so for women. Nothing adds more to the adornment of women than rich, heavy, flowing tresses. The hair is too valuable to allow it to suffer from neglect. So just as soon as you notice that your hair is coming out you should use