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 at night; the air of the place was of an office opened, after hours, for some special, personal work of an executive. We proceeded into a panelled passage and suddenly upon the right was a doorway or, at least, an aperture. A panel was swung inward, acting as a door except that it was without knob or keyhole or evidence of lock in the panel itself. The girl gestured us through this doorway and we entered a panelled room of good size, almost square.

It was peculiar in some important aspect but I had no mind to discern in what. Bane stood near the center beside a large, flat-topped desk at which sat a remarkable man who immediately monopolized me. He was broad and strong and bent forward in an attitude of extraordinary intentness. He had strawyellow hair and face so florid that, taken with his attitude, I imagined at first that we had interrupted him in some outburst of anger or excitement. I realized in a moment, however, that this was anything but the case. Naturally his face was flushed; naturally, he bent forward. He had been a huge, handsome man