"'Don't know. He's moving away.'
"He gave me the change of address as of the first of the coming month. I looked at his crisp letter and saw that Maugham was planning to pull up stakes for the west. It had the look of pretty isolated country in Nevada. It was only a week until the first and I thought that if I had time I'd look in on Maugham before he went.
"So next morning, being in the neighborhood, I went out of my way a little to call on him. I rang his bell several times before I got an answer. Then it was only the tentative opening of the door on a chain. Maugham's head appeared in the opening.
"'Good morning,' I said. 'How's the inventing business?'
"'You'll have to ask Mr. Maugham,' he said.
"'That's just what I'm doing,' I said.
"'Oh, yes. Well, I'm busy now,' he answered.
"I could see that he was. He was wearing some sort of cap as if to keep his hair dust-free—he was carrying a broom—and he had an apron tied round his middle. Plainly he was getting ready to take his leave. Remembering his agitation at our last meeting I looked for more of the same. But instead there was only a kind of weary apathy. If he was nervous at sight of me he didn't show it. I could see that he didn't intend to let me in if he could help it and this time the chain across the door was an argument I couldn't very well get around.
"'How's Herman?' I asked.