"Oh, a visitor."
I regarded him for a moment in silence.
"You don't seem very enthusiastic," I observed.
"Why should I be? Some crank, most likely. Must be, or he wouldn't set out in such a storm as this is."
"Great Pluvius, is he coming through this deluge?"
"He is. Unless I'm mighty badly mistaken, he is on his way over right now."
"Must be something mighty important."
"Oh, it's important all right, important to him," said Milton Rhodes. "But will it interest me?"
"I'll tell you that before the day is done. But who is this queer gentleman?"
"Name's Scranton, Mr. James W. Scranton. That's all that I know about him, save that he is bringing us a mystery. He called it a terrible, horrible scientific mystery."