One evening, when Jocky Mason entered Grenier's apartments he started back with an oath, as a stranger approached him in the dim light and said:
"Well, Mason, and what do you want?"
The ex-burglar and man-slayer seemed to be so ready to commit instant murder that Grenier himself was alarmed.
"Hold hard, old chap," he said, in his natural voice. "I am only trying an experiment on you."
"What tomfoolery is this?" shouted the other, gazing at him with the suspicious side glance of a discomfited dog which has been startled by some person familiar to it in ordinary guise but masquerading in outré garments.
"A mere pleasantry, I assure you. Good heavens, man, how you must hate this fellow, Anson, if you are so ready to slay him at sight. From your own story, he only acted as ninety-nine people out of a hundred would have done in helping the cop."
"What I want to know is, why you are playing tricks on me. I won't stand it. I'm not built that way."
"Now, Mason, be reasonable. Can I ask anybody else if I resemble Philip Anson when made up to represent him?"
"Perhaps not, but you ought to have warned me. Besides, I am worried to-day."
"What has happened now?"