"No, Blake." I felt confident of licking my weight in madmen and I entered the library.
A tall, distinguished, dark haired gentleman rose to greet me.
"Ah! Dr. Huckins! I was afraid you would not get here in time!"
As he spoke I noticed a peculiar light in his eyes. It seemed to be a reflection from the fluorescent lamps of the library, but it showed a little too much of the whites of his eyes and I thought of what Blake had said about the man not being "quite right."
I did not feel that I owed him an apology for keeping him waiting, since I usually received visitors by appointment.
"I am Gustav Keeshwar!" he introduced himself. He seemed to expect some reaction, but unfortunately the name meant nothing to me, although if I had paid more attention to the newspapers I would have known who he was at once.
"I am the president of the Stellar Transport Company," he announced.
As he spoke he glanced secretively about the room, as though he feared an eavesdropper. Then he picked up a brief case which was lying on the table. With no explanation he opened it and pulled out package after package of thousand dollar bills.
"You may count it if you wish," Keeshwar said. "There are 1,000 bills, each of one thousand dollar denomination. One million dollars in cold cash."
There are any number of bank presidents who have never seen a million dollars in one pile. Spread out before me, I could scarcely grasp the amount of wealth it represented. As I recall now, my clearest mental reaction was a curiosity about how he managed to tuck it away so neatly in a brief case. Then I wondered if it was real money. A closer glance at the bills convinced me that it was.