Together they sit in the cool rotunda of the hotel, enjoying their postprandial smoke, and exchanging remarks about various things of mutual interest.
While thus engaged a tall gentleman with a gray mustache, and a face on which great shrewdness is marked, saunters past and glances at them. Then he returns and stops.
“I beg your pardon, gentlemen, but the clerk told me Mr. Aleck Craig was over here. Do either of you happen to bear that name?”
He looks straight at the Canadian, as though easily picking him out to be the man.
“That is my name, sir,” replies Aleck quickly.
“I am glad to meet you, Mr. Craig. I have a little business with you. My name is Samson Cereal.”
CHAPTER XVI.
ENGAGED.
It is a name to conjure with in the markets of the World’s Fair city. Besides, this gentleman with the iron-gray mustache is Dorothy’s father.
Both Craig and Wycherley spring to their feet. The latter smiles in a peculiar way, as though he sees in this a heaven-sent chance to rise. Perhaps his education in stocks, his enormous wagering against the uncertainties of the market, may meet a reward. Everything comes to those who wait, is the philosophy of this strange adventurer.