This page has been validated.
J. ARCHIBALD McKACKNEY
(Collector of Whiskers)
CHAPTER I
THE EPISODE OF THE TITIAN BEARD[1]
Late in a bracing autumn afternoon I was playing golf on the links which adjoin my estate. I was alone save for the stimulating companionship of Colonel Bogey. While driving for the home green I pulled my shot so disastrously that the ball flew off at a sickening tangent and vanished in a dense woodland as if the devil were after it. Struggling through the underbrush with somewhat peevish comment, I headed for the tree against which the ball had struck. It must have caromed wide and far, for the search was bootless.
- ↑ The owner of the peerless Titian beard, Hank Wilkins, plays so important a part in the subsequent narratives that it seems advisable to preface them with this account of the singular manner in which the sailor man became the associate of Mr. McKackney. (Editor's Note.)
[3
