we could employ you to advantage these days. I was thinking there was a story that you are the only man that could handle as it should be handled."
"I am sorry for that," said I, trying to hide my disappointment. "Of course if I am needed, there is an end of the matter. But the engagement was important and intimate. If I could be spared"
Well, I don't see that you can."
It was bitter, but I had to put the best face I could upon it. After all, it was my own fault, for I should have known by this time that a journalist has no right to make plans of his own.
"Then I'll think no more of it," said I, with as much cheerfulness as I could assume at so short a notice. "What was it that you wanted me to do?"
"Well, it was just to interview that deevil of a man down at Rotherfield."
"You don't mean Professor Challenger?" I cried.
Aye, it's just him that I do mean.
