would ever give up a single one of its unwritten laws and customs. To me they are as binding as though I still lived in that hallowed home of my youth.’

‘Then if I was to ask you for a small loan—’ began the greybeard fawningly, edging nearer on the seat and hurriedly wondering how large he might safely make his request, ‘if I was to ask you for, say—’

‘At any other time, certainly,’ said Crosby; ‘in the months of November and December, however, it is absolutely forbidden for any one of our race to give or receive loans or gifts; in fact, one does not willingly speak of them. It is considered unlucky. We will therefore close this discussion.’

‘But it is still October!’ exclaimed the adventurer with an eager, angry whine, as Crosby rose from his seat; ‘wants eight days to the end of the month!’

‘The Afghan November began yesterday,’ said Crosby severely, and in another moment he was striding across the Park, leaving his recent companion scowling and muttering furiously on the seat.

‘I don’t believe a word of his story,’ he chattered to himself; ‘pack of nasty lies from beginning to end. Wish I’d told him so to his face. Calling himself an Afghan!’

The snorts and snarls that escaped from him for the next quarter of an hour went far to support the truth of the old saying that two of a trade never agree.