The younger members of the club
call him 'Zanona Redivivus.' He wanders through the house usually
late at night, apparently without noticing anything or anybody.
His mind seems to be deeply and busily at work, leaving his bodily
self to wander as it may happen. Naturally, strange stories are
told of him; indeed, his individuality and his habit of doing some
unexpected thing, and doing it in such a marvelously original
manner that men who are experts at it look on in wonder, cannot
fail to make him an object of interest.
"He has never been known to play at any game whatever, and yet one
night he sat down to the chess table with old Admiral Du Brey. You
know the Admiral is the great champion since he beat the French and
English officers in the tournament last winter. Well, you also
know that the conventional openings at chess are scientifically and
accurately determined. To the utter disgust of Du Brey, Mason
opened the game with an unheard-of attack from the extremes of the
board. The old Admiral stopped and, in a kindly patronizing way,
pointed out the weak and absurd folly of his move and asked him to
begin again with some one of the safe openings.
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