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+Project Gutenberg's The Making of Bobby Burnit, by George Randolph Chester
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Making of Bobby Burnit
+       Being a Record of the Adventures of a Live American Young Man
+
+Author: George Randolph Chester
+
+Illustrator: James Montgomery Flagg
+             F. R. Gruger
+
+Release Date: August 30, 2008 [EBook #26485]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAKING OF BOBBY BURNIT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Mark C. Orton, Linda McKeown, Barbara Tozier
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+THE MAKING OF BOBBY BURNIT
+
+
+
+[Illustration: I'm in for some of the severest drubbings of my life]
+
+
+
+
+                      THE MAKING OF BOBBY BURNIT
+
+    Being a Record of the Adventures of a Live American Young Man
+
+
+                     _By GEORGE RANDOLPH CHESTER_
+
+
+                              AUTHOR OF
+
+       "Get Rich Quick Wallingford," "The Cash Intrigue," Etc.
+
+
+                       WITH FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+              BY JAMES MONTGOMERY FLAGG AND F. R. GRUGER
+
+
+                         _A. L. BURT COMPANY_
+                        _Publishers New York_
+
+
+
+
+                            COPYRIGHT 1908
+
+                    THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
+
+                            COPYRIGHT 1909
+
+                      THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
+
+                                 JUNE
+
+
+
+
+
+                              DEDICATION
+
+                   To the Handicapped Sons of Able
+                     Fathers, and the Handicapped
+                        Fathers of Able Sons,
+                          with Sympathy for
+                             each, and a
+                              Smile for
+                                 both
+
+
+
+
+THE MAKING OF BOBBY BURNIT
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+BOBBY MAKES SOME IMPORTANT PREPARATIONS FOR A COMMERCIAL LIFE
+
+
+"I am profoundly convinced that my son is a fool," read the will of
+old John Burnit. "I am, however, also convinced that I allowed him to
+become so by too much absorption in my own affairs and too little in
+his, and, therefore, his being a fool is hereditary; consequently, I
+feel it my duty, first, to give him a fair trial at making his own
+way, and second, to place the balance of my fortune in such trust that
+he can not starve. The trusteeship is already created and the details
+are nobody's present business. My son Robert will take over the John
+Burnit Store and personally conduct it, as his only resource, without
+further question as to what else I may have left behind me. This is my
+last will and testament."
+
+That is how cheerful Bobby Burnit, with no thought heretofore above
+healthy amusements and Agnes Elliston, suddenly became a business man,
+after having been raised to become the idle heir to about three
+million. Of course, having no kith nor kin in all this wide world, he
+went immediately to consult Agnes. It is quite likely that if he had
+been supplied with dozens of uncles and aunts he would have gone first
+to Agnes anyhow, having a mighty regard for her keen judgment, even
+though her clear gaze rested now and then all too critically upon
+himself. Just as he came whirling up the avenue he saw Nick Allstyne's
+white car, several blocks ahead of him, stop at her door, and a figure
+which he knew must be Nick jump out and trip up the steps. Almost
+immediately the figure came down again, much more slowly, and climbed
+into the car, which whizzed away.
+
+"Not at home," grumbled Bobby.
+
+It was like him, however, that he should continue straight to the
+quaint old house of the Ellistons and proffer his own card, for,
+though his aims could seldom be called really worth while, he
+invariably finished the thing he set out to do. It seemed to be a sort
+of disease. He could not help it. To his surprise, the Cerberus who
+guarded the Elliston door received him with a smile and a bow, and
+observed:
+
+"Miss Elliston says you are to walk right on up to the Turkish alcove,
+sir."
+
+While Wilkins took his hat and coat Bobby paused for a moment
+figuratively to hug himself. At home to no one else! Expecting him!
+
+"I'll ask her again," said Bobby to himself with determination, and
+stalked on up to the second floor hall, upon which opened a delightful
+cozy corner where Aunt Constance Elliston permitted the more
+"family-like" male callers to smoke and loll and be at mannish ease.
+
+As he reached the landing the door of the library below opened, and in
+it appeared Agnes and an unusually well-set-up young man--a new one,
+who wore a silky mustache and most fastidious tailoring. The two were
+talking and laughing gaily as the door opened, but as Agnes glanced up
+and saw Bobby she suddenly stopped laughing, and he almost thought
+that he overheard her say something in an aside to her companion. The
+impression was but fleeting, however, for she immediately nodded
+brightly. Bobby bowed rather stiffly in return, and continued his
+ascent of the stairs with a less sprightly footstep. Crestfallen, and
+conscious that Agnes had again closed the door of the library without
+either herself or the strange visitor having emerged into the hall, he
+strode into the Turkish alcove and let himself drop upon a divan with
+a thump. He extracted a cigar from his cigar-case, carefully cut off
+the tip and as carefully restored the cigar to its place. Then he
+clasped his interlocked fingers around his knee, and for the next ten
+minutes strove, like a gentleman, not to listen.
+
+When Agnes came up presently she made no mention whatever of her
+caller, and, of course, Bobby had no excuse upon which to hang
+impertinent questions, though the sharp barbs of them were darting
+through and through him. Such fuming as he felt, however, was
+instantly allayed by the warm and thoroughly honest clasp she gave him
+when she shook hands with him. It was one of the twenty-two million
+things he liked about her that she did not shake hands like two ounces
+of cold fish, as did some of the girls he knew. She was dressed in a
+half-formal house-gown, and the one curl of her waving brown hair that
+would persistently straggle down upon her forehead was in its
+accustomed place. He had always been obsessed with a nearly
+irresistible impulse to put his finger through that curl.
+
+"I have come around to consult you about a little business matter,
+Agnes," he found himself beginning with sudden breathlessness, his
+perturbation forgotten in the overwhelming charm of her. "The
+governor's will has just been read to me, and he's plunged me into a
+ripping mess. His whole fortune is in the hands of a trusteeship,
+whatever that is, and I'm not even to know the trustees. All I get is
+just the business, and I'm to carry the John Burnit Store on from its
+present blue-ribbon standing to still more dazzling heights, I
+suppose. Well, I'd like to do it. The governor deserves it. But, you
+see, I'm so beastly thick-headed. Now, Agnes, you have perfectly
+stunning judgment and all that, so if you would just----" and he came
+to an abrupt and painful pause.
+
+"Have you brought along the contract?" she asked demurely. "Honestly,
+Bobby, you're the most original person in the world. The first time, I
+was to marry you because you were so awkward, and the next time
+because your father thought so much of me, and another time because
+you wanted us to tour Norway and not have a whole bothersome crowd
+along; then you were tired living in a big, lonely house with just you
+and your father and the servants; now, it's an advantageous business
+arrangement. What share of the profits am I to receive?"
+
+Bobby's face had turned red, but he stuck manfully to his guns.
+
+"All of them," he blurted. "You know that none of those is the real
+reason," he as suddenly protested. "It is only that when I come to
+tell you the actual reason I rather choke up and can't."
+
+"You're a mighty nice boy, Bobby," she confessed. "Now sit down and
+behave, and tell me just what you have decided to do."
+
+"Well," said he, accepting his defeat with great philosophy, since he
+had no reason to regard it as final, "of course, my decision is made
+for me. I'm to take hold of the business. I don't know anything about
+it, but I don't see why it shouldn't go straight on as it always has."
+
+"Possibly," she admitted thoughtfully; "but I imagine your father
+expected you to have rather a difficult time of it. Perhaps he wants
+you to, so that a defeat or two will sting you into having a little
+more serious purpose in life than you have at present. I'd like,
+myself, to see you handle, with credit to him and to you, the splendid
+establishment he built up."
+
+"If I do," Bobby wanted to know, "will you marry me?"
+
+"That makes eleven times. I'm not saying, Bobby, but you never can
+tell."
+
+"That settles it. I'm going to be a business man. Let me use your
+'phone a minute." It was one of the many advantages of the
+delightfully informal Turkish alcove that it contained a telephone,
+and in two minutes Bobby had his tailors. "Make me two or three
+business suits," he ordered. "Regular business suits, I mean, for real
+business wear--you know the sort of thing--and get them done as
+quickly as you can, please. There!" said he as he hung up the
+receiver. "I shall begin to-morrow morning. I'll go down early and
+take hold of the John Burnit Store in earnest."
+
+"You've made a splendid start," commented Agnes, smiling. "Now tell me
+about the polo tournament," and she sat back to enjoy his enthusiasm
+over something about which he was entirely posted.
+
+He was good to look at, was Bobby, with his clean-cut figure and his
+clean-cut face and his clean, blue eyes and clean complexion, and she
+delighted in nothing more than just to sit and watch him when he was
+at ease; he was so restful, so certain to be always telling the truth,
+to be always taking a charitably good-humored view of life, to turn on
+wholesome topics and wholesome points of view; but after he had gone
+she smiled and sighed and shook her head.
+
+"Poor Bobby," she mused. "There won't be a shred left of his tender
+little fleece by the time he gets through."
+
+One more monitor Bobby went to see that afternoon, and this was Biff
+Bates. It required no sending in of cards to enter the presence of
+this celebrity. One simply stepped out of the elevator and used one's
+latch-key. It was so much more convenient. Entering a big, barnlike
+room he found Mr. Bates, clad only in trunks and canvas shoes,
+wreaking dire punishment upon a punching-bag merely by way of
+amusement; and Mr. Bates, with every symptom of joy illuminating his
+rather horizontal features--wide brows, wide cheek-bone, wide nose,
+wide mouth, wide chin, wide jaw--stopped to shake hands most
+enthusiastically with his caller without removing his padded glove.
+
+"What's the good news, old pal?" he asked huskily.
+
+He was half a head shorter than Bobby and four inches broader across
+the shoulders, and his neck spread out over all the top of his torso;
+but there was something in the clear gaze of the eyes which made the
+two gentlemen look quite alike as they shook hands, vastly different
+as they were.
+
+"Bad news for you, I'm afraid," announced Bobby. "That little
+partnership idea of the big gymnasium will have to be called off for a
+while."
+
+Mr. Bates took a contemplative punch or two at the still quivering
+bag.
+
+"It was a fake, anyway," he commented, putting his arm around the top
+of the punching-bag and leaning against it comfortably; "just like
+this place. You went into partnership with me on this joint--that is,
+you put up the coin and run in a lot of your friends on me to be
+trained up--squarest lot of sports I ever saw, too. You fill the place
+with business and allow me a weekly envelope that makes me tilt my
+chin till I have to wear my lid down over my eyes to keep it from
+falling off the back of my head, and when there's profits to split up
+you shoves mine into my mitt and puts yours into improvements. You put
+in the new shower baths and new bars and traps, and the last thing,
+that swimming-tank back there. I'm glad the big game's off. I'm so
+contented now I'm getting over-weight, and you'd bilk me again. But
+what's the matter? Did the bookies get you?"
+
+"No; I'll tell you all about it," and Bobby carefully explained the
+terms of his father's will and what they meant.
+
+Mr. Bates listened carefully, and when the explanation was finished he
+thought for a long time.
+
+"Well, Bobby," said he, "here's where you get it. They'll shred you
+clean. You're too square for that game. Your old man was a fine old
+sport and _he_ played it on the level, but, say, he could see a marked
+card clear across a room. They'll double-cross you, though, to a
+fare-ye-well."
+
+The opinion seemed to be unanimous.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+PINK CARNATIONS APPEAR IN THE OFFICE OF THE JOHN BURNIT STORE
+
+
+Bobby gave his man orders to wake him up early next morning, say not
+later than eight, and prided himself very much upon his energy when,
+at ten-thirty, he descended from his machine in front of the old and
+honored establishment of John Burnit, and, leaving instructions for
+his chauffeur to call for him at twelve, made his way down the long
+aisles of white-piled counters and into the dusty little office where
+old Johnson, thin as a rail and with a face like whittled chalk,
+humped over his desk exactly as he had sat for the past thirty-five
+years.
+
+"Good-morning, Johnson," observed Bobby with an affable nod. "I've
+come to take over the business."
+
+He said it in the same untroubled tone he had always used in asking
+for his weekly check, and Johnson looked up with a wry smile.
+Applerod, on the contrary, was beaming with hearty admiration. He was
+as florid as Johnson was colorless, and the two had rubbed elbows and
+dispositions in that same room almost since the house of Burnit had
+been founded.
+
+"Very well, sir," grudged Johnson, and immediately laid upon the
+time-blackened desk which had been old John Burnit's, a closely
+typewritten statement of some twenty pages. On top of this he placed a
+plain gray envelope addressed:
+
+    _To My Son Robert,
+    Upon the Occasion of His Taking Over the Business_
+
+Upon this envelope Bobby kept his eyes in mild speculation, while he
+leisurely laid aside his cane and removed his gloves and coat and hat;
+next he sat down in his father's jerky old swivel chair and lit a
+cigarette; then he opened the letter. He read:
+
+    "Every business needs a pessimist and an optimist, with ample
+    opportunities to quarrel. Johnson is a jackass, but honest. He
+    is a pessimist and has a pea-green liver. Listen to him and
+    the business will die painlessly, by inches. Applerod is also
+    a jackass, and I presume him to be honest; but I never tested
+    it. He suffers from too much health, and the surplus goes into
+    optimism. Listen to him and the business will die in horrible
+    agony, quickly. But keep both of them. Let them fight things
+    out until they come almost to an understanding, then take the
+    middle course."
+
+That was all. Bobby turned squarely to survey the frowning Johnson and
+the still beaming Applerod, and with a flash of clarity he saw his
+father's wisdom. He had always admired John Burnit, aside from the
+fact that the sturdy pioneer had been his father, had admired him much
+as one admires the work of a master magician--without any hope of
+emulation. As he read the note he could seem to see the old gentleman
+standing there with his hands behind him, ready to stretch on tiptoe
+and drop to his heels with a thump as he reached a climax, his
+spectacles shoved up on his forehead, his strong, wrinkled face stern
+from the cheek-bones down, but twinkling from that line upward, the
+twinkle, which had its seat about the shrewd eyes, suddenly
+terminating in a sharp, whimsical, little up-pointed curl in the very
+middle of his forehead. To corroborate his warm memory Bobby opened
+the front of his watch-case, where the same face looked him squarely
+in the eyes. Naturally, then, he opened the other lid, where Agnes
+Elliston's face smiled up at him. Suddenly he shut both lids with a
+snap and turned, with much distaste but with a great show of energy,
+to the heavy statement which had all this time confronted him. The
+first page he read over laboriously, the second one he skimmed
+through, the third and fourth he leafed over; and then he skipped to
+the last sheet, where was set down a concise statement of the net
+assets and liabilities.
+
+"According to this," observed Bobby with great show of wisdom, "I take
+over the business in a very flourishing condition."
+
+"Well," grudgingly admitted Mr. Johnson, "it might be worse."
+
+"It could hardly be better," interposed Applerod--"that is, without
+the extensions and improvements that I think your father would have
+come in time to make. Of course, at his age he was naturally a bit
+conservative."
+
+"Mr. Applerod and myself have never agreed upon that point," wheezed
+Johnson sharply. "For my part I considered your father--well, scarcely
+reckless, but, say, sufficiently daring! Daring is about the word."
+
+Bobby grinned cheerfully.
+
+"He let the business go rather by its own weight, didn't he?"
+
+Both gentlemen shook their heads, instantly and most emphatically.
+
+"He certainly must have," insisted Bobby. "As I recollect it, he only
+worked up here, of late years, from about eleven fifty-five to twelve
+every other Thursday."
+
+"Oftener than that," solemnly corrected the literal Mr. Johnson. "He
+was here from eleven until twelve-thirty every day."
+
+"What did he do?"
+
+It was Applerod who, with keen appreciation, hastened to advise him
+upon this point.
+
+"Said 'yes' twice and 'no' twelve times. Then, at the very last
+minute, when we thought that he was through, he usually landed on a
+proposition that hadn't been put up to him at all, and put it clear
+out of the business."
+
+"Looks like good finessing to me," said Bobby complacently. "I think I
+shall play it that way."
+
+"It wouldn't do, sir," Mr. Johnson replied in a tone of keen pain.
+"You must understand that when your father started this business it
+was originally a little fourteen-foot-front place, one story high. He
+got down here at six o'clock every morning and swept out. As he got
+along a little further he found that he could trust somebody else with
+that job--_but he always knew how to sweep_. It took him a lifetime to
+simmer down his business to just 'yes' and 'no.'"
+
+"I see," mused Bobby; "and I'm expected to take that man's place! How
+would you go about it?"
+
+"I would suggest, without meaning any impertinence whatever, sir,"
+insinuated Mr. Johnson, "that if you were to start clerking----"
+
+"Or sweeping out at six o'clock in the morning?" calmly interrupted
+Bobby. "I don't like to stay up so late. No, Johnson, about the only
+thing I'm going to do to show my respect for the traditions of the
+house is to leave this desk just as it is, and hang an oil portrait of
+my father over it. And, by the way, isn't there some little side room
+where I can have my office? I'm going into this thing very earnestly."
+
+Mr. Johnson and Mr. Applerod exchanged glances.
+
+"The door just to the right there," said Mr. Johnson, "leads to a room
+which is at present filled with old files of the credit department. No
+doubt those could be moved somewhere else."
+
+Bobby walked into that room and gaged its possibilities. It was a
+little small, to be sure, but it would do for the present.
+
+"Just have that cleared out and a 'phone put in. I'll get right down
+to business this afternoon and see about the fittings for it." Then he
+looked at his watch once more. "By George!" he exclaimed, "I almost
+forgot that I was to see Nick Allstyne at the Idlers' Club about that
+polo match. Just have one of your boys stand out at the curb along
+about twelve, will you, and tell my chauffeur to report at the club."
+
+Johnson eyed the closed door over his spectacles.
+
+"He'll be having blue suits and brass buttons on us two next," he
+snorted.
+
+"He don't mean it at all that way," protested Applerod. "For my part,
+I think he's a fine young fellow."
+
+"I'll give you to understand, sir," retorted Johnson, violently
+resenting this imputed defection, "that he is the son of his father,
+and for that, if for nothing else, would have my entire allegiance."
+
+Bobby, meanwhile, feeling very democratic and very much a man of
+affairs, took a street-car to the Idlers', and strode through the
+classic portals of that club with gravity upon his brow. Flaxen-haired
+Nick Allstyne, standing by the registry desk, turned to dark Payne
+Winthrop with a nod.
+
+"You win," he admitted. "I'll have to charge it up to you, Bobby. I
+just lost a quart of the special to Payne that since you'd become
+immersed in the cares of business you'd not be here."
+
+Bobby was almost austere in his reception of this slight.
+
+"Don't you know," he demanded, "that there is nobody who keeps even
+his social engagements like a business man?"
+
+"That's what I gambled on," returned Payne confidentially, "but I
+wasn't sure just how much of a business man you'd become. Nick, don't
+you already seem to see a crease in Bobby's brow?"
+
+"No, that's his regular polo crease," objected lanky Stanley Rogers,
+joining them, and the four of them fell upon polo as one man. Their
+especially anxious part in the tournament was to be a grinding match
+against Willie Ashler's crack team, and the point of worry was that so
+many of their fellows were out of town. They badly needed one more
+good player.
+
+"I have it," declared Bobby finally. It was he who usually decided
+things in this easy-going, athletic crowd. "We'll make Jack Starlett
+play, but the only way to get him is to go over to Washington after
+him. Payne, you're to go along. You always keep a full set of regalia
+here at the club, I know. Here, boy!" he called to a passing page.
+"Find out for us the next two trains to Washington."
+
+"Yes, sir," said the boy with a grin, and was off like a shot. They
+had a strict rule against tipping in the Idlers', but if he happened
+to meet Bobby outside, say at the edge of the curb where his car was
+standing, there was no rule against his receiving something there.
+Besides, he liked Bobby, anyhow. They all did. He was back in a
+moment.
+
+"One at two-ten and one at four-twenty, sir."
+
+"The two-ten sounds about right," announced Bobby. "Now, Billy,
+telephone to my apartments to have my Gladstone and my dress-suit togs
+brought down to that train. Then, by the way, telephone Leatherby and
+Pluscher to send up to my place of business and have Mr. Johnson show
+their man my new office. Have him take measurements of it and fit it
+up at once, complete. They know the kind of things I like. Really,
+fellows," he continued, turning to the others, after he had patiently
+repeated and explained his instructions to the foggy but willing
+Billy, "I'm in serious earnest about this thing. Up to me, you know,
+to do credit to the governor, if I can."
+
+"Bobby, the Boy Bargain Baron," observed Nick. "Well, I guess you can
+do it. All you need to do is to take hold, and I'll back you at any
+odds."
+
+"We'll all put a bet on you," encouraged Stanley Rogers. "More, we'll
+help. We'll all get married and send our wives around to open accounts
+with you."
+
+In spite of the serious business intentions, the luncheon which
+followed was the last the city saw of Bobby Burnit for three days. Be
+it said to his credit that he had accomplished his purpose when he
+returned. He had brought reluctant Jack Starlett back with him, and
+together they walked into the John Burnit Store.
+
+"New office fitted up yet, Johnson?" asked Bobby pleasantly.
+
+"Yes, sir," replied Johnson sourly. "Just a moment, Mr. Burnit," and
+from an index cabinet back of him he procured an oblong gray envelope
+which he handed to Bobby. It was inscribed:
+
+    _To My Son,
+    Upon the Fitting-Out of New Offices_
+
+With a half-embarrassed smile, Bobby regarded that letter thoughtfully
+and carried it into the luxurious new office. He opened it and read
+it, and, still with that queer smile, passed it over to Starlett. This
+was old John Burnit's message:
+
+    "I have seen a business work up to success, and afterward add
+    velvet rugs and dainty flowers on the desk, but I never saw a
+    successful business start that way."
+
+Bobby looked around him with a grin. There _was_ a velvet rug on the
+floor. There were no flowers upon the mahogany desk, but there _was_ a
+vase to receive them. For just one moment he was nonplussed; then he
+opened the door leading to the dingy apartment occupied by Messrs.
+Johnson and Applerod.
+
+"Mr. Johnson," said he, "will you kindly send out and get two dozen
+pink carnations for my room?"
+
+Quiet, big Jack Starlett, having loaded and lit and taken the first
+long puff, removed his pipe from his lips.
+
+"Bully!" said he.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+OLD JOHN BURNIT'S ANCIENT ENEMY POINTS OUT THE WAY TO GRANDEUR
+
+
+Mr. Johnson had no hair in the very center of his head, but, when he
+was more than usually vexed, he ran his fingers through what was left
+upon both sides of the center and impatiently pushed it up toward a
+common point. His hair was in that identical condition when he knocked
+at the door of Bobby's office and poked in his head to announce Mr.
+Silas Trimmer.
+
+"Trimmer," mused Bobby. "Oh, yes; he is the John Burnit Store's chief
+competitor; concern backs up against ours, fronting on Market Street.
+Show him in, Johnson."
+
+Jack Starlett, who had dropped in to loaf a bit, rose to go.
+
+"Sit down," insisted Bobby. "I'm conducting this thing all open and
+aboveboard. You know, I think I shall like business."
+
+"They tell me it's the greatest game out," commented Starlett, and
+just then Mr. Trimmer entered.
+
+He was a little, wiry man as to legs and arms, but fearfully rotund as
+to paunch, and he had a yellow leather face and black eyes which,
+though gleaming like beads, seemed to have a muddy cast. Bobby rose to
+greet him with a cordiality in no degree abashed by this appearance.
+
+"And what can we do for you, Mr. Trimmer?" he asked after the usual
+inanities of greeting had been exchanged.
+
+"Take lunch with me," invited Mr. Trimmer, endeavoring to beam, his
+heavy, down-drooping gray mustache remaining immovable in front of the
+deeply-chiseled smile that started far above the corners of his nose
+and curved around a display of yellow teeth. "I have just learned that
+you have taken over the business, and I wish as quickly as possible to
+form with the son the same cordial relations which for years I enjoyed
+with the father."
+
+Bobby looked him contemplatively in the eye, but had no experience
+upon which to base a picture of his father and Mr. Trimmer enjoying
+perpetually cordial relations with a knife down each boot leg.
+
+"Very sorry, Mr. Trimmer, but I am engaged for lunch."
+
+"Dinner, then--at the Traders' Club," insisted Mr. Trimmer, who never
+for any one moment had remained entirely still, either his foot or his
+hand moving, or some portion of his body twitching almost incessantly.
+
+Inwardly Bobby frowned, for, so far, he had found no points about his
+caller to arouse his personal enthusiasm; and yet it suddenly occurred
+to him that here was doubtless business, and that it ought to have
+attention. His father, under similar circumstances, would find out
+what the man was after. He cast a hesitating glance at his friend.
+
+"Don't mind me, Bobby," said Starlett briskly. "You know I shall be
+compelled to take dinner with the folks to-night."
+
+"At about what time, Mr. Trimmer?" Bobby asked.
+
+"Oh, suit yourself. Any time," responded that gentleman eagerly. "Say
+half-past six."
+
+"The Traders'," mused Bobby. "I think the governor put me up there
+four or five years ago."
+
+"I seconded you," the other informed him; "and I had the pleasure of
+voting for you just the other day, on the vacancy made by your father.
+You're a full-fledged member now."
+
+"Fine!" said Bobby. "Business suit or----"
+
+"Anything you like." With again that circular smile behind his
+immovable mustache, Mr. Trimmer backed out of the room, and Bobby,
+dropping into a chair, turned perplexed eyes upon his friend.
+
+"What do you suppose he wants?" he inquired.
+
+"Your eye-teeth," returned Jack bluntly. "He looks like a mucker to
+me."
+
+"Oh, I don't know," returned Bobby, a trifle uneasily. "You see, Jack,
+he isn't exactly our sort, and maybe we can't get just the right angle
+in judging him. He's been nailed down to business all his life, you
+know, and a fellow in that line don't have a chance, as I take it, to
+cultivate all the little--well, say artificial graces."
+
+"Your father wasn't like him. He was as near a thoroughbred as I ever
+saw, Bobby, and he was nailed down, as you put it, all _his_ life."
+
+"Oh, you couldn't expect them all to be like the governor," responded
+Bobby instantly, shocked at the idea. "But this chap may be no end of
+a good sort in his style. No doubt at all he merely came over in a
+friendly way to bid me a sort of welcome into the fraternity of
+business men," and Bobby felt quite a little thrill of pride in that
+novel idea. "By George! Wait a minute," he exclaimed as still another
+brilliant thought struck him, and going into the other room he said to
+Johnson: "Please give me the letter addressed: 'To My Son Robert, Upon
+the Occasion of Mr. Trimmer's First Call.'"
+
+For the first time in days a grin irradiated Johnson's face.
+
+"Nothing here, sir," he replied.
+
+"Let me go through that file."
+
+"Strictly against orders, sir," said Johnson.
+
+"Indeed," responded Bobby quizzically; "I don't like to press the bet,
+Johnson, but really I'd like to know who has the say here."
+
+"You have, sir, over everything except my private affairs; and that
+letter file is my private property and its contents my private
+trusteeship."
+
+"I can still take my castor oil like a little man, if I have to,"
+Bobby resignedly observed. "I remember that when I was a kiddy the
+governor once undertook to teach me mathematics, and he never would
+let me see the answers. More than ever it looks like it was up to
+Bobby," and whistling cheerfully he walked back into his private
+office.
+
+Johnson turned to Applerod with a snarl.
+
+"Mr. Applerod," said he, "you know that I almost never swear. I am now
+about to do so. Darn it! It's a shame that Trimmer calls here again on
+that old scheme about which he deviled this house for years, and we
+forbidden to give Mr. Robert a word of advice unless he asks for it."
+
+"Why is it a shame?" demanded Applerod. "I always have thought that
+Trimmer's plan was a great one."
+
+So, all unprepared, Bobby went forth that evening, to become
+acquainted with the great plan.
+
+At the restless Traders' Club, where the precise corridors and columns
+and walls and ceilings of white marble were indicative of great
+formality, men with creases in their brows wore their derbies on the
+backs of their heads and ceaselessly talked shop. Mr. Trimmer, more
+creased of brow than any of them, was drifting from group to group
+with his eyes turned anxiously toward the door until Bobby came in.
+Mr. Trimmer was most effusively glad to see the son of his old friend
+once again, and lost no time in seating him at a most secluded table,
+where, by the time the oysters came on, he was deep in a catalogue of
+the virtues of John Burnit; and Bobby, with a very real and a very
+deep affection for his father which seldom found expression in words,
+grew restive. One thing held him, aside from his obligations as a
+guest. He was convinced now that his host's kindness was in truth a
+mere graceful act of welcome, due largely to his father's standing,
+and the idea flattered him very much. He strove to look as
+businesslike as possible, and thought again and again upon his father;
+of how he had sat day after day in this stately dining-hall, honored
+and venerated among these men who were striving still for the ideal
+that he had attained. It was a good thought, and made for pride of the
+right sort. With the entrée Mr. Trimmer ordered his favorite vintage
+champagne, and, as it boiled up like molten amber in the glasses, so
+sturdily that the center of the surface kept constantly a full quarter
+of an inch above the sides, he waited anxiously for Bobby to sample
+it. Even Bobby, long since disillusioned of such things and grown
+abstemious from healthy choice, after a critical taste sipped slowly
+again and again.
+
+"That's ripping good wine," he acknowledged.
+
+"There's only a little over two hundred bottles of it left in the
+world," Mr. Trimmer assured him, and then he waited for that first
+glass to exert its warming glow. He was a good waiter, was Silas
+Trimmer, and keenly sensitive to personal influences. He knew that
+Bobby had not been in entire harmony with him at any period of the
+evening, but after the roast came on--a most careful roast, indeed,
+prepared under a certain formula upon which Mr. Trimmer had
+painstakingly insisted--he saw that he had really found his way for a
+moment to Bobby's heart through the channel provided by Nature for
+attacks upon masculine sympathy, and at that moment he leaned forward
+with his circular smile, and observed:
+
+"By the way, Mr. Burnit, I suppose your father often discussed with
+you the great plan we evolved for the Burnit-Trimmer Arcade?"
+
+Bobby almost blushed at the confession he must make.
+
+"I'm sorry to say that he didn't," he owned. "I never took the
+interest in such things that I ought, and so I missed a lot of
+confidences I'd like to have had now."
+
+"Too bad," sympathized Mr. Trimmer, now quite sure of his ground,
+since he had found that Bobby was not posted. "It was a splendid plan
+we had. You know, your building and mine are precisely the same width
+and precisely in a line with each other, back to back, with only the
+alley separating us, the Trimmer establishment fronting on Market
+Street and the Burnit building on Grand. The alley is fully five feet
+below our two floor lines, and we could, I am quite sure, get
+permission to bridge it at a clearance of not to exceed twelve feet.
+By raising the rear departments of your store and of mine a foot or
+so, and then building a flight of broad, easy steps up and down, we
+could almost conceal the presence of this bridge from the inside, and
+make one immense establishment running straight through from Grand to
+Market Streets. The floors above the first, of course, would bridge
+over absolutely level, and the combined stores would comprise by far
+the largest establishment in the city. Of course, the advantage of it
+from an advertising standpoint alone would be well worth while."
+
+Bobby could instantly see the almost interminable length of store area
+thus presented, and it appealed to his sense of big things at once.
+
+"What did father say about this?" he asked.
+
+"Thought it a brilliant idea," glibly returned Mr. Trimmer. "In fact,
+I think it was he who first suggested such a possibility, seeing very
+clearly the increased trade and the increased profits that would
+accrue from such an extension, which would, in fact, be simply the
+doubling of our already big stores without additional capitalization.
+We worked out two or three plans for the consolidation, but in the
+later years your father was very slow about making actual extensions
+or alterations in his merchandising business, preferring to expend his
+energies on his successful outside enterprises. I feel sure, however,
+that he would have come to it in time, for the development is so
+logical, so much in keeping with the business methods of the times."
+
+Here again was insidious flattery, the insinuation that Bobby must be
+thoroughly aware of "the business methods of the times."
+
+"Of course, the idea is new to me," said Bobby, assuming as best he
+could the air of business reserve which seemed appropriate to the
+occasion; "but I should say, in a general way, that I should not care
+to give up the identity of the John Burnit Store."
+
+"That is a fine and a proper spirit," agreed Mr. Trimmer, with great
+enthusiasm. "I like to see it in a young man, but I've no doubt that
+we can arrange that little matter. Of course, we would have to
+incorporate, say, as the Burnit-Trimmer Mercantile Corporation, but
+while having that name on the front of both buildings, it might not be
+a bad idea, for business as well as sentimental reasons, to keep the
+old signs at the tops of both, just as they now are. Those are little
+details to discuss later; but as the stock of the new company, based
+upon the present invoice values of our respective concerns, would be
+practically all in your hands and mine, this would be a very amicable
+and easily arranged matter. I tell you, Mr. Burnit, this is a
+tremendous plan, attractive to the public and immensely profitable to
+us, and I do not know of anything you could do that would so well as
+this show you to be a worthy successor to John Burnit; for, of course,
+it would scarcely be a credit to you to carry on your father's
+business without change or advance."
+
+It was the best and the most crafty argument Mr. Trimmer had used, and
+Bobby carried away from the Traders' Club a glowing impression of this
+point. His father had built up this big business by his own unaided
+efforts. Should Bobby leave that legacy just where he had found it, or
+should he carry it on to still greater heights? The answer was
+obvious.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+AGNES EMPHATICALLY DECIDES THAT SHE DOES NOT LIKE A CERTAIN PERSON
+
+
+At the theater that evening, Bobby, to his vexation, found Agnes
+Elliston walking in the promenade foyer with the well-set-up stranger.
+He passed her with a nod and slipped moodily into the rear of the
+Elliston box, where Aunt Constance, perennially young, was
+entertaining Nick Allstyne and Jack Starlett, and keeping them at a
+keen wit's edge, too. Bobby gave them the most perfunctory of
+greetings, and, sitting back by himself, sullenly moped. He grumbled
+to himself that he had a headache; the play was a humdrum affair;
+Trimmer was a bore; the proposed consolidation had suddenly lost its
+prismatic coloring; the Traders' Club was crude; Starlett and Allstyne
+were utterly frivolous. All this because Agnes was out in the foyer
+with a very likely-looking young man.
+
+She did not return until the end of that act, and found Bobby ready to
+go, pleading early morning business.
+
+"Is it important?" she asked.
+
+"Who's the chap with the silky mustache?" he suddenly demanded, unable
+to forbear any longer. "He's a new one."
+
+The eyes of Agnes gleamed mischievously.
+
+"Bobby, I'm astonished at your manners," she chided him. "Now tell me
+what you've been doing with yourself."
+
+"Trying to grow up into John Burnit's truly son," he told her with
+some trace of pompous pride, being ready in advance to accept his
+rebuke meekly, as he always had to do, and being quite ready to cover
+up his grievous error with a change of topic. "I had no idea that
+business could so grip a fellow. But what I'd like to find out just
+now is who is my trustee? It must have been somebody with horse sense,
+or the governor would not have appointed whoever it was. I'm not going
+to ask anything I'm forbidden to know, but I want some advice. Now,
+how shall I learn who it is?"
+
+"Well," replied Agnes thoughtfully, "about the only plan I can suggest
+is that you ask your father's legal and business advisers."
+
+He positively beamed down at her.
+
+"You're the dandy girl, all right," he said admiringly. "Now, if you
+would only----"
+
+"Bobby," she interrupted him, "do you know that we are standing up
+here in a box, with something like a thousand people, possibly, turned
+in our direction?"
+
+He suddenly realized that they were alone, the others having filed out
+into the promenade, and, placing a chair for her in the extreme rear
+corner of the box, where he could fence her off, sat down beside her.
+He began to describe to her the plan of Silas Trimmer, and as he went
+on his enthusiasm mounted. The thing had caught his fancy. If he could
+only increase the profits of the John Burnit Store in the very first
+year, it would be a big feather in his cap. It would be precisely what
+his father would have desired! Agnes listened attentively all through
+the fourth act to his glowing conception of what the reorganized John
+Burnit Company would be like. He was perfectly contented now. His
+headache was gone; such occasional glimpses as he caught of the play
+were delightful; Mr. Trimmer was a genius; the Traders' Club a
+fascinating introduction to a new life; Starlett and Allstyne a joyous
+relief to him after the sordid cares of business. In a word, Agnes was
+with him.
+
+"Do you think your father would accept this proposition?" she asked
+him after he was all through.
+
+"I think he would at my age," decided Bobby promptly.
+
+"That is, if he had been brought up as you have," she laughed. "I
+think I should study a long time over it, Bobby, before I made any
+such important and sweeping change as this must necessarily be."
+
+"Oh, yes," he agreed with an assumption of deep conservatism; "of
+course I'll think it over well, and I'll take good, sound advice on
+it."
+
+"I have never seen Mr. Trimmer," mused Agnes. "I seldom go into his
+store, for there always seems to me something shoddy about the whole
+place; but to-morrow I think I shall make it a point to secure a
+glimpse of him."
+
+Bobby was delighted. Agnes had always been interested in whatever
+interested him, but never so absorbedly so as now, it seemed. He
+almost forgot the stranger in his pleasure. He forgot him still more
+when, dismissing his chauffeur, he seated Agnes in the front of the
+car beside him, with Starlett and Allstyne and Aunt Constance in the
+tonneau, and went whirling through the streets and up the avenue. It
+was but a brief trip, not over a half-hour, and they had scarcely a
+chance to exchange a word; but just to be up front there alone with
+her meant a whole lot to Bobby.
+
+Afterward he took the other fellows down to the gymnasium, where Biff
+Bates drew him to one side.
+
+"Look here, old pal!" said Bates. "I saw you real chummy with T. W.
+Tight-Wad Trimmer to-night."
+
+"Yes?" admitted Bobby interrogatively.
+
+"Well, you know I don't go around with my hammer out, but I want to
+put you wise to this mut. He's in with a lot of political graft, for
+one thing, and he's a sure thing guy for another. He likes to take a
+flyer at the bangtails a few times a season, and last summer he
+welshed on Joe Poog's book; claimed Joe misunderstood his fingers for
+two thousand in place of two hundred."
+
+"Well, maybe there was a mistake," said Bobby, loath to believe such a
+monstrous charge against any one whom he knew.
+
+"Mistake nawthin'," insisted Biff. "Joe Poog don't take finger bets
+for hundreds, and Trimmer never did bet that way. He's a born welsher,
+anyhow. He looks the part, and I just want to tell you, Bobby, that if
+you go to the mat with this crab you'll get up with the marks of his
+pinchers on your windpipe; that's all."
+
+Early the next morning--that is, at about ten o'clock--Bobby bounced
+energetically into the office of Barrister and Coke, where old Mr.
+Barrister, who had been his father's lawyer for a great many years,
+received him with all the unbending grace of an ebony cane.
+
+"I have come to find out who were the trustees appointed by my father,
+Mr. Barrister," began Bobby, with a cheerful air of expecting to be
+informed at once, "not that I wish to inquire about the estate, but
+that I need some advice on entirely different matters."
+
+"I shall be glad to serve you with any legal advice that you may
+need," offered Mr. Barrister, patting his finger-tips gently together.
+
+"Are you the trustee?"
+
+"No, sir"--this with a dusty smile.
+
+"Who is, then?"
+
+"The only information which I am at liberty to give you upon that
+point," said Mr. Barrister drily, "is that contained in your father's
+will. Would you care to examine a copy of that document again?"
+
+"No, thanks," declined Bobby politely. "It's too truthful for
+comfort."
+
+From there he went straight to his own place of business, where he
+asked the same question of Johnson. In reply, Mr. Johnson produced,
+from his own personal and private index-file, an oblong gray envelope
+addressed:
+
+    _To My Son Robert,
+    Upon His Inquiring About the Trusteeship of My Estate_
+
+Opening this in the privacy of his own office, Bobby read:
+
+    "As stated in my will, it is none of your present business."
+
+"Up to Bobby again," the son commented aloud. "Well, Governor," and
+his shoulders straightened while his eyes snapped, "if you can stand
+it, I can. Hereafter I shall take my own advice, and if I lose I shall
+know how to find the chap who's to blame."
+
+He had an opportunity to "go it alone" that very morning, when Johnson
+and Applerod came in to him together with a problem. Was or was not
+that Chicago branch to be opened? The elder Mr. Burnit had considered
+it most gravely, but had left the matter undecided. Mr. Applerod was
+very keenly in favor of it, Mr. Johnson as earnestly against it, and
+in his office they argued the matter with such heat that Bobby,
+accepting a typed statement of the figures in the case, virtually
+turned them out.
+
+"When must you have a decision?" he demanded.
+
+"To-morrow. We must wire either our acceptance or rejection of the
+lease."
+
+"Very well," said Bobby, quite elated that he was carrying the thing
+off with an air and a tone so crisp; "just leave it to me, will you?"
+
+He waded through the statement uncomprehendingly. Here was a problem
+which was covered and still not covered by his father's observations
+anent Johnson and Applerod. It was a matter for wrangling, obviously
+enough, but there was no difference to split. It was a case of
+deciding either yes or no. For the balance of the time until Jack
+Starlett called for him at twelve-thirty, he puzzled earnestly and
+soberly over the thing, and next morning the problem still weighed
+upon him when he turned in at the office. He could see as he passed
+through the outer room that both Johnson and Applerod were furtively
+eying him, but he walked past them whistling. When he had closed his
+own door behind him he drew again that mass of data toward him and
+struggled against the chin-high tide. Suddenly he shoved the papers
+aside, and, taking a half-dollar from his pocket, flipped it on the
+floor. Eagerly he leaned over to look at it. Tails! With a sigh of
+relief he put the coin back in his pocket and lit a cigarette. About
+half an hour later the committee of two came solemnly in to see him.
+
+"Have you decided to open the Chicago branch, sir?" asked Johnson.
+
+"Not this year," said Bobby coolly, and handed back the data. "I wish,
+Mr. Johnson, you would appoint a page to be in constant attendance
+upon this room."
+
+Back at their own desks Johnson gloated in calm triumph.
+
+"It may be quite possible that Mr. Robert may turn out to be a
+duplicate of his father," he opined.
+
+"I don't know," confessed Applerod, crestfallen. "I had thought that
+he would be more willing to take a sporting chance."
+
+Mr. Johnson snorted. Mr. Applerod, who had never bet two dollars on
+any proposition in his life, considered himself very much of a
+sporting disposition.
+
+Savagely in love with his new assertiveness Bobby called on Agnes that
+evening.
+
+"I saw Mr. Trimmer to-day," she told him. "I don't like him."
+
+"I didn't want you to," he replied with a grin. "You like too many
+people now."
+
+"But I'm serious, Bobby," she protested, unconsciously clinging to his
+hand as they sat down upon the divan. "I wouldn't enter into any
+business arrangements with him. I don't know just what there is about
+him that repels me, but--well, I don't _like_ him!"
+
+"Can't say I've fallen in love with him myself," he replied. "But,
+Agnes, if a fellow only did business with the men his nearest
+women-folks liked, there wouldn't be much business done."
+
+"There wouldn't be so many losses," she retorted.
+
+"Bound to have the last word, of course," he answered, taking refuge
+in that old and quite false slur against women in general; for a man
+suffers from his spleen if he can not put the quietus on every
+argument. "But, honestly, I don't fear Mr. Trimmer. I've been
+inquiring into this stock company business. We are each to have stock
+in the new company, if we form one, in exact proportion to the
+invoices of our respective establishments. Well, the Trimmer concern
+can't possibly invoice as much as we shall, and I'll have the majority
+of stock, which is the same as holding all the trumps. I had Mr.
+Barrister explain all that to me. With the majority of stock you can
+have everything your own way, and the other chap can't even protest.
+Seems sort of a shame, too."
+
+"I don't like him," declared Agnes.
+
+The ensuing week Bobby spent mostly on the polo match, though he
+called religiously at the office every morning, coming down a few
+minutes earlier each day. It was an uneasy week, too, as well as a
+busy one, for twice during its progress he saw Agnes driving with the
+unknown; and the fact that in both instances a handsome young lady was
+with them did not seem to mend matters much. He was astonished to find
+that losing the great polo match did not distress him at all. A year
+before it would have broken his heart, but the multiplicity of new
+interests had changed him entirely. As a matter of fact, he had been
+long ripe for the change, though he had not known it. As he had
+matured, the blood of his heredity had begun to clamor for its
+expression; that was all.
+
+At the beginning of the next week Mr. Trimmer came in to see him
+again, with a roll of drawings under his arm. The drawings displayed
+the proposed new bridge in elevation and in cross section. They showed
+the total stretch of altered store-rooms from street to street, and
+cleverly-drawn perspectives made graphically real that splendid
+length. They were accompanied by an estimate of the cost, and also by
+a permit from the city to build the bridge. With these were the
+preliminary papers for the organization of the new company, and Bobby,
+by this time intensely interested and convinced that his interest was
+business acumen, went over each detail with contracted brow and with
+kindling enthusiasm.
+
+It was ten o'clock of that morning when Silas Trimmer had found Bobby
+at his desk; by eleven Mr. Johnson and Mr. Applerod, in the outer
+office, were quite unable to work; by twelve they were snarling at
+each other; at twelve-thirty Johnson ventured to poke his head in at
+the door, framing some trivial excuse as he did so, but found the two
+merchants with their heads bent closely over the advantages of the
+great combined stores. At a quarter-past one, returning from a hasty
+lunch, Johnson tiptoed to the door again. He still heard an insistent,
+high-pitched voice inside. Mr. Trimmer was doing all the talking. He
+had explained and explained until his tongue was dry, and Bobby, with
+a full sense of the importance of his decision, was trying to clear
+away the fog that had grown up in his brain. Mr. Trimmer was pressing
+him for a decision. Bobby suddenly slipped his hand in his pocket,
+and, unseen, secured a half-dollar, which he shook in his hand under
+the table. Opening his palm he furtively looked at the coin. Heads!
+
+"Get your papers ready, Mr. Trimmer," he announced, as one finally
+satisfied by good and sufficient argument, "we'll form the
+organization as soon as you like."
+
+No sooner had he come to this decision than he felt a strange sense of
+elation. He had actually consummated a big business deal! He had made
+a positive step in the direction of carrying the John Burnit Store
+beyond the fame it had possessed at the time his father had turned it
+over to him! Since he had stiffened his back, he did not condescend to
+take Johnson and Applerod into his confidence, though those two
+gentlemen were quivering to receive it, but he did order Johnson to
+allow Mr. Trimmer's representatives to go over the John Burnit books
+and to verify their latest invoice, together with the purchases and
+sales since the date of that stock-taking. To Mr. Applerod he assigned
+the task of making a like examination of the Trimmer establishment,
+and each day felt more like a really-truly business man. He affected
+the Traders' Club now, formed an entirely new set of acquaintances,
+and learned to go about the stately rooms of that magnificent business
+annex with his hat on the back of his head and creases in his brow.
+
+Even before the final papers were completed, a huge gang of workmen,
+consisting of as many artisans as could be crowded on the job without
+standing on one another's feet, began to construct the elaborate
+bridge which was to connect the two stores, and Mr. Trimmer's
+publicity department was already securing column after column of space
+in the local papers, some of it paid matter and some gratis, wherein
+it appeared that the son of old John Burnit had proved himself to be a
+live, progressive young man--a worthy heir of so enterprising a
+father.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+WHEREIN BOBBY ATTENDS A STOCK-HOLDERS' MEETING AND CUTS A WISDOM-TOOTH
+
+
+Within a very few days was completed the complicated legal machinery
+which threw the John Burnit Store and Trimmer and Company into the
+hands of "The Burnit-Trimmer Merchandise Corporation" as a holding and
+operating concern. The John Burnit Store went into that consolidation
+at an invoice value of two hundred and sixty thousand dollars, Trimmer
+and Company at two hundred and forty thousand; and Bobby was duly
+pleased. He had the majority of stock! On the later suggestion of Mr.
+Trimmer, however, sixty thousand dollars of additional capital was
+taken into the concern.
+
+"The alterations, expansions, new departments and publicity will
+compel the command of about that much money," Mr. Trimmer patiently
+explained; "and while we could appropriate that amount from our
+respective concerns, we ought not to weaken our capital, particularly
+as financial affairs throughout the country are so unsettled. This is
+not a brisk commercial year, nor can it be."
+
+"Yes," admitted Bobby, "I've heard something of all this hard-times
+talk. I know Nick Allstyne sold his French racer, and Nick's supposed
+to be worth no end of money."
+
+"Exactly," agreed Mr. Trimmer dryly. "This sixty thousand dollars'
+worth of stock, Mr. Burnit, I am quite sure that I can place with
+immediate purchasers, and if you will leave the matter to me I can
+have it all represented in our next meeting without any bother at all
+to you."
+
+"Very kind of you, I am sure," agreed Bobby, thankful that this
+trifling detail was not to bore him.
+
+And so it was that the Burnit-Trimmer Merchandise Corporation was
+incorporated at five hundred and sixty thousand dollars. It was
+considerably later when Bobby realized the significance of the fact
+that the subscribers to the additional capitalization consisted of Mr.
+Trimmer's son, his son-in-law, his head bookkeeper, his confidential
+secretary and his cousin, all of whom had also been minor
+stock-holders in the concern of Trimmer and Company.
+
+It was upon the day preceding the first stock-holders' meeting of the
+reorganized company that Bobby, quite proud of the fact that he had
+acted independently of them, made the formal announcement to Johnson
+and Applerod that the great consolidation had been effected.
+
+"Beginning with to-morrow morning, Mr. Johnson," said he to that
+worthy, "the John Burnit Store will be merged into the Burnit-Trimmer
+Merchandise Corporation, and Mr. Trimmer will doubtless send his
+secretary to confer with you about an adjustment of the clerical
+work."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Mr. Johnson dismally, and rose to open the filing
+case behind him. With his hand in the case he paused and turned a most
+woebegone countenance to the junior Burnit. "We shall be very
+regretful, Mr. Applerod and myself, to lose our positions, sir," he
+stated. "We have grown up with the business from boyhood."
+
+"Nonsense!" exploded Applerod. "We would be regretful if that were to
+occur, but there is nothing of the sort possible. Why, Mr. Burnit, I
+think this consolidation is the greatest thing that ever happened.
+I've been in favor of it for years; and as for its losing me my
+position--Pooh!" and he snapped his fingers.
+
+"Applerod is quite right, Mr. Johnson," said Bobby severely. "Nothing
+of the sort is contemplated. Yourself and Mr. Applerod are to remain
+with me as long as fair treatment and liberal pay and personal
+attachment can induce you to do so."
+
+"Thank you, sir," said Mr. Johnson dryly, but he shook his head, and
+from the file produced one of the familiar gray envelopes.
+
+Bobby eyed it askance as it came toward him, and winced as he saw the
+inscription. He was beginning to dread these missives. They seemed to
+follow him about, to menace him, to give him a constant feeling of
+guilt. Nevertheless, he took this one quite calmly and walked into his
+own room. It was addressed:
+
+    _To My Son,
+    Upon the Occasion of His Completing a Consolidation
+      with Silas Trimmer_
+
+and it read:
+
+    "When a man devils you for years to enter a business deal with
+    him, you may rest assured that man has more to gain by it than
+    you have. Aside from his wormwood business jealousy of me,
+    Silas Trimmer has wanted this Grand Street entrance to his
+    store for more than the third of a century; now he has it.
+    He'll have your store next."
+
+"Look here, Governor," protested Bobby aloud, to his lively
+remembrance of his father as he might have stood in that very room, "I
+call this rather rubbing it in. It's a bit unsportsmanlike. It's
+almost like laying a trap for a chap who doesn't know the game," and,
+rankling with a sense of injustice, he went out to Johnson.
+
+"I say, Johnson," he complained, "it's rather my fault for being too
+stubborn to ask about it, but if you knew that Mr. Trimmer was trying
+to work a game on me that was dangerous to the business, why didn't
+you volunteer to explain it to me; to forewarn me and give me a chance
+for judgment with all the pros and cons in front of me?"
+
+"From the bottom of my heart, Mr. Burnit," said Johnson with feeling,
+"I should like to have done it; but it was forbidden."
+
+He already had lying before him another of the gray envelopes, and
+this he solemnly handed over. It was addressed:
+
+    _To My Son,
+    Upon His Complaining that Johnson Gave Him No Warning
+      Concerning Silas Trimmer_
+
+The message it contained was:
+
+    "It takes hard chiseling to make a man, but if the material is
+    the right grain the tool-marks won't show. If I had wanted you
+    merely to make money, I would have left the business entirely
+    in the hands of Johnson and Applerod. But there is no use to
+    put off pulling a tooth. It only hurts worse in the end."
+
+When Bobby left the office he felt like walking in the middle of the
+street to avoid alley corners, since he was unable to divine from what
+direction the next brick might come. He had taken the business to
+heart more than he had imagined that he would, and the very fact of
+his father's having foreseen that he would succumb to this
+consolidation made him give grave heed to the implied suggestion that
+he would be a heavy loser by it. He had an engagement with Allstyne
+and Starlett at the Idlers' that afternoon, but they found him most
+preoccupied, and openly voted him a bore. He called on Agnes Elliston,
+but learned that she was out driving, and he savagely assured himself
+that he knew who was handling the reins. He dined at the Traders',
+and, for the first time since he had begun to frequent that place, the
+creases in his brow were real.
+
+Later in the evening he dropped around to see Biff Bates. In the very
+center of the gymnasium he found that gentleman engaged in giving a
+preliminary boxing lesson to a spider-like new pupil, who was none
+other than Silas Trimmer. Responding to Biff's cheerful grin and Mr.
+Trimmer's sheepish one with what politeness he could muster, Bobby
+glumly went home.
+
+On the next morning occurred the first stock-holders' meeting of the
+Burnit-Trimmer Merchandise Corporation, which Bobby attended with some
+feeling of importance, for, with his twenty-six hundred shares, he was
+the largest individual stock-holder present. That was what had
+reassured him overnight: the magic "majority of stock!" Mr. Trimmer
+only had twenty-four hundred, and Bobby could swing things as he
+pleased. His father, omniscient as he was, must certainly have failed
+to foresee this fact. In his simplicity of such matters and his
+general unsuspiciousness, Bobby had not calculated that if the
+additional six hundred shares were to vote solidly with Mr. Trimmer
+against him, his twenty-six hundred shares would be confronted by
+three thousand, and so rendered paltry.
+
+Mr. Trimmer was delighted to see young Mr. Burnit. This was a great
+occasion indeed, both for the John Burnit Store and for Trimmer and
+Company, and, in the opinion of Mr. Trimmer, his circular smile very
+much in evidence, John Burnit himself would have been proud to see
+this day! Mr. Smythe, Mr. Trimmer's son-in-law, also thought it a
+great day; Mr. Weldon, Mr. Trimmer's head bookkeeper, thought it a
+great day; Mr. Harvey, Mr. Trimmer's confidential secretary, and Mr.
+U. G. Trimmer, Mr. Silas Trimmer's cousin, shared this pleasant
+impression.
+
+In the beginning the organization was without form or void, as all
+such organizations are, but Mr. Trimmer, having an extremely clear
+idea of what was to be accomplished, proposed that Mr. Burnit accept
+the chair _pro tem._--where he would be out of the way. The unanimous
+support which this motion received was quite gratifying to the
+feelings of Mr. Burnit, proving at once that his fears had been not
+only groundless but ungenerous, and, in accepting the chair, he made
+them what he considered a very neat little speech indeed, striving the
+while to escape that circular smile with its diameter of yellow teeth
+and its intersecting crescent of stiff mustache; for he disliked
+meanly to imagine that smile to have a sarcastic turn to-day. At the
+suggestion of Mr. Trimmer, Mr. Weldon accepted the post of secretary
+_pro tem._ Mr. Trimmer then, with a nicely bound black book in his
+hand, rose to propose the adoption of the stock constitution and
+by-laws which were neatly printed in the opening pages of this
+minute-book, and in the articles of which he had made some trifling
+amendments. Mr. Weldon, by request, read these most carefully and
+conscientiously, making quite plain that the entire working management
+of the consolidated stores was to be under the direct charge of a
+general manager and an assistant general manager, who were to be
+appointed and have their salaries fixed by the board of directors, as
+was meet and proper. Gravely the stock-holders voted upon the adoption
+of the constitution and by-laws, and, with a feeling of pride, as the
+secretary called his name, Bobby cast his first vote in the following
+conventional form:
+
+"Aye--twenty-six hundred shares."
+
+Mr. Trimmer followed, voting twenty-four hundred shares; then Mr.
+Smythe, three hundred; Mr. Weldon, fifty; Mr. Harvey, fifty; Mr. U. G.
+Trimmer, fifty; Mr. Thomas Trimmer, whose proxy was held by his
+father, one hundred and fifty; making in all a total of fifty-six
+hundred shares unanimously cast in favor of the motion; and Bobby,
+after having roundly announced the result, felt that he was conducting
+himself with vast parliamentary credit and lit a cigarette with much
+satisfaction.
+
+Mr. Trimmer, twirling his thumbs, displayed no surprise, nor even
+gratification, when Mr. Smythe almost immediately put him in
+nomination for president. Mr. Weldon promptly seconded that
+nomination. Mr. Harvey moved that the nominations for the presidency
+be closed. Mr. U. G. Trimmer seconded that motion, which was carried
+unanimously; and with no ado whatever Mr. Silas Trimmer was made
+president of the Burnit-Trimmer Merchandise Corporation, Mr. Burnit
+having most courteously cast twenty-six hundred votes for him; for was
+not Mr. Trimmer entitled to this honor by right of seniority? In
+similar manner Mr. Burnit, quite pleased, and not realizing that the
+vice-president of a corporation has a much less active and influential
+position than the night watchman, was elected to the second highest
+office, while Mr. Weldon was made secretary and Mr. Smythe treasurer.
+Mr. Harvey, Mr. U. G. Trimmer and Mr. Thomas Trimmer were, as a matter
+of course, elected members of the board of directors, the four
+officers already elected constituting the remaining members of the
+board. There seemed but very little business remaining for the
+stock-holders to do, so they adjourned; then, the members of the board
+being all present and having waived in writing all formal
+notification, the directors went into immediate session, with Mr.
+Trimmer in the chair and Mr. Weldon in charge of the bright and
+shining new book of minutes.
+
+The first move of that body, after opening the meeting in due form,
+was made by Mr. Harvey, who proposed that Mr. Silas Trimmer be
+constituted general manager of the consolidated stores at a salary of
+fifty thousand dollars per year, a motion which was immediately
+seconded by Mr. U. G. Trimmer.
+
+Bobby was instantly upon his feet. Even with his total lack of
+experience in such matters there was something about this that struck
+him as overdrawn, and he protested that fancy salaries should have no
+place in the reorganized business until experience had proved that the
+business would stand it. He was very much in earnest about it, and
+wanted the subject discussed thoroughly before any such rash step was
+taken. The balance of the discussion consisted in one word from Mr.
+Smythe, echoed by all his fellow-members.
+
+"Question!" said that gentleman.
+
+"You have all heard the question," said Mr. Trimmer calmly. "Those in
+favor will please signify by saying 'Aye.'"
+
+"Aye!" voted four members of the board as with one scarcely interested
+voice.
+
+"No!" cried Bobby angrily, and sprang to his feet, his anger confused,
+moreover, by the shock of finding unsuspected wolves tearing at his
+vitals. "Gentlemen, I protest against this action! I----"
+
+Mr. Trimmer pounded on the table with his pencil in lieu of a gavel.
+
+"The motion is carried. Any other business?"
+
+It seemed that there was. Mr. Harvey proposed that Mr. Smythe be made
+assistant general manager at a salary of twenty-five thousand dollars
+per year. Again the farce of a ballot and the farce of a protest was
+enacted. Where now was the voting power of Bobby's twenty-six hundred
+shares? In the directors' meeting they voted as individuals, and they
+were six against one. Rather indifferently, as if the thing did not
+amount to much, Mr. Smythe proposed that the selection of a firm name
+for advertising and publicity purposes be left to the manager, and
+though Bobby voted no as to this proposition on general principles, it
+seemed of minor importance, in his then bewildered state of mind.
+After all, the thing which grieved him most just then was to find that
+people _could_ do these things!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+CONSISTING ENTIRELY OF A RAPID SUCCESSION OF MOST PAINFUL SHOCKS
+
+
+He was still dazed with what had happened, when, the next morning, he
+turned into the office and found Johnson and Applerod packing-up their
+personal effects. Workmen were removing letter-files and taking desks
+out of the door.
+
+"What's the matter?" he asked, surveying the unwonted confusion in
+perplexity.
+
+"The entire office force of the now defunct John Burnit Store has been
+dismissed, that's all!" blurted Applerod, now the aggrieved one. "You
+sold us out, lock, stock and barrel!"
+
+"Impossible!" gasped Bobby.
+
+Mr. Johnson glumly showed him curt letters of dismissal from Trimmer.
+
+"Where's mine, I wonder?" inquired Bobby, trying to take his terrific
+defeat with sportsmanlike nonchalance.
+
+"I don't suppose there is any for you, sir, inasmuch as you never had
+a recognized position to lose," replied Johnson, not unkindly. "Did
+the board of directors elect you to any salaried office?"
+
+"Why, so they didn't!" exclaimed Bobby, and for the first time
+realized that no place had been made for him. He had taken it as a
+matter of course that he was to be a part of the consolidation, and
+the omission of any definite provision for him had passed unnoticed.
+
+The door leading to his own private office banged open, and two men
+appeared, shoving through it the big mahogany desk turned edgewise.
+
+"What are they doing?" Bobby asked sharply.
+
+"Moving out all the furniture," snapped Applerod with bitter relish.
+"All the office work, I understand, is to be done in the other
+building, and this space is to be thrown into a special cut-glass
+department. I suppose the new desk is for Mr. Trimmer."
+
+Furious, choking, Bobby left the office and strode back through the
+store. The first floor passageway was already completed between the
+two buildings, and a steady stream of customers was going over the
+bridge from the old Burnit store into the old Trimmer store. There
+were very few coming in the other direction. He had never been in Mr.
+Trimmer's offices, but he found his way there with no difficulty, and
+Mr. Trimmer came out of his private room to receive him with all the
+suavity possible. In fact, he had been saving up suavity all morning
+for this very encounter.
+
+"Well, what can we do for you this morning, Mr. Burnit?" he wanted to
+know, and Bobby, though accustomed to repression as he was, had a
+sudden impulse to drive his fist straight through that false circular
+smile.
+
+"I want to know what provision has been made for me in this new
+adjustment," he demanded.
+
+"Why, Mr. Burnit," expostulated Mr. Trimmer in much apparent surprise,
+"you have two hundred and sixty thousand dollars' worth of stock in
+what should be the best paying mercantile venture in this city; you
+are vice-president, and a member of the board of directors!"
+
+"I have no part, then, in the active management?" Bobby wanted to
+know.
+
+"It would be superfluous, Mr. Burnit. One of the chief advantages of
+such a consolidation is the economy that comes from condensing the
+office and managing forces. I regretted very much indeed to dismiss
+Mr. Johnson and Mr. Applerod, but they are very valuable men and
+should have no difficulty in placing themselves advantageously. In
+fact, I shall be glad to aid them in securing new positions."
+
+"The thing is an outrage!" exclaimed Bobby with passion.
+
+"My dear Mr. Burnit, it is business," said Mr. Trimmer coldly, and,
+turning, went deliberately into his own room, leaving Bobby standing
+in the middle of the floor.
+
+Bobby sprang to that door and threw it open, and Trimmer, who had been
+secretly trembling all through the interview, turned to him with a
+quick pallor overspreading his face, a pallor which Bobby saw and
+despised and ignored, and which turned his first mad impulse.
+
+"I'd like to ask one favor of you, Mr. Trimmer," said he. "In moving
+the furniture out of the John Burnit offices I should be very glad,
+indeed, if you would order my father's desk removed to my house. It is
+an old desk and can not possibly be of much use. You may charge its
+value to my account, please."
+
+"Nonsense!" said Mr. Trimmer. "I'll have it sent out with pleasure. Is
+there anything else?"
+
+"Nothing whatever at present," said Bobby, trembling with the task of
+holding himself steady, and walked out, unable to analyze the bitter
+emotions that surged within him.
+
+On the sidewalk, standing beside his automobile, he found Johnson and
+Applerod waiting for him, and the moment he saw Johnson, cumbered with
+the big index-file that he carried beneath his arm, he knew why.
+
+"Give me the letter, Johnson," he said with a wry smile, and Johnson,
+answering it with another equally as grim, handed him a gray envelope.
+
+Applerod, who had been the first to upbraid him, was now the first to
+recover his spirits.
+
+"Never mind, Mr. Burnit," said he; "businesses and even fortunes have
+been lost before and have been regained. There are still ways to make
+money."
+
+Bobby did not answer him. He was opening the letter, preparing to
+stand its contents in much the same spirit that he had often gone to
+his father to accept a reprimand which he knew he could not in dignity
+evade. But there was no reprimand. He read:
+
+    "There's no use in telling a young man what to do when he has
+    been gouged. If he's made of the right stuff he'll know, and
+    if he isn't, no amount of telling will put the right stuff in
+    him. I have faith in you. Bobby, or I'd never have let you in
+    for this goring.
+
+    "In the meantime, as there will be no dividends on your stock
+    for ten years to come, what with 'improvements, expenses and
+    salaries,' and as you will need to continue your education by
+    embarking in some other line of business before being ripe
+    enough to accomplish what I am sure you will want to do, you
+    may now see your trustee, the only thoroughly sensible person
+    I know who is sincerely devoted to your interests. Her name is
+    Agnes Elliston."
+
+"What is the matter?" asked Johnson in sudden concern, and Applerod
+grabbed him by the arm.
+
+"Oh, nothing much," said Bobby; "a little groggy, that's all. The
+governor just handed me one under the belt. By the way, boys"--and
+they scarcely noted that he no longer said "gentlemen"--"if you have
+nothing better in view I want you to consider yourselves still in my
+employ. I'm going into business again, at once. If you will call at my
+house tomorrow forenoon I'll talk with you about it," and anxious to
+be rid of them he told his driver "Idlers'," and jumped into his
+automobile.
+
+Agnes! That surely was giving him a solar-plexus blow! Why, what did
+the governor mean? It was putting him very much in a kindergarten
+position with the girl before whom he wanted to make a better
+impression than before anybody else in all the world.
+
+It took him a long time to readjust himself to this cataclysm.
+
+After all, though, was not his father right in this, as he had been in
+everything else? Humbly Bobby was ready to confess that Agnes had more
+brains and good common sense than anybody, and was altogether about
+the most loyal and dependable person in all the world, with the single
+and sole exception of allowing that splendid looking and unknown chap
+to hang around her so. They were in the congested down-town district
+now, and as they came to a dead stop at a crossing, Bobby, though
+immersed in thought, became aware of a short, thick-set man, who,
+standing at the very edge of the car, was apparently trying to stare
+him out of countenance.
+
+"Why, hello, Biff!" exclaimed Bobby. "Which way?"
+
+"Just waiting for a South Side trolley," explained Biff. "Going over
+to see Kid Mills about that lightweight go we're planning."
+
+"Jump in," said Bobby, glad of any change in his altogether indefinite
+program. "I'll take you over."
+
+On the way he detailed to his athletic friend what had been done to
+him in the way of business.
+
+"I know'd it," said Biff excitedly. "I know'd it from the start.
+That's why I got old Trimmer to join my class. Made him a special
+price of next to nothing, and got Doc Willets to go around and tell
+him he was in Dutch for want of training. Just wait."
+
+"For what?" asked Bobby, smiling.
+
+"Till the next time he comes up," declared Biff vengefully. "Say, do
+you know I put that shrimp's hour a-purpose just when there wouldn't
+be a soul up there; and the next time I get him in front of me I'm
+going to let a few slip that'll jar him from the cellar to the attic;
+and the next time anybody sees him he'll be nothing but splints and
+court-plaster."
+
+"Biff," said Bobby severely, "you'll do nothing of the kind. You'll
+leave one Silas Trimmer to me. Merely bruising his body won't get back
+my father's business. Let him alone."
+
+"But look here, Bobby----"
+
+"No; I say let him alone," insisted Bobby.
+
+"All right," said Biff sullenly; "but if you think there's a trick you
+can turn to double cross this Trimmer you've got another think coming.
+He's sunk his fangs in the business he's been after all his life, and
+now you couldn't pry it away from him with a jimmy. You know what I
+told you about him."
+
+"I know," said Bobby wearily. "But honestly, Biff, did you ever see me
+go into a game where I was a loser in the end?"
+
+"Not till this one," confessed Biff.
+
+"And this isn't the end," retorted Bobby.
+
+He knew that when he made such a confident assertion that he had
+nothing upon which to base it; that he was talking vaguely and at
+random; but he also knew the intense desire that had arisen in him to
+reverse conditions upon the man who had waited until the father died
+to wrest that father's pride from the son; and in some way he felt
+coming strength. In Biff's present frame of conviction Bobby was
+pleased enough to drop him in front of Kid Mills' obscure abode, and
+turn with a sudden hungry impulse in the direction of Agnes. At the
+Ellistons', when the chauffeur was about to slow up, Bobby in a panic
+told him to drive straight on. In the course of half an hour he came
+back again, and this time pride alone--fear of what his chauffeur
+might think--determined him to stop. With much trepidation he went up
+to the door. Agnes was just preparing to go out, and she came down to
+him in the front parlor.
+
+"This is only a business call," he confessed with as much appearance
+of gaiety as he could summon under the circumstance. "I've come around
+to see my trustee."
+
+"So soon?" she said, with quick sympathy in her voice. "I'm _so_
+sorry, Bobby! But I suppose, after all, the sooner it happened the
+better. Tell me all about it. What was the cause of it?"
+
+"You wouldn't marry me," charged Bobby. "If you had this never would
+have happened."
+
+She shook her head and smiled, but she laid her hand upon his arm and
+drew closer to him.
+
+"I'm afraid it would, Bobby. You might have asked my advice, but I
+expect you wouldn't have taken it."
+
+"I guess you're right about that," admitted Bobby; "but if you'd only
+married me---- Honest, Agnes, when are you going to?"
+
+"I shall not commit myself," she replied, smiling up at him rather
+wistfully.
+
+"There's somebody else," declared Bobby, instantly assured by this
+evasiveness that the unknown had something to do with the matter.
+
+"If there were, it would be my affair entirely, wouldn't it?" she
+wanted to know, still smiling.
+
+"No!" he declared emphatically. "It would be my affair. But really I
+want to know. Will you, if I get my father's business back?"
+
+"I'll not promise," she said. "Why, Bobby, the way you put it, you
+would be binding me _not_ to marry you in case you _didn't_ get it
+back!" and she laughed at him. "But let's talk business now. I was
+just starting out upon your affairs, the securing of some bonds for
+which the lawyer I have employed has been negotiating, so you may take
+me up there and he will arrange to get you the two hundred and fifty
+thousand dollars you are to have. It's for a new start, without
+restrictions except that you are to engage in business with it. That's
+all the instructions I have."
+
+[Illustration: Will you if I get my father's business back?]
+
+"Thanks," said Bobby, with a gulp. "Honestly, Agnes, it's a shame.
+It's a low-down trick the governor played to put me in this helplessly
+belittled position with you."
+
+"Why, how strange," she replied quietly. "I look upon it as a most
+graceful and agreeable position for myself."
+
+"Oh!" he exclaimed blankly, as it occurred to him just how
+uncomfortable the situation must be to her, and he reproached himself
+with selfishness in not having thought of this phase of the matter
+before. "That's a fact," he admitted. "I say, Agnes, I'll say no more
+about that end of it if you don't; and, after all, I'm glad, too. It
+gives me a legitimate excuse to see you much oftener."
+
+"Gracious, no!" she protested. "You fill up every spare moment that I
+have now; but so long as you are here on business this time, let's
+attend to business. You may take me up to see Mr. Chalmers. By the
+way, I want you to meet him, anyhow. You have seen him, I believe,
+once or twice. He was here one day when you called, and he was walking
+with me in the lobby of the theater when you came in to join us one
+evening."
+
+"Y-e-s," drawled Bobby, as if he were placing the man with difficulty.
+
+"The Chalmers' are charming people," she went on. "His wife is
+perfectly fascinating. We used to go to school together. They have
+only been married three months, and when they came here to go into
+business I was very glad to throw such of your father's estate as I am
+to handle into his hands. Whenever they are ready I want to engineer
+them into our set, but they live very quietly now. I know you'll like
+them."
+
+"Oh, I'm sure I will," agreed Bobby heartily, and his face was
+positively radiant, as, for some unaccountable reason, he clutched her
+hand. She lifted it up beneath his arm, around which, for one ecstatic
+moment, she clasped her other hand, and together they went out into
+the hall, Bobby, simply driveling in his supreme happiness, allowing
+her to lead him wheresoever she listed. Still in the joy of knowing
+that his one dreaded rival was removed in so pleasant a fashion, he
+handed her into the automobile and they started out to see Mr.
+Chalmers. Their way led down Grand Street, past the John Burnit Store,
+and with all that had happened still rankling sorely in his mind,
+Bobby looked up and gave a gasp. Workmen were taking down the plain,
+dignified old sign of the John Burnit Store from the top of the
+building, and in its place they were raising up a glittering new one,
+ordered by Silas Trimmer on the very day Bobby had agreed to go into
+the consolidation; and it read:
+
+                        "TRIMMER AND COMPANY"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+PINK-CHEEKED APPLEROD RUSHES TO THE RESCUE WITH A GOLDEN SCHEME
+
+
+Agnes had been surprised into an exclamation of dismay by that new
+sign, but she checked it abruptly as she saw Bobby's face. She could
+divine, but she could not fully know, how that had hurt him; how the
+pain of it had sunk into his soul; how the humiliation of it had
+tingled in every fiber of him. For an instant his breath had stopped,
+his heart had swelled as if it would burst, a great lump had come in
+his throat, a sob almost tore its way through his clenched teeth. He
+caught his breath sharply, his jaws set and his nostrils dilated, then
+the color came slowly back to his cheeks. Agnes, though longing to do
+so, had feared to lay her hand even upon his sleeve in sympathy lest
+she might unman him, but now she saw that she need not have feared. It
+had not weakened him, this blow; it had strengthened him.
+
+"That's brutal," he said steadily, though the steadiness was purely a
+matter of will. "We must change that sign before we do anything else."
+
+"Of course," she answered simply.
+
+Involuntarily she stretched out her small gloved hand, and with it
+touched his own. Looking back once more for a fleeting glimpse at the
+ascending symbol of his defeat, he gripped her hand so hard that she
+almost cried out with the pain of it; but she did not wince. When he
+suddenly remembered, with a frightened apology, and laid her hand upon
+her lap and patted it, her fingers seemed as if they had been
+compressed into a numb mass, and she separated them slowly and with
+difficulty. Afterward she remembered that as a dear hurt, after all,
+for in it she shared his pain.
+
+While they were still stunned and silent under Silas Trimmer's parting
+blow, the machine drew up at the curb in front of the building in
+which Chalmers had his office. Chalmers, Bobby found, was a most
+agreeable fellow, to whom he took an instant liking. It was strange
+what different qualities the man seemed to possess than when Bobby had
+first seen him in the company of Agnes. Their business there was very
+brief. Chalmers held for Bobby, subject to Agnes' order as trustee,
+the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in instantly
+convertible securities, and when they left, Bobby had a check for that
+amount comfortably tucked in his pocket.
+
+There was another brief visit to the office of old Mr. Barrister,
+where Agnes, again as Bobby's trustee, exhibited the papers Chalmers
+had made out for her, showing that the funds previously left in her
+charge had been duly paid over to Bobby as per the provisions of the
+will, and thereupon filed her order for a similar amount. Barrister
+received them with an "I told you so" air which amounted almost to
+satisfaction. He was quite used to seeing the sons of rich men
+hastening to become poor men, and he had so evidently classed Bobby as
+one of the regular sort, that Bobby took quite justifiable umbrage and
+decided that if he had any legal business whatever he would put it
+into the hands of Chalmers.
+
+He spent the rest of the day with Agnes and took dinner at the
+Ellistons', where jolly Aunt Constance and shrewd Uncle Dan, in
+genuine sympathy, desisted so palpably from their usual joking about
+his "business career," that Bobby was more ill at ease than if they
+had said all the grimly humorous things which popped into their minds.
+For that reason he went home rather early, and tumbled into bed
+resolving upon the new future he was to face to-morrow.
+
+At least, he consoled himself with a sigh, he was now a man of
+experience. He had learned something of the world. He was not further
+to be hoodwinked. His last confused vision was of Silas Trimmer on his
+knees begging for mercy, and the next thing he knew was that some one
+was reminding him, with annoying insistency, of the early call he had
+left.
+
+The world looked brighter that morning, and he was quite hopeful when,
+in the dim old study, seated at his father's desk and with the
+portrait of stern old John Burnit frowning and yet shrewdly twinkling
+down upon him, he received Johnson, dry and sour looking as if he
+expected ill news, and Applerod, bright and radiant as if Fortune's
+purse were just about to open to him.
+
+"Well, boys," said Bobby cheerily, "we're going to stick right
+together. We're going to start into a new business as soon as we can
+find one that suits us, and your employment begins from this minute.
+We're beginning with a capital of two hundred and fifty thousand
+dollars," and rather pompously he spread the check upon the desk. His
+pompousness faded in something under fifteen seconds, for it was in
+about that length of time that he caught sight of a plain gray
+envelope then in the process of emerging from Johnson's pocket. He
+accepted it with something of reluctance, but opened it nevertheless;
+and this was the message of the late John Burnit:
+
+    _To my Son Upon the Occasion of his Being Intrusted
+      With Real Money_
+
+    "In most cases the difference between spending money and
+    investing it is wholly a matter of speed. Not one man in ten
+    knows when and where and how to put a dollar properly to work;
+    so the only financial education I expect you to get out of an
+    attempt to go into business is a painful lesson in
+    subtraction."
+
+"This letter, Johnson, is only a delicate intimation from the governor
+that I'll make another blooming ass of myself with this," commented
+Bobby, tapping his finger on the check, and placing the letter face
+downward beside it, where he eyed it askance.
+
+"A quarter of a million!" observed Applerod, rolling out the amount
+with relish. "A great deal can be done with two hundred and fifty
+thousand dollars, you know."
+
+"That's just the point," observed Bobby with a frown of perplexity,
+directed alternately to the faithful gentlemen who for upward of
+thirty years had been his father's right and left bowers. "What am I
+to do with it? Johnson, what would you do with two hundred and fifty
+thousand dollars?"
+
+"Lose it," confessed stooped and bloodless Johnson. "I never made a
+dollar out of a dollar in my life."
+
+"What would you do with it, Applerod?"
+
+Mr. Applerod, scarcely able to contain himself, had been eagerly
+awaiting that question.
+
+"Purchase, improve and market the Westmarsh Addition," he said
+promptly, expanding fully two inches across his already rotund chest.
+
+"What?" snorted Johnson, and cast upon his workmate a look of
+withering scorn. "Are you still dreaming about the possibilities of
+that old swamp?"
+
+"To be sure it is a swamp," admitted Mr. Applerod with some heat. "Do
+you suppose you could buy one hundred and twenty acres of directly
+accessible land, almost at the very edge of the crowded city limits,
+at two hundred dollars an acre if it wasn't swamp land?" he demanded.
+"Why, Mr. Burnit, it is the opportunity of a lifetime!"
+
+"How much capital would be needed?" asked Bobby, gravely assuming the
+callous, inquisitorial manner of the ideal business man.
+
+"Well, I've managed to buy up twenty acres out of my savings, and
+there are still one hundred acres to be purchased, which will take
+twenty thousand dollars. But this is the small part of it. Drainage,
+filling and grading is to be done, streets and sidewalks ought to be
+put down, a gift club-house, which would serve at first as an office,
+would be a good thing to build, and the thing would have to be most
+thoroughly advertised. I've figured on it for years, and it would
+require, all told, about a two-hundred-thousand investment."
+
+"And what would be the return?" asked Bobby without blinking at these
+big figures, and proud of his attitude, which, while conservative, was
+still one of openness to conviction.
+
+"Figure it out for yourself," Mr. Applerod invited him with much
+enthusiasm. "We get ten building lots to the acre, turning one hundred
+and twenty acres into one thousand two hundred lots. Improved sites at
+any point surrounding this tract can not be bought for less than
+twenty-five dollars per front foot. Corner lots and those in the best
+locations would bring much more, but taking the average price at only
+six hundred dollars per lot, we would have, as a total return for the
+investment, seven hundred and twenty thousand dollars!"
+
+"In how long?" Bobby inquired, not allowing himself to become in the
+slightest degree excited.
+
+"One year," announced the optimistic Mr. Applerod with conviction.
+
+Mr. Johnson, his lips glued tightly together in one firm, thin,
+straight line across his face, was glaring steadfastly at the corner
+of the ceiling, permitting no expression whatever to flicker in his
+eyes; noting which, Bobby turned to him with a point-blank question:
+
+"What do you think of this opportunity, Mr. Johnson?" he asked.
+
+Mr. Johnson glared quickly at Mr. Applerod.
+
+"Tell him," defied that gentleman.
+
+"I think nothing whatever of it!" snapped Mr. Johnson.
+
+"What is your chief ground of objection?" Bobby wanted to know.
+
+Again Mr. Johnson glared quickly at Mr. Applerod.
+
+"Tell him," insisted that gentleman with an outward wave of both
+hands, expressive of his intense desire to have every secret of his
+own soul and of everybody's else laid bare.
+
+"I will," said Johnson. "Your father, a dozen times in my own hearing,
+refused to have anything to do with the scheme."
+
+Bobby turned accusing eyes upon Applerod, who, though red of face, was
+still strong of assertion.
+
+"Mr. Burnit never declined on any other grounds than that he already
+had too many irons in the fire," he declared. "Tell him that, too,
+Johnson!"
+
+"It was only his polite way of putting it," retorted Mr. Johnson.
+
+"John Burnit was noted for his polite way of putting his business
+conclusions," snapped Applerod in return, whereat Bobby smiled with
+gleeful reminiscence, and Mr. Johnson smiled grimly, albeit
+reluctantly, and Mr. Applerod smiled triumphantly.
+
+"I can see the governor doing it," laughed Bobby, and dismissed the
+matter. "Mr. Johnson, as a start in business we may as well turn this
+study into a temporary office. Take this check down to the Commercial
+Bank, please, and open an account. You already have power of attorney
+for my signature. Procure a small set of books and open them. Make out
+for me against this account at the Commercial a check for ten
+thousand. Mr. Applerod, kindly reduce your swamp proposition to paper
+and let me have it by to-morrow. I'll not promise that I will do
+anything with it, but it would be only fair to examine it."
+
+With these crisp remarks, upon the decisiveness of which Bobby prided
+himself very much, he left the two to open business for him under the
+supervision of the portrait of stern but humor-given old John Burnit.
+
+"Applerod," said Johnson indignantly, his lean frame almost quivering,
+"it is a wonder to me that you can look up at that picture and reflect
+that you are trying to drag John Burnit's son into this fool scheme."
+
+"Johnson," said Mr. Applerod, puffing out his cheeks indignantly, "you
+were given the first chance to advise Mr. Robert what he should do
+with his money, and you failed to do so. This is a magnificent
+business opportunity, and I should consider myself very remiss in my
+duty to John Burnit's son if I failed to urge it upon him."
+
+Mr. Johnson picked up the letter that Bobby, evidently not caring
+whether they read it or not, had left behind him. He ran through it
+with a grim smile and handed it over to Applerod as his best retort.
+
+At the home of Agnes Elliston Bobby's car stopped almost as a matter
+of habit, and though the hour was a most informal one he walked up the
+steps as confidently as if he intended opening the door with a
+latch-key; for since Agnes was become his trustee, Bobby had awakened,
+overnight, to the fact that he had a proprietary interest in her which
+could not be denied.
+
+Agnes came down to meet him in a most ravishing morning robe of pale
+green, a confection so stunning in conjunction with her gold-brown
+eyes and waving brown hair and round white throat that Bobby was
+forced to audible comment upon it.
+
+"Cracking!" said he. "I suppose that if I hadn't had nerve enough to
+pop in here unexpectedly before noon I wouldn't have seen that gown
+for ages."
+
+It was Aunt Constance, the irrepressible, who, leaning over the stair
+railing, sank the iron deep into his soul.
+
+"It was bought at Trimmer and Company's, Grand Street side, Bobby,"
+she informed him, and with this Parthian shot she went back through
+the up-stairs hall, laughing.
+
+"Ouch!" said Bobby. "That was snowballing a cripple," and he was
+really most woebegone about it.
+
+"Never mind, Bobby, you have still plenty of chance to win," comforted
+Agnes, who, though laughing, had sympathetic inkling of that sore spot
+which had been touched. He seemed so forlorn, in spite of his big,
+good-natured self, that she moved closer to him and unconsciously put
+her hand upon his arm. It was too much for him in view of the way she
+looked, and, suddenly emboldened, he did a thing the mere thought of
+which, under premeditation, would have scared him into a frappéd
+perspiration. He placed his hands upon her shoulders, and, drawing her
+toward him, bent swiftly down to kiss her. For a fleeting instant she
+drew back, and then Bobby had the surprise of his life, for her warm
+lips met his quite willingly, and with a frank pressure almost equal
+to his own. She sprang back from him at once with sparkling eyes, but
+he had no mind to follow up his advantage, for he was dazed. It had
+left him breathless, amazed, incredulous. He stood for a full minute,
+his face gone white with the overwhelming wonder of this thing that
+had happened to him, and then the blunt directness which was part of
+his inheritance from his father returned to him.
+
+"Well, anyhow, we're to be engaged at last," he said.
+
+"No," she rebuked him, with a sudden flash of mischief; "that was
+perfectly wicked, and you mustn't do it again."
+
+"But I will," he said, advancing with heightened color.
+
+"You mustn't," she said firmly, and although she did not recede
+farther from him he stopped. "You mustn't make it hard for us, Bobby,"
+she warned him. "I'm under promise, too; and that's all I can tell you
+now."
+
+"The governor again," groaned Bobby. "I suppose that I'm not to talk
+to you about marrying, nor you to listen, until I have proved my right
+and ability to take care of you and your fortune and mine. Is that
+it?"
+
+She smiled inscrutably.
+
+"What brings you at this unearthly hour?" she asked by way of evasion.
+"Some business pretext, I'll be bound."
+
+"Of course it is," he assured her. "This morning you are strictly in
+the rôle of my trustee. I want you to look at some property."
+
+"But I have an appointment with my dressmaker."
+
+"The dressmaker must wait."
+
+"What a warning!" she laughed. "If you would order a mere--a mere
+acquaintance around so peremptorily, what would you do if you were
+married?"
+
+"I'd be the boss," announced Bobby with calm confidence.
+
+"Indeed?" she mocked, and started into the library. "You'd ask
+permission first, wouldn't you?"
+
+"Where are you going?" he queried in return, and grinned.
+
+"To telephone my dressmaker," she admitted, smiling, and realizing,
+too, that it was not all banter.
+
+"I told you to, remember," asserted Bobby, with a strange new sense of
+masterfulness which would not down.
+
+When she came down again, dressed for the trip, he was still in that
+dazed elation, and it lasted through their brisk ride to the far
+outskirts of the city, where, at the side of a watery marsh that
+extended for nearly a mile along the roadway, he halted.
+
+"This is it," waving his hand across the dismal waste.
+
+"It!" she repeated. "What?"
+
+"The property that it was suggested I buy."
+
+"No wonder your father thought it necessary to appoint a trustee," was
+her first comment. "Why, Bobby, what on earth could you do with it?
+It's too large for a frog farm and too small for a summer resort," and
+once more she turned incredulous eyes upon the "property."
+
+Dark, oily water covered the entire expanse, and through it emerged,
+here and there, clumps of dank vegetation, from the nature and
+dispersement of which one could judge that the water varied from one
+to three feet in depth. Higher ground surrounded it on all sides, and
+the urgent needs of suburban growth had scattered a few small, cheap
+cottages, here and there, upon the hills.
+
+"It doesn't seem very attractive until you consider those houses,"
+Bobby confessed. "You must remember that the city hasn't room to grow,
+and must take note that it is trying to spread in this direction.
+Wouldn't a fellow be doing a rather public-spirited thing, and one in
+which he might take quite a bit of satisfaction, if he drained that
+swamp, filled it, laid out streets and turned the whole stretch into a
+cluster of homes in place of a breeding-place for fevers?"
+
+"You talk just like a civic improvement society," she said, laughing.
+
+"We did have a chap lecturing on that down at the club a few nights
+ago," he admitted, "and maybe I have picked up a bit of the talk. But
+wouldn't it be a good thing, anyhow?"
+
+"Oh, I quite approve of it, now that I see your plan," she agreed;
+"but could it be made to pay?"
+
+"Well," he returned with a grave assumption of that businesslike air
+he had recently been trying to copy down at the Traders' Club, "there
+are one hundred and twenty acres in the tract. I can buy it for two
+hundred dollars an acre, and sell each acre, in building lots, for
+full six hundred. It seems to me that this is enough margin to carry
+out the needed improvements and make the marketing of it worth while.
+What do you think of it?"
+
+They both gazed out over that desolate expanse and tried to picture it
+dotted with comfortable cottages, set down in grassy lawns that
+bordered on white, clean streets, and the idea of the transformation
+was an attractive one.
+
+"It looks to me like a perfectly splendid idea," Agnes admitted. "I
+wonder what your father would have thought of it."
+
+"Well," confessed Bobby a trifle reluctantly, "this very proposition
+was presented to him several times, I believe, but he always declined
+to go into it."
+
+"Then," decided Agnes, so quickly and emphatically that it startled
+him, "don't touch it!"
+
+"Oh, but you see," he reminded her, "the governor couldn't go into
+everything that was offered him, and to this plan he never urged any
+objection but that he had too many irons in the fire."
+
+"I wouldn't touch it," declared Agnes, and that was her final word in
+the matter, despite all his arguments. If John Burnit had declined to
+go into it, no matter for what reason, the plan was not worth
+considering.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+BOBBY SUCCEEDS IN SNAPPING A BARGAIN FROM UNDER SILAS TRIMMER'S NOSE
+
+
+Still undecided, but carrying seriously the thought that he must
+overlook no opportunity if he was to prove himself the successful man
+that his father had so ardently wished him to become, Bobby dropped
+into the Idlers' Club for lunch, where Nick Allstyne and Payne
+Winthrop hailed him as one returned from the dead.
+
+"Just the chap," declared Nick. "Stan Rogers has written me that I'm
+to scrape the regular crowd together and come up to his new Canadian
+lodge for a hunt. Stag affair, you know. Real sport and no pink-coat
+pretense."
+
+"Sorry, Nick," said Bobby, pluming himself a trifle upon his
+steadfastness to duty, "but I know what Stan's stag affairs are like.
+It would mean two weeks at least, and I could not spare that much time
+from the city."
+
+"Business again!" groaned Payne in mock dismay. "This grasping greed
+for gain is blighting the most promising young men of our avaricious
+country. Why, it's positively shameful, Bobby, when your father must
+have left you over three million."
+
+"Two hundred and fifty thousand, so far as I'm allowed to inquire just
+now," corrected Bobby; "and I'm ordered to go into business with that
+and prove that I'm not such a blithering idiot that I can't be trusted
+with the rest of it, whatever there is."
+
+"But I thought you'd had your trial by fire and pulled out of it,"
+interposed Nick. "I heard that you had sold your interests or
+something, and when I saw a new sign over the store I knew that it was
+true. Sensible thing, I call it."
+
+"Sensible!" winced Bobby. "You're allowing me a mighty pleasant way
+out of it, but the fact of the matter is that I lost in such a
+stinging way I'm bound to get back into the game and do nothing else
+until I win," and he explained how Silas Trimmer had performed upon
+him a neat and delicate operation in commercial surgery.
+
+They were properly sympathetic; not that they cared much about
+business, but if Bobby had entered any game whatsoever in which he had
+been soundly beaten, they could quite understand his desire to stay in
+that game until he could show points on the right side.
+
+"Nevertheless," Nick urged, "you ought to take a little breathing
+spell in between."
+
+All through lunch, and through the game of billiards which followed,
+they strove to make him see the error of his ways, but Bobby was
+obdurate, and at last they gave him up as a bad job, with the grave
+prediction that later he would find himself nothing more nor less than
+a beast of burden. When he left them Bobby was surprised at himself.
+For a time he had feared that in his declaration of such close
+attention to business he might be posing; but he found that to miss a
+stag hunting party, which heretofore had been one of his keenest
+delights, weighed upon him not at all; found actually that he would
+far rather stay in the city to engage in the game of finance which was
+unfolding before him! He came upon this surprising discovery while he
+was on his way across to a side street, where, on the fourth floor of
+a store and warehouse building, he let himself in at a wide door with
+a latch-key and entered the gymnasium of Biff Bates. That gentleman,
+in trunks, sweater and sandals, was padding all alone around and
+around the edge of the hall at a steady jog, which, after twenty solid
+minutes, had left no effect whatever upon his respiration.
+
+"Getting fat as a butcher again," he announced as he trotted steadily
+around to Bobby, suddenly stopping short with an expansive grin across
+his wide face and a handshake that it took an athlete to withstand.
+"Got to cut it down or it'll put me on the blink. What's the best
+thing you know, chum?"
+
+"How does this hit you?" asked Bobby, taking from his pocket the check
+Johnson had given him that morning.
+
+Mr. Bates looked at it with his hands behind him.
+
+"Pleased to make your acquaintance," he said to the slip of paper,
+nodding profoundly.
+
+"Oh, everybody's friendly to these," said Bobby, indorsing the check.
+"It is for the new gymnasium," he explained. "Now, partner, turn loose
+and monopolize the physical training business of this city."
+
+"Partner!" scorned Mr. Bates. "Look here, old pal, there's only one
+way I'll take this big ticket, and that is that you'll drag down your
+split of the profits."
+
+"But don't I on this place?" protested Bobby.
+
+"Nit!" retorted Mr. Bates with infinite scorn. "You put them right
+back into the business, but that don't go any more. If we start this
+big joint it's got to be partners right, see? Or else take back this
+wealthy handwriting. I don't guess I want it, anyhow. From past
+performances you need all the money in the world, and ten thousand
+simoleons will put a crimp in any wad."
+
+"No," laughed Bobby; "you're saving it for me when you take it. I've
+just read a very nice note, left for me by the governor, that I'll be
+a fool and lose anyhow."
+
+Mr. Bates grinned.
+
+"You will, all right, all right, if you're going into business," he
+admitted, and stuffed the check in the upturned cuff of his sweater.
+"After these profit-and-loss artists get your goat on all the starts
+your old man left you, maybe I'll have to put up the eats and sleeps
+for you anyhow; huh?" and Mr. Bates laughed with keen enjoyment of
+this delicately expressed idea. "How are you going to divorce yourself
+from the rest of it, Bobby?"
+
+"I'm not quite sure," said Bobby. "You know that big stretch of swamp
+land, out on the Millberg Road?"
+
+"Where Paddy Dolan fell in and died from drinkin' too much water? Sure
+I do."
+
+"Well, it has been suggested to me that I buy it, drain it, fill it,
+put in paved streets, cut it up into building lots and sell it."
+
+"And build it full of these pale yellow shacks that the honest working
+slob buys with seventeen years of his wages, and then loses the
+shack?" Biff incredulously wanted to know.
+
+"You guessed wrong, Biff," laughed Bobby. "Just selling the lots will
+be enough for me. What do you think of it?"
+
+"I don't know," said Mr. Bates thoughtfully. "I know they frame up
+such stunts and boost 'em strong in the papers, and if any of these
+real-estate sharps is working just for their healths they've been
+stung from all I've seen of 'em. But the main point is, who's the guy
+that's tryin' to lead you to it?"
+
+"Oh, that part's all right," replied Bobby with perfect assurance.
+"The man who wants me to finance this, and who has already bought some
+of the land, was one of my father's right-hand men for nearly thirty
+years."
+
+"Then that's all right," agreed Mr. Bates. "But say!" he suddenly
+exclaimed as a new thought struck him; "it's a wonder this right-mitt
+mut of your father's didn't make the old man fall for it long ago, if
+it's such a hot muffin."
+
+"He did try it," confessed Bobby with hesitation for the second time
+that day; "but the governor always complained that he had too many
+other irons in the fire."
+
+"He did, _did_ he?" Mr. Bates wanted to know, fixing accusing eyes on
+Bobby. "Then don't be the fall guy for any other touting. Your old man
+knew this business dope from Sheepshead Bay to Oakland. You take it
+from me that this tip ain't the one best bet."
+
+Bobby left the gymnasium with a certain degree of dissatisfaction, not
+only with Mr. Applerod's scheme but with the fact that wherever he
+went his father's business wisdom was thrown into his teeth. That
+evening, drawn to the atmosphere into which events had plunged him, he
+dined at the Traders' Club. As he passed one of the tables Silas
+Trimmer leered up at him with the circular smile, which, bisected by a
+row of yellow teeth and hooded with a bristle of stubby mustache, had
+now come to aggravate him almost past endurance. To-night it made him
+approach his dinner with vexation, and, failing to find the man he had
+sought, he finished hastily. As he went out, Silas Trimmer, though
+looking straight in his direction, did not seem to be at all aware of
+Bobby's approach. He was deep in a business discussion with his
+priggish son-in-law.
+
+"It's a great opportunity," he was loudly insisting. "If I can secure
+that land I'll drain and improve it and cut it up into building lots.
+This city is ripe for a suburban boom."
+
+That settled it with Bobby. No matter what arguments there might be to
+the contrary, if Silas Trimmer had his eye on that piece of property,
+Bobby wanted it.
+
+Applerod, though eagerness brought him early, had no sooner entered
+the study next morning than Bobby, who was already dressed for
+business and who had his machine standing outside the door, met him
+briskly.
+
+"Keep your hat on, Applerod," he ordered. "We'll go right around and
+buy the rest of that property at once."
+
+"I thought those figures I left last night would convince you," beamed
+Mr. Applerod.
+
+There is no describing the delight and pride with which that
+highly-gratified gentleman followed the energetic young Mr. Burnit to
+the curb, nor the dignity with which, a few minutes later, he led the
+way into the office of one Thorne, real-estate dealer.
+
+"Mr. Thorne, Mr. Robert Burnit," said Mr. Applerod, hastening straight
+to business. "Mr. Burnit has come around to close the deal for that
+Westmarsh property."
+
+Mr. Thorne was suavity itself as he shook hands with Mr. Burnit, but
+the most aching regret was in his tone as he spoke.
+
+"I'm very sorry indeed, Mr. Burnit," he stated; "but that property,
+which, by the way, seems very much in demand, passed out of my hands
+yesterday afternoon."
+
+"To whom?" Mr. Applerod excitedly wanted to know. "I think you might
+have let us have time to turn around, Thorne. I spoke about it to you
+yesterday morning, you know, and said that I felt quite hopeful Mr.
+Burnit would buy it."
+
+"I know," said Mr. Thorne, politely but coldly; "and I told you at the
+time we talked about it that I never hold anything in the face of a
+bona fide offer."
+
+"But who has it?" Bobby insisted, more eager now to get it, since it
+had slipped away from him, than ever before.
+
+"The larger portion of it, the ninety-two acres adjoining Mr.
+Applerod's twenty," Mr. Thorne advised him, "was taken up by Miles,
+Eddy and Company. The north eight acres are owned by Mr. Silas
+Trimmer, and I am quite positive, from what Mr. Trimmer told me, not
+two hours later, that this parcel is not for sale."
+
+Bobby's heart sank. Eight acres of that land had already been gobbled
+up by Silas Trimmer, and, no doubt, that astute and energetic business
+gentleman was now after the balance.
+
+"Where is the office of Miles, Eddy and Company?" Bobby asked, with a
+crispness that pleased him tremendously as he used it.
+
+"Twenty-six Plum Street," Mr. Thorne advised him.
+
+"Thanks," said Bobby, and whirled out of the door, followed by the
+disconsolate Applerod.
+
+At the office of Miles, Eddy and Company better luck awaited them.
+
+Yes, that firm had secured possession of the Westmarsh ninety-two
+acres. Yes, the property was listed for sale, having been bought
+strictly for speculative purposes. And its figure? The price was now
+three hundred dollars per acre.
+
+"I'll take it," said Bobby.
+
+There was positive triumph in his voice as he announced this decision.
+He would show Silas Trimmer that he was awake at last, that he was not
+to be beaten in every deal.
+
+"Twenty-seven thousand six hundred dollars," said Bobby, figuring the
+amount on a pad he picked up from Mr. Eddy's desk. "Very well. Allow
+me to use your telephone a moment. Mr. Chalmers," directed Bobby when
+he had his new lawyer on the wire, "kindly get into communication with
+Miles, Eddy and Company and look up the title on ninety-two acres of
+Westmarsh property which they have for sale. If the title is clear the
+price is to be three hundred dollars per acre, for which amount you
+will have a check, payable to your order, within half an hour."
+
+Then to Johnson--biting his pen-handle in Bobby's study and wondering
+where his principal and Applerod could be at this hour--he telephoned
+to deliver a check in the amount of twenty-seven thousand six hundred
+dollars to Mr. Chalmers. Never, since he had been plunged into
+"business," had Bobby been so elated with himself as when he walked
+from the office of Miles, Eddy and Company; and, to keep up the good
+work, as soon as he reached the hall he turned to Applerod with a
+crisp, ringing voice, which was the product of that elation.
+
+"Now for an engineer," he said.
+
+"Already as good as secured," Mr. Applerod announced, triumphant that
+every necessity had been anticipated. "Jimmy Platt, son of an old
+neighbor of mine. Fine, smart boy, and knows all about the Westmarsh
+proposition. Bless you, I figured on this with him every vacation
+during his schooling!"
+
+An hour later, Bobby, Mr. Applerod and the secretly jubilant Jimmy
+Platt had sped out Westmarsh way, and were inspecting the hundred and
+twelve acres of swamp which the new firm of Burnit and Applerod held
+between them.
+
+"It's a fine job," said the young engineer, coveting anew the
+tremendous task as he bent upon it an admiring professional eye. "This
+time next year you won't recognize the place. It's a noble thing, Mr.
+Burnit, to turn an utterly useless stretch of swamp like this into
+habitable land. Have you secured the entire tract?"
+
+"Unfortunately, no," Bobby confessed with a frown. "The extreme north
+eight acres are owned by another party."
+
+"And when you drain your property," mused Jimmy, smiling, "you will
+drain his."
+
+"Not if I can help it," declared Bobby emphatically.
+
+"You must come to some arrangement before you begin," warned the
+engineer with the severe professional authority common to the quite
+young. Already, however, he was trying to grow regulation engineer's
+whiskers; also he immediately planned to get married upon the proceeds
+of this big job, which, after years of chimerical dreaming, had become
+too real, almost, to be believed. "Perhaps you could get the owner to
+stand his proportionate share of the expense of drainage."
+
+Bobby smiled at the suggestion but made no other answer. He knew Silas
+Trimmer, or thought that he did, and the idea of Silas bearing a
+portion of a huge expense like this, when he could not be forced to
+shoulder it, struck him as distinctly humorous.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+AGNES DELIVERS BOBBY A NOTE FROM OLD JOHN BURNIT--IN A GRAY ENVELOPE
+
+
+That night, at the Traders' Club, Bobby was surprised when Mr. Trimmer
+walked over to his table and dropped his pudgy trunk and his lean
+limbs into a chair beside him. His yellow countenance was creased with
+ingratiating wrinkles, and the smile behind his immovable mustache
+became of perfectly flawless circumference as his muddy black eyes
+peered at Bobby through thick spectacles. It seemed to Bobby that
+there was malice in the wrinkles about those eyes, but the address of
+Mr. Trimmer was most conciliatory.
+
+"I have a fuss to pick with you, young man," he said with clumsy
+joviality. "You beat me upon the purchase of that Westmarsh property.
+Very shrewd, indeed, Mr. Burnit; very like your father. I suppose that
+now, if I wanted to buy it from you, I'd have to pay you a pretty
+advance." And he rubbed his hands as if to invite the opening of
+negotiations.
+
+"It is not for sale," said Bobby, stiffening; "but I might consider a
+proposition to buy your eight acres." He offered this suggestion with
+reluctance, for he had no mind to enter transactions of any sort with
+Silas Trimmer. Still, he recalled to himself with a sudden yielding to
+duty, business is business, and his father would probably have waved
+all personal considerations aside at such a point.
+
+"Mine _is_ for sale," offered Silas, a trifle too eagerly, Bobby
+thought.
+
+"How much?" he asked.
+
+"A thousand dollars an acre."
+
+"I won't pay it," declared Bobby.
+
+"Well," replied Mr. Trimmer with a deepening of that circular smile
+which Bobby now felt sure was maliciously sarcastic, "by the time it
+is drained it will be worth that to any purchaser."
+
+"Suppose we drain it," suggested Bobby, holding both his temper and
+his business object remarkably well in hand. "Will you stand your
+share of the cost?"
+
+"It strikes me as an entirely unnecessary expense at present," said
+Silas and smiled again.
+
+"Then it won't be drained," snapped Bobby.
+
+Later in the evening he caught Silas laughing at him, his shoulders
+heaving and every yellow fang protruding. The next morning, keeping
+earlier hours than ever before in his life, Bobby was waiting outside
+Jimmy Platt's door when that gentleman started to work.
+
+"The first thing you do," he directed, still with a memory of that
+aggravating laugh, "I want you to build a cement wall straight across
+the north end of my Westmarsh property."
+
+Mr. Platt smiled and shook his head.
+
+"Evidently you can not buy that north eight acres, and don't intend to
+drain it," he commented, stroking sagely the sparse beginning of those
+slow professional whiskers. "It's your affair, of course, Mr. Burnit,
+but I am quite sure that spite work in engineering can not be made to
+pay."
+
+"Nevertheless," insisted Bobby, "we'll build that wall."
+
+The previous afternoon Jimmy Platt had made a scale drawing of the
+property from city surveys, and now the two went over it carefully,
+discussing it in various phases for fully an hour, proving estimates
+of cost and general feasibility. At the conclusion of that time Bobby,
+well pleased with his own practical manner of looking into things,
+telephoned to Johnson and asked for Applerod. Mr. Applerod had not yet
+arrived.
+
+"Very well," said Bobby, "when he comes have him step out and secure
+suitable offices for us," and this detail despatched he went out with
+his engineer to make a circuit of the property and study its drainage
+possibilities.
+
+From profiles that Platt had made they found the swamp at its upper
+point to be much lower than the level of the river, which ran beyond
+low hills nearly a mile away; but the river made a detour, including a
+considerable fall, coming back again to within a scant half-mile of
+the southern end of the tract, where it was much lower than the marsh.
+Between marsh and river at the south was an immense hill, too steep
+and rugged for any practical purpose, and this they scaled.
+
+The west end of the city lay before them crowding close to the river
+bank, and already its tentacles had crept around and over the hills
+and on past Westmarsh tract. Young Platt looked from river to swamp,
+his eyes glowing over the possibilities that lay before them.
+
+"Mr. Burnit," he announced, after a gravity of thought which he strove
+his best to make take the place of experience, "you ought to be able
+to buy this hill very cheaply. Just through here we'll construct our
+drainage channel, and with the excavation fill your marsh. It is one
+of the neatest opportunities I have ever seen, and I want to
+congratulate you upon your shrewdness in having picked out such a
+splendid investment."
+
+This, Bobby felt, was praise from Cæsar, and he was correspondingly
+elated.
+
+He did not return to the study until in the afternoon. He found
+Johnson livid with abhorrence of Applerod's gaudy metamorphosis. That
+gentleman wore a black frock-coat, a flowered gray waistcoat,
+pin-striped light trousers, shining new shoes, sported a gold-headed
+cane, and on the table was the glistening new silk hat which had
+reposed upon his snow-white curls. His pink face was beaming as he
+rose to greet his partner.
+
+"Mr. Burnit," said he, shaking hands with almost trembling gravity and
+importance, "this day is the apex of my life, and I'm happy to have
+the son of my old and revered employer as my partner."
+
+"I hope that it may prove fortunate for both of us," replied Bobby,
+repressing his smile at the acquisition of the "make-up" which
+Applerod had for years aspired to wear legitimately.
+
+Johnson, humped over the desk that had once been Bobby's father's,
+snorted and looked up at the stern portrait of old John Burnit; then
+he drew from the index-file which he had already placed upon the back
+of that desk a gray-tinted envelope which he handed to Bobby with a
+silence that was more eloquent than words. It was inscribed:
+
+    _To my Son if he is Fool Enough to Take up With Applerod's
+      Swamp Scheme_
+
+Rather impatiently Bobby tore it open, and on the inside he found:
+
+    "When shrewd men persist in passing up an apparently cinch
+    proposition, don't even try to find out what's the matter with
+    it. In this six-cylinder age no really good opportunity runs
+    loose for twenty-four hours."
+
+"If the governor had only arranged to leave me his advice beforehand
+instead of afterward," Bobby complained to Agnes Elliston that
+evening, "it might have a chance at me."
+
+"The blow has fallen," said Agnes with mock seriousness; "but you must
+remember that you brought it on yourself. You have complained to _me_
+of your father's carefully-laid plans for your course in progressive
+bankruptcy, and he left in my keeping a letter for you covering that
+very point."
+
+"_Not_ in a gray envelope, I hope," groaned Bobby.
+
+"_In_ a gray envelope," she replied firmly, going across to her own
+desk in the library.
+
+"I had feared," said Bobby dismally, "that sooner or later I should
+find he had left letters for me in your charge as well as in
+Johnson's, but I had hoped, if that were the case, that at least they
+would be in pink envelopes."
+
+She brought to him one of the familiar-looking missives, and Bobby, as
+he took it, looked speculatively at the big fireplace, in which, as it
+was early fall, comfortable-looking real logs were crackling.
+
+"Don't do it, Bobby," she warned him smiling. "Let's have the fun
+together," and she sat beside him on the couch, snuggling close.
+
+The envelope was addressed:
+
+    _To My Son Upon his Complaining that His Father's Advice
+      Comes too Late!_
+
+He opened it, and together they read:
+
+    "No boy will believe green apples hurt him until he gets the
+    stomach-ache. Knowing you to be truly my son, I am sure that
+    if I gave you advice beforehand you would not believe it. This
+    way you will."
+
+Bobby smiled grimly.
+
+"I remember one painful incident of about the time I put on
+knickerbockers," he mused. "Father told me to keep away from a
+rat-trap that he had bought. Of course I caught my hand in it three
+minutes afterward. It hurt and I howled, but he only looked at me
+coldly until at last I asked him to help. He let the thing squeeze
+while he asked if a rat-trap hurt. I admitted that it did. Would I
+believe him next time? I acknowledged that I would, and he opened the
+trap. That was all there was to it except the raw place on my hand;
+but that night he came to my room after I had gone to bed, and lay
+beside me and cuddled me in his arms until I went to sleep."
+
+"Bobby," said Agnes seriously, "not one of these letters but proves
+his aching love for you."
+
+"I know it," admitted Bobby with again that grim smile. "Which only
+goes to prove another thing, that I'm in for some of the severest
+drubbings of my life. I wonder where the clubs are hidden."
+
+He found one of them late that same night at the Idlers'. Clarence
+Smythe, Silas Trimmer's son-in-law, drifted in toward the wee small
+hours in an unusual condition of hilarity. He had a Vandyke, had Mr.
+Smythe, and was one who cherished a mad passion for clothes; also, as
+an utterly impossible "climber," he was as cordially hated as Bobby
+was liked at the Idlers', where he had crept in "while the window was
+open," as Nick Allstyne expressed it. Ordinarily he was most prim and
+pretty of manner, but to-night he was on vinously familiar terms with
+all the world, and, crowding himself upon Bobby's quiet whist crowd,
+slapped Bobby joyously on the shoulder.
+
+"Generous lad, Bobby!" he thickly informed Allstyne and Winthrop and
+Starlett. "If you chaps have any property you've wanted to unload for
+half a lifetime, here's the free-handed plunger to buy it."
+
+"How's that?" Bobby wanted to know, guessing instantly at the
+humiliating truth.
+
+"That Westmarsh swamp belonged to Trimmer," laughed Mr. Smythe, so
+bubbling with the hugeness of the joke that he could not keep his
+secret; "and when Thorne, after pumping your puffy man, told my clever
+father-in-law you wanted it, he promptly bought it from himself in the
+name of Miles, Eddy and Company and put up the price to three hundred
+an acre. Besides taking the property off his shoulders you've given
+him nearly a ten-thousand-dollar advance for it. Fine business!"
+
+"Great!" agreed blunt Jack Starlett. "Almost as good a joke as
+refusing to pay a poker debt because it isn't legal."
+
+Bobby smiled his thanks for the shot, but inside he was sick. The game
+they were playing was a parting set-to, for the three others were
+leaving in the morning for Stanley's hunt, but Bobby was glad when it
+was over. In the big, lonely house he sat in the study for an hour
+before he went to bed, looking abstractedly up at the picture of old
+John Burnit and worrying over this new development. It cut him to the
+quick, not so much that he had been made a fool of by "clever"
+real-estate men, had been led, imbecile-like, to pay an extra hundred
+dollars per acre for that swamp land, but that the advantage had gone
+to Silas Trimmer.
+
+Moreover, why had Silas put a prohibitive valuation upon that north
+eight acres? Why did he want to keep it? It must be because Silas
+really expected that his tract would be drained free of charge, and
+that he would thus have the triumph of selling it for an approximate
+six thousand dollars an acre in the form of building lots. In the face
+of such a conclusion, the thought of the cement wall that he had
+ordered built was a great satisfaction.
+
+It was a remarkably open winter that followed, and outdoor operations
+could thereby go on uninterrupted. In the office, the pompous
+Applerod, in his frock-coat and silk hat, ground Johnson's soul to
+gall dust; for he had taken to saying "_Mr._ Johnson" most formally,
+and issuing directions with maddening politeness and consideration. An
+arrangement had been effected with Applerod, whereby that gentleman,
+for having suggested the golden opportunity, was to reap the entire
+benefit of the improvement on his own twenty acres, Bobby financing
+the whole deal and charging Applerod's share of it against his
+account. Applerod stood thereby to gain about seventy-six thousand
+dollars over and above the price he had paid for his twenty acres;
+and, moreover, _Bobby had decided to call the improved tract the
+Applerod Addition_! When that name began to appear in print, coupled
+with flaming advertisements of Applerod's devising, there was grave
+danger of the rosy-cheeked old gentleman's losing every button from
+every fancy vest in his possession.
+
+In the meantime, thoroughly in love with the vast enterprise which he
+had projected, Bobby spent his time outdoors, fascinated, unable to
+find any peace elsewhere than upon his Titanic labor. His evenings he
+spent in such social affairs as he could not avoid; with Agnes
+Elliston; with Biff Bates; in an occasional game of billiards at the
+Idlers'; but his days, from early morning until the evening whistle,
+he spent amid the clang of pick and shovel, the rattling of the trams,
+the creaking of the crane. It was an absorbing thing to see that
+enormous groove cut down through the big hill, and to watch the growth
+of the great mounds which grew up out of the marsh. The ditch that
+should drain off all this murky water was, of course, the first thing
+to be achieved, and, from the base of the hill through which it was to
+be cut, the engineer ran a tram bridge straight across the swamp to
+the new retaining wall; and from this, with the aid of a huge,
+long-armed crane which lifted cars bodily from the track, the soil was
+dumped on either side as it was removed from the cut. By the latter
+part of December the ditch had been completed and connected with the
+special sewer which, by permission of the city, had been built to
+carry the overflow to the river, and, the open weather still holding,
+the stagnant pool which had been a blot upon the landscape for untold
+ages began to flow sluggishly away, displaced by the earth from the
+disappearing hill.
+
+The city papers were teeming now with the vast energy and
+public-spirited enterprise of young Robert Burnit and Oliver P.
+Applerod, and there were many indications that the enterprise was to
+be a most successful one. Even before they were ready to receive them,
+applications were daily made for reservations in the new district, and
+individual home-seekers began to take Sunday trips out to where the
+big undertaking was in progress.
+
+"You sure have got 'em going, Bobby," confessed the finally-convinced
+Biff Bates after a visit of inspection. "Here's where you put the
+hornet on one Silas Tight-Wad Trimmer all right, all right. But the
+bones don't roll right that the side bet don't go for Johnson instead
+of Applegoat. He's a shine, for me. I think he's all to the canary
+color inside, but this man Johnson's some man if he only had a shell
+to put it in. Me for him!"
+
+The unexpressed friendship that had sprung up between the taciturn
+bookkeeper and the loquacious ex-pugilist was both a puzzle and a
+delight to Bobby, and it was one of his great joys to see them
+together, they not knowing why they liked such companionship, not
+having a single topic of conversation in common, but unconsciously
+enjoying that vague, sympathetic man-soul they found in each other.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+AGNES AND BOBBY DISCERN DIAMOND-STUDDED SPURS FOR THE LATTER
+
+
+About the first of February the filling and grading were finished and
+the construction of the streets began, and the middle of March saw the
+final disappearance of everything, except that dark, eight-acre spot
+of Silas Trimmer's, which might remind one of the tract once known as
+the Westmarsh. In its place lay a broad, yellow checker-board, formed
+by intersecting streets of asphalt edged with cement pavements, and in
+the center, at the crossing of broad Burnit and Applerod Avenues,
+there arose, over a spot where once frogs had croaked and mosquitoes
+clustered in crowds, a pretty club-house, which was later to be
+donated to the suburb; and a great satisfaction fell upon the soul of
+Bobby Burnit like a benediction.
+
+Also one Oliver P. Applerod added two full inches to his strut. He
+seldom came out to the scene of actual operations, for there was none
+there except workmen to see his frock-coat and silk hat; but
+occasionally, from a sense of duty inextricably mingled with
+self-assertiveness, he paid a visit of inspection, and upon one of
+these his eyes were confronted by a huge new board sign, visible for
+half a mile, that overlooked the Applerod Addition from the hills to
+the north. It bore but two words: "Trimmer's Addition." Applerod,
+holding his broadcloth tight about him to keep it from yellow
+contamination as a car rumbled by, looked and wiped his glasses and
+looked again, then, highly excited, he called Bobby to him.
+
+"Why didn't you tell me of this?" he demanded, pointing to the sign.
+
+Bobby, happy in sweater and high boots and liberal decorations of
+clay, only laughed.
+
+"The sign went up only yesterday," he stated.
+
+"But it is competition. Unfair competition! He is stealing our
+thunder," protested Applerod.
+
+"He has a perfect right to lay out a subdivision if he wants," said
+Bobby. "But don't worry, Applerod. I've been over there and the thing
+is a joke. The tract is one-fourth the size of ours, it is uphill and
+downhill, only a little grading is being done, streets are cut through
+but not paved, and a few cheap board sidewalks are being put down.
+He's had to pay a lot more for his land than we have, and can not sell
+his lots any cheaper."
+
+"There's no telling what Silas Trimmer will do," said Applerod,
+shaking his head.
+
+"Nonsense," said Bobby; "there is no chance that people will pass by
+our lots and buy one of his."
+
+Applerod walked away unconvinced. Had it been any one else than Silas
+Trimmer who had set up this opposition he would not have minded so
+much, but Applerod had come to have a mighty fear of John Burnit's
+ancient enemy, and presently he came back to Bobby more panic-stricken
+than ever.
+
+"I'm going to sell my interest in the Applerod Addition the minute I
+find a buyer," he declared, "and I'd advise you to do the same."
+
+"Don't be foolish," counseled Bobby, frowning. "You _can't_ lose."
+
+"But man!" quavered Applerod. "I have four thousand dollars of my own
+cash, all I've been able to scrape together in a lifetime, tied up in
+this thing, and I _mustn't_ lose!"
+
+Bobby regarded his father's old confidential clerk more in sorrow than
+in anger. He was not used to dealing with men of any age so utterly
+lacking in gameness.
+
+"Four thousand," he repeated, then he looked across his big
+checker-board. "I'll give you ten thousand for it right now."
+
+"What!" objected Applerod, aghast. "Why, Burnit, the work is nearly
+done and I have already in sight seventy-six thousand dollars of clear
+profit over my investment."
+
+Bobby did not remind Applerod that his four thousand dollars
+represented only a trifling part of the investment required to yield
+this seventy-six thousand dollars' profit. Yet, after all, there was
+no flaw in Applerod's commercial reasoning.
+
+"I didn't expect you to accept it," replied Bobby. "If you were
+determined to get out, however, you've had an offer of six thousand
+profit, with no risk."
+
+"I'd be crazy," declared Applerod. "I can get a better price than
+that."
+
+Bobby was thoughtful for an hour after Applerod had left him; then he
+hurried into the club-house and telephoned to Chalmers. This was in
+the forenoon. In the afternoon Applerod was served with an injunction
+based upon an indivisibility of interest, restraining him from
+disposing of his share; and in his anger he let it slip out that he
+had already been trying to open negotiations with Trimmer!
+
+"Honestly, it hurts!" said Bobby wearily, telling of the incident to
+Agnes that night. "I didn't know there were so many unsportsmanlike
+people."
+
+"I think that is precisely what your father wanted you to find out,"
+she observed.
+
+"I don't want to know it," protested Bobby. "I'd stay much happier to
+believe that everybody in the world was of the right sort."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"No, Bobby," she said gently; "you have to know that there is the
+other kind, in order properly to appreciate truth and honor and
+loyalty."
+
+"I could almost believe I was in a Sunday-school class," grinned
+Bobby. "No wonder it's snowing."
+
+Agnes looked out of the window with a cry of delight. Those floating
+flakes were the very first snow of the season; but they were by no
+means the last. The winter, delayed, but apparently all the more
+violent for that very reason, burst suddenly upon the city, stopping
+the finishing touches on both suburban additions. Came rain and sleet
+and snow, and rain and sleet and snow again, then biting cold that
+sank deep into the ground and sealed it as if with a crust of iron.
+March, that had come in like a lamb, went out like a lion, and the
+lion raged through April and into May. Then, as suddenly as it had
+come, the belated winter passed away and the warm sun beat down upon
+the snow-clad hills and swept them clean. It penetrated into the
+valleys and turned them into rivulets, thousands of which poured into
+the river and swelled its banks brimming full. The streets of the
+Applerod Addition were quickly washed with their own white covering
+and dried, and immediately with this break-up began the great
+advertising campaign. The papers flamed with full-page and half-page
+announcements of the wonderful home-making opportunity; circulars were
+mailed to possible home-buyers by the hundred thousand; every
+street-car told of the bargain on striking cards; immense electric
+signs blazoned the project by night; sixteen-sheet posters were spread
+upon all the bill-boards, and every device known to expert advertising
+was requisitioned. Not one soul within the city or within a radius of
+fifty miles but had kept constantly before him the duty he owed to
+himself to purchase a lot in the marvelous Applerod Addition; and now
+indeed Oliver P. Applerod, reassured once more, began to reap the
+fruit of his life's ambitions as prospective buyers thronged to look
+at his frock-coat and silk hat.
+
+June the first was set for the date of the "grand opening," and though
+it was not to be a month of roses, still the earth looked bright and
+gay as the time approached, and Bobby Burnit took Agnes out to view
+his coming triumph. This was upon a bright day toward the end of May,
+when those yellow squares were tempered to a golden green by the
+tender young grass that had been sown at the completion of the
+grading. She had made frequent visits with him through the winter, and
+now she gloried with him.
+
+"It looks fine, Bobby," she confessed with glowing eyes. "Fine! It
+really seems as if you had won your spurs."
+
+"Diamond-studded ones!" he exulted. "Why, Agnes, the office is
+besieged with requests for allotments. In spite of the fact that we
+have over eleven hundred lots for sale at an average price of six
+hundred dollars, we're not going to have enough to go around. The
+receipts will be fully seven hundred thousand dollars, and our
+complete disbursements, by the time we have sold out, will not amount
+to over two hundred and twenty-five thousand. Of course, I don't
+know--I haven't asked, and you wouldn't tell me if I did--just by what
+promises you are bound, but when I close up this deal you're going to
+marry me! That's flat!"
+
+"You mustn't be too sure of anything in this world, Bobby," she warned
+him, but she turned upon him a smile that made her words but idle
+breath.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+BOBBY DISCOVERS AN ENEMY GREATER THAN SILAS TRIMMER
+
+
+One circumstance only had occurred to give Bobby any anxiety. With the
+beginning of the thaw the water in Silas Trimmer's eight acres had
+begun slowly to rise, and he saw with some dismay that by far the
+larger part of the great natural basin from which the surface water
+had been supplied to this swamp sloped from the northern end. Not
+having that expanse of one hundred and twenty acres to spread over, it
+might overflow, and in considerable trepidation he sought Jimmy Platt.
+That happy young gentleman only smiled.
+
+"I calculated upon that," he informed Bobby, "and built your retaining
+wall two feet higher than the normal spring level for that very
+reason. It will carry all the water than can shed down from those
+hills."
+
+Relieved, Bobby went ahead with the preparations for turning the
+Applerod Addition into money, and though he saw the water creeping up
+steadily against the other side of his wall, he displayed no anxiety
+until it had reached within three or four inches of the top. Then he
+took Platt out with him to have a look at it.
+
+"Don't you think you ought to get busy?" he inquired. "Hadn't we
+better add another foot to this wall?"
+
+"Not necessary," said Jimmy, shaking his head positively. "This has
+been an unusual spring, but the wet weather is all over now, and you
+can see by the water-mark where the level has gone down a half inch
+since morning. All the moisture that has been trickling down here
+during the past week has been from the thawing out of the frozen
+hillsides, but those slopes are almost dust dry now."
+
+"Suppose it should rain again?" insisted Bobby, still worried.
+
+"It couldn't rain hard enough to fill up these four inches," declared
+Platt with decision. "Look here, Mr. Burnit, I'd worry myself if there
+was any cause whatever. Do you suppose I'd want anything to happen to
+my biggest and best job so close to my wedding-day?"
+
+"So you've set the time," said Bobby, with eager pleasure. He had met
+Platt's "best girl" and her mother out at the Addition, and liked her,
+as he did earnest young Platt.
+
+"June the first," replied Jimmy exultantly. "The date of your
+opening--in the evening."
+
+"Don't forget to send me an invitation."
+
+"Will you come?" said Platt. He had wanted to ask Bobby before, but
+had not been quite sure that he ought.
+
+"Come!" replied Bobby. "Indeed I shall--unless I happen to have a
+wedding of my own on that date."
+
+Bobby went away satisfied once more, and quite willing to give up the
+additional foot of wall. The work would entail considerable cost, and
+expense now was much more of an item than it had been a few months
+previously. Already he had spent upon this project over two hundred
+and ten thousand dollars; ten thousand he had given to Biff Bates; ten
+thousand he had used personally, so there was but an insignificant
+portion left of his two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Their
+"grand opening" would eat up another tidy little sum, for it was to be
+an expensive affair. The liberal advertising that had already appeared
+was augmented as the great day approached, a brass band had been
+engaged, a magnificent lunch, sufficient to feed an army, had been
+arranged for, and every available 'bus and carry-all and picnic wagon
+in the city had been secured to transport all comers, free of charge,
+from the end of the car line to the new Addition. The price of
+vehicles was high, however, for Silas Trimmer had already engaged
+quite a number of them to run between the Applerod Addition and his
+own. During the week preceding June first, there had appeared, in the
+local papers, advertisements of about one-fourth the size that Bobby
+was using, calling attention to the opening of the Trimmer Addition,
+which was to be upon the same date.
+
+On the evening of May twenty-ninth, Bobby found Silas pacing the top
+of the retaining wall which held in his swamp, and waited for the
+spider-like figure to come across and join him.
+
+"Too bad you didn't come in with me, or sell me your property at a
+reasonable figure," said Bobby affably, willing, in spite of his
+recent bitter experience, to meet his competitor upon the same
+friendly grounds that he would a crack polo antagonist on the eve of
+contest. "It's a shame that this could not all have been improved at
+one time."
+
+"I'd just as lief have my part of it the way it is," said Silas. "It's
+no good now, but it's as good as yours," and he climbed into his buggy
+and drove away laughing, leaving Bobby strangely dissatisfied and
+doubtful over that strange remark.
+
+While he was still trying to unravel it, he noted that the water in
+Silas' pond, which but a day or so previously had been down to fully
+nine inches from the top, was now climbing rapidly upward again; and
+there had been no rain for more than two weeks! The thing was
+inexplicable. He was still puzzling over this as he drove down the
+road and turned in at broad Burnit Avenue toward the club-house. The
+asphalt and the pavements were bone dry and as clean as a ball-room
+floor, and it seemed to him that the young grass was growing greener
+and higher here than anywhere.
+
+Suddenly he ordered his chauffeur to stop the machine. He had just
+passed a lot where, amid the tufts of green, his eye had caught the
+glint of water. Running back to it he saw that the center of that lot
+was covered by a small pool scarcely half an inch deep, through which
+the grass was growing dankly. This, too, was queer, for the hot sun
+and strong breeze of the past few days should have dried up every
+vestige of moisture. He walked along the sidewalk, studying each of
+the lots in turn. Here and there he discovered other small pools, and
+every lot bore the appearance of having just been freshly and too
+liberally watered. He stepped from the pavement upon the earth, and to
+his surprise his foot sank into it to the depth of an inch or more.
+For a while he was deeply worried, but presently it flashed upon him
+that all this soil had been dumped into the marsh, displacing the
+water, and that in this process it had naturally become soaked through
+and through. Of course it would take a long time to dry out and it
+would be all the better for its moisture. The rate at which grass was
+growing was proof enough of that.
+
+On the next day, kept busy by the preparations for the big opening,
+Bobby did not get out to the Applerod Addition until evening again. As
+he neared it he met Silas Trimmer coming back in his buck-board, that
+false circle around his mouth very much in evidence.
+
+"You ought to have had your opening yesterday. I'd have been tempted
+to buy a lot myself then," shouted Silas as he passed, and Bobby was
+sure that the tone was a mocking one.
+
+Consumed with anxiety, he hurried on to see how Silas' swamp stood.
+Aghast, he found the level of the water a full inch higher than any
+point that it had ever before reached. Connecting this condition
+vaguely with that other phenomenon that he had noted, he whirled his
+runabout and ran back into Burnit Avenue. In twenty-four hours a
+remarkable change had been wrought. There were pools everywhere. The
+lot where he had first noticed it was now entirely covered with water,
+with barely the tips of the grass showing through. Frightened, he
+drove over the entire Addition, up one street and down another. In
+many places the lots were flooded. One entire block had become no more
+nor less than a pond. At other points the water, carrying with it the
+yellow soil, was flowing over his beautiful clean sidewalks and
+spreading its stain upon his immaculate streets. The darkness alone
+drove him from that inspection, and then it occurred to him to send
+once more for Jimmy Platt. At the first suburban telephone station he
+tried for nearly an hour to locate his man, but in vain. Later he
+tried it from his club, but could not reach him. That night was a
+sleepless one, and the next morning's daybreak found him speeding out
+the roadway to the Applerod Addition.
+
+Early as he was, however, he found young Platt there ahead of him and
+in despair. He had good cause. The whole north end of the Applerod
+Addition had turned black, and over the top of Bobby's now grimy
+cement wall poured a broad, dark sheet of the murky swamp-water which
+had stained it. The pond of Silas Trimmer had overflowed in spite of
+all Platt's confident figuring that it could not, and in spite of the
+fact that dry weather had prevailed for two solid weeks. That was the
+inexplicable part. Clear weather, and still the entire suburb was
+becoming practically submerged! With solid, dry soil surrounding it,
+wherever the eye could reach it had become but a morass of mud! Mud
+was smeared upon every path and every roadway, and Bobby's automobile
+slipped and slid in the oily, yellow liquid that lay sluggishly in
+every gutter and blotched every rod of his clean asphalt.
+
+Young Platt's face blanched as he saw Bobby.
+
+"I've made a miserable botch of it," he confessed, torn with an agony
+of regret at his failure; "and I can't see yet what I overlooked. I'd
+no right to tackle a man's job like this!"
+
+"You!" replied Bobby vehemently. "It was Trimmer who did this;
+somehow, someway he did it, and he flaunts it in our faces. Look
+there!" and he pointed to a huge signboard that had been erected
+overnight just opposite the entrance to Burnit Avenue. In huge, bold
+letters, surmounted by a giant hand that pointed the way, it told
+prospective investors to buy property in the high and dry Trimmer
+Addition, the words "High and Dry" being twice as large as any other
+lettering upon the board.
+
+"It is surely a lot of nerve," admitted Platt, "but it is rank
+nonsense to say that the man had anything to do with this catastrophe.
+It would have been impossible. Let's look this thing over. Drive past
+the club-house to the extreme west side."
+
+Once more they traversed the mud of Burnit Avenue, and upon the dry,
+sloping ground the young engineer, cursing his inexperience, alighted
+and walked along the edge of the property, seeking a solution to the
+mystery. Still perplexed, he ascended the rising ground and looked
+musingly across at the yet swollen and clay-red river. Suddenly an
+exclamation escaped his lips.
+
+"There's your enemy," he said to Bobby who had climbed up beside him,
+and pointed to the river. "The river bank, I am sure, must edge upon a
+tilted shale formation which dips just below this basin. Probably at
+all times some of the water from the river seeps down between two
+sand-separated layers of this formation to find its outlet in the
+marsh, and it is this water which, through a geological freak, has
+supplied that swamp for ages. In the spring, however, and in
+extraordinary flood times, it probably finds a higher and looser
+stratum, and rushes down here with all the force of a hydraulic
+stream. This spring it took it a long time to wet thoroughly all our
+made ground from the bottom upward. The frost, sinking deeper in this
+loose, wet soil than elsewhere, held it back, too, for a time, but as
+soon as this was thoroughly out of the ground the river overflow came
+up like a geyser.
+
+"Mr. Burnit, your Applerod Addition is ruined, and it can never be
+saved, unless by some extraordinary means. Nature picked out this
+spot, centuries and centuries ago, for a swamp, and she's going to
+have one here in spite of all that we can do. In five years this basin
+won't be a thing but black water and weeds, with only that club-house
+as a decaying monument to your enterprise."
+
+Bobby controlled himself with an effort. His face was drawn and white;
+but part of that was from the anxiety of the past two days, and he
+took the blow stiff and erect, as a good soldier stands up to be
+disciplined. His eye roved over the work in which he had taken such
+pride, and already he could see in fancy the dank weeds growing up,
+and the croaking frogs diving into the oily surface, and the clouds of
+mosquitoes hovering over it again. Over the top of his retaining wall
+still poured the foul water which was to leaven all this, and he gazed
+upon it with a sharp intake of the breath.
+
+"And to think that Silas Trimmer must have known all this, and led me
+to waste a fortune just so that he could reap the benefit of my
+advertising for his own vulture advantage!"
+
+That, at first, was the part which hurt more than the overthrow of his
+plans, more than the loss of his money, more than the failure of his
+fight to carry out his father's wishes for his success: that any one
+could play the game so unfairly, that there could be in all the world
+people so detestable, so unprincipled, so _unsportsmanlike_!
+
+Slowly the vanquished pair descended the hill to where the automobile
+stood upon the solid, level sward, but before they climbed in Bobby
+shook hands with his engineer.
+
+"Don't blame yourself too much, old man," he said. "It wasn't a
+condition that you could foresee, and I'm mighty sorry if it hurts
+your reputation."
+
+"It ought to!" exclaimed Platt with deep self-revilement. "I should
+have investigated. I should not have taken anything for granted. I
+ought to have enough money so that you could sue me for damages and
+recover all you lost."
+
+"It couldn't be done," said Bobby miserably. "I've lost so much more
+than money."
+
+He did not tell Platt of Agnes, but that was the one thought into
+which all his failure had finally resolved. Agnes! How much longer
+must he wait for her? They had just passed the club-house when a light
+buggy turned into Burnit Avenue, driven furiously by a white-haired
+man in a white vest and a high silk hat.
+
+"I accept your offer!" cried Applerod, as soon as he came within
+talking distance, his usually ruddy face now livid white.
+
+"My offer," repeated Bobby wonderingly.
+
+"Yes; your offer of ten thousand dollars for my share in the Applerod
+Addition."
+
+Bobby was forced to laugh. It had needed but this to make the bitter
+jest of fortune complete.
+
+"You refused that offer the day it was made, Applerod!" put in Platt
+indignantly. "I heard you. Anyhow, you dragged Mr. Burnit into this
+thing!"
+
+"He's not to blame for that," said Bobby. "But still, I don't think I
+care to buy any more of this property." And he smiled grimly at the
+absurdity of it all.
+
+"I'll sue you for it!" shrieked Applerod, frantic from thwarted
+self-interest. "You prevented me from selling out at a profit when I
+had a chance! You bound me hand and foot when I knew that if Silas
+Trimmer had anything to gain by it we would lose! He knew all the time
+that this swamp was fed by underground springs. He bragged about it to
+me this morning as I passed him on the road. He told me last night I'd
+better come out here this morning."
+
+"I see," said Bobby coldly, and he reached for his lever.
+
+"Then you won't hold good to your offer?" gasped the other.
+
+Pale before, he had turned ashen now, and Bobby looked at him with
+quick compunction. Applerod, always so chubbily youthful for a man of
+his years, was grown suddenly old. He seemed to have shrunk inside his
+clothes, his face to have turned flabby, his eyes to have dimmed.
+After all, he was an old man, and the little that he had scraped
+together represented all that he could hope to amass in a none too
+provident lifetime. This day made him a pauper and there was no chance
+for a fresh start. Bobby himself was young and strong, and, moreover,
+his resources were by no means exhausted.
+
+"I'll tell you what I'll do, Applerod," said he, after a moment of
+very sober thought. "Your property cost you in the neighborhood of
+four thousand. Interest since the time you first began to invest in it
+would bring it up to a little more than that. I'll give you five
+thousand."
+
+"I won't accept it.--Yes, I will! yes, I will!" he cried as Bobby
+impatiently reached again for his lever.
+
+"Very well," said Bobby, "wait a minute." And tearing a leaf from his
+memorandum-book he wrote a note to Johnson to see to the transfer of
+the property and deliver to Applerod a check for five thousand
+dollars.
+
+"That was more than generous; it was foolish," protested Jimmy Platt,
+as they whirled away.
+
+"No doubt," admitted Bobby dryly. "But, if I'm forced to be a fool, I
+might as well have a well-finished job of it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+AGNES DECIDES THAT SHE WILL WAIT
+
+
+Applerod, his poise nearly recovered, bounded into the office where
+Johnson sat stolidly working away, his sense of personal contentedness
+enhanced by the presence of Biff Bates, who sat idly upon the flat-top
+desk, dangling his legs and waiting for Bobby. Mr. Applerod paid no
+attention whatever to Mr. Bates, that gentleman being quite beneath
+his notice, but with vast importance he laid down in front of Mr.
+Johnson the note which Bobby had given him.
+
+"_Mr._ Johnson," he pompously directed, "you will please attend to
+this little matter as soon as possible."
+
+"Applerod," said Johnson, glancing at the note and looking up with
+sudden fire, "does this mean that you are no longer even partially my
+employer?"
+
+"That's it exactly."
+
+"Then you, Applerod, don't you dare call me _Mr._ Johnson again!" And
+he shook a bony fist at his old-time work-fellow.
+
+Biff Bates nearly fell off the desk, but with rare presence of mind
+restrained his glee.
+
+Mr. Applerod, smiling loftily, immediately wielded his bludgeon.
+
+"We should not quarrel over trifles," he stated commiseratingly. "We
+are once more companions in misfortune. There is no Applerod Addition.
+It is a swamp again."
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Johnson incredulously, but suspending his
+indignation for the instant.
+
+"This," said Applerod: "that the entire addition is a hundred-acre mud
+puddle this morning. You couldn't sell a lot in it to a blind man.
+Every cent that was invested in it is lost. The whole marsh was fed
+from underground springs that have come up through it and overflowed
+the place."
+
+"Trimmer again," said Biff Bates, and slid off the desk; then he
+looked at his watch with a curious speculative smile.
+
+"But if it is all lost," protested Johnson, looking again at the note
+and pausing in the making out of the check, "how do you come to get
+this?"
+
+"He owed it to me," asserted Applerod. "I wanted to sell out when I
+first found that we were competing with Silas Trimmer, and young
+Burnit kept me from it by an injunction. He offered me ten thousand
+dollars for my interest once, but this morning when I went to accept
+that offer he would only give me this five thousand. It's just five
+thousand dollars that he's robbed me of."
+
+"_Robbed!_" shrilled Johnson, jumping from his chair. "Applerod, you
+weigh a hundred and eighty pounds and I weigh a hundred and
+thirty-seven, but I can lick you the best day you ever lived; and by
+thunder and blazes! if you let fall another remark like that I'll
+knock your infernal head off!"
+
+Mr. Johnson had on no coat, but he felt the urgent need to remove
+something, so he tore off one false sleeve, wadded it up in a little
+ball and slammed it on the floor with great vigor, tore off the other
+one, wadded it up and slammed that down. Biff Bates, quivering with
+joy, rang loudly upon a porcelain electric-light shade with his pencil
+and called: "Time!"
+
+There was no employment for a referee, however, for Mr. Applerod, with
+astonishing agility, sprang to the door and held it half open, ready
+for a hurried exit in case of any other demonstration. It was shocking
+to think that he might be drawn into an undignified altercation--and
+with a mere clerk! Also, it might be dangerous.
+
+"Nothing doing, chum," said Biff Bates disgustedly to his friend
+Johnson. "This bunch of mush-ripe bananas ain't even a quitter. He's a
+never-beginner. But you'll do fine, old scout. Come along with me. I
+got a treat for you."
+
+Mr. Johnson, breathing scorn that alternately dented and inflated his
+nostrils, slowly donned his coat and hat without removing his eyes
+from Applerod, who, as the two approached the door, edged uncertainly
+away from it.
+
+"I've got to go out, anyhow," said Johnson, addressing his remarks
+exclusively to Mr. Bates, but his glare exclusively to Mr. Applerod.
+"I'm going to put this check into the hands of Mr. Chalmers, so Mr.
+Robert don't get cheated by any yellow-livered _snake in the grass_!"
+And he spit out those last violent words with a sudden vehemence which
+made Mr. Applerod drop his shiny hat.
+
+When Bobby came into the office a few minutes later he found Applerod,
+his hat upon his lap, waiting in one of the customers' chairs with
+stiff solemnity.
+
+"Why aren't you at your desk, Applerod?" asked Bobby sharply. "You
+have an immense amount of unopened mail, and some of it may contain
+checks which will have to be sent back."
+
+"Mr. Burnit," said Mr. Applerod, rising with great dignity and
+throwing back his shoulders, "I consider myself no longer in your
+employ. I have resigned."
+
+Bobby looked at him thoughtfully and weighed rapidly in his mind a
+great many things. He remembered that his father had once said of the
+two men: "Johnson has a pea-green liver and is a pessimist, but he is
+honest. Applerod suffers from too much health and is an optimist, and
+I presume him to be honest, but I never tested it." Yet his father had
+seen fit to keep Applerod in his intimate employ all these years,
+recognizing in him material of value. Moreover, he had advised Bobby
+to keep both men, and Bobby, to-day more than ever, placed great faith
+in the wisdom of his father.
+
+"Mr. Applerod," said he, "I dislike to be harsh with you, but if you
+don't put up your hat and get at that bundle of mail I shall be
+compelled to consider discharging you. Where's Johnson?"
+
+"He went out with Mr. Bates, sir."
+
+When Bobby left, Applerod was industriously sorting the mail on his
+desk, preparing to open it.
+
+Bobby let himself into the big new gymnasium and walked back through
+the deserted hall to the small room that was used for individual
+training. As he neared the door he could hear the sound of loud voices
+and the shuffling of feet, and heard the commanding voice of Biff
+Bates shout "Break!"
+
+The door was locked, but through the slide window at the side a
+strange tableau met his eyes. Stooped and lean Johnson, as chalk-white
+of face as ever, had paunchy and thin-legged Silas Trimmer by the
+collar, and over Biff Bates' intervening body was trying to rain blows
+into the center of the circular smile, now flattened to an oval of
+distress.
+
+"Break, Johnson, break!" begged Biff. "Don't put him out till you feed
+him all he's got coming." Thereupon he succeeded in extracting Mr.
+Trimmer from the grasp of Mr. Johnson and forced the former back upon
+a chair, where he began to fan him with a towel in most approved
+fashion.
+
+"Let me out of this!" gasped Mr. Trimmer. "I'll have you arrested for
+assault and conspiracy."
+
+"They'll only pinch a corpse, for the cops'll find me tickled to death
+when they get here," responded Mr. Bates gaily. "Now you're all right.
+Get up!"
+
+"Let me out of this, I say!" commanded Mr. Trimmer frantically. "I'll
+run you into the penitentiary! I'll break you up in business! I'll
+hire thugs to break every bone in your body!"
+
+"Is that all?" inquired Biff complacently, and grabbed him as he
+started to run around the room in a wild hunt for an outlet. "Stand up
+here and put up a fight or I'll punch you myself. I've been aching to
+do it for a year. That's why I got Doc Willets to dope it out to you
+that you was dyin' for training, and why I kept shifting your hour to
+when there was nobody here. Go to him, chum!"
+
+Then ensued the strangest sparring match that the grinning and
+stealthily silent Bobby had ever seen. Johnson, with a true "tiger
+crouch" which he could not have avoided if he had wished, began
+dancing around and around the spherical body of Mr. Trimmer, without
+science and without precaution, keeping his two arms going like
+windmills, and occasionally landing a light blow upon some portion of
+Mr. Trimmer's unresisting anatomy; but finally a whirl so vigorous
+that it sent Johnson spinning upon his own heel, landed squarely
+beneath the jaw of Silas. That gentleman, with a puffed eye and a
+bleeding lip and two teeth gone, rose from his feet with the impact of
+the blow, and landed with a grunt in a huge basket of soiled
+bath-towels.
+
+"Johnson," called the laughter-shaken voice of Bobby through the
+window, "I'm ashamed of you!"
+
+Mr. Johnson looked up happily from his task of wiping away a little
+trickle of blood from his already swollen nose.
+
+"Did you see me do it?" he demanded, thrilling with pride. "Mr.
+Burnit, I--I never had so much fun in my life. Never, never! By the
+way, sir," and even upon that triumphant moment his duty obtruded, "I
+have a letter for you that I brought away from the office," and
+through the window he handed one of the inevitable gray envelopes. It
+was inscribed:
+
+    _To My Son, Upon the Failure of Applerod's Swamp Scheme_
+
+"In the midst of pleasure we are in pain," murmured Bobby, and tore
+open the letter. In it he read:
+
+    "My Dear Boy:
+
+    "A man must not only examine a business proposition from all
+    sides, but must also turn it over and look well at the bottom.
+    I never knew what was the matter with that swamp scheme,
+    except Applerod, but I didn't want to know any more. You did.
+
+    "Well, you don't need wisdom. I've put one-half your fortune
+    where it will yield you a living income. Try to cut at least
+    one eye-tooth with the other half. Your trustee is instructed
+    to give you another start.
+
+                                             "YOUR LOVING FATHER."
+
+His trustee! Once more he must face her with failure; go to her
+beaten, and accept through her hands the means to gain himself another
+buffeting. He had not the heart to see her now, but he was not turned
+altogether coward, for leaving the scene of the late conflict
+abruptly, all its humor spoiled for him, he telephoned her what had
+happened and that he would be out in the evening.
+
+"No, you must come now. I want you," she gently insisted, and when he
+had come to her she went directly to him and put both her hands upon
+his shoulders.
+
+"It wasn't fair, Bobby; it wasn't fair!" she cried. "None of it is
+fair, and your father had no right to bind me down with promises when
+you need me so. I'm willing to break them all. Bobby, I'll marry you
+to-morrow if you say so."
+
+He drew a long, trembling breath, and then he put his hands gently
+upon both her cheeks and kissed her on the forehead.
+
+"Let's don't," he said simply. "I have my own blood up now, and I want
+to take this other chance. I want to play the game out to the end.
+You'll wait, won't you?"
+
+She looked up at him through moist eyes. He was so big and so strong
+and so good, and already through the past year of earnest purpose
+there had come firm, new lines upon his face, lines that meant
+something in the ultimate building of character; and she recognized
+that perhaps stern old John Burnit had been right after all.
+
+"Indeed, I can wait," she whispered. "Proudly, Bobby."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+IN WHICH A CHARMING GENTLEMAN OFFERS AN INVESTMENT WITHOUT A FLAW
+
+
+It was pretty, in the succeeding days, to see Agnes poring over
+advertisements and writing down long lists of suggested enterprises
+for investigation, enterprises which proved in every case to be in the
+midst of an already too thickly contested field, or to be hampered by
+monopoly, or subject to some other vital drawback. There seemed to be
+a strange dearth of safe and suitable commercial ventures, a fact over
+which Bobby and Agnes together puzzled almost nightly. There was to be
+no false start this time; no stumbling in the middle of the race; no
+third failure. The third time was to be the charm. And yet too much
+time must not be wasted. They both began to feel rather worried about
+this.
+
+Of course, there was a letter, in the familiar gray envelope. It had
+been handed to Bobby by Johnson upon the day the second check for two
+hundred and fifty thousand had been paid over by Chalmers upon Agnes'
+order, and it read:
+
+    _To My Son Robert,
+    Upon His Third Attempt to Make Money_
+
+    "The man who has never failed has been either too lucky or too
+    timid to have much tried and tested worth. The man who always
+    fails is too useless to talk about. As you've failed twice
+    you're neither too lucky nor too timid. It remains to be seen
+    if you are too useless.
+
+    "Remember that money isn't the only audible thing in this
+    world; but it makes more noise than anything else. A vast
+    number of people call money vulgar; but, if you'll notice,
+    this opinion is chiefly held by those who haven't been able to
+    secure any of it.
+
+    "I wouldn't have you sacrifice any decent principle to get it,
+    because that is not necessary; but go get money of your own,
+    and see what a difference there is between dollars. A dollar
+    you've made is as different from a dollar that's given to you
+    as your children are from other people's."
+
+"If only the governor had pointed out some good business for me to go
+into," complained Bobby as he read this letter over with Agnes.
+
+She shook her head soberly. She realized, more than he possibly could,
+as yet, just where Bobby's weaknesses lay. She had worried over them
+not a little, of late, and she was just as anxious as old John Burnit
+had been to have him correct those defects; and she, like Bobby's
+father, was only thankful that they were not defects of manliness, of
+courage or of moral or mental fiber. They were only defects of
+training, for which the elder Burnit, as he had himself confessed, was
+responsible.
+
+"That isn't what he wanted at all, Bobby," she protested. "The very
+fact of your two past failures shows just how right he was in making
+you find out things for yourself. The chief trouble, I am afraid, is
+that you have been too ready to furnish the money and let others spend
+it for you."
+
+"I know," said Bobby. "I have been too willing to take everybody's
+word, I guess; but I have always been able to do that in my crowd, and
+it is rather a dash to me to find that in business you can not do it.
+However, I have reformed."
+
+He said this so self-confidently that Agnes laughed.
+
+"Yes," she admitted, "you are convinced that Silas Trimmer is a thief
+and a rascal, and you would not take his word for anything. You are
+convinced that Applerod's judgment is useless and that your own does
+not amount to much, but I still believe that the next plausible
+looking and plausible talking man who comes to you can engage you in
+any business that seems fair on the surface."
+
+"I deserve what you say," he confessed, but somewhat piqued,
+nevertheless. "However, I don't think you are giving me credit for
+having learned any lesson at all. Why, only to-day you ought to have
+heard me turning down a proposition to finance a new and improved
+washing-machine. Sounded very good and feasible, too. The man was a
+good talker and thoroughly earnest and honest, I am sure. I really did
+want to help the fellow start his business, but somehow or other I
+could not seem to like the idea of washing-machines; such a sudsy sort
+of business."
+
+Agnes laughed the sort of a laugh that always made him want to catch
+hold of her, but if he had any intentions in that respect they were
+interfered with just now by Uncle Dan, who strolled into the parlor in
+his dressing-jacket and with a cigar tilted in the corner of his
+mouth.
+
+"How's the Commercial Board of Strategy coming on?" he inquired as he
+offered Bobby a cigar.
+
+"Fine!" declared Bobby; "except that it can not think of a stratagem."
+
+"I think you are very selfish not to help us out, Uncle Dan," declared
+Agnes. "With all your experience you ought to be able to suggest
+something for Bobby to go into that would be a nice business and
+perfectly safe and make him lots of money without requiring too much
+experience to start with."
+
+"Young lady," said Uncle Dan severely, "if I knew a business of that
+kind I'd sell some of the stock of my factory and go into it myself;
+but I don't. The fact is, there are no business snaps lying around
+loose. You have to make one, and that takes not just money, but work
+and brains."
+
+"I'm perfectly willing to work," declared Bobby.
+
+"And you don't mean to say that he hasn't brains!" objected Agnes.
+
+"No-o-o," admitted Uncle Dan. "I am quite sure that Bobby has brains,
+but they have not been quite--a--a--well, say solidified, yet. You're
+not allowed to smoke in this parlor, Bobby. Mrs. Elliston wants a
+quiet home game of whist; sent me to bring you up."
+
+Secretly, old Dan Elliston was himself puzzling a great deal over a
+career for Bobby, but up to the moment had not found anything that he
+thought safe to propose. Not having a good idea he was averse to
+discussing any project whatsoever, and so, each time that he was
+consulted upon the subject, he was as evasive as this about it, and
+Bobby each morning dragged perplexedly into the handsome offices of
+the defunct Applerod Addition, where Applerod and Johnson were still
+working a solid eight hours a day to straighten out the affairs of
+that unfortunate venture.
+
+Those offices were the dullest quarters Bobby knew, for they contained
+nothing but the dead ashes of bygone money; but one morning business
+picked up with a jerk. He found a mine investment agent awaiting him
+when he arrived, and before he was through with this clever
+conversationalist a man was in to get him to buy a racing stable.
+Affairs grew still more brisk as the morning wore on. Within the next
+two hours he had politely but firmly declined to buy a partnership in
+a string of bucket shops, to refinance a defunct irrigation company,
+to invest in a Florida plantation, to take a tip on copper, and to
+back an automobile factory which was to enter business upon some
+designs of a new engine stolen by a discharged workman.
+
+"How did all these people find out that I have two hundred and fifty
+thousand dollars to invest?" impatiently demanded Bobby, after he had
+refused the allurements of a patent-medicine scheme, the last of that
+morning's lot.
+
+There followed a dense silence, in the midst of which old Johnson
+looked up from the book in which he was entering a long, long list of
+items on the wrong side of the profit and loss account, and jerked his
+lean thumb angrily in the direction of Applerod.
+
+"Ask him," he said.
+
+Chubby-faced old Applerod, excessively meek of spirit to-day, suffered
+a moment of embarrassment under the accusing eyes of young Burnit.
+
+"The newspapers, sir," he admitted, twisting uncomfortably in his
+swivel chair. "The reporters were here yesterday afternoon with the
+idea that since you haven't announced any future plans, the failure of
+our real estate scheme--_my_ real estate scheme," he corrected in
+response to a snort and a glare from Johnson--"had left you penniless.
+Of course I wasn't going to let them go away with that impression, so
+I told them that you had another two hundred and fifty thousand
+dollars to invest, with probably more to follow, if necessary."
+
+"And of course," groaned Bobby, "it is all in print, with ingenious
+trimmings."
+
+From a drawer in his desk Johnson quietly drew copies of the morning
+papers, each one folded carefully to an article in which, under wide
+variations of embarrassing head-lines, the facts of Bobby's latest
+frittering of his father's good money were once more facetiously, even
+gleefully, set forth and embellished, with added humorous speculations
+as to how he would probably cremate his new fund. Bobby was about to
+turn into his own room to absorb his humiliation in secret when
+Applerod hesitantly stopped him.
+
+"Another thing, sir," he said. "Mr. Frank L. Sharpe called up early
+this morning to know when he would find you in, and I took the liberty
+of telling him that you would very likely be here at ten o'clock."
+
+Bobby frowned slightly at the mention of that name. He knew of Sharpe
+vaguely as a man whose private life had been so scandalous that
+society had ceased to shudder at his name--it simply refused to hear
+it; a man who had even secured advancement by obligingly divorcing his
+first wife so that the notorious Sam Stone could marry her.
+
+"What did he want?" he asked none too graciously.
+
+"I don't know, sir," said Applerod; "but he telephoned me again just
+as you were getting rid of this last caller. I told him that you were
+here and he said that he would be right over."
+
+Bobby made no reply to this, but went thoughtfully into his room and
+closed the door after him. In less than five minutes the door opened,
+and Mr. Applerod, his voice fairly oily with obsequiousness, announced
+Mr. Frank L. Sharpe! Why, here is a man whose name was in the papers
+every morning, noon and night! Mr. Sharpe had taken a trip to New York
+on behalf of the Gas Company; Mr. Sharpe had returned from his trip to
+New York on behalf of the Gas Company; Mr. Sharpe had entertained at
+the Hotel Spender; Mr. Sharpe had made a speech; Mr. Sharpe had been
+interviewed; Mr. Sharpe had been indisposed for half a day!
+
+Quite prepossessing of appearance was Mr. Sharpe; a tall, rather
+slight gentleman, whose features no one ever analyzed because the eyes
+of the observer stopped, fascinated, at his mustache. That wonderful
+adornment was wonderfully luxuriant, gray and curly, pretty to an
+extreme, and kept most fastidiously trimmed, and it lifted when he
+smiled to display a most engaging row of white, even teeth. Centered
+upon this magnificent combination the gaze never roved to the animal
+nose, to the lobeless ears, to the watery blue eyes half obscured by
+the lower lids. He was immaculately, though a shade too youthfully,
+dressed in a gray frock suit, with pearl-gray spats upon his shoes,
+and he was most charmed to see young Mr. Burnit.
+
+"You have a very neat little suite of offices here, Mr. Burnit," he
+commented, seating himself gracefully and depositing his gray hat, his
+gray cane and his gray gloves carefully to one side of him upon
+Bobby's desk.
+
+"I'm afraid they are a little too nice for practical purposes," Bobby
+confessed. "I have found that business isn't a parlor game."
+
+"Precisely what I came to see you about," said Mr. Sharpe. "I
+understand you have been a trifle unfortunate, but that is because you
+did not go into the regular channels. An established and paying
+corporation is the only worth-while proposition, and if you have not
+yet settled upon an investment I would like to suggest that you become
+interested in our local Brightlight Electric Company."
+
+"I thought there was no gas or electric stock for sale," said Bobby
+slowly, clinging still to a vague impression that he had gained five
+or six years before.
+
+"Not to the public," replied Mr. Sharpe, smiling, "and there would not
+have been privately except for the necessity of a reorganization. The
+Brightlight needs more capital for expansion, and I have too many
+other interests, even aside from the Consumers' Electric Light and
+Power and the United Gas and Fuel Companies, to spare the money
+myself--and the Brightlight is too good to let the general public in
+on." He smiled again, quite meaningly this time. "This is quite
+confidential, of course," he added.
+
+Bobby bowed his acknowledgment of the confidence which had been
+reposed in him, and generously began at once to reconstruct his
+impressions of the impossible Mr. Sharpe. You couldn't believe all you
+heard, you know.
+
+"The Brightlight," went on Mr. Sharpe, "is at present capitalized
+for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and is a good
+ten-per-cent.-dividend-paying stock at the present moment; but its
+business is not growing, and I propose to take in sufficient capital
+to raise the Brightlight to a half-million-dollar corporation, clear
+off its indebtedness and project certain extensions. I understand that
+you have the necessary amount, and here is the proposition I offer
+you. Brightlight stock is now quoted at a hundred and seventy-two. We
+will double its present capitalization, and you may take up the extra
+two hundred and fifty thousand dollars' worth of its stock at par, or
+about three-fifths of its actual value. That is a bargain to be
+snapped at, Mr. Burnit."
+
+Did Bobby Burnit snap at this proposition? He did not. Bobby had
+learned caution through his two bitter failures, and of caution is
+born wisdom.
+
+"Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars' worth of stock in a
+five-hundred-thousand-dollar corporation won't do for me," he declared
+with a firmness that was pleasant to his own ears. "I don't care to go
+into any proposition in which I have not the controlling interest."
+
+Mr. Sharpe, remembering the details of Bobby's Trimmer and Company
+experiment, hastily turned his imminent smile of amusement into a
+merely engaging one.
+
+"I don't blame you, Mr. Burnit," said he; "but to show you that I am
+more willing to trust you than you are to trust me, if you care to go
+into this thing I'll agree to sell you from one to ten shares of my
+individual stock--at its present market value, of course."
+
+"That's very good of you," agreed Bobby, suddenly ashamed of his
+ungenerous stand in the face of this sportsmanlike attitude. "But
+really I've had cause for timidity."
+
+"Caution is not cowardice," said Mr. Sharpe in a tone which conveyed a
+world of friendly approbation. "This matter must be taken up very
+soon, however, and I can not allow you more than a week to
+investigate. I'd be pleased to receive your legal and business
+advisers at any time you may nominate, and to give them any advantage
+you may wish."
+
+"I'll investigate it at least, and I thank you for giving me the
+opportunity," said Bobby, really very contrite that he had been doing
+Sharpe such a mental injustice all these years. "By the way," he
+suddenly added, "has Silas Trimmer anything whatever to do with this
+proposition?"
+
+Mr. Sharpe smiled.
+
+"Mr. Trimmer does not own one share of stock in the Brightlight
+Electric Company, nor will he own it," he answered.
+
+"In that case," said Bobby, "I am satisfied to consider your offer
+without fear of heart-disease."
+
+The departing caller met an incoming one in the outer office, and
+Agnes, sweeping into Bobby's room, breathlessly gasped:
+
+"That was Frank Sharpe!"
+
+"The same," admitted Bobby, smiling down at her and taking both her
+hands.
+
+"I never saw him so closely," she declared. "Really, he's quite
+distinguished-looking."
+
+"As long as he avoids a close shave," supplemented Bobby. "But what
+brings you into the--the busy marts of trade so early in the morning?"
+
+"My trusteeship," she answered him loftily, producing some documents
+from her hand-bag. "And I'm in a hurry. Sign them papers."
+
+"Them there papers," he kindly corrected, and seating himself at his
+desk he examined the minor transfers perfunctorily and signed them.
+
+"I'm afraid I'm a failure as a trustee," she told him. "I ought to
+have had more power. I ought to have been authorized to keep you out
+of bad company. How came Mr. Sharpe to call on you, for instance?"
+
+"To make my fortune," he gravely assured her. "Mr. Sharpe wants me to
+go into the Brightlight Electric Company with him."
+
+"I can imagine your courteous adroitness in putting the man back in
+his place," she laughed. "How preposterous! Why, he's utterly
+impossible!"
+
+"Ye-e-es?" questioned Bobby. "But you know, Agnes, this isn't a
+pink-tea affair. It's business, which is at the other end of the
+world."
+
+"You're not honestly defending him, Bobby?" she protested
+incredulously. "Why, I do believe you are considering the man
+seriously!"
+
+"Why not?" he persisted, arguing against his own convictions as much
+as against hers. "We want me to make some money, don't we? To make a
+success that will let me marry you?"
+
+"I'm not to say so, remember," she reminded him.
+
+"Father put no lock on my tongue, though," he reminded her in turn;
+"so I'll just lay down the dictum that as soon as I succeed in any one
+business deal I'm going to marry you, and I don't care whether the
+commodity I handle is electricity or potatoes."
+
+"But Frank L. Sharpe!" she exclaimed, with shocked remembrance of
+certain whispered stories she had heard.
+
+"Really, I don't see where he enters into it," persisted Bobby. "The
+Brightlight Electric Company is a stock corporation, in which Mr.
+Sharpe happens to own some shares; that is all."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"I can't seem to like it," she told him, and rose to go.
+
+The door opened, and Johnson, with much solemnity, though in his eyes
+there lurked a twinkle, brought in a card which, with much stiff
+ceremony, he handed to Bobby.
+
+"Professor Henry H. Bates," read Bobby in some perplexity, then
+suddenly his brow cleared and he laughed uproariously. "Come right in,
+Biff," he called.
+
+In response to this invitation there entered upon Agnes' vision a
+short, chunky, broad-shouldered young man in a checked green suit and
+red tie, who, finding himself suddenly confronted by a dazzlingly
+beautiful young lady, froze instantly into speechless awkwardness.
+
+"This is my friend and partner, Mr. Biff--Mr. Henry H. Bates--Miss
+Elliston," introduced Bobby, smiling.
+
+Agnes held out her hand, which suddenly seemed to dwindle in size as
+it was clasped by the huge palm of Mr. Bates.
+
+"I have heard so much of you from Mr. Burnit, and always nice things,"
+she said, smiling at him so frankly that Mr. Bates, though his face
+flushed red, instantly thawed.
+
+"Bobby's right there with the boost," commented Mr. Bates, and then,
+not being quite satisfied with that form of speech, he huskily
+corrected it to: "Burnit's always handing out those pleasant words."
+This form of expression seeming also to be somewhat lacking in polish,
+he relapsed into more redness, and wiped the strangely moist palms of
+his hands upon the sides of his coat.
+
+"He doesn't talk about any but pleasant people," Agnes assured him.
+
+After she had gone Mr. Bates looked dazedly at the door through which
+she had passed out, then turned to Bobby.
+
+"Carries a full line of that conversation," he commented, "but I like
+to fall for it. And say! I'll bet she's game all right; the kind that
+would stick to a guy when he was broke, in jail and had the smallpox.
+That's your steady, ain't it, Bobby?"
+
+Coming from any one else this query might have seemed a trifle blunt,
+but Bobby understood precisely how Mr. Bates meant it, and was
+gratified.
+
+"She's the real girl," he admitted.
+
+"I'm for her," stoutly asserted Mr. Bates, as he extracted a huge wad
+of crumpled bills from his trousers pocket. "Any old time she wants
+anybody strangled or stabbed and you ain't handy, she can call on your
+friend Biff. Here's your split of last month's pickings at the gym.
+One hundred and eighty-one large, juicy simoleons; count 'em, one
+hundred and eighty-one!" And he threw the money on the desk.
+
+"Everything paid?" asked Bobby.
+
+"Here's the receipts," and from inside his vest Mr. Bates produced
+them. "Ground rent, light, heat, payroll, advertising, my own little
+old weekly envelope and everything; and I got one-eighty-one in my
+other kick for my share."
+
+"Very well," said Bobby; "you just put this money of mine into a fund
+to buy further equipments when we need them."
+
+"Nit and nix; also no!" declared Mr. Bates emphatically. "This time
+the bet goes as she lays. You take a real money drag-down from now
+on."
+
+"Mr. Johnson," called Bobby through the open door, "please take charge
+of this one hundred and eighty-one dollars, and open a separate
+account for my investment in the Bates Athletic Hall. It might be,
+Biff," he continued, turning to Mr. Bates, "that yours would turn out
+to be the only safe business venture I ever made."
+
+"It ain't no millionaire stunt, but it sure does pay a steady divvy,"
+Mr. Bates assured him. "I see a man outside scraping the real-estate
+sign off the door. Is he going to paint a new one?"
+
+"I don't know," said Bobby, frowning. "I shall, of course, get into
+something very shortly, but I've not settled on anything as yet. The
+best thing that has turned up so far is an interest in the Brightlight
+Electric Company offered me to-day by Frank L. Sharpe."
+
+"What!" shrieked Biff in a high falsetto, and slapped himself smartly
+on the wrist. "Has he been here? I thought it seemed kind of close.
+Give me a cigarette till I fumigate."
+
+"What's the matter with the Brightlight Electric Company?" demanded
+Bobby.
+
+"Nothing. It's a cinch so far as I know. But Sharpe! Why, say, Bobby,
+all the words I'd want to use to tell you about him have been left out
+of the dictionary so they could send it through the mails."
+
+Bobby frowned. The certain method to have him make allowances for a
+man was to attack that man. When he arrived at the Idlers' Club at
+noon, however, he was given another opportunity for Christian charity.
+Nick Allstyne and Payne Winthrop and Stanley Rogers were discussing
+something with great indignation when he joined them, and Nick drew
+him over to the bulletin board, where was displayed the application of
+Frank L. Sharpe, proposed by Clarence Smythe, Silas Trimmer's
+son-in-law, and seconded by another undesirable who had twice been
+posted for non-payment of dues.
+
+"There is only one thing about this that commends itself to me, and
+that is the immaculate and colossal nerve of the proceeding," declared
+Nick indignantly. "The next thing you know somebody will propose Sam
+Stone."
+
+At this they all laughed. The Idlers' Club was the one institution
+that stood in no awe of the notorious "boss" of the city and of the
+state; a man who had never held an office, but who, until the past two
+years, had controlled all offices; whose methods were openly
+dishonest; who held underground control of every public utility and a
+score of private enterprises. The idea of Stone as an applicant for
+membership in the Idlers' Club was a good joke, but the actual
+application of Sharpe was too serious for jesting. Nevertheless, all
+this turmoil over the mere name of the man worked a strange reaction
+in Bobby Burnit.
+
+"After all, business is business," he declared to himself, "and I
+don't see where Sharpe's personality figures in this Brightlight
+Electric deal, especially since I am to have control."
+
+Accordingly he directed Chalmers and Johnson to make a thorough
+investigation of that corporation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+BOBBY ENTERS A BUSINESS ALLIANCE, A SOCIAL ENTANGLEMENT AND A QUARREL
+WITH AGNES
+
+
+The report of Mr. Johnson and Mr. Chalmers upon the Brightlight
+Electric Company was a complicated affair, but, upon the whole, highly
+favorable. It was an old establishment, the first electric company
+that had been formed in the city, and it held, besides some minor
+concessions, an ancient franchise for the exclusive supply of twelve
+of the richest down-town blocks, this franchise, made by a generous
+board of city fathers, still having twenty years to run. The concern's
+equipment was old and much of it needed renewal, but its financial
+affairs were in good shape, except for a mortgage of a hundred
+thousand dollars held by one J. W. Williams.
+
+"About this mortgage," Mr. Chalmers advised Mr. Burnit; "its time
+limit expires within two months, and I have no doubt that is why
+Sharpe wants to put additional capital into the concern. Moreover,
+Williams is notoriously reputed a lieutenant of Sam Stone's, and it is
+quite probable that Stone is the real holder of the mortgage."
+
+"I don't see where it makes much difference, so long as the mortgage
+has to be paid, whether it is paid to Stone or to somebody else," said
+Bobby reflectively.
+
+"I don't see any difference myself," agreed Chalmers, "except that I
+am suspicious of that whole crowd, since Sharpe is only a figurehead
+for Stone. I find that Sharpe is credited with holding two hundred
+thousand dollars' worth of the present stock. The majority of the
+Consumers Company and a good share of the United are also in his name.
+Just how all these facts have a bearing upon each other I can not at
+present state, but in view of the twenty years' franchise, and of the
+fact that you will hold undisputed control, I do not see but that you
+have a splendid investment here. The contract for the city lighting of
+those twelve blocks is ironclad, and the franchise for exclusive
+private lighting and power is exclusive so long as 'reasonably
+satisfactory service' is maintained. As this has been undisputed for
+thirty years I don't think you need have much fear upon that score,"
+and Chalmers smiled.
+
+In the afternoon of that same day Sharpe called up.
+
+"What dinner engagement have you for to-night?" he inquired.
+
+"None," replied Bobby, after a moment of hesitation.
+
+"Then I want you to dine with me at the Spender. Can you make it?"
+
+"I guess so," replied Bobby reluctantly, after another hesitant pause.
+"What time, say?"
+
+"About seven. Just inquire at the desk. I'll have a dining-room
+reserved."
+
+Bobby was very thoughtful as he arrayed himself for dinner, and he was
+still more thoughtful when, a boy ushering him into the cozy little
+private dining-room, he found the over-dazzling young Mrs. Sharpe with
+her husband. She greeted the handsome young Mr. Burnit most
+effusively, clasping his hand warmly and rolling up her large eyes at
+him while Mr. Sharpe looked on with smiling approval. Bobby
+experienced that strange conflict which most men have known, a feeling
+of revulsion at war with the undoubted lure of the women. She was one
+of those who deliberately make appeal through their femininity alone.
+
+"Such a pleasure to meet you," she said in the most silvery of voices.
+"I have heard so much of Mr. Burnit and his polo skill."
+
+"It's the best trick I do," confessed Bobby, laughing.
+
+"That's because Mr. Burnit hasn't found his proper forte as yet,"
+interposed Sharpe. "He was really cut out for the illuminating
+business." And he led the way to the table, upon which Bobby had
+already noted that five places were laid.
+
+"A couple of our friends might drop in," said the host in explanation;
+"they usually do."
+
+"If it's Sam and Billy we're not going to wait for them," said Mrs.
+Sharpe with a languishing glance at Bobby. "They're always ages and
+ages late, if they come at all. Frank, where are those cocktails? I'm
+running down."
+
+She took the drink with an avidity Bobby was not used to seeing among
+his own women friends, and almost immediately it heightened her
+vivacity. There could be no question that she was a fascinating woman.
+Again Bobby had that strange sense of revulsion, and again he was
+conscious that, in spite of her trace of a tendency to indecorum,
+there was a subtle appeal in her; one, however, that he shrank from
+analyzing. Her talk was mostly of the places she had been, with almost
+pathetic little mention now and then of unattainable people. Evidently
+she craved social position, in spite of the fact that she was for ever
+shut out from it.
+
+While they were upon the fish the door opened and two men came in.
+With a momentary frown Bobby recognized both; one of them the great
+Sam Stone, and the other William Garland, a rich young cigar
+manufacturer, quite prominent in public affairs. The latter he had
+met; the former he inspected quite curiously as he acknowledged the
+introduction.
+
+Stone gave one the idea that he was extremely heavy; not that he was
+so grossly stout, although he was large, but he seemed to convey an
+impression of tremendous weight. His features and his expression were
+heavy, his eyes were heavy-lidded, and he was taciturnity itself. He
+gave Bobby a quick scrutiny from head to foot, and in that instant had
+weighed him, measured him, catalogued and indexed him for future
+reference for ever. Stone's only spoken word had been a hoarse
+acknowledgment of his introduction, and as soon as the entrée came on
+he attacked it with a voracious appetite, which, however, did not
+prevent him from weighing and absorbing in silence every word that was
+spoken in his hearing. Bobby found himself wondering how this
+unattractive man could have secured his tremendous following, in spite
+of the fact that Stone "never broke a promise and never went back on a
+friend," qualities which would go far toward establishing any man in
+the esteem of mankind.
+
+It was not until the appearance of the salad that any allusion was
+made to business, and then Garland, upon an impatient signal from
+Stone, turned to Bobby with the suavity of which he was thorough
+master.
+
+"Mr. Sharpe tells me that you consider taking a dip into the public
+utilities line," he suggested.
+
+Instantly three of them bent an attention upon Bobby so straight that
+it might have been palpable even to him, had not Stone suddenly
+lighted a match to attract their attention, and glared at them.
+
+"I have already decided," said Bobby frankly, seeing no reason for
+fencing. "My legal and business advisers tell me that it would be a
+good investment, and I am ready to take hold of the Brightlight
+Electric as soon as the formalities can be arranged."
+
+Stone grunted his approval, and immediately rose, looking at his
+watch.
+
+"Pleased to have met you, Mr. Burnit," he rumbled hoarsely, and took
+his coat and hat. "Sorry I can't stay. Promised to meet a man."
+
+"Coming back?" asked Garland.
+
+"Might," responded the other, and was gone.
+
+As soon as Stone had left, the trifle of strain that had been apparent
+prior to Bobby's very decided statement that he would go into the
+business, was lifted; and Mrs. Sharpe, pink of cheek and sparkling of
+eye and exhilarated by the wine to her utmost of purely physical
+attractiveness, moved when the coffee was served to a chair between
+Bobby and Garland, and, gifted with a purring charm, exerted herself
+to the utmost to please the new-comer. She puzzled Bobby. The woman
+was an entirely new type to him, and he could not fathom her.
+
+With the clearing of the table more champagne was brought, and Bobby
+began to have an uneasy dread of a "near-orgie," such as was
+associated in the minds of the knowing ones with this crowd. Sharpe,
+however, quickly removed this fear, for, pushing aside his own glass
+with a bare sip after it had been filled, he drew forth a pencil and
+produced some papers which he spread before Bobby.
+
+"I imagined that you would have a very favorable report on the
+Brightlight Electric," he said with a smile, "so I took the liberty of
+bringing along an outline of my plan for reorganization. If Mr.
+Garland and Mrs. Sharpe will excuse us for talking shop we might
+glance over them together."
+
+"You're selfish," pouted Mrs. Sharpe quite prettily, but,
+nevertheless, she turned her exclusive attention to Garland for the
+time being.
+
+With considerable interest Bobby plunged into the business at hand.
+Here was a well-established concern that had been doing business for
+three decades, which had been paying ten per cent. dividends for
+years, and which would doubtless continue to do so for many years to
+come. An opportunity to obtain control of it solved his problem of
+investment at once, and he strove to approach its intricacies with
+intelligence. He became vaguely aware, by and by, that just behind him
+Garland and Mrs. Sharpe were carrying on a most animated conversation
+in an undertone interspersed with much laughter, and once, with a
+start of annoyance, he overheard Garland telling a slightly _risqué_
+story, at which Mrs. Sharpe laughed softly and with evident relish. He
+glanced around involuntarily. Garland had his arm across the back of
+her chair, and they were leaning toward each other in a close
+proximity which Bobby reflected with sudden savageness could not
+possibly occur if that were his wife; nor was he much softened by the
+later reflection that, in the first place, a woman of her type never
+could have been his wife, and that, in the second place, it was not
+the man who was to blame, nor the woman so much, as Sharpe himself.
+Indeed, Bobby somehow gained the impression that the others flouted
+and despised Sharpe and held him as a weakling.
+
+His glance was but a fleeting one, and he turned from them with a look
+which Sharpe, noting, misinterpreted.
+
+"I had hoped," he said, "to go into this thing very thoroughly, so
+that we could begin the reorganization at once, with the preliminaries
+completely understood; but if we are detaining you from any
+engagement, Mr. Burnit--"
+
+"Not at all, not at all," the highly-interested Bobby hastened to
+assure him. "I have no engagements whatever to-night, and my time is
+entirely at your disposal."
+
+"Then let's drop down to the theater," suddenly interposed Mrs.
+Sharpe. "You can talk your dust-dry business there just as well as
+here. Billy, telephone down to the Orpheum and see if they have a
+box."
+
+Bobby was far too unsuspecting to understand that he had been
+deliberately trapped. Though not of the ultra-exclusives, his social
+position was an excellent one and he had the entrée everywhere. To be
+seen publicly with young Burnit was a step upward, as Mrs. Sharpe saw
+it, in that forbidding and painful social climb.
+
+Bobby started with dismay when Garland stepped to the telephone, but
+he was fairly caught, and he realized it in time to check the
+involuntary protest that rose to his lips. He had acknowledged that
+his time was free and at their disposal, and he regretted deeply that
+no good, handy lie came to his rescue.
+
+They arrived at the theater between acts, and with the full blaze of
+the auditorium upon them. Bobby's comfort was not at all heightened
+when Stone almost immediately followed them in. He had firmly made up
+his mind as they entered to obtain a place in the rear corner of the
+box, where he could not be seen; but he was not prepared for the
+generalship of Mrs. Sharpe, who so manoeuvered it as to force him to
+the very edge, between herself and Garland, and, as she turned to him
+with a laughing remark which, in pantomime, had all the confidential
+understanding of most cordial and intimate acquaintanceship, Bobby
+glanced apprehensively across at the other side of the proscenium-arch.
+There, in the opposite box, staring at him in shocked amazement, sat
+Agnes Elliston!
+
+"But Agnes," protested Bobby at the Elliston home next day, "I could
+not possibly help it."
+
+"No?" she inquired incredulously. "I don't imagine that any one
+strongly advised you to have anything to do with Mr. Sharpe--and it
+was through him that you met _her_. Perhaps it is just as well that it
+happened, however, because it has shown you just how you were about to
+become involved."
+
+Bobby swallowed quite painfully. His tongue was a little dry.
+
+"Well, the fact of the matter is," he admitted, reddening and
+stammering, "that I have already 'become involved,' if that's the way
+you choose to put it; for--for--I signed an agreement with Sharpe, and
+an application for increase of capitalization, this morning."
+
+"You don't mean it!" she gasped. "How could you?"
+
+"Why not?" he demanded. "Agnes, it seems quite impossible for you to
+divorce business and social affairs. I tell you they have absolutely
+nothing to do with each other. The opportunity Sharpe offered me is a
+splendid one. Chalmers and Johnson investigated it thoroughly, and
+both advise me that it is quite an unusually good chance."
+
+"You didn't seem to be able to divorce business and social affairs
+last night," she reminded him rather sharply, returning to the main
+point at issue and ignoring all else.
+
+There was the rub. She could not get out of her mind the picture of
+Mrs. Sharpe chatting gaily with him, smiling up at him and all but
+fawning upon him, in full view of any number of people who knew both
+Agnes and Bobby.
+
+"You have made a deliberate choice of your companions, Mr. Burnit,
+after being warned against them from more than one source," she told
+him, aflame with indignant jealousy, but speaking with the rigidity
+common in such quarrels, "and you may abide by your choice."
+
+"Agnes!" he protested. "You don't mean--"
+
+"I mean just this," she interrupted him coldly, "that I certainly can
+not afford to be seen in public, and don't particularly care to
+entertain in private, any one who permits himself to be seen in public
+with, or entertained in private by, the notorious Mrs. Frank L.
+Sharpe."
+
+They were both of them pale, both trembling, both stiffened by hurt
+and rebellious pride. Bobby gazed at her a moment in a panic, and saw
+no relenting in her eyes, in her pose, in her compressed lips. She was
+still thinking of the way Mrs. Sharpe had looked at him.
+
+"Very well," said he, quite calmly; "since our arrangements for this
+evening are off, I presume I may as well accept that invitation to
+dine at Sharpe's," and with this petty threat he left the house.
+
+At the Idlers' he was met by a succession of grins that were more
+aggravating because for the most part they were but scantily
+explained. Nick Allstyne, indeed, did take him into a corner, with a
+vast show of secrecy, requested him to have an ordinance passed,
+through his new and influential friends, turning Bedlow Park into a
+polo ground; while Payne Winthrop added insult to injury by shaking
+hands with him and most gravely congratulating him--but upon what he
+would not say. Bobby was half grinning and yet half angry when he left
+the club and went over for his usual half hour at the gymnasium.
+Professor Henry H. Bates was also grinning.
+
+"See you're butting in with the swell mob," observed Mr. Bates
+cheerfully. "Getting your name in the paper, ain't you, along with the
+fake heavyweights and the divorces?" and before Bobby's eyes he thrust
+a copy of the yellowest of the morning papers, wherein it was set
+forth that Mr. and Mrs. Frank L. Sharpe had entertained a notable box
+party at the Orpheum, the night before, consisting of Samuel Stone,
+William Garland and Robert Burnit, the latter of whom, it was rumored,
+was soon to be identified with the larger financial affairs of the
+city, having already contracted to purchase a controlling interest in
+the Brightlight Electric Company. The paper had more to say about the
+significance of Bobby's appearance in this company, as indicating the
+new political move which sought to ally the younger business element
+with the progressive party that had been so long in safe, sane and
+conservative control of municipal affairs, except for the temporary
+setback of the recent so-called "citizens' movement" hysteria. Bobby
+frowned more deeply as he read on, and Mr. Bates grinned more and more
+cheerfully.
+
+"Here's where it happens," he observed. "On the level, Bobby, did they
+hook you up on this electric deal?"
+
+"What's the matter with it?" demanded Bobby. "After thorough
+investigation by my own lawyer and my own bookkeeper, the Brightlight
+proves to have been a profitable enterprise for a great many years,
+and is in as good condition now as it ever was. Why shouldn't I go
+into it?"
+
+Biff winked.
+
+"Because it's no fun being the goat," he replied. "Say, tell me, did
+you ever earn a pull with this bunch?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Well, then, why should they hand you anything but the buzzer? If this
+is a good stunt don't you suppose they'd keep it at home? Don't you
+suppose that Stone could go out and get half the money in this town,
+if he wanted it, to put behind a deal that was worth ten per cent. a
+year and pickings? I don't care what your lawyer or what Johnson says
+about it, I know the men. This boy Garland is a good sport, all right,
+but he's for the easy-money crowd every time--and they're going to
+make the next mayor out of him. Our local Hicks would rather be robbed
+by a lot of friendly stick-up artists than have their money wasted by
+a lot of wooden-heads, and after this election the old Stone gang will
+have their feet right back in the trough; yes! This is the way I
+figure the dope. They've framed it up to dump the Brightlight
+Electric, and you're the fall guy. So wear pads in your derby, because
+the first thing you know the hammer's going to drop on your coco."
+
+"How do you find out so much, Biff?" returned Bobby, smiling.
+
+"By sleeping seven hours a day in place of twenty-four. If some of the
+marks I know would only cough up for a good, reliable alarm clock
+they'd be better off."
+
+"Meaning me, of course," said Bobby. "For that I'll have to manhandle
+you a little. Where's your gloves?"
+
+For fifteen minutes they punched away at each other with soft gloves
+as determinedly and as energetically as if they were deadly enemies,
+and then Bobby went back up to his own office. He found Applerod
+jubilant and Johnson glum. Already Applerod heard himself saying to
+his old neighbors: "As Frank L. Sharpe said to me this morning--," or:
+"I told Sharpe--," or: "Say! Sam Stone stopped at my desk
+yesterday--," and already he began to shine by this reflected glory.
+
+"I hear that you have decided to go into the Brightlight Electric," he
+observed.
+
+"Signed all the papers this morning," admitted Bobby.
+
+"Allow me to congratulate you, sir," said Applerod, but Johnson
+silently produced from an index case a plain, gray envelope, which he
+handed to Bobby.
+
+It was inscribed:
+
+    _To My Son Upon His Putting Good Money Into any
+      Public Service Corporation_
+
+and it read:
+
+    "When the manipulators of public service corporations tire of
+    skinning the dear public in bulk, they skin individual
+    specimens just to keep in practice. If you have been fool
+    enough to get into the crowd that invokes the aid of dirty
+    politics to help it hang people on street-car straps, just
+    write them out a check for whatever money you have left, and
+    tell your trustee you are broke again; because you are not and
+    never can be of their stripe, and if you are not of their
+    stripe they will pick your bones. Turn a canary loose in a
+    colony of street sparrows and watch what happens to it."
+
+Bobby folded up the letter grimly and went into his private room,
+where he thought long and soberly. That evening he went out to
+Sharpe's to dinner. As he was about to ring the bell, he stopped,
+confronted by a most unusual spectacle. Through the long plate-glass
+of the door he could see clearly back through the hall into the
+library, and there stood Mrs. Sharpe and William Garland in a tableau
+"that would have given Plato the pip," as Biff Bates might have
+expressed it had he known about Plato. At that moment Sharpe came
+silently down the stairs and turned, unobserved, toward the library.
+Seeing that his wife and Garland were so pleasantly engaged, he very
+considerately turned into the drawing-room instead, _and as he entered
+the drawing-room he lit a cigarette_! Bobby, vowing angrily that there
+could never be room in the Brightlight for both Sharpe and himself,
+did not ring the bell. Instead, he dropped in at the first public
+telephone and 'phoned his regrets.
+
+"By the way," he added, "how soon will you need me again?"
+
+"Not before a week, at least," Sharpe replied.
+
+"Very well, then," said Bobby; "I'll be back a week from to-day."
+
+Immediately upon his arrival down-town he telegraphed the joyous news
+to Jack Starlett, in Washington, to prepare for an old-fashioned
+loafing bee.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+A STRANGE CONNECTION DEVELOPS BETWEEN ELECTRICITY AND POLITICS
+
+
+Chalmers, during Bobby's absence, secured all the secret information
+that he could concerning the Brightlight Electric, but nothing to its
+detriment transpired in that investigation, and when he returned,
+Bobby, very sensibly as he thought, completed his investment. He paid
+his two hundred and fifty thousand dollars into the coffers of the
+company, and, at the first stock-holders' meeting, voting this stock
+and the ten shares he had bought from Sharpe at a hundred and
+seventy-two, he elected his own board of directors, consisting of
+Chalmers, Johnson, Applerod, Biff Bates and himself, giving one share
+of stock to each of the other four gentlemen so that they would be
+eligible. The remaining two members whom he allowed to be elected were
+Sharpe and J. W. Williams, and the board of directors promptly elected
+Bobby president and treasurer, Johnson secretary and Chalmers
+vice-president--a result which gave Bobby great satisfaction. Once he
+had been frozen out of a stock company; this time he had absolute
+control, and he found great pleasure in exercising it, though against
+Chalmers' protest. With swelling triumph he voted to himself, through
+his "dummy" directors, the salary of the former president--twelve
+thousand dollars a year--though he wondered a trifle that President
+Eastman submitted to his retirement with such equanimity, and after he
+walked away from that meeting he considered his business career as
+accomplished. He was settled for life if he wished to remain in the
+business, the salary added to the dividends on two hundred and sixty
+thousand dollars worth of stock bringing his own individual income up
+to a quite respectable figure. If there were no further revenue to be
+derived from the estate of John Burnit, he felt that he had a very
+fair prospect in life, indeed, and could, no doubt, make his way very
+nicely.
+
+He had been unfortunate enough to find Agnes Elliston "not at home"
+upon the two occasions when he had called since their disagreement
+upon the subject of the Sharpes, but now he called her up by telephone
+precisely as if nothing had happened, and explained to her how good
+his prospects were; good enough, in fact, he added, that he could look
+matrimony very squarely in the eye.
+
+"Allow me to congratulate you," said Agnes sweetly. "I presume I'll
+read presently about the divorce that precedes your marriage," and she
+hung up the receiver; all of which, had Bobby but paused to reflect
+upon it, was a very fair indication that all he had to do was to jump
+in his automobile and call on Aunt Constance Elliston, force his way
+upon the attention of Agnes and browbeat that young lady into an
+immediate marriage. He chose, on the contrary, to take the matter more
+gloomily, and Johnson, after worrying about him for three dismal days,
+consulted Biff Bates. But Biff, when the problem was propounded to
+him, only laughed.
+
+"His steady has lemoned him," declared Biff. "Any time a guy's making
+plenty of money and got good health and ain't married, and goes around
+with an all-day grouch, you can play it for a one to a hundred
+favorite that his entry's been scratched in the solitaire diamond
+stakes."
+
+"Uh-huh," responded the taciturn Johnson, and stalked back with grim
+purpose to the Electric Company's office, of which Bobby and Johnson
+and Applerod had taken immediate possession.
+
+The next morning Johnson handed to Bobby one of the familiar gray
+envelopes, inscribed:
+
+    _To My Son Upon the Occasion of His Having a Misunderstanding
+      with Agnes Elliston_
+
+He submitted the envelope with many qualms and misgivings, though
+without apology, but one glance at Bobby's face as that young
+gentleman read the inscription relieved him of all responsibility in
+the matter, for if ever a face showed guilt, that face was the face of
+Bobby Burnit. In the privacy of the president's office Bobby read the
+briefest note of the many that his forethoughted father had left
+behind him in Johnson's charge:
+
+    "You're a blithering idiot!"
+
+That was all. Somehow, that brief note seemed to lighten the gloom, to
+lift the weight, to remove some sort of a barrier, and he actually
+laughed. Immediately he called up the Ellistons. He received the
+information from the housekeeper that Agnes and Aunt Constance had
+gone to New York on an extended shopping trip, and thereby he lost his
+greatest and only opportunity to prove that he had at last been
+successful in business. That day, all the stock which Frank L. Sharpe
+had held began to come in for transfer, in small lots of from ten to
+twenty shares, and inside a week not a certificate stood in Sharpe's
+name. All the stock held by Williams also came in for transfer. Bobby
+went immediately to see Sharpe, and, very much concerned, inquired
+into the meaning of this. Mr. Sharpe was as pleasant as Christmas
+morning.
+
+"To tell you the truth, Mr. Burnit," said he, "there were several very
+good reasons. In the first place, I needed the money; in the second
+place, you were insistent upon control and abused it; in the third
+place, since the increased capitalization and change of management the
+quotations on Brightlight Electric dropped from one-seventy-two to
+one-sixty-five, and I got out before it could drop any lower. You will
+give me credit for selling the stock privately and in small lots where
+it could not break the price. However, Mr. Burnit, I don't see where
+the sale of my stock affects you in any way. You have the Brightlight
+Electric now in good condition, and all it needs to remain a good
+investment is proper management."
+
+"I'm afraid it needs more than that," retorted Bobby. "I'm afraid it
+needs to be in a position to make more money for other people than for
+myself;" through which remark it may be seen that, though perhaps a
+trifle slow, Bobby was learning.
+
+Another lesson awaited him. On the following morning every paper in
+the city blazed with the disquieting information that the Consumers'
+Electric Light and Power Company and the United Illuminating and Fuel
+Company were to be consolidated! Out of the two old concerns a
+fifty-million-dollar corporation was to be formed, and a certain
+portion of the stock was to be sold in small lots, as low, even, as
+one share each, so that the public should be given a chance to
+participate in this unparalleled investment. Oh, it was to be a
+tremendous boon to the city!
+
+Bobby, much worried, went straight to Chalmers.
+
+"So far as I can see you have all the best of the bargain," Chalmers
+reassured him. "The Consumers', already four times watered and quoted
+at about seventy, is to be increased from two to five million before
+the consolidation, so that it can be taken in at ten million. The
+Union, already watered from one to nine million in its few brief
+years, takes on another hydraulic spurt and will be bought for twenty
+million. Of the thirty million dollars which is to be paid for the old
+corporation, nineteen million represents new water, the most of which
+will be distributed among Stone and his henchmen. The other twenty
+million will go to the dear public, who will probably be given one
+share of common as a bonus with each share of preferred, and pay ten
+million sweaty dollars for it. Do you think this new company expects
+to pay dividends? On their plants, worth at a high valuation, five
+million dollars, and their new capital of ten million, a profit must
+be earned for fifty million dollars' worth of stock, and it can not be
+done. Within a year I expect to see Consolidated Illuminating and
+Power Company stock quoted at around thirty. By that time, however,
+Stone and his crowd will have sold theirs, and will have cleaned up
+millions. Brightlight Electric was probably too small a factor to be
+considered in the consolidation. Did you pay off that mortgage? Then
+Stone has his hundred thousand dollars; the back salary list of
+Stone's henchmen has been paid up with your money; Sharpe and Williams
+have converted their stock and Stone's into cash at a fancy figure;
+Eastman is to be taken care of in the new company and they are
+satisfied. In my estimation you are well rid of the entire crowd,
+unless they have some neat little plan for squeezing you. But I'll
+tell you what I would do. I would go direct to Stone, and see what he
+has to say."
+
+Bobby smiled ironically at himself as he climbed the dingy stairs up
+which it was said that every man of affairs in the city must sooner or
+later toil to bend the knee, but he was astonished when he walked into
+the office of Stone to find it a narrow, bare little room, with the
+door wide open to the hall. There was an old, empty desk in it--for
+Stone never kept nor wrote letters--and four common kitchen chairs for
+waiting callers. At the desk near the one window sat Stone, and over
+him bent a shabby-looking man, whispering. Stone, grunting
+occasionally, looked out of the window while he listened, and when the
+man was through gave him a ten-dollar bill.
+
+"It's all right," Stone said gruffly. "I'll be in court myself at ten
+o'clock to-morrow morning, and you may tell Billy that I'll get him
+out of it."
+
+Another man, a flashily-dressed fellow, was ahead of Bobby, and he,
+too, now leaned over Stone and whispered.
+
+"Nothing doing," rumbled Stone.
+
+The man, from his gestures, protested earnestly.
+
+"Nix!" declared Stone loudly. "You threw me two years ago this fall,
+and you can't come back till you're on your uppers good and proper. I
+don't want to see you nor hear of you for another year, and you
+needn't send any one to me to fix it, because it can't be fixed. Now
+beat it. I'm busy!"
+
+The man, much crestfallen, "beat it." Bobby was thankful that there
+was no one else waiting when it was his turn to approach the Mogul.
+Stone shook hands cordially enough.
+
+"Mr. Stone," inquired Bobby, "how does it come that the Brightlight
+Electric Company was not offered a chance to come into this new
+consolidation?"
+
+"How should I know?" asked Stone in reply.
+
+"It is popularly supposed," suggested Bobby, smiling, "that you know a
+great deal about it."
+
+Mr. Stone ignored that supposition completely.
+
+"Mr. Burnit, how much political influence do you think you could
+swing?"
+
+"Frankly, I never thought of it," said Bobby surprised.
+
+"You belong to the Idlers' Club, you belong to the Traders' Club, to
+the Fish and Game, the Brassie, the Gourmet, and the Thespian Clubs.
+You are a member of the board of governors in three of these clubs,
+and are very popular in all of them. A man like you, if he would get
+wise, could swing a strong following."
+
+"Possibly," admitted Bobby dryly; "although I wouldn't enjoy it."
+
+"One-third of the members of the Traders' Club do not vote, more than
+half of the members of the Fish and Game and the Brassie do not vote,
+none of the members of the other clubs vote at all," went on Mr.
+Stone. "They ain't good citizens. If you're the man that can stir them
+up the right way you'd find it worth while."
+
+"But just now," evaded Bobby, "whom did you say I should see about
+this consolidation?"
+
+"Sharpe," snapped Stone. "Good day, Mr. Burnit." And Bobby walked away
+rather belittled in his own estimation.
+
+He had been offered an excellent chance to become one of Stone's
+political lieutenants, had been given an opportunity to step up to the
+pie counter, to enjoy the very material benefits of the Stone style of
+municipal government; and in exchange for this he had only to sell his
+fellows. He knew now that his visit to Sharpe would be fruitless, that
+before he could arrive at Sharpe's office that puppet would have had a
+telephone message from Stone; yet, his curiosity aroused, he saw the
+thing through. Mr. Sharpe, upon his visit, met Bobby as coldly as the
+January morning when the Christmas bills come in.
+
+"We don't really care for the Brightlight Electric in the combination
+at all," said Mr. Sharpe, "but if you wish to come in at a valuation
+of five hundred thousand I guess we can find a place for you."
+
+"Let me understand," said Bobby. "By a valuation of five hundred
+thousand dollars you mean that the Brightlight stock-holders can
+exchange each share of their stock for one share in the Consolidated?"
+
+"That's it, precisely," said Mr. Sharpe without a smile.
+
+"You're joking," objected Bobby. "My stock in the Brightlight is worth
+to-day one hundred and fifty dollars a share. My two hundred and sixty
+thousand dollars' worth of stock in the Consolidated would not be
+worth par, even, to-day. Why do you make this discrimination when you
+are giving the stock-holders of the Consumers' an exchange of five
+shares for one, and the stock-holders of the United an exchange of
+twenty shares for nine?"
+
+"We need both those companies," calmly explained Sharpe, "and we don't
+need the Brightlight."
+
+"Is that figure the best you will do?"
+
+"Under the circumstances, yes."
+
+"Very well then," said Bobby; "good day."
+
+"By the way, Mr. Burnit," Sharpe said to him with a return of the
+charming smile which had been conspicuously absent on this occasion,
+"we needn't consider the talk entirely closed as yet. It might be
+possible that we would be able, between now and the first of the next
+month, when the consolidation is to be completed, to make you a much
+more liberal offer to come in with us; to be one of us, in fact."
+
+Bobby sat down again.
+
+"How soon may I see you about it?" he asked.
+
+"I'll let you know when things are shaped up right. By the way, Mr.
+Burnit, you are a very young man yet, and just starting upon your
+career. Really you ought to look about you a bit and study what
+advantages you have in the way of personal influence and following."
+
+"I have never counted that I had a 'following.'"
+
+"I understand that you have a very strong one," insisted Sharpe. "What
+you ought to do is to see Mr. Stone."
+
+"I have been to see him," replied Bobby with a smile.
+
+"So I understand," said Sharpe dryly. "By the way, next Tuesday I am
+to be voted upon in the Idlers'. You are on the board of governors up
+there, I believe?"
+
+"Yes," said Bobby steadily.
+
+Sharpe studied him for a moment.
+
+"Well, come around and see me about this consolidation on Wednesday,"
+he suggested, "and in the meantime have another talk with Stone. By
+all means, go and see Stone."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Johnson," asked Bobby, later, "what would you do if a man should ask
+you to sell him your personal influence, your self-respect and your
+immortal soul?"
+
+"I'd ask his price," interposed Applerod with a grin.
+
+"You'd never get an offer," snapped Johnson to Applerod, "for you
+haven't any to sell. Why do you ask, Mr. Burnit?"
+
+Bobby regarded Johnson thoughtfully for a moment.
+
+"I know how to make the Brightlight Electric Company yield me two
+hundred per cent. dividends within a year or less," he stated.
+
+"Through Stone?" inquired Johnson.
+
+"Through Stone," admitted Bobby, smiling at Johnson's penetration.
+
+"I thought so. I guess your father has summed up, better than I could
+put it, all there is to be said upon that subject." And from his
+index-file he produced one of the familiar gray envelopes, inscribed:
+
+    _To My Son Robert Upon the Subject of Bribery_
+
+    "When a man sells his independence and the faith of his
+    friends he is bankrupt. Both the taker and the giver of a
+    bribe, even when it is called 'preferment,' are like dogs with
+    fleas; they yelp in their sleep; only the man gets callous
+    after a while and the dog doesn't. Whoever the fellow is
+    that's trying to buy your self-respect, go soak him in the
+    eye, and pay your fine."
+
+"For once I agree most heartily with the governor," said Bobby, and as
+a result he did not go to see Stone. Moreover, Frank L. Sharpe was
+blackballed at the Idlers' Club with cheerful unanimity, and Bobby
+figuratively squared his shoulders to receive the blow that he was
+convinced must certainly fall.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+AGNES APPEARS PUBLICLY WITH MRS. SHARPE AND BIFF BATES HAS A ONE-ROUND
+SCRAP
+
+
+That night, though rather preoccupied by the grave consequences that
+might ensue on this flat-footed defiance of Stone and his crowd, Bobby
+went to the theater with Jack Starlett and Jack's sister and mother.
+As they seated themselves he bowed gravely across the auditorium to
+Agnes and Aunt Constance Elliston, who, with Uncle Dan, were
+entertaining a young woman relative from Savannah. He did not know how
+the others accepted his greeting; he only saw Agnes, and she smiled
+quite placidly at him, which was far worse than if she had tilted her
+head. Through two dreary, interminable acts he sat looking at the
+stage, trying to talk small talk with the Starletts and remaining
+absolutely miserable; but shortly before the beginning of the last act
+he was able to take a quite new and gleeful interest in life, for the
+young woman from Savannah came fluttering into the Elliston box,
+bearing in tow the beautiful and vivacious Mrs. Frank L. Sharpe!
+
+Bobby turned his opera-glasses at once upon that box, and pressed Jack
+Starlett into service. Being thus attracted, the ladies of the
+Starlett box, mystified and unable to extract any explanation from the
+two gleeful men, were compelled, by force of circumstances and
+curiosity, also to opera-glass and lorgnette the sufferers.
+
+Like the general into which he was developing, Bobby managed to meet
+Agnes face to face in the foyer after the show. Tears of mortification
+were in her eyes, but still she was laughing when he strode up to her
+and with masterful authority drew her arm beneath his own.
+
+"Your carriage is too small for four," Bobby calmly told Mr. Elliston,
+and, excusing himself from the Starletts, deliberately conducted Agnes
+to a hansom. As they got well under way he observed:
+
+"You will notice that I make no question of being seen in public
+with--"
+
+"Bobby!" she protested. "Violet did not know. The Sharpes visited in
+Savannah. His connections down there are quite respectable, and no
+doubt Mrs. Sharpe, who is really clever, held herself very
+circumspectly."
+
+"Fine!" said Bobby. "You will notice that I am quite willing to listen
+to _you_. Explain some more."
+
+"Bobby!" she protested again, and then suddenly she bent forward and
+pressed her handkerchief to her eyes.
+
+Bobby was astounded. She was actually crying! In a moment he had her
+in his arms, was pressing her head upon his shoulder, was saying
+soothing things to her with perfectly idiotic volubility. For an
+infinitesimally brief space Agnes yielded to that embrace, and then
+suddenly she straightened up in dismay.
+
+"Good gracious, Bobby!" she exclaimed. "This hansom is all glass!"
+
+He looked out upon the brilliantly lighted street with a reflex of her
+own consternation, but quickly found consolation.
+
+"Well, after all," he reflected philosophically, "I don't believe
+anybody who saw me would blame me."
+
+"You're a perfectly incorrigible Bobby," she laughed. "The only check
+possible to put upon you is to hold you rigidly to business. How are
+you coming out with the Brightlight Electric Company? I have been
+dying to ask you about it."
+
+"I have a telephone in my office," he reminded her.
+
+"I am completely ignoring that ungenerous suggestion," she replied.
+
+"It wasn't sportsmanlike," he penitently admitted. "Well, the
+Brightlight Electric is still making money, and Johnson has stopped
+leaks to the amount of at least twenty thousand dollars a year, which
+will permit us to keep up the ten per cent. dividends, even with our
+increased capitalization, and even without an increase of business."
+
+"Glorious!" she said with sparkling eyes.
+
+"Too good to be true," he assured her. "They'll take it away from me."
+
+"How is it possible?" she asked.
+
+"It isn't; but it will happen, nevertheless," he declared with
+conviction.
+
+He had already begun to spend his days and nights in apprehension of
+this, and as the weeks went on and nothing happened his apprehension
+grew rather than diminished.
+
+In the meantime, the Consolidated Illuminating and Power Company went
+pompously on. The great combine was formed, the fifty million dollars'
+worth of stock was opened for subscription, and the company gave a
+vastly expensive banquet in the convention hall of the Hotel Spender,
+at which a thousand of the city's foremost men were entertained, and
+where the cleverest after-dinner speakers to be obtained talked in
+relays until long after midnight. Those who came to eat the rich food
+and drink the rare wine and lend their countenances to the stupendous
+local enterprise, being shrewd business graduates who had cut their
+eye-teeth in their cradles, smiled and went home without any thought
+of investing; but the hard-working, economical chaps of the offices
+and shops, men who felt elated if, after five years of slavery, they
+could show ten hundred dollars of savings, glanced in awe over this
+magnificent list of names in the next day's papers. If the stock of
+the Consolidated Illuminating and Power Company was considered a good
+investment by these generals and captains and lieutenants of finance,
+who, of course, attended this Arabian Nights banquet as investors, it
+must certainly be a good investment for the corporals and privates.
+
+Immediately vivid results were shown. Immense electric signs,
+furnished at less than cost and some of them as big as the buildings
+upon the roofs of which they were erected, began to make
+constellations in the city sky; buildings in the principal down-town
+squares were studded, for little or nothing, with outside incandescent
+lights as thickly as wall space could be found for them, and the men
+whose only automobiles are street-cars awoke to the fact that their
+city was becoming intensely metropolitan; that it was blazing with the
+blaze of Paris and London and New York; that all this glittering
+advancement was due to the great new Consolidated Illuminating and
+Power Company, and more applications for stock were made!
+
+Every applicant was supplied, but the treasury stock of the company
+having been sold out, the scrip had to come from some place else, and
+it came through devious, secret ways from the holdings of such men as
+Stone and Garland and Sharpe.
+
+During the grand orgie of illumination the election came on; the price
+of gas and electricity went gloriously and recklessly down, and the
+men who were identified with the triumphantly successful new
+illuminating company were the leading figures in the campaign. The
+puerile "reform party," the blunders of whose incompetence had been
+ridiculous, was swept out of existence; Garland was elected mayor by
+the most overwhelming majority that had ever been known in the city,
+and with him was elected a council of the same political faith. Sam
+Stone, always in the background, always keeping his name out of the
+papers as much as possible, came once more to the throne, and owned
+the city and all its inhabitants and all its business enterprises and
+all its public utilities, body and soul.
+
+One night, shortly after the new officials went into power, there was
+no light in the twelve blocks over which the Brightlight Company had
+exclusive control, nor any light in the outside districts it supplied.
+This was the first time in years that the company, equipped with an
+emergency battery of dynamos which now proved out of order, had ever
+failed for an instant of proper service. Candles, kerosene lamps and
+old gas fixtures, the rusty cocks of which had not been turned in a
+decade, were put hastily in use, while the streets were black with a
+blackness particularly Stygian, contrasted with the brilliantly
+illuminated squares supplied by the Consolidated Company. All night
+long the mechanical force, attended by the worried but painfully
+helpless Bobby, pounded and tapped and worked in the grime, but it was
+not until broad daylight that they were able to discover the cause of
+trouble. For two nights the lights ran steadily. On the third night,
+at about seven-thirty, they turned to a dull, red glow, and slowly
+died out. This time it was wire trouble, and through the long night as
+large a force of men as could be mustered were tracing it. Not until
+noon of the next day was the leak found.
+
+It was a full week before that section of the city was for the third
+time in darkness, but when this occurred the business men of the
+district, who had been patient enough the first night and enduring
+enough the second, loosed their reins and became frantic.
+
+At this happy juncture the Consolidated Company threw an army of
+canvassers into those twelve monopolized blocks, and the canvassers
+did not need to be men who could talk, for arguments were not
+necessary. The old, worn-out equipment of the Brightlight Electric,
+and the fact that it was managed and controlled by men who knew
+nothing whatever of the business, its very president a young fellow
+who had probably never seen a dynamo until he took charge, were
+enough.
+
+Bobby, passing over Plum Street one morning, was surprised to see a
+large gang of men putting in new poles, and when he reached the office
+he asked Johnson about it. In two minutes he had definitely
+ascertained that no orders had been issued by the Brightlight Electric
+Company nor any one connected with it, and further inquiry revealed
+the fact that these poles were being put up by the Consolidated. He
+called up Chalmers at once.
+
+"I knew I'd hear from you," said Chalmers, "and I have already been at
+work on the thing. Of course, you saw what was in the papers."
+
+"No," confessed Bobby. "Only the sporting pages."
+
+"You should read news, local and general, every morning," scolded
+Chalmers. "The new city council, at their meeting last night, granted
+the Consolidated a franchise to put up poles and wires in this
+district for lighting."
+
+"But how could they?" expostulated Bobby. "Our contract with the city
+has several years to run yet, and guarantees us exclusive privilege to
+supply light, both to the city and to private individuals, in those
+twelve blocks."
+
+"That cleverly unobtrusive joker clause about 'reasonably satisfactory
+service,'" replied Chalmers angrily. "By the way, have you
+investigated the cause of those accidents very thoroughly? Whether
+there was anything malicious about them?"
+
+Bobby confessed that he had not thought of the possibility.
+
+"I think it would pay you to do so. I am delving into this thing as
+deeply as I can, and with your permission I am going to call your
+father's old attorney, Mr. Barrister, into consultation."
+
+"Go ahead, by all means," said Bobby, worried beyond measure.
+
+At five o'clock that evening Con Ripley came jauntily to the plant of
+the Brightlight Electric Company. Con was the engineer, and the world
+was a very good joke to him, although not such a joke that he ever
+overlooked his own interests. He spruced up considerably outside of
+working hours, did Con, and, although he was nearing forty, considered
+himself very much a ladies' man, also an accomplished athlete, and
+positively the last word in electrical knowledge. He was donning his
+working garments in very leisurely fashion when a short,
+broad-shouldered, thickset young man came back toward him from the
+office.
+
+"You're Con Ripley?" said the new-comer by way of introduction.
+
+"Maybe," agreed Con. "Who are you?"
+
+"I'm the Assistant Works," observed Professor Henry H. Bates.
+
+"Oh!" said Mr. Ripley in some wonder, looking from the soft cap of Mr.
+Bates to the broad, thick tan shoes of Mr. Bates, and then back up to
+the wide-set eyes. "I hadn't heard about it."
+
+"No?" responded Mr. Bates. "Well, I came in to tell you. I don't know
+enough about electricity to say whether you feed it with a spoon or
+from a bottle, but I'm here, just the same, to notice that the juice
+slips through the wires all right to-night, all right."
+
+"The hell you are!" exclaimed Mr. Ripley, taking sudden umbrage at
+both tone and words, and also at the physical attitude of Mr. Bates,
+which had grown somewhat threatening. "All right, Mr. Works," and Mr.
+Ripley began to step out of his overalls; "jump right in and push
+juice till you get black in the face, while I take a little vacation.
+I've been wanting a lay-off for a long time."
+
+"You'll lay on, Bo," dissented Mr. Bates. "Nix on the vacation. That's
+just the point. You're going to stick on the job, and I'm going to
+stick within four feet of you till old Jim-jams Jones shakes along to
+get his morning's morning; and it will be a sign of awful bad luck for
+you if the lights in this end of town flicker a single flick any time
+to-night."
+
+"Is that it?" Mr. Ripley wanted to know. "And if they should happen to
+flicker some what are you going to do about it?"
+
+"I don't know yet," said Biff. "I'll knock your block off first and
+think about it afterward!"
+
+Mr. Ripley hastily drew his overalls back on and slipped the straps
+over his shoulders with a snap.
+
+"You'll tell me when you're going to do it, won't you?" he asked
+banteringly, and, a full head taller than Mr. Bates, glared down at
+him a moment in contempt. Then he laughed. "I'll give you ten to one
+the lights will flicker," he offered to bet. "I wouldn't stop such a
+cunning chance for exercise for real money," and, whirling upon his
+heel, Mr. Ripley started upon his usual preliminary examination of
+dynamos and engines and boilers.
+
+Quite nonchalantly Mr. Bates, puffing at a particularly villainous
+stogie and with his hands resting idly in his pockets, swung after Mr.
+Ripley, keeping within almost precisely four feet of him. In the
+boiler-room, Ripley, finding Biff still at his heels, said to the
+fireman, with a jerk of his thumb over his shoulder:
+
+"Rocksey, be sure you keep a good head of steam on to-night if you're
+a friend of mine. This is Mr. Assistant Works back here, and he's come
+in to knock my block off if the lights flicker."
+
+"Rocksey," a lean man with gray beard-bristles like pins and with
+muscles in astounding lumps upon his grimy arms, surveyed Mr. Bates
+with a grin which meant volumes.
+
+"Ring a bell when it starts, will you, Con?" he requested.
+
+To this Biff paid not the slightest attention, gazing stolidly at the
+red fire where it shone through the holes of the furnace doors; but
+when Mr. Ripley moved away Biff moved also. Ripley introduced Biff in
+much the same terms to a tall man who was oiling the big,
+old-fashioned Corliss, and a sudden gleam came into the tall man's
+eyes as he recognized Mr. Bates, but he turned back to his oiling
+without smile or comment. Ripley eyed him sharply.
+
+"You'll hold the sponge and water-bottle for me, won't you, Daly?" he
+asked, with an evident attempt at jovial conciliation.
+
+Daly deliberately wiped the slender nose of his oil can and went on
+oiling.
+
+"What's the matter?" asked Ripley with a frown. "Got a grouch again?"
+
+"Yes, I have," admitted Daly without looking up, and shrugged his
+shoulders.
+
+"Then cut it out," said Ripley, "and look real unpeeved when somebody
+hands you tickets to the circus."
+
+From that moment Mr. Ripley seemed to take a keen delight in goading
+Mr. Bates. He took a sudden dash half-way down the length of the long
+room, as if going to the extreme other end of the plant, then suddenly
+whirled and retraced his steps to meet Biff coming after him; made an
+equally sudden dart for the mysterious switch-board, and seized a
+lever as if to throw it, but suddenly changed his mind, apparently,
+and went away, leaving Mr. Bates to infer that the throwing of that
+particular lever would leave them all in darkness; later, with Biff
+ready to spring upon him, he threw that switch to show that it had no
+important function to perform at all. To all these and many more
+ingenious tricks to humiliate him, Mr. Bates paid not the slightest
+attention, but, as calmly and as impassively as Fate, kept as nearly
+as he could to the four-foot distance he had promised.
+
+It was about ten o'clock when Biff, interested for a moment in the
+switch-board, suddenly missed Ripley, and looking about him hastily he
+saw the fireman standing in the door of the boiler-room grinning at
+him, while the other workmen--all of whom were of the old regime--were
+also enjoying his discomfort; but Daly, catching his eye, nodded
+significantly toward the side-door which led upon the street. It was
+an almost imperceptible nod, but it was enough for Biff, and he dashed
+out of that door. Half a block ahead of him he saw Ripley hurrying,
+and took after him with that light, cat-like run which is the height
+of effortless and noiseless speed. Ripley, looking back hastily,
+hurried into a saloon, and he had scarcely closed the door when Biff
+entered after him, in time to see his man standing at the telephone,
+receiver in hand. It was the work of but an instant to grab Ripley by
+the arm and jerk him away from the 'phone. Quickly recovering his
+balance, with a lunge of his whole body Ripley shot a swift fist at
+the man who had interfered with him, but Biff, without shifting his
+position, jerked his head to one side and the fist shot harmlessly by.
+Before another blow could be struck, or parried, the bartender, a
+brawny giant, had rushed between them.
+
+"Let us alone, Jeff," panted Ripley. "I've got all I can stand for
+from this rat."
+
+"Outside!" said Jeff with cold finality. "You can beat him to a pulp
+in the street, Con, but there'll be no scrimmage in this place without
+me having a hand in it."
+
+Ripley considered this ultimatum for a moment in silence, and then, to
+Biff's surprise, suddenly ran out of the door. It was a tight race to
+the plant, and there, with Biff not more than two arms' length behind
+him, Ripley jerked at a lever hitherto untouched, and instantly the
+place was plunged into complete darkness.
+
+"There!" screamed Ripley.
+
+A second later Biff had grappled him, and together they went to the
+floor. It was only a moment that the darkness lasted, however, for
+tall Tom Daly stood by the replaced switch, looking down at them in
+quiet joy. Immediately with the turning on of the light Biff scrambled
+to his feet like a cat and waited for Ripley to rise. It was Ripley
+who made the first lunge, which Biff dexterously ducked, and
+immediately after Biff's right arm shot out, catching his antagonist a
+glancing blow upon the side of the cheek; a blow which drew blood.
+Infuriated, again Ripley rushed, but was blocked, and for nearly a
+minute there was a swift exchange of light blows which did little
+damage; then Biff found his opening, and, swinging about the axis of
+his own spine, threw the entire force of his body behind his right
+arm, and the fist of that arm caught Ripley below the ear and dropped
+him like a beef, just as Bobby came running back from, the office.
+
+"What are you doing here, Biff? What's the matter?" demanded Bobby, as
+Ripley, dazed, struggled to his feet, and, though weaving, drew
+himself together for another onslaught.
+
+"Matter!" snarled Biff. "I landed on a frame-up, that's all. This
+afternoon I saw Sharpe and this Ripley together in a bum wine-room on
+River Street, swapping so much of that earnest conversation that the
+partitions bulged, and I dropped to the double-cross that's being
+handed out to you. I've been trying to telephone you ever since, but
+when I couldn't find you I came right down to run the plant. That's
+all."
+
+"You're all right, Biff," laughed Bobby, "but I guess we'll call this
+a one-round affair, and I'll take charge."
+
+"Don't stop 'em!" cried Daly savagely, turning to Bobby. "Hand it to
+him, Biff. He's a crook and an all-round sneak. He beat me out of this
+job by underhand means, and there ain't a man in the place that ain't
+tickled to death to see him get the beating that's coming to him.
+Paste him, Biff!"
+
+"Biff!" repeated Mr. Ripley, suddenly dropping his hands. "Biff who?"
+
+"Mr. Biff Bates, the well-known and justly celebrated ex-champion
+middleweight," announced Bobby with a grin. "Mr. Ripley--Mr. Bates."
+
+"Biff Bates!" repeated Con Ripley. "Why didn't some of you guys tell
+me this was Biff Bates? Mr. Bates, I'm glad to meet you." And with
+much respect he held forth his hand.
+
+"Go chase yourself," growled Mr. Bates, in infinite scorn.
+
+Ripley replied with a sudden volley of abuse, couched in the vilest of
+language, but to this Biff made no reply. He dropped his hands in his
+coat pockets, and, considering his work done, walked over to the wall
+and leaned against it, awaiting further developments.
+
+"Daly," asked Bobby sharply, breaking in upon Ripley's tirade, "are
+you competent to run this plant?"
+
+"Certainly, sir," replied Daly. "I should have had the job four years
+ago. I was promised it."
+
+"You may consider yourself in charge, then. Mr. Ripley, if you will
+walk up to the office I'll pay you off."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+BOBBY'S MONEY IS ELECTROCUTED AND JOHN BURNIT'S SON WAKES UP
+
+
+Bobby, jubilant, went to see Chalmers next day. The lawyer listened
+gravely, but shook his head.
+
+"I'm bound to tell you, Mr. Burnit, that you have no case. You must
+have more proof than this to bring a charge of conspiracy. Ripley had
+a perfect right to talk with Sharpe or to telephone to some one, and
+mere hot-headedness could explain his shutting off the lights. Your
+over-enthusiastic friend Bates has ruined whatever prospect you might
+have had. Your suspicions once aroused, you should have let your man
+do as he liked, but should have watched him and caught him in a trap
+of some sort. Now it is too late. Moreover, I have bad news for you.
+Your contract for city lighting is ironclad, and can not be broken,
+but I saw to-day a paper signed by an overwhelming majority of your
+private consumers that the service is not even 'reasonably
+satisfactory,' and that they wish the field open to competition. With
+this paper to back them, Stone's council granted the right to the
+Consolidated Company to erect poles, string wires and supply current.
+We can bring suit if you say so, but you will lose it."
+
+"Bring suit, then!" ordered Bobby vehemently. "Why, Chalmers, the
+contract for the city lighting alone would cost the Brightlight money
+every year. The profit has all been made from private consumers."
+
+"That's why you're losing it," said Chalmers dryly. "The whole project
+is very plain to me now. The Consumers and the United Companies never
+cared to enter that field, because their controlling stock-holders
+were also the Brightlight controlling stock-holders, and they could
+get more money through the Brightlight than they could through the
+other companies; and so they led the public to believe that there was
+no breaking the monopoly the Brightlight held upon their service. Now,
+however, they want to gain another stock-jobbing advertisement by
+driving you out of the field. They planned from the first to wreck you
+for just that purpose--to make Consolidated stock seem more desirable
+when the stock sales began to dwindle--and they are perfectly willing
+to furnish the consumers in your twelve blocks with current at their
+present ridiculously low rate, because, with them, any possible
+profits to be derived from the business are insignificant compared to
+the profits to be derived from the sale of their watered stock. The
+price of illumination and power, later, will _soar_! Watch it. They're
+a very bright crowd," and Mr. Chalmers paused to admire them.
+
+"In other words," said Bobby glumly. "I am what Biff Bates told me I
+would be--the goat."
+
+"Precisely," agreed Chalmers.
+
+"Begin suit anyhow," directed Bobby, "and we'll see what comes of it."
+
+"By the way," called Chalmers with a curious smile as Bobby opened the
+door; "I've just learned that one of the foremost enthusiasts in this
+whole manipulation has been quiet and conservative Silas Trimmer."
+
+Bobby did not swear. He simply slammed the door.
+
+Two days later Bobby was surprised to see Sharpe drop in upon him.
+
+"I understand you are bringing suit against the Consolidated for
+encroachment upon your territory, and against the city for abrogation
+of contract," began Sharpe.
+
+"Yes," said Bobby.
+
+"Don't you think it rather a waste of money, Mr. Burnit? I can
+guarantee you positively that you will not win either suit."
+
+"I'm willing to wait to find that out."
+
+"No use," said Sharpe impatiently. "I'll tell you what we will do, Mr.
+Burnit. If you care to have us to do so, the Consolidated, a little
+later on, will absorb the Brightlight."
+
+"On what terms?" asked Bobby.
+
+"It all depends. We might discuss that later. There's another matter
+I'd like to speak with you about. Stone wants to see you, even yet. I
+want to tell you, Mr. Burnit, he can get along a great deal better
+without you than you can without him, as you are probably willing to
+admit by now. But he still wants you. Go and see Stone."
+
+"On--what--terms--will the Consolidated now absorb the Brightlight?"
+demanded Bobby sternly.
+
+"Well," drawled Sharpe, with a complete change of manner, "the
+property has deteriorated considerably within a remarkably short space
+of time, but I should say that we would buy the Brightlight for three
+hundred thousand dollars in stock of the Consolidated, half preferred
+and half common."
+
+"And this is your very best offer?"
+
+"The very best," replied Sharpe, making no attempt to conceal his
+exultant grin.
+
+"Not on your life," declared Bobby. "I'm going to hold the Brightlight
+intact. I'm going to fulfill the city contract at a loss, if it takes
+every cent I can scrape together, and then I'm going to enter politics
+myself. I'm going to drive Stone and his crowd out of this city, and
+we shall see if we can not make a readjustment of the illuminating
+business on my basis instead of his. Good day, Mr. Sharpe."
+
+"Good day, sir," said Sharpe, and this time he laughed aloud.
+
+At the door he turned.
+
+"I'd like to call your attention, young man, to the fact that a great
+many very determined gentlemen have announced their intention of
+driving Mr. Stone and his associates out of this city. You might
+compare that with the fact that Mr. Stone and his friends are all here
+yet, and on top," and with that he withdrew.
+
+"If I may be so bold as to say so," said Mr. Applerod, worried to
+paleness by this foolish defiance of so great and good a man, "you
+have made a very grave error, Mr. Burnit, very grave, indeed. It is
+suicidal to defy Mr. Sharpe, and through him _Mr. Stone_!"
+
+"Will you shut up!" snarled Johnson to his ancient work-mate. "Mr.
+Burnit, I have no right to take the liberty, but I am going to
+congratulate you, sir. Whatever follies inexperience may have led you
+to commit, you are, at any rate, sir, a _man_, like your father was
+before you!" and by way of emphasis Johnson smacked his fist on his
+desk as he glared in Mr. Applerod's direction.
+
+"It's all very well to show fight, Johnson," said Bobby, a little
+wanly, "but just the same I have to acknowledge defeat. I am afraid I
+boasted too much. Chalmers, after considering the matter, positively
+refuses to bring suit. The whole game is over. I have the Brightlight
+Company on my hands at a net dead loss of every cent I have sunk into
+it, and it can not pay me a penny so long as these men remain in
+power. I am going to fight them with their own weapons, but that is a
+matter of years. In the meantime, my third business attempt is a
+hideous failure. Where's the gray envelope, Johnson?"
+
+"It is here," admitted Johnson, and from his file took the missive in
+question.
+
+As Bobby took the letter from Johnson Agnes came into the office and
+swept toward him with outstretched hand.
+
+"It is perfectly shameful, Bobby! I just read about it!"
+
+"So soon?" he wanted to know.
+
+She carried a paper in her hand and spread it before him. In the very
+head-line his fate was pronounced. "Brightlight Electric Tottering to
+Its Fall," was the cheerful line which confronted him, and beneath
+this was set forth the facts that every profitable contract heretofore
+held by the Brightlight Electric had been taken away from that
+unfortunate concern, in which the equipment was said to be so
+inefficient as to render decent service out of the question, and that,
+having remaining to it only a money-losing contract for city lighting,
+business men were freely predicting its very sudden dissolution. The
+item, wherein the head-line took up more space than the news, wound up
+with the climax statement that Brightlight stock was being freely
+offered at around forty, with no takers.
+
+To her surprise, Bobby tossed the paper on Johnson's desk and laughed.
+
+"I have been so long prepared for this bit of 'news' that it does not
+shock me much," he said; "moreover, the lower this stock goes the
+cheaper I can buy it!"
+
+"Buy it!" she incredulously exclaimed.
+
+"Exactly," he stated calmly. "I presume that, as heretofore, I'll be
+given another check, and I do not see any better place to put the
+money than right here. I am going to fight!"
+
+"Beg your pardon, sir," said Johnson. "Your last remark was spoken
+loud enough to be taken as general, and I am compelled to give you
+this envelope."
+
+Into his hands Johnson placed a mate to the missive which Bobby had
+not yet opened, and this one was inscribed:
+
+    _To My Son Robert, Upon His Declaration that He Will Take Two
+      Starts at the Same Business_
+
+Bobby looked at the two letters in frowning perplexity, and then
+silently walked into his own office, where Agnes followed him; and it
+was she who closed the door. He sat down at his desk and held that
+last letter of his father's before him in dread. He had so airily
+built up his program; and apprehension told him what this letter might
+contain! Presently he was conscious that Agnes' arm was slipped across
+his shoulder. She was sitting upon the arm of his chair, and had bent
+her cheek upon his head. So they read the curt message:
+
+    "To throw good money after bad is like sprinkling salt on a
+    cut. It only intensifies the pain and doesn't work much of a
+    cure. In your case it is strictly forbidden. You must learn to
+    cut your garment according to your cloth, to bite off only
+    what you can chew, to lift no more than you can carry. Your
+    next start must not be encumbered."
+
+"He's wrong!" declared Bobby savagely.
+
+"But if he is," protested Agnes, "what can you do about it?"
+
+"If his bequests are conditional I shall have to accept the
+conditions; but, nevertheless, I am going to fight; and I am going to
+keep the Brightlight Electric!"
+
+Mechanically he opened the other letter now. The contents were to this
+effect:
+
+    _To My Son Upon His Losing Money in a Public Service
+      Corporation_
+
+    "Every buzz-saw claims some fingers. Of course you had to be a
+    victim, but now you know how to handle a buzz-saw. The first
+    point about it is to treat it with respect. When you realize
+    thoroughly that a buzz-saw is dangerous, half the danger is
+    gone. So, when your wound is healed, you might go ahead and
+    saw, just as a matter of accomplishment. Bobby, how I wish I
+    could talk with you now, for just one little half hour."
+
+Convulsively Bobby crumpled the letter in his hand and the tears
+started to his eyes.
+
+"Bully old dad!" he said brokenly, and opened his watch-case, where
+the grim but humor-loving face of old John Burnit looked up at his
+beloved children.
+
+"And now what are you going to do?" Agnes asked him presently, when
+they were calmer.
+
+"Fight!" he vehemently declared. "For the governor's sake as well as
+my own."
+
+"I just found another letter for you, sir," said Johnson, handing in
+the third of the missives to come in that day's mail from beyond the
+Styx. It was inscribed:
+
+    _To My Son Robert Upon the Occasion of His Declaring Fight
+      Against the Politicians Who Robbed Him_
+
+    "Nothing but public laziness allows dishonest men to control
+    public affairs. Any time an honest man puts up a sincere fight
+    against a crook there's a new fat man in striped clothes. If
+    you have a crawful and want to fight against dirty politics in
+    earnest, jump in, and tell all my old friends to put a bet
+    down on you for me. I'd as soon have you spend in that way the
+    money I made as to buy yachts with it; and I can see where the
+    game might be made as interesting as polo. Go in and win,
+    boy."
+
+"And now what are you going to do?" Agnes asked him, laughing this
+time.
+
+"Fight!" he declared exultantly. "I'm going to fight entirely outside
+of my father's money. I'm going to fight with my own brawn and my own
+brain and my own resources and my own personal following! Why, Agnes,
+that is what the governor has been goading me to do. It is what all
+this is planned for, and the governor, after all, is right!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+SOME EMINENT ARTISTS AMUSE MEESTER BURNIT WHILE HE WAITS
+
+
+One might imagine, after Bobby's heroic declarations, that, like young
+David of old, he would immediately proceed to stride forth and slay
+his giant. There stood his Goliath, full panoplied, sneering, waiting;
+but alas! Bobby had neither sling nor stone. It was all very well to
+announce in fine frenzy that he would smash the Consolidated, destroy
+the political ring, drive Sam Stone and his henchmen out of town and
+wrest all his goods and gear from Silas Trimmer; but until he could
+find a place to plant his foot, descry an opening in the armor and
+procure an adequate weapon, he might just as well bottle his fuming
+and wait; so Bobby waited. In the meantime he stuck very closely to
+the Brightlight office, finding there, in the practice of petty
+economics and the struggle with well-nigh impossible conditions, ample
+food for thought. In a separate bank reposed the new fund of two
+hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which he kept religiously aside
+from the affairs of the Brightlight, and this fund also waited; for
+Bobby was not nearly so feverish to find instant employment for it as
+he had been with the previous ones--though he had endless chances.
+People with the most unheard of schemes seemed to have a peculiar
+scent for unsophisticated money, and not only local experts in the
+gentle art of separation flocked after him, but out of town
+specialists came to him in shoals. To these latter he took great
+satisfaction in displaying the gem of his collection of post-mortem
+letters from old John Burnit:
+
+    "You don't need to go away from home to be skinned; moreover,
+    it isn't patriotic."
+
+That usually stopped them. He was growing quite sophisticated, was
+Bobby, quite able to discern the claws beneath the velvet paw, quite
+suspicious of all the ingenious gentlemen who wanted to make a fortune
+for him; and their frantic attempts to "get his goat," as Biff Bates
+expressed it, had become as good as a play to this wise young person,
+as also to the wise young person's trustee.
+
+Agnes, who was helping Bobby wait, came occasionally to the office of
+the Brightlight on business, and nearly always Bobby had reduced to
+paper some gaudy new scheme that had been proposed to him, over which
+they both might laugh. In great hilarity one morning they were going
+over the prospectus of a plan to reclaim certain swamp lands in
+Florida, when the telephone bell rang, and from Bobby's difficulty in
+understanding and his smile as he hung up the receiver, Agnes knew
+that something else amusing had turned up.
+
+[Illustration: Little me to trot out and find an angel. Are you it?]
+
+"It is from Schmirdonner," he explained as he turned to her again.
+"He's the conductor of the orchestra at the Orpheum, you know. I
+gather from what he says that there are some stranded musicians here
+who probably speak worse English than myself, and he's sending them up
+to me to see about arranging a benefit for them. You'd better wait; it
+might be fun, or you might want to help arrange the benefit."
+
+"No," disclaimed Agnes, laughing and drawing her impedimenta together
+for departure, "I'll leave both the fun and the philanthropy to you. I
+know you're quite able to take care of them. I'll just wait long
+enough to hear how we're to get rid of the water down in Florida. I
+suppose we bore holes in the ground and let it run out."
+
+"By no means," laughed Bobby. "It's no where near so absurdly simple
+as that," and he turned once more to the prospectus which lay open on
+the desk before them.
+
+Before they were through with it there suddenly erupted into the outer
+office, where Johnson and Applerod glared at each other day by day
+over their books, a pandemonium of gabbling. Agnes, with a little
+exclamation of dismay at the time she had wasted, rose in a hurry, and
+immediately after she passed through the door there bounded into the
+room a rotund little German with enormous and extremely thick glasses
+upon his knob of a nose, a grizzled mustache that poked straight up on
+both sides of that knob, and an absurd toupee that flared straight out
+all around on top of the bald spot to which it was pasted. Behind him
+trailed a pudgy man of so exactly the Herr Professor's height and
+build that it seemed as if they were cast in the same spherical mold,
+but he was much younger and had jet black hair and a jet black
+mustache of such tiny proportions as to excite amazement and even awe.
+Still behind him was as unusually large young woman, fully a head
+taller than either of the two men, who had an abundance of jet black
+hair, and was dressed in a very rich robe and wrap, both of which were
+somewhat soiled and worn.
+
+"Signor R-r-r-r-icardo, der grosse tenore--Mees-ter Burnit,"
+introduced the rotund little German, with a deep bow commensurate with
+the greatness of the great tenor. "Signorina Car-r-r-avaggio--Mees-ter
+Burnit. I, Mees-ter Burnit, _Ich bin_ Brofessor Frühlingsvogel."
+
+Bobby, for the lack of any other handy greeting, merely bowed and
+smiled, whereupon Signorina Caravaggio, stepping into a breach which
+otherwise would certainly have been embarrassing, seated herself
+comfortably upon the edge of Bobby's desk and swung one large but
+shapely foot while she explained matters.
+
+"It's like this, Mr. Burnit," she confidently began: "when that
+dried-up little heathen, Matteo, who tried to run the Neapolitan Grand
+Opera Company with stage money, got us this far on a tour that is a
+disgrace to the profession, he had a sudden notion that he needed
+ocean air; so he took what few little dollars were in the treasury and
+hopped right on into New York.
+
+"Here we are, then, at the place we were merely 'to make connections,'
+two hundred miles from our next booking and without enough money among
+us to buy a postage stamp. We haven't seen a cent of salary for six
+weeks, and the only thing we can do is to seize the props and scenery
+and costumes, see if they can be sold, and disband, unless somebody
+gallops to the rescue in a hurry. Professor Frühlingsvogel happened to
+know another Dutchman here who conducts an orchestra at the Orpheum,
+and he sent us to you. He said you knew all the swell set and could
+start a benefit going if anybody in town could."
+
+"Yes," said Bobby, smiling; "Schmirdonner telephoned me just a few
+minutes ago that the Herr Professor Frühlingsvogel would be up to see
+me, and asked me to do what I could. How many of you are there?"
+
+"Seventy-three," promptly returned Signorina Caravaggio, "and all
+hungry. Forty singers and an orchestra of thirty--seventy--besides
+props and the stage manager and Herr Frühlingsvogel, who is the
+musical director."
+
+"Where are you stopping?" asked Bobby, aghast at the size of the
+contract that was offered him.
+
+"We're not," laughed the great Italian songstress. "We all went up and
+registered at a fourth-rate place they call the Hotel Larken, but
+that's as far as we got, for we were told before the ink was dry that
+we'd have to come across before we got a single biscuit; so there they
+are, scattered about the S. R. O. parts of that little two-by-twice
+hotel, waiting for little me to trot out and find an angel. Are you
+it?"
+
+"I can't really promise what I can do," hesitated Bobby, who had never
+been able to refuse assistance where it seemed to be needed; "but I'll
+run down to the club and see some of the boys about getting up a
+subscription concert for you. How much help will you need?"
+
+"Enough to land us on little old Manhattan Island."
+
+"And there are over seventy of you to feed and take care of for, say,
+three days, and then to pay railroad fares for," mused Bobby, a little
+startled as the magnitude of the demand began to dawn upon him. "Then
+there's the music-hall, advertising, printing and I suppose a score of
+other incidentals. You need quite a pile of money. However, I'll go
+down to the club at lunch time and see what I can do for you."
+
+"I knew you would the minute I looked at you," said the Signorina
+confidently, which was a compliment or not, the way one looked at it.
+"But, say; I've got a better scheme than that, one that will let you
+make a little money instead of contributing. I understand the Orpheum
+has next week dark, through yesterday's failure of The Married
+Bachelor Comedy Company. Why don't you get the Orpheum for us and back
+our show for the week? We have twelve operas in our repertoire. The
+scenery and props are very poor, the costumes are only half-way decent
+and the chorus is the rattiest-looking lot you ever saw in your life;
+but they can sing. They went into the discard on account of their
+faces, poor things. Suppose you come over and have a look. They'd melt
+you to tears."
+
+"That won't be necessary," hastily objected Bobby; "but I'll meet a
+lot of the fellows at lunch, and afterward I'll let you know."
+
+"After lunch!" exclaimed the Signorina with a most expressive placing
+of her hands over her belt, whereat the Herr Professor and Der Grosse
+Tenore both turned most wistfully to Bobby to see what effect this
+weighty plea might have upon him. "Lunch!" she repeated. "If you would
+carry a fork-full of steaming spaghetti into the Hotel Larken at this
+minute you'd start a riot. Why, Mr. Burnit, if you're going to do
+anything for us you've got to get into action, because we've been up
+since seven and we still want our breakfasts."
+
+"Breakfast!" exclaimed Bobby, looking hastily at his watch. It was now
+eleven-thirty. "Come on; we'll go right over to the Larken, wherever
+that may be," and he exhibited as much sudden haste as if he had seen
+seventy people actually starving before his very eyes.
+
+Just as the quartette stepped out of the office, Biff Bates, just
+coming in, bustled up to Bobby with:
+
+"Can I see you just a minute, Bobby? Kid Mills is coming around to my
+place this afternoon."
+
+"Haven't time just now, Biff," said Bobby; "but jump into the machine
+with us and I'll do the 'chauffing.' That will make room for all of
+us. We can talk on the way to the Hotel Larken. Do you know where it
+is?"
+
+"Me?" scorned Biff. "If there is an inch of this old town I can't put
+my finger on in the dark, blindfolded, I'll have that inch dug out and
+thrown away."
+
+At the curb, with keen enjoyment of the joke of it all, Bobby gravely
+introduced Mr. Biff Bates, ex-champion middle-weight, to these
+imported artists, but, very much to his surprise, Signorina Caravaggio
+and Professor Bates struck up an instant and animated conversation
+anent Biff's well-known and justly-famous victory over Slammer Young,
+and so interested did they become in this conversation that instead of
+Biff's sitting up in the front seat, as Bobby had intended, the
+eminent instructor of athletics manoeuvered the Herr Professor into
+that post of honor and climbed into the tonneau with Signor Ricardo
+and the Signorina, with the latter of whom he talked most volubly all
+the way over, to the evidently vast annoyance of Der Grosse Tenore.
+
+The confusion of tongues must have been a very tame and quiet affair
+as compared to the polyglot chattering which burst upon Bobby's ears
+when he entered the small lobby of the Hotel Larken. The male members
+of the Neapolitan Grand Opera Company, almost to a man, were smoking
+cigarettes. There were swarthy little men and swarthy big men, there
+seeming to be no medium sizes among them, while the women were the
+most wooden-featured lot that Bobby had ever encountered, and the
+entire crowd was swathed in gay but dingy clothing of the most
+nondescript nature. Really, had Bobby not been assured that they were
+grand opera singers he would have taken them for a lot of immigrants,
+for they had that same unhappy expression of worry. The principals
+could be told from the chorus and the members of the orchestra from
+the fact that they stood aloof from the rest and from one another,
+gloomily nursing their grievances that they, each one the most
+illustrious member of the company, should thus be put to
+inconvenience! It was a monstrous thing that they, the possessors of
+glorious voices which the entire world should at once fall down and
+worship, should be actually hungry and out of money! It was, oh,
+unbelievable, atrocious, barbarous, positively inhuman!
+
+With the entrance of the Signorina Caravaggio, bearing triumphantly
+with her the neatly-dressed and altogether money-like Bobby Burnit,
+one hundred and forty wistful eyes, mostly black and dark brown, were
+immediately focused in eager interest upon the possible savior. Behind
+the desk, perplexed and distracted but still grimly firm, stood frowzy
+Widow Larken herself, drawn and held to the post of duty by this vast
+and unusual emergency. Not one room had Madam Larken saved for all
+these alien warblers, not one morsel of food had she loosed from her
+capacious kitchen; and yet not one member of the company had she
+permitted to stray outside her doors while Signorina Caravaggio and
+Signor Ricardo and the Herr Professor Frühlingsvogel had gone out to
+secure an angel, two stout porters being kept at the front door to
+turn back the restless. If provision could be made to pay the bills of
+this caravan, the Widow Larken--who was shaped like a pillow with a
+string tied around it and wore a face like a huge, underdone apple
+dumpling--was too good a business woman to overlook that opportunity.
+Bobby took one sweeping glance at that advancing circle of one hundred
+and forty eyes and turned to Widow Larken.
+
+"I will be responsible for the hotel bills of these people until
+further notice," said he.
+
+The Widow Larken, looking intently at Bobby's scarf-pin, relented no
+whit in her uncompromising attitude.
+
+"And who might you be?" she demanded, with a calm brow and cold
+determination.
+
+"I am Robert J. Burnit," said Bobby. "I'll give you a written order if
+you like--or a check."
+
+The Widow Larken's uncompromising expression instantly melted, but she
+did not smile--she grinned. Bobby knew precisely the cause of that
+amused expression, but if he had needed an interpreter, he had one at
+his elbow in the person of Biff Bates, who looked up at him with a
+reflection of the same grin.
+
+"They're all next to you, Bobby," he observed. "The whole town knows
+that you're the real village goat."
+
+The Widow Larken did not answer Bobby directly. She called back to a
+blue-overall-clad porter at the end of the lobby:
+
+"Open the dining-room doors, Michael."
+
+Signorina Caravaggio immediately said a few guttural words in German
+to Professor Frühlingsvogel, a few limpid words in Italian to Signor
+Ricardo a few crisp words in French to Madame Villenauve, a nervous
+but rather attractive little woman with piercing black eyes. The
+singers of other languages did not wait to be informed; they joined
+the general stampede toward the ravishing paradise of midday
+breakfast, and as the last of them vacated the lobby, the principals
+no whit behind the humble members of the chorus in crowding and
+jamming through that doorway, Bobby breathed a sigh of relief. Only
+the Signorina was left to him, and Bobby hesitated just a moment as it
+occurred to him that, perhaps, a more personal entertainment was
+expected by this eminent songstress. Biff Bates, however, relieved him
+of his dilemma.
+
+"While you're gone down to see the boys at the Idlers' Club," said
+Biff, "I'm going to take Miss Carry--Miss--Miss--"
+
+"Caravaggio," interrupted the Signorina with a repetition of a laugh
+which had convinced Bobby that, after all, she might be a singer,
+though her speaking voice gave no trace of it.
+
+"Carrie for mine," insisted Biff with a confident grin. "I'm going to
+take Miss Carrie out to lunch some place where they don't serve
+prunes. I guess the Hotel Spender will do for us."
+
+Bobby surveyed Biff with an indulgent smile.
+
+"Thanks," said he. "That will give me time to see what I can do."
+
+"You take my advice, Mr. Burnit," earnestly interposed the Signorina.
+"Don't bother with your friends. Go and see the manager of the Orpheum
+and ask him about that open date. Ask him if he thinks it wouldn't be
+a good investment for you to back us."
+
+Biff, the conservative; Biff, whose vote was invariably for the
+negative on any proposition involving an investment of Bobby's funds,
+unexpectedly added his weight for the affirmative.
+
+"It's a good stunt, Bobby. Go to it," he counseled, and the Caravaggio
+smiled down at him.
+
+Again Bobby laughed.
+
+"All right, Biff," said he. "I'll hunt up the manager of the Orpheum
+right away."
+
+In his machine he conveyed Biff and the prima donna to the Hotel
+Spender, and then drove to the Orpheum.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+WITH THE RELUCTANT CONSENT OF AGNES, BOBBY BECOMES A PATRON OF MUSIC
+
+
+The manager of the Orpheum was a strange evolution. He was a man who
+had spent a lifetime in the show business, running first a concert
+hall that "broke into the papers" every Sunday morning with an account
+of from two to seven fights the night before, then an equally
+disreputable "burlesque" house, the broad attractions of which
+appealed to men and boys only. To this, as he made money, he added the
+cheapest and most blood-curdling melodrama theater in town, then a
+"regular" house of the second grade. In his career he had endured two
+divorce cases of the most unattractive sort, and, among quiet and
+conventional citizens, was supposed to have horns and a barbed tail
+that snapped sparks where it struck on the pavement. When he first
+purchased the Orpheum Theater, the most exclusive playhouse of the
+city, he began to appear in its lobby every night in a dinner-coat or
+a dress-suit, silk topper and all, with an almost modest diamond stud
+in his white shirt-front; and ladies, as they came in, asked in awed
+whispers of their husbands: "Is _that_ Dan Spratt?" Some few who had
+occasion to meet him went away gasping: "Why, the man seems really
+nice!" Others of "the profession," about whom the public never knew,
+spoke his name with tears of gratitude.
+
+Mr. Spratt, immersed in troubles of his own, scarcely looked up as
+Bobby entered, and only grunted in greeting.
+
+"Spratt," began Bobby, who knew the man quite well through "sporting"
+events engineered by Biff Bates, "the Neapolitan Grand Opera Company
+is stranded here, and--"
+
+"Where are they?" interrupted Spratt eagerly, all his abstraction
+gone.
+
+"At the Hotel Larken," began Bobby again. "I--"
+
+"Have they got their props and scenery?"
+
+"Everything, I understand," said Bobby. "I came around to see you--"
+
+"Who's running the show?" demanded Spratt.
+
+"Their manager decamped with the money--with what little there was,"
+explained Bobby, "and they came to me by accident. I understand you
+have an open date next week."
+
+"It's not open now," declared Spratt. "The date is filled with the
+Neapolitan Grand Opera Company."
+
+"There doesn't seem to be much use of my talking, then," said Bobby,
+smiling.
+
+"Not much," said Spratt. "They're a good company, but I've noticed
+from the reports that they've been badly managed. The Dago that
+brought them over didn't know the show business in this country and
+tried to run the circus himself; and, of course, they've gone on the
+rocks. It's great luck that they landed here. I just heard a bit ago
+that they were in town. I suppose they're flat broke."
+
+"Why, yes," said Bobby. "I just went up to the Hotel Larken and said
+I'd be responsible for their hotel bill."
+
+"Oh," said Spratt. "Then you're backing them for their week here."
+
+"Well, I'm not quite sure about that," hesitated Bobby.
+
+"If you don't, I will," offered Spratt. "There's a long line of
+full-dress Willies here that'll draw their week's wages in advance to
+attend grand opera in cabs. At two and a half for the first sixteen
+rows they'll pack the house for the week, and every diamond in the
+hock-shops will get an airing for the occasion. But you saw it first,
+Burnit, and I won't interfere."
+
+"Well, I don't know," Bobby again hesitated. "I haven't fully--"
+
+"Go ahead," urged Spratt heartily. "It's your pick-up and I'll get
+mine. Hey, Spencer!"
+
+A thin young man, with hair so light that he seemed to have no hair at
+all and no eyebrows, came in.
+
+"We've booked the Neapolitan Grand Opera Company for next week. Have
+they got Caravaggio and Ricardo with them?" he asked, turning abruptly
+to Bobby.
+
+Bobby, with a smile, nodded his head.
+
+"All right, Spence; get busy on some press stuff for the afternoon
+papers. You can fake notices about them from what you know. Use
+two-inch streamers clear across the pages, then you can get some fresh
+stuff and the repertoire to-night for the morning papers. Play it up
+strong, Spence. Use plenty of space; and, say, tell Billy to get ready
+for a three o'clock rehearsal. Now, Burnit, let's go up to the Larken
+and make arrangements."
+
+"We might just as well wait an hour," counseled Bobby. "The only one I
+found in the crowd who could speak English was Signorina Caravaggio."
+
+"I know her," said Spratt. "Her other name's Nora McGinnis. Smart
+woman, too, and straight as a string; and sing! Why, that big ox can
+sing a bird off a tree."
+
+"She's just gone over to lunch with Biff Bates at the Spender,"
+observed Bobby, "and we'd better wait for her. She seems to be the
+leading spirit."
+
+"Of course she is. Let's go right over to the Spender."
+
+Biff Bates did not seem overly pleased when his tête-à-tête luncheon
+was interrupted by Bobby and Mr. Spratt, but the Signorina Nora very
+quickly made it apparent that business was business. Arrangements were
+promptly made to attach the carload of effects for back salaries due
+the company, and to lease these to Bobby for the week for a nominal
+sum. Bobby was to pay the regular schedule of salaries for that week
+and make what profit he could. A rehearsal of _Carmen_ was to be
+called that afternoon at three, and a repertoire was arranged.
+
+Feeling very much exhilarated after all this, Bobby drove out in his
+automobile after lunch to see Agnes Elliston. He found that young lady
+and Aunt Constance about to start for a drive, their carriage being
+already at the door, but without any ceremony he bundled them into his
+machine instead.
+
+"Purely as my trustee," he explained, "Agnes must inspect my new
+business venture."
+
+Aunt Constance smiled.
+
+"The trusteeship of Agnes hasn't done you very much good so far," she
+observed. "As a matter of fact, if she wanted to build up a reputation
+as an expert trustee, I don't think she could accomplish much by
+printing in her circulars the details of her past stewardship."
+
+"I don't want her to work up a reputation as a trustee," retorted
+Bobby. "She suits me just as she is, and I'm inclined to thank the
+governor for having loaded her down with the job."
+
+"I'm becoming reconciled to it myself," admitted Agnes, smiling up at
+him. "Really, I have great faith that one day you will learn how to
+take care of money--if the money holds out that long. What is the new
+venture, Bobby?"
+
+He grinned quite cheerfully.
+
+"I am about to become an angel," he said quite solemnly.
+
+Aunt Constance shook her head.
+
+"No, Bobby," she said kindly; "there _are_ spots, you know, where
+angels fear to tread."
+
+But Agnes took the declaration with no levity whatever.
+
+"You don't mean in a theatrical sense?" she inquired.
+
+"_In_ a theatrical sense," he insisted. "I am about to back the
+Neapolitan Grand Opera Company."
+
+"Why, Bobby!" objected Agnes, aghast. "You surely don't mean it! I
+never thought you would contemplate anything so preposterous as that.
+I thought it was to be only a benefit!"
+
+"It's only a temporary arrangement," he reassured her, laughing that
+he had been taken so seriously. "I'm arranging so that they can earn
+their way out of town; that's all. I am taking you down now to see
+their first rehearsal."
+
+"I don't care to go," she declared, in a tone so piqued that Bobby
+turned to her in mute astonishment.
+
+Aunt Constance laughed at his look of utter perplexity.
+
+"How little you understand, Bobby," she said. "Don't you see that
+Agnes is merely jealous?"
+
+"Indeed not!" Agnes indignantly denied. "That is an idea more absurd
+than the fact that Bobby should go into such an enterprise at all.
+However, since I lay myself open to such a suspicion I shall offer no
+further objection to going."
+
+Bobby looked at her curiously and then he carefully refrained from
+chuckling, for Aunt Constance, though joking, had told the truth.
+Instant visions of dazzling sopranos, of mezzos and contraltos, of
+angelic voices and of vast beauty and exquisite gowning, had flashed
+in appalling procession before her mental vision. The idea, in the
+face of the appalling actuality, was so rich that Bobby pursued it no
+further lest he spoil it, and talked about the weather and equally
+inane topics the rest of the way.
+
+It was not until they had turned into the narrow alley at the side of
+the Orpheum, and from that to the still more narrow alley at its rear,
+that the zest of adventure began to make amends to Agnes for certain
+disagreeable moments of the ride. At the stage door a particularly
+bewildered-looking man with a rolling eye and a weak jaw, rendered
+limp and helpless by the polyglot aliens who had flocked upon him,
+strickenly let them in, to grope their way, amid what seemed an
+inextricable confusion, but was in reality the perfection of
+orderliness, upon the dim stage, beyond which stretched, in vast
+emptiness, the big, black auditorium. Upon the stage, chattering in
+shrill voices, were the forty members of the company, still in their
+queer clothing, while down in front, where shaded lights--seeming dull
+and discouraged amid all the surrounding darkness--streamed upon the
+music, were the members of the orchestra, chattering just as volubly.
+The general note was quite different in pitch from the one Bobby had
+heard that morning, for since he had seen them the members of the
+organization had been fed, and life looked cheerful.
+
+Wandering at a loss among these people, and trying in the dim twilight
+to find some face that he knew, the ears of Bobby and his party were
+suddenly assailed by an extremely harsh and penetrating voice which
+shouted:
+
+"Clear!"
+
+This was accompanied by a sharp clap from a pair of very broad hands.
+The chattering suddenly took on a rapid crescendo, ascending a full
+third in the scale and then dying abruptly in a little high falsetto
+shriek; and Bobby, with a lady upon either arm, found his little trio
+immediately alone in the center of the stage, a row of dim footlights
+cutting off effectually any view into the vast emptiness of the
+auditorium.
+
+"Hey, you; _clear_!" came the harsh voice again, accompanied by
+another sharp clap of the hands, and a bundle of intense fighting
+energy bounced out from the right tormentor wing, in the shape of a
+gaunt, fiercely-mustached and entirely bald man of about forty-five,
+who appeared perpetually to be in the last stages of distraction.
+
+"Who do you weesh to see?" demanded the gaunt man, in a very decided
+foreign accent. He had made a very evident attempt to be quite polite
+indeed, and forgiving of people who did not know enough to spring for
+the wings at the sound of that magic word, "Clear!"
+
+Any explanations that Bobby might have tried to make were happily
+prevented by a voice from the yawning blackness--a quiet voice, a
+voice of authority, the voice of Mr. Spratt.
+
+"Come right down in front here, Burnit. Jimmy, show the gentleman how
+to get down."
+
+"Thees way," snapped the gaunt man, with evident relief but no
+abatement whatever of his briskness, and he very hastily walked over
+to the right wings, where Jimmy, the house electrician, piloted the
+trio with equal relief through the clustered mass of singers to the
+door behind the boxes. As they emerged into the auditorium the raucous
+voice of the gaunt man was heard to shout: "All ready now. _Carmen_
+all ze way through." An apparent repetition of which statement he
+immediately made with equal raucousness in two or three languages.
+There was a call to Caravaggio in English, to Ricardo and the Signers
+Fivizzano and Rivaroli in Italian, to Messrs. Philippi and
+Schaerbeeken in Spanish and Dutch, to Madam Villenauve in French, to
+Madam Kadanoff in Russian, and to Mademoiselle Török in Hungarian, to
+know if they were ready; then, in rough but effective German, he
+informed the Herr Professor down in the orchestra that all was
+prepared, clapped his hands, cried "Overture," and immediately plunged
+to the right upper entrance, marked by two chairs, where, with shrill
+objurgations, he began instructing and drilling the Soldiers' Chorus
+out of certain remembered awkwardnesses, as Herr Frühlingsvogel's
+baton fell for the overture.
+
+Shorn of all the glamor that scenic environment, light effects and
+costume could give them, it was a distinct shock to Agnes to gaze in
+wondering horror from each one of those amazing faces to the other,
+and when the cigarette girls trooped out, amazement gave way to
+downright consternation. Nevertheless, she cheered up considerably,
+and the apex of her cheerfulness was reached when the oversized
+Signorina Caravaggio sang, very musically, however, the rôle of the
+petite and piquant Carmen. It was then that, sitting by Bobby in the
+darkness, Agnes observed with a sigh of content:
+
+"Your trustee quite approves, Bobby. I don't mind being absolutely
+truthful for once in my life. I _was_ a little jealous. But how could
+I be? Really, their voices are fine."
+
+Mr. Spratt, too, was of that opinion, and he came back to Bobby to say
+so most emphatically.
+
+"They'll do," said he. "After the first night they'll have this town
+crazy. If the seat sale don't go right for Monday we'll pack the house
+with paper, and the rest of the week will go big. Just hear that
+Ricardo! The little bit of a sawed-off toad sings like a canary. If
+you don't look at 'em, they're great."
+
+They _were_ superb. From the throats of that ill-favored chorus there
+came divine harmony, smooth, evenly-balanced, exhilarating, almost
+flawless, and as the great musical poem of passion unfolded and the
+magnificent aria of Don José was finished in the second act, the
+little group of listeners down in front burst into involuntary
+applause, to which there was but one dissenting voice. This voice,
+suddenly evolving out of the darkness at Bobby's side, ejaculated with
+supreme disgust:
+
+"Well, what do you think of that! Why, that fat little fishworm of a
+Dago is actually gone bug-house over Miss McGinnis," a fact which had
+been obvious to all of them the minute small Ricardo began to sing his
+wonderful love song to large Caravaggio.
+
+The rest of them had found only amusement in the fact, but to Biff
+Bates there was nothing funny about this. He sat in speechless
+disapproval throughout the balance of that much-interrupted
+performance, wherein Professor Frühlingsvogel, now and then, stopped
+his music with a crash to shriek an excited direction that it was all
+wrong, that it was execrable, that it was a misdemeanor, a crime, a
+murder to sing it in that way! The passage must be all sung over; or,
+at other times, the gaunt stage director, whose name was Monsieur
+Noire, would rush with a hoarse howl down to Herr Professor, order him
+to stop the music, and, turning, berate some unfortunate performer who
+had defied the conventions of grand opera by acting quite naturally.
+On the whole, however, it was a very creditable performance, and
+Bobby's advisers gave the project their unqualified approval.
+
+"It is really a commendable thing," Aunt Constance complacently
+announced, "to encourage music of this order, and to furnish such a
+degree of cultivation for the masses."
+
+It was a worthy project indeed. As for the company itself there could
+be no question that it was a good one. No one expected acting in grand
+opera, no one expected that the performers would be physically
+adaptable to their parts. The voice! The voice was all. Even Agnes
+admitted that it was a splendid thing to be a patron of the fine arts;
+but Bobby, in his profound new wisdom and his thorough conversion to
+strictly commercial standards, said with vast iconoclasm:
+
+"You are overlooking the main point. I am not so anxious to become a
+patron of the fine arts as I am to make money," with which terrible
+heresy he left them at home, with a thorough understanding that he was
+quite justified in his new venture; though next morning, when he
+confided the fact to Johnson, that worthy, with a sigh, presented him
+with an appropriate missive from among those in the gray envelopes
+left in his care by the late John Burnit. It was inscribed:
+
+    _To My Son Robert, Upon His Deciding to Back a Theatrical
+      Venture_
+
+    "Sooner or later, every man thinks it would be a fine thing to
+    run a show, and the earlier in life it happens the sooner a
+    man will have it out of his system. I tried it once myself,
+    and I know. So good luck to you, my boy, and here's hoping
+    that you don't get stung too badly."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+STILL WITH THE RELUCTANT CONSENT OF AGNES, BOBBY INVESTS IN THE FINE
+ARTS
+
+
+That week's "season of grand opera" was an unqualified success,
+following closely the lines laid down by the experienced Mr. Spratt.
+Caravaggio and Ricardo and Philippi and Villenauve became household
+words, after the Monday night performance of _Carmen_, and for the
+balance of the week shining carriages rolled up to the entrance of the
+Orpheum, disgorging load after load of high-hatted gentlemen and
+long-plumed ladies. Before the end of the engagement it was definitely
+known that Bobby's investment would yield a profit, even deducting for
+the days of idleness during which he had been compelled to support the
+rehearsing company. The powers of darkness thereupon set vigorously to
+work upon him to carry the company on through the rest of its season.
+
+It was then that the storm broke. Against his going further with the
+company Agnes Elliston interposed an objection so decided and so
+unflattering that the _entente cordiale_ at the Elliston home was
+strained dangerously near to the breaking point, and in this she was
+aided and abetted by Aunt Constance, who ridiculed him, and by Uncle
+Dan Elliston, who took him confidentially for a grave and hardheaded
+remonstrance. Chalmers, Johnson, and even Applerod wrestled with him
+in spirit; his friends at the Idlers' Club "guyed" him unmercifully,
+and even Biff Bates, though his support was earnestly sought by the
+Signorina Caravaggio, also counseled him roughly against it, and
+through it all Bobby was made to feel that he was a small boy who had
+proposed to eat a peck of green apples and then go in swimming in
+dog-days. Another note from his father, handed to him by the faithful
+and worried Johnson, was the deciding straw:
+
+    _To My Son Robert, About That Theatrical Venture_
+
+    "When a man who knows nothing of the business backs a show,
+    there's usually a woman at the bottom of it--and that kind of
+    woman is mostly rank poison to a normal man, even if she is a
+    good woman. No butterfly ever goes back into its chrysalis and
+    becomes a grub again. Let birds of a feather flock together,
+    Bobby."
+
+That unfortunate missive, for once shooting so wide the mark, pushed
+Bobby over the edge. There was a streak of stubbornness in him which,
+well developed and turned into proper channels, was likely to be very
+valuable, but until he learned to use that stubbornness in the right
+way it bade fair to plunge him into more difficulties than he could
+extricate himself from with profit. Even Agnes, reading that note,
+indignantly agreed with Bobby that he was being unjustly misread.
+
+"It is absurd," he explained to her. "This is the first
+dividend-paying investment I have been able to make so far, and I'm
+going to keep it up just as long as I can make money out of it. I'd be
+very foolish if I didn't. Besides, this is just a little in-between
+flyer, while I'm conservatively waiting for a good, legitimate
+opening. It can take, at most, but a very small part of my two hundred
+and fifty thousand."
+
+Agnes, though defending him against his father, was still reluctant
+about the trip, but suddenly, with a curious smile, she withdrew all
+objections and even urged him to go ahead.
+
+"Bobby," said she, still with that curious smile and strangely shining
+eyes, and putting both her hands upon his shoulders, "I see that you
+must go ahead with this. I--I guess it will be good for you. Somehow,
+I think that this is to be your last folly, that you are really
+learning that the world is not all polo and honor-bets. So go
+ahead--and I'll wait here."
+
+He could not know how much that hurt her. He only knew, after she had
+talked more lightly of his trip, that he had her full and free
+consent, and, highly elated with his first successful business
+venture, he took up the contracts of the Neapolitan Grand Opera
+Company where Signor Matteo, the decamped manager and producer, had
+dropped them. The members of the company having attached the scenery
+and effects for back salaries, sold them to Bobby for ten thousand
+dollars, and he immediately found himself confronted by demands for
+settlements, with the alternative of damage suits, from the two cities
+in which the company had been booked for the two past weeks.
+
+Had Bobby not bound himself irrevocably to contracts which made him
+liable for the salaries of every member of this company for the next
+twenty weeks, he would have withdrawn instantly at the first hint of
+these suits; but, now that he was in for it, he promptly compromised
+them at a rate which made Spratt furious.
+
+"If I'd thought," said Spratt angrily in the privacy of the Orpheum
+office, "that you were sucker enough to get roped in for the full
+season, I'd have tossed you out of the running for this week. This
+game is a bigger gamble than the Stock Exchange. The smartest
+producers in the business never know when they have a winner or a
+loser. More than that, while all actors are hard to handle, of all the
+combinations on earth, a grand opera company is the worst. I'll bet a
+couple of cold bottles that before you're a week on the road you'll
+have leaks in your dirigible over some crazy dramatic stunts that are
+not in the book of any opera of the Neapolitan repertoire."
+
+The prediction was so true that it was proved that very night, which
+was Friday, during the repetition of _Carmen_. It seemed that Biff
+Bates, by means of the supreme dominance of the Caravaggio, had been
+made free of the stage, a rare privilege, and one that enabled Biff to
+spend his time, under unusual and romantic circumstances, very much in
+the company of the Celtic Signorina; all of which was very much to the
+annoyance, distress and fury of Signor Ricardo, especially on _Carmen_
+night. At all other times the great Ricardo thought very well indeed
+of the Signorina Nora, only being in any degree near to unfaithfulness
+when, on _Aïda_ nights, he sang to vivacious little Madam Villenauve;
+but on _Carmen_ nights he was devotedly, passionately, madly in love
+with the divine Car-r-r-r-avaggio! Else how could he sing the
+magnificent second act aria? Life without her on those nights would be
+a hollow mockery, the glance of any possible rival in her direction a
+desecration. Why, he even had to restrain himself to keep from doing
+actual damage to Philippi, who, though on the shady side of
+forty-five, still sang a most dashing Escamillo; nor was his jealousy
+less poignant because Philippi and Caravaggio were sworn enemies.
+
+Thus it may be understood--by any one, at least, who has ever loved
+ecstatically and fervidly and even hectically, like the great
+Ricardo--how on Monday and Wednesday nights and the Thursday matinée,
+all of which were Caravaggio performances, he resented Biff's
+presence. From dark corners he more darkly watched them chatting in
+frank enjoyment of each other's company; he made unexpected darts in
+front of their very eyes to greet them with the most alarming scowls;
+and because he insolently brushed the shoulder of the peaceably
+inclined and self-sure Biff upon divers occasions, and Biff made no
+sign of resentment, he imagined that Biff trembled in his boots
+whenever he noted the approach of the redoubtable Ricardo with his
+infinitesimal but ferocious mustachios. Great, then, was his wonder,
+to say nothing of his rage, when Biff, after all the scowls and
+shoulderings that he had received on Thursday, actually came around
+for Friday night's _Carmen_ performance!
+
+Even before the fierce Ricardo had gone into his dressing-room he was
+already taking upon himself the deadly character of Don José, and his
+face surged red with fury when he saw Biff Bates, gaily laughing as if
+no doom impended, come in at the stage door with the equally gay and
+care-free Caravaggio. But after Signor Ricardo had donned the costume
+and the desperateness of the brigadier Don José--it was then that the
+fury sank into his soul! And that fury boiled and seethed as, during
+the first and second acts, he found in the wings Signorina
+Car-r-r-r-r-r-avaggio absorbed in pleasant but very significant chat
+with his deadly enemy, the crude, unmusical, inartistic, soulless
+Biffo de Bates-s-s-s! But, ah! There was another act to come, the
+third act, at the beginning of which the property man handed him the
+long, sharp, wicked-looking, bloodthirsty knife with which he was to
+fight Escamillo, and with which in the fourth act he was to kill
+Carmen. The mere possession of that knife wrought the great tenor's
+soul to gory tragedy; so much so that immediately after the third act
+curtain calls he rushed directly to the spot where he knew the
+contemptible Signor Biffo de Bates-s-s-s to be standing, and with
+shrill Latin imprecations flourished that keen, glistening blade
+before the eyes of the very much astounded Biff.
+
+For a moment, thoroughly incredulous, Biff refused to believe it,
+until a second demonstration compelled him to acknowledge that the
+great Ricardo actually meant threatening things toward himself. When
+this conviction forced its way upon him, Biff calmly reached out, and,
+with a grip very much like a bear-trap, seized Signor Ricardo by the
+forearm of the hand which held the knife. With his unengaged hand Biff
+then smacked the Signor Ricardo right severely on the wrist.
+
+"You don't mean it, you know, Sig-nor Garlic," he calmly observed. "If
+I thought you did I'd smack you on both wrists. Why, you little red
+balloon, I ain't afraid of any mutt on earth that carries a knife like
+that, as long as I got my back to the wall."
+
+Still holding the putty-like Signor by the forearm, he delicately
+abstracted from his clasp the huge knife, and, folding it up gravely,
+handed it back to him; then deliberately he turned his back on the
+Signor and pushed his way through the delightedly horror-stricken
+emotionalists who had gathered at the fray, and strolled over to where
+Signorina Caravaggio had stood an interested and mirth-shaken
+observer.
+
+"You mustn't think all Italians are like that, Biff," she said, her
+first impulse, as always, to see justice done; "but singers are a
+different breed. I don't think he's bluffing, altogether. If he got a
+real good chance some place in the dark, and was sure that he wouldn't
+be caught, he might use a stiletto on you."
+
+"If he ever does I'll slap his forehead," said Biff. "But say, he uses
+that cleaver again in the show?"
+
+The Signorina Nora shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"He's supposed to stab me with it in this next act."
+
+"He is!" exclaimed Biff. "Well, just so he don't make any mistake I'm
+going over and paste him one."
+
+It was not necessary, for Signor Ricardo, after studying the matter
+over and seeing no other way out of it, proceeded to have a fit. No
+one, not even the illustrious Signor, could tell just how much of that
+fit was deliberate and artificial, and just how much was due to an
+overwrought sensitive organization, but certain it was that the Signor
+Ricardo was quite unable to go on with the performance, and Monsieur
+Noire himself, as agitated as a moment before the great Ricardo had
+been, frantically rushed up to Biff and grabbed him roughly by the
+shoulders.
+
+"Too long," shrieked he, "we have let you be annoying the artists, by
+reason of the Caravaggio. But now you shall do the skidooing."
+
+With a laugh Biff looked back over his shoulder at the Caravaggio, and
+permitted Monsieur Noire to eject him bodily from the stage door upon
+the alley.
+
+The next morning, owing to the prompt action and foresightedness of
+Spratt, all the papers contained the very pretty story that the great
+Ricardo had succumbed to his own intensity of emotions after the third
+act of _Carmen_, and had been unable to go on, giving way to the
+scarcely less great Signor Dulceo. That same morning Bobby was
+confronted by the first of a long series of similar dilemmas. The
+Signorina Caravaggio must leave the company or Signor Ricardo would do
+so. No stage was big enough to hold the two; moreover, Ricardo meant
+to have the heart's blood of Signor Biffo de Bates-s-s-s!
+
+With a sigh, Bobby, out of his ignorance and independence, took the
+only possible course to preserve peace, and emphatically told Signor
+Ricardo to pack up and go as quickly as possible, which he went away
+vowing to do. Naturally the great tenor thought better of it after
+that, and though he had already been dropped from the cast of _Il
+Trovatore_ on Saturday afternoon, he reported just the same. And he
+went on with the company.
+
+It was not until they went upon the road, however, that Bobby fully
+realized what a lot of irresponsible, fretful, peevish children he had
+upon his hands. With the exception of serene Nora McGinnis, every one
+of the principals was at daggers drawn with all the others, sulking
+over the least advantage obtained by any one else, and accepting
+advantage of their own as only a partial payment of their supreme
+rank. The one most at war with her own world was Madam Villenauve,
+whose especial _bête noire_ was the MeeGeenees, whom, by no
+possibility, could she ever under any circumstance be induced to call
+Caravaggio.
+
+On the second day of their next engagement, as Bobby strode through
+the corridor of the hotel, shortly after luncheon, he was stopped by
+Madam Villenauve, who had been waiting for him in the door of her
+room. She was herself apparently just dressing to go out, for her
+coiffure was made and she had on a short underskirt, a kimono-like
+dressing-jacket and her street shoes.
+
+"I wish to speak wiz you on some beezness, Meester Burnit," she told
+him abruptly, and with an imperatively beckoning hand stepped back
+with a bow for him to enter.
+
+With just a moment of surprised hesitation he stepped into the room,
+whereupon the Villenauve promptly closed the door. A week before Bobby
+would have been a trifle astonished by this proceeding, but in that
+week he had seen so many examples of unconscious unconventionalities
+in and about the dressing-rooms and at the hotel, that he had
+readjusted his point of view to meet the peculiar way of life of these
+people, and, as usual with readjustments, had readjusted himself too
+far. He found the room in a litter, with garments of all sorts cast
+about in reckless disorder.
+
+"I have been seeing you last night," began Madam Villenauve, shaking
+her finger at him archly as she swept some skirts off a chair for him
+to sit down, and then took her place before her dressing-table, where
+she added the last deft touch to her coiffure. "I have been seeing you
+smiling at ze reedeec'lous Carmen. Oh, la, la! Carmen!" she shrilled.
+"It is I, monsieur, I zat am ze Carmen. It was zis Matteo, the
+scoundrel who run away wiz our money, zat allow le Ricardo to say whom
+he like to sing to for Carmen. Ricardo ees in loaf wiz la MeeGeenees.
+Le Ricardo is a fool, so zis Ricardo sing Carmen ever tam to ze great,
+grosse monstair MeeGeenees; an' ever'body zey laugh. Ze chorus laugh,
+ze principals laugh, le Monsieur Noire he laugh, even zat
+Frühlingsvogel zat have no humair, he laugh, an' ze audience laugh,
+an' las' night I am seeing you laugh. Ees eet not so? _Mais!_ It is
+absurd! It is reedeec'lous. Le Ricardo make fool over la MeeGeenees.
+_I_ sing ze Carmen! I _am_ ze Carmen! You hear me sing Aïda? Eet ees
+zat way. I sing Carmen. Now I s'all sing Carmen again! Ees eet not?"
+
+As Madam Villenauve talked, punctuating her remarks with quick,
+impatient little gestures, she jerked off her dressing-jacket and
+threw it on the floor, and Bobby saved himself from panic by reminding
+himself that her frank anatomical display was, in the peculiar ethics
+of these people, no more to be noticed than if she were in an evening
+gown, which was very reasonable, after all, once you understood the
+code. Still voicing her indignation at having been displaced in the
+role of Carmen by the utterly impossible and preposterous Caravaggio,
+she caught up her waist and was about to slip it on, while Bobby, with
+an amused smile, reflected that presently he would no doubt be
+nonchalantly requested to hook it in the back, when some one tried the
+door-knob. A knock followed and Madam Villenauve went to the door.
+
+"Who ees it?" she asked with her hand on the knob.
+
+"It is I; Monsieur Noire," was the reply.
+
+"Oh, la, come in, zen," she invited, and threw open the door.
+
+Monsieur Noire entered, but, finding Bobby in the chair by the
+dresser, stopped uncertainly in the doorway.
+
+"Oh, come on een," she gaily invited; "we are all ze good friends;
+_oui_?"
+
+It appeared that Monsieur Noire came in all politeness, yet with rigid
+intention, to inquire about a missing piece of music from the score of
+_Les Huguenots_, and Madam Villenauve, in all politeness and yet with
+much indignation, assured him that she did not have it; whereupon
+Monsieur Noire, with all politeness but cold insistence, demanded that
+she look for it; whereupon Madam Villenauve, though once more
+protesting that she had it not, in all politeness and yet with
+considerable asperity, declared that she would not search for it;
+whereupon Monsieur Noire, observing the piece of music in question
+peeping out from beneath a conglomerate pile of newspapers, clothing
+and toilet articles, laid hands upon it and departed. Madam
+Villenauve, entirely unruffled now that it was all over, but still
+chattering away with great volubility about the crime of Carmen,
+finished her dressing and bade Bobby hook the back of her waist, and
+by sheer calmness and certainty of intention forced him to accompany
+her over to rehearsal.
+
+Whatever annoyance he might have felt over this was lost in his
+amusement when he reached the theater in finding Biff Bates upon the
+stage waiting for him; and Biff, while waiting, was quite excusably
+whiling the time away with the adorable Miss McGinnis.
+
+"You see, Young Fitz lives here," Biff brazenly explained, "and I run
+up to see him about that exhibition night I'm going to have at the
+gym. I'm going to have him go on with Kid Jeffreys."
+
+"Biff," said Bobby warmly, "I want to congratulate you on your
+business enterprise. Have you seen Young Fitz yet?"
+
+"Well, no," confessed Biff. "I just got here about an hour ago. I
+didn't know your hotel, but it was a cinch from the bills to tell
+where the show was, so I came right around to the theater to see you
+first."
+
+"Exactly," admitted Bobby. "Do you _expect_ to see Young Fitz?"
+
+"Well, maybe, if I get time," said Biff with a sheepish grin. "Just
+now I'm going out for a drive with Miss McGinnis."
+
+"Caravaggio," corrected that young lady with a laugh.
+
+"McGinnis for mine," declared Biff. "By the way, Bobby, I saw a
+certain party before I left town and she gave me this letter for you.
+Certain party is as cheerful as a chunk of lead about your trip,
+Bobby, but she makes the swellest bluff I ever saw that she's tickled
+to death with it."
+
+With this vengeful shot in retaliation for his excuse about Young Fitz
+having been doubted he sailed away with the Caravaggio, who, though
+required to report at every rehearsal, was not in the cast for that
+night and was readily excused from further attendance. Since Bobby had
+received a very pleasant letter from Agnes when he got up that morning
+he opened this missive with a touch of curiosity added to the thrill
+with which he always took in his hands any missive, no matter how
+trivial, from her. It was but a brief note calling attention to the
+enclosed newspaper clipping, and wishing him success in his new
+venture. The clipping was a flamboyant article describing the decision
+of the city council to install a magnificent new ten-million-dollar
+waterworks system, and the personally interesting item in it, ringed
+around with a pencil mark, was that Silas Trimmer had been appointed
+by Mayor Garland as president of the waterworks commission.
+
+It was not news that could alter his fortunes in any way so far as he
+could see, but it did remind him, with a strange whipping of his
+conscience, that, after all, his place was back home, and that his
+proper employment should be the looking after his home interests. For
+the first time he began to have a dim realization that a man's place
+was among his enemies, where he could watch them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+WHEREIN THE FINE ARTS PRESENT BOBBY WITH A MOST EMBARRASSING DILEMMA
+
+
+It had become by no means strange to Bobby, even before the company
+"took the road," that some one of the principals should attach
+themselves to him in all his possible goings and comings, for each and
+every one of them had some complaint to make about all the others.
+They wanted readjustments of cast, better parts to sing, better
+dressing-rooms, better hotel quarters, better everything than the
+others had, and with the unhappy and excited Monsieur Noire he shared
+this unending strife. At first he saw it all in a humorous light, but,
+by and by, he came to a period of ennui and tried to rebel. This
+period gave him more trouble than the other, so within a short time he
+lapsed into an apathetic complaint-receptacle and dreamed no more of
+walking or riding to and from the hotel without one of these impulsive
+children of art, who seethed perpetually in self-prodded artificial
+emotions, attached to him. If it seemed strange at times that Madam
+Villenauve was more frequently with him than any of the others he only
+reflected that the vivacious little Frenchwoman was much more
+persistent; nor did he note that, presently, the others came rather to
+give way before her and to let her monopolize him more and more.
+
+It was during the third week that Professor Frühlingsvogel was to
+endure another birthday, and Bobby, full of generous impulses as
+always, announced at rehearsal that in honor of the Professor's
+unwelcome milestone he intended to give a little supper that night at
+the hotel. Madam Villenauve, standing beside him, suddenly threw her
+arms around his neck and kissed him smack upon the lips, with a quite
+enthusiastic declaration, in very charmingly warped English, that he
+was "a dear old sing." Bobby, reverting quickly in mind to the fact of
+the extreme unconventionally of these people, took the occurrence
+quite as a matter of course, though it embarrassed him somewhat. He
+rather counted himself a prig that he could not sooner get over this
+habit of embarrassment, and every time Madam Villenauve insisted on
+calling him into her dressing-room when she was in much more of
+dishabille than he would have thought permissible in ordinary people,
+he felt that same painful lack of sophistication.
+
+At the supper that night, Madam Villenauve, with a great show of
+playful indignation, routed Madam Kadanoff from her accidental seat
+next to Bobby, and, in giving up the seat, which she did quite
+gracefully enough, Madam Kadanoff dropped some remark in choice
+Russian, which, of course, Bobby did not understand, but which Madam
+Villenauve did, for she laughed a little shrilly and, with an engaging
+upward smile at Bobby, observed:
+
+"I theenk I shall say it zat zees so chairming Monsieur Burnit is soon
+to marry wiz me; ees eet not, monsieur?"
+
+Whereupon Bobby, with his customary courtesy, replied:
+
+"No gentleman would care to deny such a charming and attractive
+possibility, Madam Villenauve."
+
+But the gracious speech was of the lips alone, and spoken with a
+warning glare against "kidding" at the grinning Biff Bates, who had
+found business of urgent importance for that night in the city where
+the company was booked. Bobby, in fact, had begun to tire very much of
+the whole business. To begin with, he found the organization a much
+more expensive one to keep up than he had imagined. The route, badly
+laid out, was one of tremendous long jumps; of his singers, like other
+rare and expensive creatures, extravagant care must be taken, and not
+every place that they stopped was so eager for grand opera as it might
+have been. At the end of three weeks he was able to compute that he
+had lost about a thousand dollars a week, and in the fourth week they
+struck an engagement so fruitless that even the cheerful Caravaggio
+became dismal.
+
+"It's a sure enough frost," she confided to Bobby; "but cheer up, for
+the worst is yet to come. Your route sheet for the next two months
+looks like a morgue to me, and unless you interpolate a few coon songs
+in _Tannhäuser_ and some song and dance specialties between the acts
+of _Les Huguenots_ you're gone. You know I used to sing this route in
+musical comedy, and, on the level, I've got a fine part waiting for me
+right now in _The Giddy Queen_. I like this highbrow music all right,
+but the people that come to hear it make me so sad. You're a good
+sport, though, and as long as you need me I'll stick."
+
+"Thanks," said Bobby sincerely. "It's a pleasure to speak to a real
+human being once in a while, even if you don't offer any
+encouragement. However, we'll not be buried till we're dead,
+notwithstanding that we now enter upon the graveyard route."
+
+Doleful experience, however, confirmed the Caravaggio's gloomy
+prophecy. They embarked now upon a season of one and two and three
+night stands that gave Bobby more of the real discomforts of life than
+he had ever before dreamed possible. To close a performance at eleven,
+to pack and hurry for a twelve-thirty train, to ride until five
+o'clock in the morning--a distance too short for sleep and too long to
+stay awake--to tumble into a hotel at six and sleep until noon, this
+was one program; to close a performance at eleven, to wait up for a
+four-o'clock train, to ride until eight and get into a hotel at nine,
+with a vitally necessary rehearsal between that and the evening
+performance, was another program, either one of which wore on health
+and temper and purse alike. The losses now exceeded two thousand
+dollars a week. Moreover, the frequent visits of Biff Bates and his
+constant baiting of Signor Ricardo had driven that great tenor to such
+a point of distraction that one night, being near New York, he drew
+his pay and departed without notice. There was no use, in spite of
+Monsieur Noire's frantic insistence, in trying to make the public
+believe that the lank Dulceo was the fat Ricardo; moreover,
+immediately upon his arrival in New York, Signor Ricardo let it be
+known that he had left the Neapolitan Company, so the prestige of the
+company fell off at once, for the "country" press pays sharp attention
+to these things.
+
+A letter from Johnson at just this time also had its influence upon
+Bobby, who now was in an humble, not an antagonistic mood, and quite
+ripe for advice. Mr. Johnson had just conferred with Mr. Bates upon
+his return from a visit to the Neapolitan Company, and Mr. Bates had
+detailed to Mr. Johnson much that he had seen with his own eyes, and
+much that the Caravaggio had told him. Mr. Johnson, thereupon, begging
+pardon for the presumption, deemed this a fitting time, from what he
+had heard, to forward Bobby the inclosed letter, which, in its gray
+envelope, had been left behind by Bobby's father:
+
+    _To My Son in the Midst of a Losing Fight_
+
+    "Determination is a magnificent quality, but bullheadedness is
+    not. The most foolish kind of pride on earth is that which
+    makes a man refuse to acknowledge himself beaten when he is
+    beaten. It takes a pretty brave man, and one with good stuff
+    in him, to let all his friends know that he's been licked.
+    Figure this out."
+
+Bobby wrestled with that letter all night. In the morning he received
+one from Agnes which served to increase and intensify the feeling of
+homesickness that had been overwhelming him. She, too, had seen Biff
+Bates. She had asked him out to the house expressly to talk with him,
+but she had written a pleasant, cheerful letter wherein she hoped that
+the end of the season would repay the losses she understood that he
+was enduring; but she admitted that she was very lonesome without him.
+She gave him quite a budget of gay gossip concerning all the young
+people of his set, and after he had read that letter he was quite
+prepared to swallow his grit and make the announcement that for a week
+had been almost upon his tongue.
+
+Through Monsieur Noire, at rehearsal that afternoon, he declared his
+intention of closing the season, and offered them each two weeks'
+advance pay and their fare to New York. It was Signorina Caravaggio
+who broke the hush that followed this announcement.
+
+"You're a good sort, Bobby Burnit," she said, with kindly intent to
+lead the others, "and I'll take your offer and thank you."
+
+It appeared that the majority of them had dreaded some such dénouement
+as this; some had been prepared for even less advantageous terms, and
+several, upon direct inquiry, announced their willingness to accept
+this proposal. A few declared their intention to hold him for the full
+contract. These were the ones who had made sure of his entire
+solvency, and these afterward swayed the balance of the company to a
+stand which won a better compromise. When Monsieur Noire, with a
+curious smile, asked Madam Villenauve, however, she laughed very
+pleasantly.
+
+"Oh, non," said she; "it does not apply, zis offair, to me. I do not
+need it, for Monsieur Burnit ees to marry wiz me zis Christmastam."
+
+"I am afraid, Madam Villenauve, that we will have to quit joking about
+that," said Bobby coldly.
+
+"Joking!" screamed the shrill voice of madam. "Eet ees not any joke.
+You can not fool wiz me, Monsieur Burnit. You mean to tell all zese
+people zat you are not to marry wiz me?"
+
+"I certainly have no intention of the kind," said Bobby impatiently,
+"nor have I ever expressed such an intention."
+
+"We s'all see about zat," declared the madam with righteous
+indignation. "We s'all see how you can amuse yourself. You refuse to
+keep your word zat you marry me? All right zen, you do! I bring suit
+to-day for brich promise, and I have here one, two, three, a dozen
+weetness. I make what you call subpoena on zem all. We s'all see."
+
+"Monsieur Noire," said Bobby, more sick and sore than panic-stricken,
+"you will please settle matters with all these people and come to me
+at the hotel for whatever checks you need," and, hurt beyond measure
+at this one more instance that there were, really, rapacious schemers
+in the world, who sought loathsome advantage at the expense of decent
+folk, Bobby crept away, to hide himself and try to understand.
+
+They were here for the latter half of the week, and, since business
+seemed to be fairly good, Bobby had decided to fill this engagement,
+canceling all others. In the morning it seemed that Madam Villenauve
+had been in earnest in her absurd intentions, for, in his room, at
+eleven o'clock, he was served with papers in the breach-of-promise
+suit of Villenauve _versus_ Burnit, and the amount of damages claimed
+was the tremendous sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, an
+amount, of course, only commensurate with Madam Villenauve's standing
+in the profession and her earning capacity as an artist, her pride and
+shattered feelings and the dashing to earth of her love's young dream
+being of corresponding value. Moreover, he learned that an injunction
+had been issued completely tying up his bank account. That was the
+parting blow. Settling up with the performers upon a blood-letting
+basis, he most ignominiously fled. Before he went away, however,
+Signorina Nora McGinnis Caravaggio called him to one side and confided
+a most delicate message to him.
+
+"Your friend, Mr. Bates," she began with an embarrassed hesitation
+quite unusual in the direct Irish girl; "he's a nice boy, from the
+ground up, and give him an easy word from me. But, Mr. Burnit, give
+him a hint not to do any more traveling on my account; for I've got a
+husband back in New York that ain't worth the rat poison to put him
+out of his misery, but I'm not getting any divorces. One mistake is
+enough. But don't be too hard on me when you tell Biff. Honest, up to
+just the last, I thought he'd come only to see you; but I enjoyed his
+visits." And in the eyes of the Caravaggio there stood real tears.
+
+A newsboy met Bobby on the train with the morning papers from home,
+and in them he read delightfully flavored and spiced accounts of the
+great Villenauve breach-of-promise case, embellished with many details
+that were entirely new to him. He had not counted on this phase of the
+matter, and it struck him almost as with an ague. The notoriety, the
+askance looks he would receive from his more conservative
+acquaintances, the "ragging" he would get at his clubs, all these he
+could stand. But Agnes! How could he ever face her? How would she
+receive him? From the train he took a cab directly home and buried
+himself there to think it all over. He spent a morning of intense
+dejection and an afternoon of the utmost misery. In the evening, not
+caring to dine in solitary gloom at home nor to appear yet among his
+fellows, he went out to an obscure restaurant in the neighborhood and
+ate his dinner, then came back again to his lonely room, seeing
+nothing ahead of him but an evening of melancholy alone. His butler,
+however, met him in the hall on his return.
+
+"Miss Elliston called up on the 'phone while you were out, sir."
+
+"Did you tell her I was at home?" asked Bobby with quick apprehension.
+
+"Yes, sir; you hadn't told me not to do so, sir; and she left word
+that you were to come straight out to the house as soon as you came
+in."
+
+"Very well," said Bobby, and went into the library.
+
+He sat down before the telephone and rested his hand upon the receiver
+for perhaps as much as five long minutes of hesitation, then abruptly
+he turned away from that unsatisfactory means of communication and had
+his car ordered; then hurriedly changed to the evening clothes he had
+not intended to don that night.
+
+In most uncertain anticipation, but quite sure of the most vigorous
+"blowing up" of his career, he whirled out to the home of the
+Ellistons and ascended the steps. The ring at the bell brought the
+ever imperturbable Wilkins, who nodded gravely upon seeing that it was
+Bobby and, relieving him of his coat and hat, told him:
+
+"Right up to the Turkish room, sir."
+
+There seemed a strange quietness about the house, and he felt more and
+more as if he might be approaching a sentence as he climbed the silent
+stairs. At the door of the Turkish room, however, Agnes met him with
+outstretched hands and a smile of welcome which bore traces of quite
+too much amusement for his entire comfort. When she had drawn him
+within the big alcove she laughed aloud, a light laugh in which there
+was no possible trace of resentment, and it lifted from his mind the
+load that had been oppressing it all day long.
+
+"I'm afraid you haven't heard," he began awkwardly.
+
+"Heard!" she repeated, and laughed again. "Why, Bobby, I read all the
+morning papers and all the evening papers, and I presume there will be
+excellent reading in every one of them for days and days to come."
+
+"And you're not angry?" he said, astounded.
+
+"Angry!" she laughed. "Why, you poor Bobby. I remember this Madam
+Villenauve perfectly, besides seeing her ten-years-ago pictures in the
+papers, and you don't suppose for a minute that I could be jealous of
+her, do you? Moreover, I can prove by Aunt Constance and Uncle Dan
+that I predicted just this very thing when you first insisted upon
+going on the road."
+
+He looked around, dreading the keen satire of Uncle Dan and the
+incisive ridicule of Aunt Constance, but she relieved his mind of that
+fear.
+
+"We were all invited out to dinner to-night, but I refused to go, for
+really I wanted to soften the blow for you. There is nobody in the
+house but myself and the servants. Now, do behave, Bobby! Wait a
+minute, sir! I've something else to crush you with. Have you seen the
+evening papers?"
+
+No; the morning papers had been enough for him.
+
+"Well, I'll tell you what they are doing. The Consolidated
+Illuminating and Power Company has secured an order from the city
+council compelling the Brightlight Electric Company to remove their
+poles from Market Street."
+
+Bobby caught his breath sharply. Stone and Sharpe and Garland, the
+political manipulators of the city, and its owners, lock, stock and
+barrel were responsible for this. They had taken advantage of his
+absence.
+
+"What a fool I have been," he bitterly confessed, "to have taken up
+with this entirely irregular and idiotic enterprise, a venture of
+which I knew nothing whatever, and let go the serious fight I had
+intended to make on Stone and his crowd."
+
+"Never mind, Bobby," said Agnes. "I have a suspicion that you have cut
+a wisdom-tooth. I rather imagined that you needed this one last folly
+as a sort of relapse before complete convalescence, to settle you down
+and bring you back to me for a more serious effort. I see that the
+most of your money is tied up in this embarrassing suit, and when I
+read that you were on your way home I went to Mr. Chalmers and got him
+to arrange for the release of some bonds. Following the provisions of
+your father's will your next two hundred and fifty thousand is waiting
+for you. Moreover, Bobby, this time I want you to listen to your
+trustee. I have found a new business for you, one about which you know
+nothing whatever, but one that you must learn; I want to put a weapon
+into your hands with which to fight for everything you have lost."
+
+He looked at her in wonder.
+
+"I always told you I needed you," he declared. "When _are_ you going
+to marry me?"
+
+"When you have won your fight, Bobby, or when you have proved entirely
+hopeless," she replied with a smile in which there was a certain
+amount of wistfulness.
+
+"You're a good sort, Agnes," he said a little huskily, and he pondered
+for some little time in awe over the existence of women like this. "I
+guess the governor was mighty right in making you my trustee, after
+all. But what is this business?"
+
+"The _Evening Bulletin_ is for sale, I have learned. Just now it is an
+independent paper, but it seems to me you could not have a better
+weapon, with your following, for fighting your political and business
+enemies."
+
+"I'll think that over very seriously," he said with much soberness. "I
+have refused everybody's advice so far, and have taken only my own. I
+have begun to believe that I am not the wisest person in the world;
+also I have come to believe that there are more ways to lose money
+than there are to make money; also I've found out that men are not the
+only gold-brick salesmen. Agnes, I'm what Biff Bates calls a 'Hick'!"
+
+"Look what your father has to say about this last escapade of yours,"
+she said, smiling, and from her desk brought him one of the familiar
+gray envelopes. This was the letter:
+
+    _To My Daughter Agnes, Upon Bobby's Entanglement with a
+      Blackmailing Woman_
+
+    "No man can guard against being roped in by a scheming woman
+    the first time; but if it happens twice he deserves it, and he
+    should be turned out to stay an idiot, for the signs are so
+    plain. A man swindler takes a man's money and makes a fool of
+    him; but a woman swindler takes a man's money and leaves a
+    smirch on him. Only a man's nearest and dearest can help him
+    live down such a smirch; so, Agnes, if my son has been this
+    particular variety of everlasting blank fool, don't turn
+    against him. He needs you. Moreover, you'll find him improved
+    by it. He'll be so much more humble."
+
+"I didn't really need that letter," Agnes shyly confessed; "but maybe
+it helped some."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+AGNES FINDS BOBBY A SLING AND BOBBY PUTS A STONE IN IT
+
+
+The wonderful change in a girl who, through her love, has become all
+woman, that was the marvel to Bobby; the breadth of her knowledge, the
+depth of her sympathy, the boundlessness of her compassionate
+forgiveness, her quality of motherliness; and this last was perhaps
+the greatest marvel of all. Yet even his marveling did not encompass
+all the wonder. In his last exploit, more full of folly than anything
+into which he had yet blundered, and the one which, of all others,
+might most have turned her from him, Agnes had had the harder part; to
+sit at home and wait, to dread she knew not what. The certainty which
+finally evolved had less of distress in it than not to know while day
+by day passed by. One thing had made it easier: never for one moment
+had she lost faith in Bobby, in any way. She was certain, however,
+that financially his trip would be a losing one, and from the time he
+left she kept her mind almost constantly upon the thought of his
+future. She had become almost desperately anxious for him to fulfill
+the hopes of his father, and day by day she studied the commercial
+field as she had never thought it possible that she could do. There
+was no line of industry upon which she did not ponder, and there was
+scarcely any morning that she did not at the breakfast table ask Dan
+Elliston the ins and outs of some business. If he was not able to tell
+her all she wanted to know, she usually commissioned him to find out.
+He took these requests in good part, and if she accomplished nothing
+else by all her inquiries she acquired such a commercial education as
+falls to the lot of but few home-kept young women.
+
+One morning her uncle came down a trifle late for breakfast and was in
+a hurry.
+
+"The Elliston School of Commercial Instruction will have a recess for
+this session," he observed as he popped into his chair. "I have an
+important engagement at the factory this morning and have about seven
+minutes for breakfast. During that seven minutes I prefer to eat
+rather than to talk. However, I do not object to listening. This being
+my last word except to request you to gather things closely about my
+plate, you may now start."
+
+"Very well," said she, dimpling as she usually did at any evidence of
+briskness on the part of her Uncle Dan, for from long experience she
+knew the harmlessness of his bark. "Nick Allstyne happened to remark
+to me last night that the _Bulletin_ is for sale. What do you think of
+the newspaper business for Bobby?"
+
+"The time necessary to answer that question takes my orange from me,"
+objected Uncle Dan as he hastily sipped another bite of the fruit and
+pushed it away. "The newspaper business for Bobby!" He drew the
+muffins toward him and took one upon his plate, then he stopped and
+pondered a moment. "Do you know," said he, "that's about the best
+suggestion you've made. I believe he could make a hummer out of a
+newspaper. I've noticed this about the boy's failures; they have all
+of them been due to lack of experience; none of them has been due to
+any absence of backbone. Nobody has ever bluffed him."
+
+Agnes softly clapped her hands.
+
+"Exactly!" she cried. "Well, Uncle Dan, this is the last word _I'm_
+going to say. For the balance of your seven minutes I'm going to help
+stuff you with enough food to keep you until luncheon time; but
+sometime to-day, if you find time, I want you to go over and see the
+proprietor of the _Bulletin_ and find out how much he wants for his
+property, and investigate it as a business proposition just the same
+as if you were going into it yourself."
+
+Uncle Dan, dipping voraciously into his soft boiled eggs, grinned and
+said: "Huh!" Then he looked at his watch. When he came home to dinner,
+however, he hunted up Agnes at once.
+
+"Your _Bulletin_ proposition looks pretty good," he told her. "I saw
+Greenleaf. He's a physical wreck and has been for two years. He has to
+get away or die. Moreover, his physical condition has reacted upon his
+paper. His circulation has run down, but he has a magnificent plant
+and a good office organization. He wants two hundred thousand dollars
+for his plant, good will and franchises. I'm going to investigate this
+a little further. Do you suppose Bobby will have two hundred thousand
+left when he gets through with grand opera?"
+
+"I hope so," replied Agnes; "but if he hasn't I'll have him waste the
+balance of this two hundred and fifty thousand so that he can draw the
+next one."
+
+Uncle Dan laughed in huge enjoyment of this solution.
+
+"You surely were cut out for high finance," he told her.
+
+She smiled, and was silent a while, hesitating.
+
+"You seem to think pretty well of the business as a business
+proposition," she ventured anxiously, by and by; "but you haven't told
+me what you think of it as applicable to Bobby."
+
+"If he'll take you in the office with him, he'll do all right," he
+answered her banteringly; but when he went up-stairs and found his
+wife he said: "Constance, if that girl don't pull Bobby Burnit through
+his puppyhood in good shape there is something wrong with the scheme
+of creation. There is something about you women of the Elliston family
+that every once in a while makes me pause and reverence the Almighty,"
+whereupon Aunt Constance flushed prettily, as became her.
+
+With the same earnestness of purpose Agnes handled the question of
+Bobby's breach-of-promise suit in so far as it affected his social
+reception. The Ellistons went to the theater and sat in a box to
+exhibit him on the second night after his return, and Agnes took
+careful count of all the people she knew who attended the theater that
+night. The next day she went to see all of them, among others Mrs.
+Horace Wickersham, whose social word was social law.
+
+"My dear," said the redoubtable Mrs. Wickersham, "it does Bobby Burnit
+great credit that he did not marry the creature. Of course I shall
+invite him to our affair next Friday night."
+
+After that there could be no further question of Bobby's standing,
+though without the firm support of Agnes he might possibly have been
+ostracised, for a time at least.
+
+It was with much less certainty that she spread before Bobby the facts
+and figures which Uncle Dan had secured about the condition and
+prospects of the _Bulletin_. She did not urge the project upon him.
+Instead, though in considerable anxiety, she left the proposition open
+to his own judgment. He pondered the question more soberly and
+seriously than he had yet considered anything. There were but two
+chances left to redeem himself now, and he felt much like a gambler
+who has been reduced to his last desperate stake. He grew almost
+haggard over the proposition, and he spent two solid weeks in
+investigation. He went to Washington to see Jack Starlett, who knew
+three or four newspaper proprietors in Philadelphia and elsewhere. He
+obtained introductions to these people and consulted with them,
+inspected their plants and listened to all they would say; as they
+liked him, they said much. Ripened considerably by what he had found
+out he came back home and bought the _Bulletin_. Moreover, he had very
+definitely made up his mind precisely what to do with it.
+
+On the first morning that he walked into the office of that paper as
+its sole owner and proprietor, he called the managing editor to him
+and asked:
+
+"What, heretofore, has been the politics of this paper?"
+
+"Pale yellow jelly," snapped Ben Jolter wrathfully.
+
+"Supposed to be anti-Stone, hasn't it been?" Bobby smilingly inquired.
+
+"But always perfectly ladylike in what it said about him."
+
+"And what are the politics of the employees?"
+
+At this Mr. Jolter snorted.
+
+"They are good newspaper men, Mr. Burnit," he stated in quick defense;
+"and a good newspaper man has no politics."
+
+Bobby eyed Mr. Jolter with contemplative favor. He was a stout,
+stockily-built man, with a square head and sparse gray hair that would
+persist in tangling and curling at the ends; and he perpetually kept
+his sleeves rolled up over his big arms.
+
+"I don't know anything about this business," confessed Bobby, "but I
+hope to. First of all, I'd like to find out why the _Bulletin_ has no
+circulation."
+
+"The lack of a spinal column," asserted Jolter. "It has had no policy,
+stood pat on no proposition, and made no aggressive fight on
+anything."
+
+"If I understand what you mean by the word," said Bobby slowly, "the
+_Bulletin_ is going to have a policy."
+
+It was now Mr. Jolter's turn to gaze contemplatively at Bobby.
+
+"If you were ten years older I would feel more hopeful about it," he
+decided bluntly.
+
+The young man flushed uncomfortably. He was keenly aware that he had
+made an ass of himself in business four successive times, and that
+Jolter knew it. By way of facing the music, however, he showed to his
+managing editor a letter, left behind with old Johnson for Bobby by
+the late John Burnit:
+
+    The mere fact that a man has been foolish four times is no
+    absolute proof that he is a fool; but it's a mighty
+    significant hint. However, Bobby, I'm still betting on you,
+    for by this time you ought to have your fighting blood at the
+    right temperature; and I've seen you play great polo in spite
+    of a cracked rib.
+
+    "P. S. If any one else intimates that you are a fool, trounce
+    him one for me."
+
+"If there's anything in heredity you're a lucky young man," said
+Jolter seriously, as he handed back the letter.
+
+"I think the governor was worried about it himself," admitted Bobby
+with a smile; "and if he was doubtful I can't blame you for being so.
+Nevertheless, Mr. Jolter, I must insist that we are going to have a
+policy," and he quietly outlined it.
+
+Mr. Jolter had been so long a directing voice in the newspaper
+business that he could not be startled by anything short of a
+presidential assassination, and that at press time. Nevertheless, at
+Bobby's announcement he immediately sought for his pipe and was
+compelled to go into his own office after it. He came back lighting it
+and felt better.
+
+"It's suicide!" he declared.
+
+"Then we'll commit suicide," said Bobby pleasantly.
+
+Mr. Jolter, after long, grinning thought, solemnly shook hands with
+him.
+
+"I'm for it," said he. "Here's hoping that we survive long enough to
+write our own obituary!"
+
+Mr. Jolter, to whom fighting was as the breath of new-mown hay, and
+who had long been curbed in that delightful occupation, went back into
+his own office with a more cheerful air than he had worn for many a
+day, and issued a few forceful orders, winding up with a direction to
+the press foreman to prepare for ten thousand extra copies that
+evening.
+
+When the three o'clock edition of the _Bulletin_ came on the street,
+the entire first page was taken up by a life-size half-tone portrait
+of Sam Stone, and underneath it was the simple legend:
+
+    THIS MAN MUST LEAVE TOWN
+
+The first citizens to awake to the fact that the _Bulletin_ was born
+anew were the newsboys. Those live and enterprising merchants, with a
+very keen judgment of comparative values, had long since ceased to
+call the _Bulletin_ at all; half of them had even ceased to carry it.
+Within two minutes after this edition was out they were clamoring for
+additional copies, and for the first time in years the alley door of
+the _Bulletin_ was besieged by a seething mob of ragged, diminutive,
+howling masculinity. Out on the street, however, they were not even
+now calling the name of the paper. They were holding forth that black
+first page and screaming just the name of Sam Stone.
+
+Sam Stone! It was a magic name, for Stone had been the boss of the
+town since years without number; a man who had never held office, but
+who dictated the filling of all offices; a man who was not ostensibly
+in any business, but who swayed the fortune of every public
+enterprise; a self-confessed grafter whom crusade after crusade had
+failed to dislodge from absolute power. The crowds upon the street
+snapped eagerly at that huge portrait and searched as eagerly through
+the paper for more about the Boss. They did not find it, except upon
+the editorial page, where, in the space usually devoted to drivel
+about "How Kind We Should Be to Dumb Animals," and "Why Fathers Should
+Confide More in Their Sons," appeared in black type a paraphrase of
+the legend on the outside: "_Sam Stone Must Leave Town._" Beneath was
+the additional information: "Further issues of the _Bulletin_ will
+tell why." Above and below this was nothing but startlingly white
+blank paper, two solid columns of it up and down the page.
+
+Down in the deep basement of the _Bulletin_, the big three-deck
+presses, two of which had been standing idle since the last
+presidential election, were pounding out copies by the thousand, while
+grimy pressmen, blackened with ink, perspired most happily.
+
+By five o'clock, men and even girls, pouring from their offices, and
+laborers coming from work, had all heard of it, and on the street the
+bold defiance created first a gasp and then a smile. Another attempt
+to dislodge Sam Stone was, in the light of previous efforts, a
+laughable thing to contemplate; and yet it was interesting.
+
+In the office of the _Bulletin_ it was a gleeful occasion. Nonchalant
+reporters sat down with that amazing front page spread out before
+them, studied the brutal face of Stone and chuckled cynically. Lean
+Doc Miller, "assistant city editor," or rather head copy reader, lit
+one cigarette from the stub of another and observed, to nobody in
+particular but to everybody in general:
+
+"I can see where we all contribute for a beautiful Gates Ajar floral
+piece for one Robert Burnit;" whereupon fat "Bugs" Roach, "handling
+copy" across the table from him, inquired:
+
+"Do you suppose the new boss really has this much nerve, or is he just
+a damned fool?"
+
+"Stone won't do a thing to _him_!" ingratiatingly observed a "cub"
+reporter, laying down twelve pages of "copy" about a man who had
+almost been burglarized.
+
+"Look here, you Greenleaf Whittier Squiggs," said Doc Miller most
+savagely, not because he had any particular grudge against the
+unfortunately named G. W., but because of discipline and the custom
+with "cubs," "the next time you're sent out on a twenty-minute
+assignment like this, remember the number of the _Bulletin_, 427 Grand
+Street. The telephone is Central 2051, and don't forget to report the
+same day. Did you get the man's name? Uh-huh. His address? Uh-huh.
+Well, we don't want the item."
+
+Slow and phlegmatic Jim Brown, who had been city editor on the
+_Bulletin_ almost since it was the _Bulletin_ under half a dozen
+changes of ownership and nearly a score of managing editors, sauntered
+over into Jolter's room with a copy of the paper in his hand, and a
+long black stogie held by some miracle in the corner of his mouth,
+where it would be quite out of the road of conversation.
+
+"Pretty good stuff," he drawled, indicating the remarkable first page.
+
+"The greatest circus act that was ever pulled off in the newspaper
+business," asserted Jolter. "It will quadruple the present circulation
+of the _Bulletin_ in a week."
+
+"Make or break," assented the city editor, "with the odds in favor of
+the break."
+
+A slenderly-built young man, whose red face needed a shave and whose
+clothes, though wrinkled and unbrushed, shrieked of quality, came
+stumbling up the stairs in such hot haste as was possible in his
+condition, and without ceremony or announcement burst into the room
+where Bobby Burnit, with that day's issue of the _Bulletin_ spread out
+before him, was trying earnestly to get a professional idea of the
+proper contents of a newspaper.
+
+"Great goods, old man!" said the stranger. "I want to congratulate you
+on your lovely nerve," and seizing Bobby's hand he shook it violently.
+
+"Thanks," said Bobby, not quite sure whether to be amused or
+resentful. "Who are you?"
+
+"I'm Dillingham," announced the red-faced young man with a cheerful
+smile.
+
+Bobby was about to insist upon further information, when Mr. Jolter
+came in to introduce Brown, who had not yet met Mr. Burnit.
+
+"Dill," drawled Brown, with a twinkle in his eye, "how much money have
+you?"
+
+"Money to burn; money in every pocket," asserted Mr. Dillingham;
+"money to last for ever," and he jammed both hands in his trousers'
+pockets.
+
+It was an astonishing surprise to Mr. Dillingham, after groping in
+those pockets, to find that he brought up only a dollar bill in his
+left hand and forty-five cents in silver in his right. He was still
+contemplating in awed silence this perplexing fact when Brown handed
+him a five-dollar bill.
+
+"Now, you run right out and get stewed to the eyebrows again,"
+directed Brown. "Get properly pickled and have it over with, then show
+up here in the morning with a headache and get to work. We want you to
+take charge of the Sam Stone exposé, and in to-morrow's _Bulletin_ we
+want the star introduction of your life."
+
+"Do you mean to say you're going to trust the whole field conduct of
+this campaign to that chap?" asked Bobby, frowning, when Dillingham
+had gone.
+
+"This is his third day, so Dill's safe for to-morrow morning," Brown
+hastened to assure him. "He'll be up here early, so penitent that
+he'll be incased in a blue fog--and he'll certainly deliver the
+goods."
+
+Bobby sighed and gave it up. This was a new world.
+
+Over in his dingy little office, up his dingy flight of stairs, Sam
+Stone sat at his bare and empty old desk, looking contemplatively out
+of the window, when Frank Sharpe--his luxuriant gray mustache in an
+extraordinary and most violent state of straggling curliness--came
+nervously bustling in with a copy of the _Bulletin_ in his hand.
+
+"Have you seen this?" he shrilled.
+
+"Heard about it," grunted Stone.
+
+"But what do you think of it?" demanded Sharpe indignantly, and spread
+the paper out on the desk before the Boss, thumping it violently with
+his knuckles.
+
+Stone studied it well, without the slightest change of expression upon
+his heavy features.
+
+"It's a swell likeness," he quietly conceded, by and by.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+BOBBY BEGINS TO GIVE TESTIMONY THAT HE IS OLD JOHN BURNIT'S SON
+
+
+Closeted with Jolter and Brown, and mapping out with them the
+dangerous campaign into which they had plunged, Bobby did not leave
+the office of the _Bulletin_ until six o'clock. At the curb, just as
+he was about to step into his waiting machine, Biff Bates hailed him
+with vast enthusiasm.
+
+"Go to it, Bobby!" said he. "I'm backing you across the board, win,
+place and show; but let me give you a hot tip right from the stables.
+You want to be afraid to go home in the dark, or Stone's lobbygows
+will lean on you with a section of plumbing."
+
+"I've thought of that, Biff," laughed Bobby; "and I think I'll
+organize a band of murderers of my own."
+
+Johnson, whom Bobby had quite forgotten in the stress of the day,
+joined them at this moment. Thirty years as head bookkeeper and
+confidential adviser in old John Burnit's merchandise establishment
+had not fitted lean Johnson for the less dignified and more flurried
+work of a newspaper office, even in the business department, and he
+was looking very much fagged.
+
+"Well, Johnson, what do you think of my first issue of the
+_Bulletin_?" asked Bobby pleasantly.
+
+Johnson looked genuinely distressed.
+
+"To tell you the truth, Mr. Burnit," said he, "I have not seen it. I
+never in all my life saw a place where there were so many
+interruptions to work. If we could only be back in your father's
+store, sir."
+
+"We'll be back there before we quit," said Bobby confidently; "or I'll
+be in the incurable ward."
+
+"I hope so, sir," said Johnson dismally, and strode across the street
+to catch his car; but he came back hastily to add: "I meant about the
+store; not about the asylum."
+
+Biff Bates laughed as he clambered into the tonneau with Bobby.
+
+"If you'd make a billion dollars, Bobby, but didn't get back your
+father's business that Silas Trimmer snaked away from you, Johnson
+would think you'd overlooked the one best bet."
+
+"So would I," said Bobby soberly, and he had but very little more to
+say until the chauffeur stopped at Bobby's own door, where puffy old
+Applerod, who had been next to Johnson in his usefulness to old John
+Burnit, stood nervously awaiting him on the steps.
+
+"Terrible, sir! Terrible!" spluttered Applerod the moment he caught
+sight of Bobby. "This open defiance of Mr. Stone will put entirely out
+of existence what little there is left of the Brightlight Electric
+Company."
+
+"Cheer up, Applerod, for death must come to us all," encouraged Bobby.
+"Such shreds and fragments of the Brightlight as there are left would
+have been wiped out anyhow; and frankly, if you must have it, I put
+you in there as general manager, when I shifted Johnson to the
+_Bulletin_ this morning, because there was nothing to manage."
+
+Applerod threw up his hands in dismay.
+
+"And there will be less. Oh, Mr. Burnit, if your father were only
+here!"
+
+Bobby, whose suavity Applerod had never before seen ruffled, turned
+upon him angrily.
+
+"I'm tired hearing about my father, Applerod," he declared. "I revere
+the governor's memory too much to want to be made angry by the mention
+of his name. Hereafter, kindly catch the idea, if you can, that I am
+my own man and must work out my own salvation; and I propose to do it!
+Biff, you don't mind if I put off seeing you until to-morrow? I have a
+dinner engagement this evening and very little time to dress."
+
+"His own man," said Applerod sorrowfully when Bobby had left them.
+"John Burnit would be half crazy if he could know what a botch his son
+is making of things. I don't see how a man could let himself be
+cheated four times in business."
+
+"I can tell you," retorted Biff. "All his old man ever did for him was
+to stuff his pockets with kale, and let him grow up into the sort of
+clubs where one sport says: 'I'm going to walk down to the corner.'
+Says the other sport: 'I'll bet you see more red-headed girls on the
+way down than you do on the way back.' Says the first sport: 'You're
+on for a hundred.' He goes down to the corner and he comes back. 'How
+about the red-headed girls?' asks the second sport. 'I lose,' says the
+first sport; 'here's your hundred.' Now, when Bobby is left real
+money, he starts in to play the same open-face game, and when one of
+these business wolves tells him anything Bobby don't stop to figure
+whether the mut means what he says, or means something else that
+sounds like the same thing. Now, if Bobby was a simp they'd sting him
+in so many places that he'd be swelled all over, like an exhibition
+cream puff; but he ain't a simp. It took him four times to learn that
+he can't take a man's word in business. That's all he needed. Bobby's
+awake now, and more than that he's mad, and if I hear you make another
+crack that he ain't about all the candy I'll sick old Johnson on you,"
+and with this dire threat Biff wheeled, leaving Mr. Applerod
+speechless with red-faced indignation.
+
+It was just a quiet family dinner that Bobby attended that night at
+the Ellistons', with Uncle Dan and Aunt Constance Elliston at the head
+and foot of the table, and across from him the smiling face of Agnes.
+He was so good to look at that Agnes was content just to watch him,
+but Aunt Constance noted his abstraction and chided him upon it.
+
+"Really, Bobby," said she, "since you have gone into business you're
+ruined socially."
+
+"Frankly, I don't mind," he replied, smiling. "I'd rather be ruined
+socially than financially. In spite of certain disagreeable features
+of it, I have a feeling upon me to-night that I'm going to like the
+struggle."
+
+"You're starting a stiff one now," observed Uncle Dan dryly.
+"Beginning an open fight against Sam Stone is a good deal like being
+suspended over Hades by a single hair--amidst a shower of Roman
+candles."
+
+"That's putting it about right, I guess," admitted Bobby; "but I'm
+relying on the fact that the public at heart is decent."
+
+"Do you remember, Bobby, what Commodore Vanderbilt said about the
+public?" retorted Uncle Dan. "They're decent, all right, but they
+won't stick together in any aggressive movement short of gunpowder. In
+the meantime, Stone has more entrenchments than even you can dream.
+For instance, I should not wonder but that within a very short time I
+shall be forced to try my influence with you in his behalf."
+
+"How?" asked Bobby incredulously.
+
+"Well, I am trying to get a spur track from the X. Y. Z. Railroad to
+my factory on Spindle Street. The X. Y. Z. is perfectly willing to put
+in the track, and I'm trying to have the city council grant us a
+permit. Now, who is the city council?"
+
+"Stone," Bobby was compelled to admit.
+
+"Of course. I have already arranged to pay quite a sum of money to the
+capable and honest city councilman of that ward. The capable and
+honest councilman will go to Stone and give up about three-fourths of
+what I pay him. Then Stone will pass the word out to the other
+councilmen that he's for Alderman Holdup's spur track permit, and I
+get it. Very simple arrangement, and satisfactory, but, if they do not
+shove that measure through at their meeting to-morrow night, before
+Stone finds out any possible connection between you and me, the price
+of it will not be money. I'll be sent to you."
+
+"I see," said Bobby in dismay. "In other words, it will be put flatly
+up to me; I'll either have to quit my attacks on Stone, or be directly
+responsible for your losing your valuable spur track."
+
+"Exactly," said Uncle Dan.
+
+Bobby drew a long breath.
+
+"I'm very much afraid, Mr. Elliston, that you will have to do without
+your spur."
+
+Uncle Dan's eyes twinkled.
+
+"I'm willing," said he. "I have a good offer to sell that branch of my
+plant anyhow, and I think I'll dispose of it. I have been very frank
+with you about this, so that you will know exactly what to expect when
+other people come at you. You will be beset as you never were before."
+
+"I have been looking for an injunction, myself."
+
+"You will have no injunction, for Stone scarcely dares go publicly
+into his own courts," said Uncle Dan, with a pretty thorough
+knowledge, gained through experience, of the methods of the "Stone
+gang"; "though he might even use that as a last resort. That will be
+after intimidation fails, for it is quite seriously probable that they
+will hire somebody to beat you into insensibility. If that don't teach
+you the proper lesson, they will probably kill you."
+
+Agnes looked up apprehensively, but catching Bobby's smile took this
+latter phase of the matter as a joke. Bobby himself was not deeply
+impressed with it, but before he went away that night Uncle Dan took
+him aside and urged upon him the seriousness of the matter.
+
+"I'll fight them with their own weapons, then," declared Bobby. "I'll
+organize a counter band of thugs, and I'll block every move they make
+with one of the same sort. Somehow or other I think I am going to
+win."
+
+"Of course you will win," said Agnes confidently, overhearing this
+last phrase; and with that most prized of all encouragement, the faith
+in his prowess of _the_ one woman, Bobby, for that night at least,
+felt quite contemptuous of the grilling fight to come.
+
+His second issue of the _Bulletin_ contained on the front page a
+three-column picture of Sam Stone, with the same caption, together
+with a full-page article, written by Dillingham from data secured by
+himself and the others who were put upon the "story." This set forth
+the main iniquities of Sam Stone and his crew of municipal grafters.
+In the third day's issue the picture was reduced to two columns,
+occupying the left-hand upper corner of the front page, where Bobby
+ordered it to remain permanently as the slogan of the _Bulletin_; and
+now Dillingham began his long series of articles, taking up point by
+point the ramifications of Stone's machine, and coming closer and
+closer daily to people who would much rather have been left entirely
+out of the picture.
+
+It was upon this third day that Bobby, becoming apprehensive merely
+because nothing had happened, received a visit from Frank Sharpe. Mr.
+Sharpe was as nattily dressed as ever, and presented himself as
+pleasantly as a summer breeze across fields of clover.
+
+"I came in to see you about merging the Brightlight Electric Company
+with the Consolidated, Mr. Burnit," said Mr. Sharpe in a chatty tone,
+laying his hat, cane and gloves upon Bobby's desk and seating himself
+comfortably.
+
+From his face there was no doubt in Mr. Sharpe's mind that this was a
+mere matter of an interview with a satisfactory termination, for Mr.
+Sharpe had done business with Bobby before; but something had happened
+to Bobby in the meantime.
+
+"When I get ready for a merger of the Brightlight with the
+Consolidated I'll tell you about it; and also I'll tell you the
+terms," Bobby advised him with a snap, and for the first time Mr.
+Sharpe noted what a good jaw Bobby had.
+
+"I should think," hesitated Sharpe, "that in the present condition of
+the Brightlight almost any terms would be attractive to you. You have
+no private consumers now, and your contract for city lighting, which
+you can not evade except by bankruptcy, is losing you money."
+
+"If that were news to me it would be quite startling," responded
+Bobby, "but you see, Mr. Sharpe, I am quite well acquainted with the
+facts myself. Also, I have a strong suspicion that you tampered with
+my plant; that your hired agents cut my wires, ruined my dynamos and
+destroyed the efficiency of my service generally."
+
+"You will find it very difficult to prove that, Mr. Burnit," said
+Sharpe, with a sternness which could not quite conceal a lurking
+smile.
+
+"I'm beginning to like difficulty," retorted Bobby. "I do not mind
+telling you that I was never angry before in my life, and I'm
+surprised to find myself enjoying the sensation."
+
+Bobby was still more astonished to find himself laying his fist
+tensely upon his desk. The lurking smile was now gone entirely from
+Mr. Sharpe's face.
+
+"I must admit, Mr. Burnit, that your affairs have turned out rather
+unfortunately," he said, "but I think that they might be remedied for
+you a bit, perhaps. Suppose you go and see Stone."
+
+"I do not care to see Mr. Stone," said Bobby.
+
+"But he wants to see you," persisted Sharpe. "In fact, he told me so
+this morning. I'm quite sure you would find it to your advantage to
+drop over there."
+
+"I shall never enter Mr. Stone's office until he has vacated it for
+good," said Bobby; "then I might be induced to come over and break up
+the furniture. If Stone wants to see me I'm keeping fairly regular
+office hours here."
+
+"It is not Mr. Stone's habit to go to other people," bluffed Sharpe,
+growing somewhat nervous; for it was one of Stone's traits not to
+forgive the failure of a mission. He had no use for extenuating
+circumstances, He never looked at anything in this world but results.
+
+Bobby took down the receiver of his house telephone.
+
+"I'd like to speak to Mr. Jolter, please," said he.
+
+Sharpe rose to go.
+
+"Just wait a moment, Mr. Sharpe," said Bobby peremptorily, and Sharpe
+stopped. "Jolter," he directed crisply, turning again to the 'phone,
+"kindly step into my office, will you?"
+
+A moment later, while Sharpe stood wondering, Jolter came in, and
+grinned as he noted Bobby's visitor.
+
+"Mr. Jolter," asked Bobby, "have we a good portrait of Mr. Sharpe?"
+
+Jolter, still grinning, stated that they had.
+
+"Have a three-column half-tone made of it for this evening's
+_Bulletin_."
+
+Sharpe fairly spluttered.
+
+"Mr. Burnit, if you print my picture in the _Bulletin_ connected with
+anything derogatory, I'll--I'll--"
+
+Bobby waited politely for a moment.
+
+"Go ahead, Mr. Sharpe," said he. "I'm interested to know just what you
+will do, because we're going to print the picture, connected with
+something quite derogatory. Now finish your threat."
+
+Sharpe gazed at him a moment, speechless with rage, and then stamped
+from the office.
+
+Jolter, quietly chuckling, turned to Bobby.
+
+"I guess you'll do," he commented. "If you last long enough you'll
+win."
+
+"Thanks," said Bobby dryly, and then he smiled. "Say, Jolter," he
+added, "it's bully fun being angry. I'm just beginning to realize what
+I have been missing all these years. Go ahead with Sharpe's picture
+and print anything you please about him. I guess you can secure enough
+material without going out of the office, and if you can't I'll supply
+you with some."
+
+Jolter looked at his watch and hurried for the door. Minutes were
+precious if he wanted to get that Sharpe cut made in time for the
+afternoon edition. At the door, however, he turned a bit anxiously.
+
+"I suppose you carry a gun, don't you?"
+
+"By no means," said Bobby. "Never owned one."
+
+"I'd advise you to get a good one at once," and Jolter hurried away.
+
+That evening's edition of the _Bulletin_ contained a beautiful
+half-tone of Mr. Sharpe. Above it was printed: "The _Bulletin's_
+Rogues' Gallery," and beneath was the caption: "Hadn't this man better
+go, too?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+EDITOR BURNIT DISCOVERS THAT HE IS FIGHTING AN ENTIRE CITY INSTEAD OF
+ONE MAN
+
+
+At four o'clock of that same day Mr. Brown came in, and Mr. Brown was
+grinning. In the last three days a grin had become the trade-mark of
+the office, for the staff of the _Bulletin_ was enjoying itself as
+never before in all its history.
+
+"Stone's in my office," said Brown. "Wants to see you."
+
+Bobby was interestedly leafing over the pages of the _Bulletin_. He
+looked leisurely at his watch and yawned.
+
+"Tell Mr. Stone that I am busy, but that I will receive him in fifteen
+minutes," he directed, whereupon Mr. Brown, appreciating the joke,
+grinned still more expansively and withdrew.
+
+Bobby, as calmly as he could, went on with his perusal of the
+_Bulletin_. To deny that he was somewhat tense over the coming
+interview would be foolish. Never had a quarter of an hour dragged so
+slowly, but he waited it out, with five minutes more on top of it, and
+then he telephoned to Brown to know if Stone was still there. He was
+relieved to find that he was.
+
+"Tell him to come in," he ordered.
+
+If Stone was inwardly fuming when he entered the room he gave no
+indication of it. His heavy face bore only his habitually sullen
+expression, his heavy-lidded eyes bore only their usual somberness,
+his heavy brow had in it no crease other than those that time had
+graven there. With the deliberateness peculiar to him he planted his
+heavy body in a big arm-chair opposite to Bobby, without removing his
+hat.
+
+"I don't believe in beating around the bush, Mr. Burnit," said he,
+with a glance over his shoulder to make sure that the door was closed.
+"Of course you're after something. What do you want?"
+
+Bobby looked at him in wonder. He had heard much of Stone's bluntness,
+and now he was fascinated by it. Nevertheless, he did not forget his
+own viewpoint.
+
+"Oh, I don't want much," he observed pleasantly, "only just your
+scalp; yours and the scalps of a few others who gave me my education,
+from Silas Trimmer up and down. I think one of the things that
+aggravated me most was the recent elevation of Trimmer to the
+chairmanship of your waterworks commission. Trivial as it was, this
+probably had as much to do with my sudden determination to wipe you
+out, as your having the Brightlight's poles removed from Market
+Street."
+
+Stone laid a heavy hand easily upon Bobby's desk. It was a strong
+hand, a big hand, brown and hairy, and from the third pudgy finger
+glowed a huge diamond.
+
+"As far as Trimmer is concerned," said he, quite undisturbed, "you can
+have his head any minute. He's a mutt."
+
+"You don't need to give me Mr. Trimmer's head," replied Bobby, quite
+as calmly. "I intend to get that myself."
+
+"And as for the Brightlight," continued Stone as if he had not been
+interrupted, "I sent Sharpe over to see you about that this morning. I
+think we can fix it so that you can get back your two hundred and
+fifty thousand. The deal's been worth a lot more than that to the
+Consolidated."
+
+"No doubt," agreed Bobby. "However, I'm not looking, at the present
+moment, for a sop to the Brightlight Company. It will be time enough
+for that when I have forced the Consolidated into the hands of a
+receiver."
+
+Stone looked at Bobby thoughtfully between narrowed eyelids.
+
+"Look here, young fellow," said he presently. "Now, you take it from
+me, and I have been through the mill, that there ain't any use holding
+a grouch. The mere doing damage don't get you anything unless it's to
+whip somebody else into line with a warning. I take it that this ain't
+what you're trying to do. You think you're simply playing a grouch
+game, table stakes; but if you'll simmer down you'll find you've got a
+price. Now, I'd rather have you with me than against me. If you'll
+just say what you want I'll get it for you if it's in reach. But don't
+froth. I've cleaned up as much money as your daddy did, just by
+keeping my temper."
+
+"I'm going to keep mine, too," Bobby informed him quite cheerfully. "I
+have just found that I have one, and I like it."
+
+Stone brushed this triviality aside with a wave of his heavy hand.
+
+"Quit kidding," he said, "and come out with it. I see you're no piker,
+anyhow. You're playing for big game. What is it you want?"
+
+"As I said before, not very much," declared Bobby. "I only want to
+grind your machine into powder. I want to dig up the rotten municipal
+control of this city, root and branch. I want to ferret out every bit
+of crookedness in which you have been concerned, and every bit that
+you have caused. I want to uncover every man, high or low, for just
+what he is, and I don't care how well protected he is nor how shining
+his reputation, if he's concerned in a crooked deal I'm going after
+him--"
+
+"There won't be many of us left," Stone interrupted with a smile.
+
+"--I want to get back some of the money you have stolen from this
+city," continued Bobby; "and I want, last of all, to drive you out of
+this town for good."
+
+Stone rose with a sigh.
+
+"This is the only chance I'll give you to climb in with the music," he
+rumbled. "I've kept off three days, figuring out where you were
+leading to and what you were after. Now, last of all, what will you
+take to call it off?"
+
+"I have told you the price," said Bobby.
+
+"Then you're looking for trouble and you must have it, eh?"
+
+"I suppose I must."
+
+"Then you'll get it," and without the sign of a frown upon his brow
+Mr. Stone left the office.
+
+The next morning things began to happen. The First National Bank
+called up the business office of the _Bulletin_ and ordered its
+advertisement discontinued. Not content alone with that, President De
+Graff called up Bobby personally, and in a very cold and dignified
+voice told him that the First National was compelled to withdraw its
+patronage on account of the undignified personal attacks in which the
+_Bulletin_ was indulging. Bobby whistled softly. He knew De Graff
+quite well; they were, in fact, upon most intimate terms, socially.
+
+"I should think, De Graff," Bobby remonstrated, "that of all people
+the banks should be glad to have all this crookedness rooted out of
+the city. As a matter of fact, I intended shortly to ask your
+coöperation in the formation of a citizens' committee to insure honest
+politics."
+
+"I really could not take any active part in such a movement, Mr.
+Burnit," returned De Graff, still more coldly. "The conservatism
+necessary to my position forbids my connection with any sensational
+publicity whatsoever."
+
+An hour later, Crone, the advertising manager, came up to Bobby very
+much worried, to report that not only the First National but the
+Second Market Bank had stopped their advertising, as had Trimmer and
+Company, and another of the leading dry-goods firms.
+
+"Of course," said Crone, "your editorial policy is your own, but I'm
+afraid that it is going to be ruinous to your advertising."
+
+"I shouldn't wonder," admitted Bobby dryly, and that was all the
+satisfaction he gave Crone; but inwardly he was somewhat disturbed.
+
+He had not thought of the potency of this line of attack. While he
+knew nothing of the newspaper business, he had already made sure that
+the profit was in the advertising. He sent for Jolter.
+
+"Ben," he asked, "what is the connection between the First National
+and the Second Market Banks and Sam Stone?"
+
+"Money," said the managing editor promptly. "Both banks are
+depositories of city funds."
+
+"I see," said Bobby slowly. "Do any other banks enjoy this patronage?"
+
+"The Merchants' and the Planters' and Traders' hold the county funds,
+which are equally at Stone's disposal."
+
+Bobby heard this news in silence, and Jolter, after looking at him
+narrowly for a moment, added:
+
+"I'll tell you something else. Not one of the four banks pays to the
+city or the county one penny of interest on these deposits. This is
+well known to the newspapers, but none of them has dared use it."
+
+"Go after them," said Bobby.
+
+"Moreover, it is strongly suspected that the banks pay interest
+privately to Stone, through a small and select ring in the court-house
+and in the city hall."
+
+"Go after them."
+
+"I suppose you know the men who will be involved in this," said
+Jolter.
+
+"Some of my best friends, I expect," said Bobby.
+
+"And some of the most influential citizens in this town," retorted
+Jolter. "They can ruin the _Bulletin_. They could ruin any business."
+
+"The thing's crooked, isn't it?" demanded Bobby.
+
+"As a dog's hind leg."
+
+"Go after them, Jolter!" Bobby reiterated. Then he laughed aloud. "De
+Graff just telephoned me that 'the conservatism of his position
+forbids him to take part in any sensational publicity whatsoever.'"
+
+Comment other than a chuckle was superfluous from either one of them,
+and Jolter departed to the city editor's room, to bring joy to the
+heart of the staff.
+
+It was "Bugs" Roach who scented the far-reaching odor of this move
+with the greatest joy.
+
+"You know what this means, don't you?" he delightedly commented. "A
+grand jury investigation. Oh, listen to the band!"
+
+Before noon the Merchants' and the Planters' and Traders' Banks had
+withdrawn their advertisements.
+
+At about the same hour a particularly atrocious murder was committed
+in one of the suburbs. Up in the reporters' room of the police
+station, Thomas, of the _Bulletin_, and Graham, of the _Chronicle_,
+were indulging in a quiet game of whist with two of the morning
+newspaper boys, when a roundsman stepped to the door and called Graham
+out. Graham came back a moment later after his coat, with such studied
+nonchalance that the other boys, eternally suspicious as police
+reporters grow to be, looked at him narrowly, and Thomas asked him,
+also with studied nonchalance:
+
+"The candy-store girl, or the one in the laundry office?"
+
+"Business, young fellow, business," returned Graham loftily. "I guess
+the _Chronicle_ knows when it has a good man. I'm called into the
+office to save the paper. They're sending a cub down to cover the
+afternoon. Don't scoop him, old man."
+
+"Not unless I get a chance," promised Thomas, but after Graham had
+gone he went down to the desk and, still unsatisfied, asked:
+
+"Anything doing, Lieut.?"
+
+"Dead as a door-nail," replied the lieutenant, and Thomas, still with
+an instinct that something was wrong, still sensitive to a certain
+suppressed tingling excitement about the very atmosphere of the place,
+went slowly back to the reporters' room, where he spent a worried
+half-hour.
+
+The noonday edition of the _Chronicle_ carried, in the identical
+columns devoted in the _Bulletin_ to a further attack on Stone, a
+lurid account of the big murder; and the _Bulletin_ had not a line of
+it! A sharp call from Brown to Thomas, at central police, apprised the
+latter that he had been "scooped," and brought out the facts in the
+case. Thomas hurried down-stairs and bitterly upbraided Lieutenant
+Casper.
+
+"Look here, you Thomas," snapped Casper; "you _Bulletin_ guys have
+been too fresh around here for a long time."
+
+In Casper's eyes--Casper with whom he had always been on cordial
+joking terms--he saw cruel implacability, and, furious, he knew
+himself to be "in" for that most wearing of all newspaper jobs--"doing
+police" for a paper that was "in bad" with the administration. He
+needed no one to tell him the cause. At three-thirty, Thomas, and
+Camden, who was doing the city hall, and Greenleaf Whittier Squiggs,
+who was subbing for the day on the courts, appeared before Jim Brown
+in an agonized body. Thomas had been scooped on the big murder, Camden
+and G. W. Squiggs had been scooped, at the city hall and the county
+building, on the only items worth while, and they were all at white
+heat; though it was a great consolation to Squiggs, after all, to find
+himself in such distinguished company.
+
+Brown heard them in silence, and with great solemnity conducted them
+across the hall to Jolter, who also heard them in silence and
+conducted them into the adjoining room to Bobby. Here Jolter stood
+back and eyed young Mr. Burnit with great interest as his two
+experienced veterans and his ambitious youngster poured forth their
+several tales of woe. Bobby, as it became him to be, was much
+disturbed.
+
+"How's the circulation of the _Bulletin_?" he asked of Jolter.
+
+"Five times what it ever was in its history," responded Jolter.
+
+"Do you suppose we can hold it?"
+
+"Possibly."
+
+"How much does a scoop amount to?"
+
+"Well," confessed Jolter, with his eyes twinkling, "I hate to tell you
+before the boys, but my own opinion is that we know it and the
+_Chronicle_ knows it and Stone knows it, but day after to-morrow the
+public couldn't tell you on its sacred oath whether it read the first
+account of the murder in the _Bulletin_ or in the _Chronicle_."
+
+Bobby heaved a sigh of relief.
+
+"I always had the impression that a 'beat' meant the death, cortège
+and cremation of the newspaper that fell behind in the race," he
+smiled. "Boys, I'm afraid you'll have to stand it for a while. Do the
+best you can and get beaten as little as possible. By the way, Jolter,
+I want to see you a minute," and the mournful delegation of three, no
+whit less mournful because they had been assured that they would not
+be held accountable for being scooped, filed out.
+
+"What's the connection," demanded Bobby, the minute they were alone,
+"between the police department and Sam Stone?"
+
+"Money!" replied Jolter. "Chief of Police Cooley is in reality chief
+collector. The police graft is one of the richest Stone has. The
+rake-off from saloons that are supposed to close at one and from
+crooked gambling joints and illegal resorts of various kinds, amounts,
+I suppose, to not less than ten to fifteen thousand dollars a week. Of
+course, the patrolmen get some, but the bulk of it goes to Cooley, who
+was appointed by Stone, and the biggest slice of all goes to the
+Boss."
+
+"Go after Cooley," said Bobby. Then suddenly he struck his fist upon
+the desk. "Great Heavens, man!" he exclaimed. "At the end of every
+avenue and street and alley that I turn down with the _Bulletin_ I
+find an open sewer."
+
+"The town is pretty well supplied," admitted Jolter. "How do you feel
+now about your policy?"
+
+"Pretty well staggered," confessed Bobby; "but we're going through
+with the thing just the same."
+
+"It's a man's-size job," declared Jolter; "but if you get away with it
+the _Bulletin_ will be the best-paying piece of newspaper property
+west of New York."
+
+"Not the way the advertising's going," said Bobby, shaking his head
+and consulting a list on his desk. "Where has Stone a hold on the
+dry-goods firm of Rolands and Crawford?"
+
+"They built out circular show-windows, all around their big block, and
+these extend illegally upon two feet of the sidewalk."
+
+"And how about the Ebony Jewel Coal Company?"
+
+"They have been practically allowed to close up Second Street, from
+Water to Canal, for a dump."
+
+Bobby sighed hopelessly.
+
+"We can't fight everybody in town," he complained.
+
+"Yes, but we can!" exclaimed Jolter with a sudden fire that surprised
+Bobby, since it was the first the managing editor displayed. "Don't
+weaken, Burnit! I'm with you in this thing, heart and soul! If we can
+hold out until next election we will sweep everything before us."
+
+"We will hold out!" declared Bobby.
+
+"I am so sure of it that I'll stand treat," assented Mr. Jolter with
+vast enthusiasm, and over an old oak table, in a quiet place, Mr.
+Jolter and Mr. Burnit, having found the sand in each other's craws,
+cemented a pretty strong liking.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+AN EXCITING GAME OF TIT FOR TAT WITH HIRED THUGS
+
+
+The _Bulletin_, continuing its warfare upon Stone and every one who
+supported him, hit upon names that had never before been mentioned but
+in terms of the highest respect, and divers and sundry complacent
+gentlemen who attended church quite regularly began to look for a
+cyclone cellar. They were compromised with Stone and they could not
+placate Bobby. The four banks that had withdrawn their advertisements,
+after a hasty conference with Stone put them back again the first day
+their names were mentioned. The business department of the _Bulletin_
+cheerfully accepted those advertisements at the increased rate
+justified by the _Bulletin's_ increased circulation; but the editorial
+department just as cheerfully kept castigating the erring conservators
+of the public money, and the advertisements disappeared again.
+
+Bobby's days now were beset from a hundred quarters with agonized
+appeals to change his policy. This man and that man and the other man
+high in commercial and social and political circles came to him with
+all sorts of pressure, and even Payne Winthrop and Nick Allstyne, two
+of his particular cronies of the Idlers', not being able to catch him
+at the club any more, came up to his office.
+
+"This won't do, old man," protested Payne; "we're missing you at
+billiards and bridge whist, but your refusal to take part in the
+coming polo tourney was the last straw. You're getting to be a regular
+plebe."
+
+"I am a plebe," admitted Bobby. "What's the use to deny it? My father
+was a plebe. He came off the farm with no earthly possessions more
+valuable than the patches on his trousers. I am one generation from
+the soil, and since I have turned over a furrow or two, just plain
+earth smells good to me."
+
+Both of Bobby's friends laughed. They liked him too well to take him
+seriously in this.
+
+"But really," said Nick, returning to the attack, "the boys at the
+club were talking over the thing and think this rather bad form, this
+sort of a fight you're making. You're bound to become involved in a
+nasty controversy."
+
+"Yes?" inquired Bobby pleasantly. "Watch me become worse involved.
+More than that, I think I shall come down to the Idlers', when I get
+things straightened out here, organize a club league and make you
+fellows march with banners and torch-lights."
+
+This being a more hilarious joke than the other the boys laughed quite
+politely, though Payne Winthrop grew immediately serious again.
+
+"But we can't lose you, Bobby," he insisted. "We want you to quit this
+sort of business and come back again to the old crowd. There are so
+few of us left, you know, that we're getting lonesome. Stan Rogers is
+getting up a glorious hunt and he wants us all to come up to his lodge
+for a month at least. You should be tired of this by now, anyhow."
+
+"Not a bit of it," declared Bobby.
+
+"Oh, of course, you have your money involved," admitted Payne, "and
+you must play it through on that account; but I'll tell you: if you do
+want to sell I know where I could find a buyer for you at a profit."
+
+Bobby turned on him like a flash.
+
+"Look here, Payne," said he. "Where is your interest in this?"
+
+"My interest?" repeated Payne blankly.
+
+"Yes, your interest. What have you to gain by having me sell out?"
+
+"Why, really, Bobby--" began Payne, thinking to temporize.
+
+"You're here for that purpose, and must tell me why," insisted Bobby
+sternly, tapping his finger on the desk.
+
+"Well, if you must know," stammered Payne, taken out of himself by
+sheer force of Bobby's manner, "my respected and revered--"
+
+"I see," said Bobby.
+
+"The--the pater is thinking of entering politics next year, and he
+rather wants an organ."
+
+"And Nick, where's yours?"
+
+"Well," confessed Nick, with no more force of reservation than had
+Payne when mastery was used upon him, "mother's city property and
+mine, you know, contains some rather tumbledown buildings that are
+really good for a number of years yet, but which adverse municipal
+government might--might depreciate in value."
+
+"Just a minute," said Bobby, and he sent for Jolter.
+
+"Ben," he asked, "do you know anything about Mr. Adam Winthrop's
+political aspirations?"
+
+"I understand he's being groomed for governor," said Jolter.
+
+"Meet his son, Mr. Jolter--Mr. Payne Winthrop. Also Mr. Nick Allstyne.
+I suppose Mr. Winthrop is to run on Stone's ticket?" continued Bobby,
+breaking in upon the formalities as quickly as possible.
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Payne," said Bobby, "if your father wants to talk with me about the
+_Bulletin_ he must come himself. Jolter, do you know where the
+Allstyne properties are?"
+
+Jolter looked at Nick and Nick colored.
+
+"That's rather a blunt question, under the circumstances, Mr. Burnit,"
+said Jolter, "but I don't see why it shouldn't be answered as bluntly.
+It's a row of two blocks on the most notorious street of the town,
+frame shacks that are likely to be the start of a holocaust, any windy
+night, which will sweep the entire down-town district. They should
+have been condemned years ago."
+
+"Nick," said Bobby, "I'll give you one month to dispose of that
+property, because after that length of time I'm going after it."
+
+This was but a sample. Bobby had at last become suspicious, and as old
+John Burnit had shrewdly observed in one of his letters: "It hurts to
+acquire suspiciousness, but it is quite necessary; only don't overdo
+it."
+
+Bobby, however, was in a field where suspiciousness could scarcely be
+overdone. When any man came to protest or to use influence on Bobby in
+his fight, Bobby took the bull by the horns, called for Jolter, who
+was a mine of information upon local affairs, and promptly found out
+the reason for that man's interest; whereupon he either warned him off
+or attacked him, and made an average of ten good, healthy enemies a
+day. He scared Adam Winthrop out of the political race entirely, he
+made the Allstynes tear down their fire-traps and erect better-paying
+and consequently more desirable tenements, and he had De Graff and the
+other involved bankers "staggering in circles and hoarsely barking,"
+as "Bugs" Roach put it.
+
+So far, Bobby had been subjected to no personal annoyances, but on the
+day after his first attack on the chief of police he began to be
+arrested for breaking the speed laws, and fined the limit, even though
+he drove his car but eight miles an hour, while his news carriers and
+his employees were "pinched" upon the most trivial pretexts. Libel
+suits were brought wherever a merchant or an official had a record
+clear enough to risk such procedure, and three of these suits were
+decided against him; whereupon Bobby, finding the money chain which
+bound certain of the judges to Sam Stone, promptly attacked these
+members of the judiciary and appealed his cases.
+
+His very name became a red rag to every member of Stone's crowd; but
+up to this point no violence had been offered him. One night, however,
+as he was driving his own car homeward, men on the watch for him
+stepped out of an alley mouth two blocks above the Burnit residence
+and strewed the street thickly with sharp-pointed coil springs. One of
+these caught a tire, and Bobby, always on the alert for the first sign
+of such accidents, brought his car to a sudden stop, reached down for
+his tire-wrench and jumped out. Just as he stooped over to examine the
+tire, some instinct warned him, and he turned quickly to find three
+men coming upon him from the alley, the nearest one with an uplifted
+slung-shot. It was with just a glance from the corner of his eye as he
+turned that Bobby caught the import of the figure towering above him,
+and then his fine athletic training came in good stead. With a
+sidewise spring he was out of the sphere of that descending blow, and,
+swinging with his heavy wrench, caught the fellow a smash upon the
+temple which laid him unconscious. Before the two other men had time
+to think, he was upon them and gave one a broken shoulder-blade. The
+other escaped. There had been no word from any of the three men which
+might lead to an explanation of this attack, but Bobby needed no
+explanation; he divined at once the source from which it came, and in
+the morning he sent for Biff Bates.
+
+"Biff," said he, "I spoke once about securing some thugs to act as a
+counter-irritant against Stone, but I have neglected it. How long will
+it take to get hold of some?"
+
+"Ten minutes, if I wait till dark," replied Biff. "I can go down to
+the Blue Star, and for ten iron men apiece can get you as fine a bunch
+of yeggs as ever beat out a cripple's brains with his own wooden leg."
+
+Bobby smiled.
+
+"I don't want them to go quite that far," he objected. "Are they men
+you can depend upon not to sell out to Stone?"
+
+"Just one way," replied Biff. "The choice line of murderers that hang
+out down around the levee are half of them sore on Stone, anyhow; but
+they're afraid of him, and the only way you can use them is to give
+'em enough to get 'em out of town. For ten a throw you can buy them
+body and soul."
+
+"I'll take about four, to start on duty to-night, and stay on duty
+till they accomplish what I want done," and Bobby detailed his plan to
+Biff.
+
+Stone had one peculiarity. Knowing that he had enemies, and those
+among the most reckless class in the world, he seldom allowed himself
+to be caught alone; but every night he held counsel with some of his
+followers at a certain respectable beer-garden where, in the
+summer-time, a long table in a quiet, half-screened corner was
+reserved for him and his followers, and in the winter a back room was
+given up for the same purpose. Here Stone transacted all the real
+business of his local organization, drinking beer, reviving
+strange-looking callers, and confining his own remarks to a grunted
+yes or no, or a brief direction. Every night at about nine-thirty he
+rose, yawned, and, unattended, walked back through the beer-garden to
+the alley, where he stood for some five minutes. This was his retreat
+for uninterrupted thought, and when he came back from it he had the
+day's developments summed up and the necessary course of action
+resolved upon.
+
+On the second night after the attempted assault upon Bobby he had no
+sooner closed the alley door behind him than a man sprang upon him
+from either side, a heavy hand was placed over his mouth, and he was
+dragged to the ground, where a third brawny thug straddled his chest
+and showed him a long knife.
+
+"See it?" demanded the man as he passed the blade before Stone's eyes.
+"It's hungry. You let 'em clip my brother in stir for a three-stretch
+when you could have saved him with a grunt, and if I wasn't workin'
+under orders, in half an hour they'd have you on slab six with ice
+packed around you and a sheet over you. But we're under orders. We're
+part of the reform committee, we are," and all three of them laughed
+silently, "and there's a string of us longer than the Christmas
+bread-line, all crazy for a piece of this getaway coin. And here's the
+little message I got to give you. This time you're to go free. Next
+time you're to have your head beat off. This thuggin' of peaceable
+citizens has got to be stopped; see?"
+
+A low whistle from a man stationed at the mouth of the alley
+interrupted the speech which the man with the knife was enjoying so
+much, and he sprang from the chest of Stone, who had been struggling
+vainly all this time. As the man sprang up and started to run, he
+suddenly whirled and gave Stone a vicious kick upon the hip, and as
+Stone rose, another man kicked him in the ribs. All three of them ran,
+and Stone, scrambling to his feet with difficulty, whipped his
+revolver from his pocket and snapped it. Long disused, however, the
+trigger stuck, but he took after them on foot in spite of the pain of
+the two fearful kicks that he had received. Instead of darting
+straight out of the alley, the men turned in at a small gate at the
+side of a narrow building on the corner, and slammed the gate behind
+them. He could hear the drop of the wooden bolt. He knew perfectly
+that entrance. It was to the littered back yard of a cheap saloon, at
+the side of which ran a narrow passageway to the street beyond, where
+street-cars passed every half-minute.
+
+Just as he came furiously up to the gate a policeman darted in at the
+alley mouth, and, catching the glint of Stone's revolver, whipped his
+own. He ran quite fearlessly to Stone, and with a dextrous blow upon
+the wrist sent the revolver spinning.
+
+"You're under arrest," said he.
+
+For just one second he covered his man, then his arm dropped and his
+jaw opened in astonishment.
+
+"Why, it's Stone!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Yes, damn you, it's Stone!" screamed the Boss, livid with fury, and
+overcome with anger he dealt the policeman a staggering blow in the
+face. "You damned flat-foot, I'll teach you to notice who you put your
+hands on! Give me that badge!"
+
+White-faced and with trembling fingers, and with a trickle of blood
+starting slowly from a cut upon his cheek, the man unfastened his
+badge.
+
+"Now, go back to Cooley and tell him I broke you," Stone ordered, and
+turned on his heel.
+
+By the time he reached the back door of the beer-garden he was limping
+most painfully, but when he rejoined his crowd he said nothing of the
+incident. In the brief time that it had taken him to go from the alley
+mouth to that table he had divined the significance of the whole
+thing. For the first time in his career he knew himself to be a
+systematically marked man, as he had systematically marked others; and
+he was not beyond reason. Thereafter, Bobby Burnit was in no more
+jeopardy from hired thugs, and for a solid year he kept up his fight,
+with plenty of material to last him for still another twelvemonth. It
+was a year which improved him in many ways, but Aunt Constance
+Elliston objected to the improvement.
+
+"Bobby, they _are_ spoiling you," she complained. "They're taking your
+suavity away from you, and you're acquiring grim, hard lines around
+your mouth."
+
+"They're making him," declared Agnes, looking fondly across at the
+firm face and into the clear, unwavering eyes.
+
+Bobby answered the look of Agnes with one that needed no words to
+interpret, and laughed at Aunt Constance.
+
+"I suppose they are spoiling me," he confessed, "and I'm glad of it.
+I'm glad, above all, that I'm losing the sort of suavity which led me
+to smile and tell a man politely to take it, when he reached his hand
+into my pocket for my money."
+
+"You'll do," agreed Uncle Dan. "When you took hold of the _Bulletin_,
+your best friends only gave you two months, But are you making any
+money?"
+
+Bobby's face clouded.
+
+"Spending it like water. We have practically no advertising, and a
+larger circulation than I want. We lose money on every copy of the
+paper that we sell."
+
+Uncle Dan shook his head.
+
+"Is there a chance that you will ever get it back?" he asked.
+
+"Bobby's so used to failure that he doesn't mind," interjected Aunt
+Constance.
+
+"Mind!" exclaimed Bobby. "I never minded it so much in my life as I do
+now. The _Bulletin_ must win. I'm bound that it shall win! If we come
+out ahead in our fight against Stone I'll get all my advertising back,
+and I'll keep my circulation, which makes advertising rates."
+
+The telephone bell rang in the study adjoining the dining-room, and
+Bobby, who had been more or less distrait all evening, half rose from
+his chair. In a moment more the maid informed them that the call was
+for Mr. Burnit. In the study they could hear his voice, excited and
+exultant. He returned as delighted as a school-boy.
+
+"Now I can tell you something," he announced. "Within five minutes the
+_Bulletin_ will have exclusive extras on the street, announcing that
+the legislature has just appointed a committee to investigate
+municipal affairs throughout the state. That means this town. I have
+spent ten thousand dollars in lobbying that measure through, and
+charged it all to improvements' on the _Bulletin_. Sounds like I had
+joined the ranks of the 'boodlers,' don't it? Well, I don't give a
+cooky for ethics so long as I know I'm right. I'd have been a simp, as
+Biff Bates calls it, to go among that crowd of hungry law jugglers
+with kind words and the ten commandments. I'm not using crossbows
+against cannon, and as a result I'm winning. I got my measure through,
+and now I think we'll put Stone and his crew of freebooters on the
+grill, with some extra-hot coals for my friend De Graff and the other
+saintly sinners who have been playing into Stone's hands. I have been
+working a year for this, and the entire politics of this town, with
+wide-reaching results in the state, is disrupted."
+
+"You selfish boy," chided Aunt Constance. "You have been here with us
+for more than an hour, expecting this all the time, and have not
+breathed one word of it to us. Don't you trust anybody any more?"
+
+"Oh, yes," replied Bobby easily; "but only when it is necessary."
+
+Agnes smiled across at him in calm content. She had but very little to
+say now. She was in that blissful happiness that comes to any woman
+when the man most in her mind is reaping his meed of success from a
+long and hard-fought battle.
+
+"Spoken like your father, Bobby," laughed Uncle Dan. "You're coming to
+look more and more like him every day. You talk like him and act like
+him. You have the same snap of your jaws. Your father, however, never
+dabbled in politics. He always despised it, and I see you're bound to
+be knee-deep in it."
+
+"My father would have succeeded in politics," said Bobby confidently,
+"as he succeeded in everything else, after he once got started. I have
+his confession in writing, however, that he made a few fool mistakes
+himself along at first. As for politics, I _am_ in it knee-deep, and
+I'm going to elect my own slate next fall."
+
+"Another reform party, of course," suggested Uncle Dan with a smile.
+
+"Not for Bobby," replied that decided young gentleman. "I am forming
+an affiliation with Cal Lewis."
+
+"Cal Lewis!" exclaimed Uncle Dan aghast. Then he closed his eyes and
+laughed softly. "As notorious in his way as Sam Stone himself. Why,
+Bobby, that's fighting fire with gasolene."
+
+"It's setting a thief to catch a thief. You must remember that for
+fifteen years Cal hasn't had any of the pie except in a minor way, and
+all this time he's been fighting Stone tooth and toe-nail. The late
+reform movement, which failed so lamentably to carry out its gaudy
+promises after it had won, left him entirely out of its calculations,
+and Lewis actually joined with Stone in overturning it. I propose to
+use Lewis' knowledge of political machinery, but in my own way. As a
+matter of fact, I have already engaged him and put him on salary; a
+good, stiff one, too. His business is to organize my political
+machine. I'm going to have a slate of clean men, who will not only
+conduct the business of this county and city with probity but with
+discretion, and I do not mind telling you that my candidate for mayor
+is Chalmers."
+
+Agnes gave a little cry of delight, and even Aunt Constance clapped
+her hands lightly, for Chalmers, a young lawyer of excellent social
+connections, was a prime favorite with the Ellistons, and in the
+business he had transacted for the Burnit estate Bobby had found in
+him sterling qualities.
+
+"Chalmers is a good man," agreed Uncle Dan, "though he is young, and
+practically without political influence; but, if you can make him
+mayor, I predict a brilliant political future for him."
+
+"He will have it," said Bobby confidently, "for I intend to make him
+the attorney for the investigating committee, and through his work I
+expect to have not less than a hundred thousand dollars of stolen
+money turned back into the city and county treasuries."
+
+As Bobby announced this he rose mechanically, and, still absorbed in
+the details of his big fight, walked out into the hall. It was not
+until he had his coat on and his hat in his hand that he came to
+himself; and with the deepest confusion found that he had been about
+to walk out without making any adieus whatever.
+
+"Why, where are you going?" inquired Agnes, as he came back into the
+drawing-room.
+
+He laughed sheepishly.
+
+"Why," he explained, "ever since I received that telephone message I
+have been seeing before me the _Bulletin_ extra that they are throwing
+on the street right now, and I forgot everything else. I'll simply
+have to go down and hold a copy of it in my hands."
+
+"You're just a big boy," laughed Aunt Constance. "Will you ever grow
+up?"
+
+"I hope not," declared Agnes, and taking his arm she strolled with him
+to the door in perfect peace and confidence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+MR. STONE LEAVES BOBBY A PARTING COMMISSION AND A LEFT-HANDED BLESSING
+
+
+It looked good to Bobby, that late extra of the _Bulletin_, and the
+force that he had kept on duty to get it out greeted him, as he walked
+through the office, with a running fire of comment and congratulation
+that was almost like applause. He had bought a copy on the street as
+he came in, and as he spread it out there came upon him a thrill of
+realization that this ought to be the beginning of the end.
+
+It was. The fact that Bobby, through the _Bulletin_, had forced this
+action, made him a power to be reckoned with; and straws, whole bales
+of them, began to show which way the wind was blowing.
+
+One morning a delegation headed by the Reverend Doctor Larynx waited
+upon him. The Reverend Doctor was a minister of great ingenuity and
+force, who sought the salvation of souls through such vital topics as
+Shall Men Go Coatless in Summer? The Justice of Three-Cent Car Fares,
+and The Billboards Must Go. All public questions, civic, state or
+national, were thoroughly thrashed out in the pulpit of the Reverend
+Larynx, and turned adrift with the seal of his condemnation or
+approval duly fixed upon them; and he managed to get his name and
+picture in the papers almost as often as the man who took eighty-seven
+bottles of Elixo and still survived. With him were four thoroughly
+respectable men of business, two of whom wore side-whiskers and the
+other two of whom wore white bow-ties.
+
+"Fine business, Mr. Burnit," said the Reverend Doctor Larynx in a
+loud, hearty voice, advancing with three strides and clasping Bobby's
+hand in a vise-like grip; for he was a red-blooded minister, was the
+Reverend Doctor Larynx, and he believed in getting down among the
+"pee-pul." "The _Bulletin_ has proved itself a mighty fine engine of
+reform, and the reputable citizens of this municipality now see a ray
+of hope before them."
+
+"I'm afraid that the reputable citizens," ventured Bobby, "have no one
+but themselves to blame for their past hopeless condition. They're too
+selfish to vote."
+
+"You have hit the nail on the head," declaimed the Reverend Larynx
+with a loud, hearty laugh, "but the _Bulletin_ will rouse them to a
+sense of duty. Last night, Mr. Burnit, the Utopian Club was formed
+with an initial membership of over seventy, and it selected a
+candidate for mayor of whom the _Bulletin_ is bound to approve. Shake
+hands with Mr. Freedom, the Utopian Club's candidate for mayor, Mr.
+Burnit."
+
+Bobby shook hands with Mr. Freedom quite nicely, and studied him
+curiously.
+
+He was one of the two who wore side-whiskers and a habitual Prince
+Albert, and he displayed a phenomenal length from lower lip to chin,
+which, by reason of his extremely high and narrow forehead, gave his
+features the appearance of being grouped in tiny spots somewhere near
+the center of a long, yellow cylinder. Mr. Freedom, he afterward
+ascertained, was a respectable singing-teacher.
+
+"Professor Freedom," went on the Reverend Doctor Larynx, still loudly
+and heartily, "has the time to devote to this office, as well as the
+ideal qualifications. He has no vices whatever. He does not even smoke
+nor use tobacco in any form, and under his régime the saloons of this
+town would be turned into vacant store-rooms, if there are laws to
+make possible such action."
+
+"I do not want the saloons put out of business," declared Bobby. "I
+merely want them vacated at twelve every night, without exception."
+
+When Doctor Larynx and his delegation went away in wrath the leader
+was already preparing his sermon upon The Iniquity of the Sons of Rich
+Fathers.
+
+On the following day a delegation from the business men's club waited
+upon him. The business men's club wanted a business administration.
+This crowd Bobby handled differently. Upon his desk, tabulated in
+advance against just such an emergency, he had statistics concerning
+all the business men's administrations that had been tried in various
+cities, and he submitted this statement without argument. It needed
+none.
+
+"Politics is in itself a distinct business," he explained. "You would
+not one of you take up the duties of a surveyor without previous
+training. The only trouble is that there are no restrictions placed
+upon politicians. I propose to use them, but to regulate them."
+
+He did not convert the delegation by this one interview, but he did by
+cultivating these men and others of their kind separately. He ate
+luncheons and dinners with them at the Traders' Club, played billiards
+with them, smoked and talked with them; and the burden of his talk was
+Chalmers. When he finally got ready for his campaign the business men
+were with him unanimously, at least outwardly. Inwardly, there were
+reservations, for the matter of special privileges was one to be very
+gravely considered; and special privileges, at a price not entirely
+prohibitive, was the bulwark of Stone's régime.
+
+"But the Stone régime," Bobby advised them, coming brutally to the
+point and telling them what he knew of their own affairs and Stone's,
+"is about to come to an end. The handwriting is on the wall, and you
+might just as well climb into the band wagon, for at last I have the
+public on my side."
+
+At last he had. For a solid year he had been trying to understand the
+peculiar apathy of the public, and he did not understand it yet. They
+seemed to like Stone and to look upon his wholesale corruption as a
+joke; but by constant hammering, by showing the unredeemable
+cussedness of Stone and his crowd, he had produced some impression--an
+impression that, alas! was of the surface only--until the
+investigating committee began its sessions. When it became understood,
+however, that certain of the thieves might actually be sent to the
+penitentiary, then who so loud in their denunciation as the public?
+Why, Stone had robbed them right and left; why, Stone was an enemy to
+mankind; why, Stone and all his friends were monsters whom it were a
+good and a holy thing to skewer and flay and cast into everlasting
+brimstone!
+
+Facts were uncovered that set the entire city in turmoil. More than
+fifty men who had never been born had been carried upon the city and
+county pay-rolls, and half of their salaries went directly into
+Stone's pocket, the other half going to the men who conducted this
+paying enterprise. Contracts for city paving and other improvements
+were let to favored bidders at an enormous figure, and Stone
+personally had one-fourth of the huge profits on "scamped" work,
+another fourth going to those who arranged the details and did the
+collecting. Innumerable instances of this sort were brought out; but
+the biggest scandal of all, in that it involved men who should have
+been unassailable, was that of the banks. The relentless probe brought
+out the fact that all city and county funds had been distributed among
+four banks, the deposits yielding no revenue whatever to either
+commonwealth. These funds, however, had paid privately two per cent.
+interest, and this interest was paid in cash, in sealed envelopes, to
+the city and county auditors and treasurers, who took the envelopes
+unbroken to Stone for distribution. The amounts thus diverted from the
+proper channels totaled to an enormous figure, and, as this money was
+the most direct and approachable, Chalmers, who had the interesting
+rôle of inquisitor, set out to get it. The officials who had been
+longest at the crib, grown incautious were now men of property, and by
+the use of red-hot pincers Chalmers was able to restore nearly sixty
+thousand dollars of stolen money, with the possibility of more in
+sight.
+
+It was upon the heels of this that Chalmers' candidacy for mayor was
+announced, and the manner in which the Stone machine dropped to pieces
+was laughable. Chalmers, and the entire slate so carefully prepared by
+Bobby in conjunction with the shrewd old fox, Cal Lewis, won by a
+majority so overwhelming as to be almost unanimous. Immediately upon
+Chalmers' election heads began to drop, and the first to go was
+Cooley, chief of police, in whom, four years later, Bobby recognized
+the driver of his ice wagon. Coincident with the election came
+well-founded rumors of grand jury indictments. Two of Stone's closest
+and busiest lieutenants, who were most in danger of being presented
+with nice new suits of striped clothing, quietly converted their
+entire property into cash and then just as quietly slipped away to
+Honduras.
+
+Late one afternoon, as Bobby sat alone in his room in the almost
+deserted _Bulletin_ building, so worried over his business affairs
+that he had no time for elation over his political and personal
+triumphs, the door opened and Stone stood before him. The pouches
+under Stone's eyes were heavier and darker, his cheeks drooped
+flabbily and he seemed to have fallen away inside his clothes, but
+upon his face there sat the same stern impassiveness. Bobby instantly
+rose, having good cause to want to be well planted upon his feet with
+this man near him. Stone carefully closed the door behind him and
+advanced to the other side of Bobby's desk.
+
+"Well, you win," he said huskily.
+
+Bobby drew a long breath.
+
+"It has cost me a lot of money, Mr. Stone. It has left me almost flat
+broke--but I got you."
+
+"I give you credit," admitted Stone. "I didn't think anybody could do
+it, least of all a kid; but you got me and you got me good. It's been
+a hard fight for all of us, I guess. I'm a little run down," and he
+hesitated curiously; "my doctor says I got to take an ocean trip." He
+suddenly blazed out: "Damn it, you might as well be told! I'm running
+away!"
+
+Bobby found himself silent. For two years he had planned and hoped for
+this moment of victory. Now that the exultant moment had come he found
+himself feeling strangely sorry for this big man, in spite of his
+unutterable rascality.
+
+"I ain't coming back," Stone went on after a pause, "and there's
+something I want to ask you to do for me."
+
+"I should be glad to do it, Mr. Stone, if it is anything I can allow
+myself to do."
+
+"Aw, cut it!" growled Stone. "Look here. I got a list of some poor
+mutts I been looking out for, and I've just set aside a wad to keep it
+going. I want you to look after 'em and see that the money gets spread
+around right. I know you're square. I don't know anybody else to give
+it to."
+
+To Bobby he handed a list of some fifty names and addresses, with
+monthly amounts set down opposite them. They were widows and orphans
+and helpless creatures of all sorts and conditions, blind and deaf and
+crippled, whom Stone, in the great passion that every man has for some
+one to love and revere him, and in the secret tenderness inseparable
+from all big natures, had made his pensioners.
+
+"There ain't a soul on earth knows about these but me, and every one
+of 'em is wise to it that if they ever blat a word about it the pap's
+cut off. I don't want a thing, not even a hint, printed about
+this--see? I ain't afraid that you'll use it in the paper after me
+asking you not to, so I don't ask you for any promise."
+
+"I'll do it with pleasure," offered Bobby.
+
+"Well, I guess that's about all," said Stone, and turned to go.
+
+Bobby came from behind his desk.
+
+"After all, Stone," he said, with some hesitation, "I'm sorry to lose
+an enemy so worth while. I wish you good luck wherever you are going,"
+and he held out his hand.
+
+Stone looked at the proffered hand and shook his head.
+
+"I'd rather smash your face," he growled, and passed out of the door.
+
+It was the last that Bobby ever saw of him, and all that the
+_Bulletin_ carried about his flight was the "fact," not at all too
+prominently displayed for the man's importance as a public figure,
+that Stone's health was in jeopardy and that he was about to take an
+ocean voyage upon the advice of his physician; and on that day Stone's
+picture disappeared from the place it had occupied upon the front page
+of the _Bulletin_.
+
+It was a victory complete and final, but it was not without its sting,
+for on that same day Bobby faced an empty exchequer. It was Johnson
+who brought him the sad but not at all unexpected tidings, at a moment
+when Chalmers and Agnes happened to be in the office. Seeing them,
+Johnson hesitated at the door.
+
+"What is it, Johnson?" asked Bobby.
+
+"Oh, nothing much," said Mr. Johnson with a pained expression. "I'll
+come back again."
+
+He had a sheet of paper with him and Bobby held out his hand for it.
+Still hesitating, old Johnson brought it forward and laid it down on
+Bobby's desk.
+
+"You know you told me, sir, to bring this to you."
+
+Had the others not been present he would have added the reminder that
+he had been instructed to bring this statement a week in advance of
+the time when Bobby should no longer be able to meet his payroll.
+Bobby looked up from the statement without any thought of reserve
+before these three.
+
+"Well, it's come. I'm broke."
+
+"Not so much a calamity in this instance as it has been in others,"
+said Agnes sagely. "Fortunately, your trustee is right here, and your
+trustee's lawyer, who has two hundred and fifty thousand dollars still
+to your account."
+
+Bobby listened in frowning silence, and old Johnson, who had prepared
+himself before he came upstairs for such a contingency, quietly laid
+upon Bobby's desk one of the familiar gray envelopes and withdrew. It
+was inscribed:
+
+    _To My Son Robert, Upon the Turning Over to Him of His Sixth
+      and Last Experimental Fund_
+
+    "If a man fails six times he'd better be pensioned and left to
+    live a life of pleasant ease; for everybody has a right to be
+    happy, and not all can gain happiness through their own
+    efforts. So, if you fail this last time, don't worry, my boy,
+    but take measures to cut your garment according to the income
+    from a million and a half dollars, invested so safely that it
+    can yield you but two per cent. If the fault of your ill
+    success lies with anybody it lies with me, and I blame myself
+    bitterly for it many times as I write this letter.
+
+    "Remember, first, last and always, that I want you to be
+    happy."
+
+Bobby passed the letter to Agnes and the envelope to Chalmers.
+
+"This is a little premature," he said, smiling at both of them, "for
+I'm not applying for the sixth portion."
+
+Agnes looked up at him in surprise.
+
+"Not applying for it?"
+
+"No," he declared, "I don't want it. I understand there is a provision
+that I can not use two of these portions in the same business."
+
+Both Chalmers and Agnes nodded.
+
+"I don't want money for any other business than the _Bulletin_,"
+declared Bobby, "and if my father has it fixed so that he won't help
+me as I want to be helped, I don't want it at all."
+
+"There is another provision about which you perhaps don't know,"
+Chalmers informed him; "if you refuse this money it reverts to the
+main fund."
+
+Bobby studied this over thoughtfully.
+
+"Let it revert," said he. "I'll sink or swim right here."
+
+The next day he went to his bank and tried to borrow money. They liked
+Bobby very much indeed over at the bank. He was a vigorous young man,
+a young man of affairs, a young man who had won a great public
+victory, a young man whom it was generally admitted had done the city
+an incalculable amount of good; but they could not accept Bobby nor
+the _Bulletin_ as a business proposition. Had they not seen the
+original fund dwindle and dwindle for two years until now there was
+nothing left? Wouldn't another fund dwindle likewise? It is no part of
+a bank's desire to foreclose upon securities. They are quite well
+satisfied with just the plain interest. Moreover, the _Bulletin_
+wasn't such heavy security, anyhow.
+
+Bobby tried another bank with like results, and also some of his firm
+business friends at the Traders' Club. In the midst of his dilemma
+President De Graff of the First National came to him.
+
+"I understand you have been trying to borrow some money, Burnit?"
+
+It sounded to Bobby as if De Graff had come to gloat over him, since
+he had been instrumental in dragging De Graff and the First National
+through the mire.
+
+"Yes, sir, I have," he nevertheless answered steadily.
+
+"Why didn't you come to us?" demanded De Graff.
+
+"To you?" said Bobby, amazed. "I never thought of you in that
+connection at all, De Graff, after all that has happened."
+
+De Graff shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"That was like pulling a tooth. It hurt and one dreaded it, but it was
+so much better when it was out. Until you jumped into the fight Stone
+had me under his thumb. The minute the exposure came he had no further
+hold on me. It is the only questionable thing I ever did in my life,
+and I'm glad it was exposed. I admire you for it, even though it will
+hurt me in a business way for a long time to come. But about this
+money now. How much do you need at the present time?"
+
+"I'd like an account of about twenty-five thousand."
+
+"I can let you have it at once," said De Graff, "and as much more as
+you need, up to a certain reasonable point that I think will be amply
+sufficient."
+
+"Is this Stone's money?" asked Bobby with sudden suspicion.
+
+De Graff smiled.
+
+"No," said he, "it is my own. I have faith in you, Burnit, and faith
+in the _Bulletin_. Suppose you step over to the First National with me
+right away."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+AUNT CONSTANCE ELLISTON LOSES ALL HER PATIENCE WITH A CERTAIN PROSAIC
+COURTSHIP
+
+
+That night, with a grave new responsibility upon him and a grave new
+elation, sturdier and stronger than he had ever been in his life, and
+more his own master, Bobby went out to see Agnes.
+
+"Agnes, when my father made you my trustee," he said, "he laid upon
+you the obligation that you were not to marry me until I had proved
+myself either a success or a failure, didn't he?"
+
+"He did," assented Agnes demurely.
+
+"But you are no longer my trustee. The last money over which you had
+nominal control has reverted to the main fund, which is in the hands
+of Mr. Barrister; so that releases you."
+
+Agnes laughed softly and shook her head.
+
+"The obligation wasn't part of the trusteeship," she reminded him.
+
+"But if I choose to construe it that way," he persisted, "and declare
+the obligation null and void, how soon could you get ready to be
+married to the political boss of this town and one of its leading
+business men? Agnes," he went on, suddenly quite serious, "I can not
+do without you any longer. I have waited long enough. I need you and
+you must come to me."
+
+"I'll come if you insist," she said simply, and laid both her hands in
+his. "But, Bobby, let's think about this a minute. Let's think what it
+means. I have been thinking of it many, many days, and really and
+truly I don't like to give up, because of its bearing upon our future
+strength. Yesterday I drove down Grand Street and looked up at that
+Trimmer and Company sign, and so long as that is there, Bobby, I could
+not feel right about our deserting the colors, as it were; that is,
+unless you have definitely given up the fight."
+
+"Given up!" repeated Bobby quickly. "Why, I have just begun. I've been
+to school all this time, Agnes, and to a hard school, but now I'm sure
+I have learned my lesson. I have won a fight or two; I have had the
+taste of blood; I'm going after more; I'm going to win."
+
+"I'm sure that you will," she repeated. "Think how much better
+satisfied we will be after you have done so."
+
+"Yes, but think, too, of the time it will take," he protested. "First
+of all I must earn money; that is, I must make the _Bulletin_ pay. I
+can do that. It is on the edge of earning its way right now, but I owe
+twenty-five thousand dollars. It is going to take a long, long time
+for me to win this battle, and in it I need you."
+
+"I am always right here, Bobby," she reminded him. "I have never
+failed you when you needed me, have I? But maybe it won't take so
+long. You say you are going to make the _Bulletin_ pay. If you do that
+counts for a business success, enough to release you on that side. But
+really, Bobby, how difficult a task would it be to get back control of
+your father's store?"
+
+"Hopeless, just now," said he.
+
+"How much money would it take?"
+
+"Well, not so very much in comparison with the business itself," he
+told her. "I own two hundred and sixty thousand dollars' worth of
+stock, Trimmer owns two hundred and forty thousand, while sixty
+thousand more are scattered among his relatives and dependents. That
+stock is not for sale, that is the trouble; but if I could buy
+twenty-one thousand dollars of it I could do what I liked with the
+entire concern."
+
+"Then Bobby, let's not think of anything else but how to get that
+stock. Let's insist on having that for our wedding present."
+
+Bobby regarded her gravely for a long time.
+
+"Agnes, you're a brick!" he finally concluded. "You're right, as you
+have always been. We'll wait. But you don't know, oh, you don't know
+how hard that is for me!"
+
+"It is not the easiest thing in the world for me," she gently reminded
+him.
+
+From the time that she had laid her hands in his he had held them, and
+now he had gathered them to him, pressing them upon his breast.
+Suddenly, overcome by his great longing for her, he clasped her in his
+arms and held her, and pressed his lips to hers. For a moment she
+yielded to that embrace and closed her eyes, and then she gently drew
+away from him.
+
+"We mustn't indulge in that sort of thing very much," she reminded
+him, "or we're likely to lose all our good resolutions."
+
+"Good resolutions," declared Bobby, "are a nuisance."
+
+She smiled and shook her head.
+
+"Look at the people who haven't any," she reminded him.
+
+It was perhaps half an hour later when an idea which brought with it a
+smile came to her.
+
+"We've definitely resolved now to wait until you have either
+accomplished what you set out to do, or completely failed, haven't
+we?"
+
+"Yes," he assented soberly.
+
+"Then I'm going to open one of the letters your father left for us. I
+have been dying with curiosity to know what is in it," and hurrying up
+to her secretary she brought down one of the inevitable gray
+envelopes, addressed:
+
+    _To My Children Upon the Occasion of Their Deciding to Marry
+      Before the Limit of My Prohibition_
+
+    "What I can not for the life of me understand is why the devil
+    you didn't do it long ago!"
+
+Bobby was so thoroughly awake to the underlying principle of Agnes'
+contention that even this letter did nothing to change his viewpoint.
+
+"For it isn't him, it is us, or rather it is me, who is to be
+considered," he declared. "But it does seem to me, Agnes, as if for
+once we had got the better of the governor."
+
+They were still laughing over the unexpectedness of the letter when
+Aunt Constance came in, and they showed it to her.
+
+"Good!" she exclaimed, dwelling longer upon the inscription than upon
+the letter itself. "I think you're quite sensible, and I'll arrange
+the finest wedding for Agnes that has ever occurred in the Elliston
+family. You must give me at least a couple of months, though. When is
+it to come off? Soon, I suppose?"
+
+Carefully and patiently they explained the stand they had taken. At
+first she thought they were joking, and it took considerable
+reiteration on their part for her to understand that they were not.
+
+"I declare I have no patience with you!" she avowed. "Of all the
+humdrum, prosaic people I ever saw, you are the very worst! There is
+no romance in you. You're as cool about it as if marriage were a
+commercial partnership. Oh, Dan!" and she called her husband from the
+library. "Now what do you think of this?" she demanded, and explained
+the ridiculous attitude of the young people.
+
+"Great!" decided Uncle Dan. "Allow me to congratulate you," and he
+shook hands heartily with both Agnes and Bobby, whereat Aunt Constance
+denounced him as being a sordid soul of their own stripe and went to
+bed in a huff. She got up again, however, when she heard Agnes retire
+to her own room for the night, and came in to wrestle with that young
+lady in spirit. She found Agnes, however, obdurate in her content, and
+ended by becoming an enthusiastic supporter of the idea. "Although I
+did have my heart so set on a fine wedding," she plaintively
+concluded. "I have been planning it for ages."
+
+"Just keep on planning, auntie," replied Agnes. "No doubt you will
+acquire some brilliant new ideas before the time comes."
+
+So this utterly placid courtship went on in its old tranquil way, with
+Bobby a constant two and three nights a week visitor to the Elliston
+home, and with the two young people discussing business more
+frequently than anything else; for Bobby had learned to come to Agnes
+for counsel in everything. Just now his chief burden of conversation
+was the letting of the new waterworks contract, which, with public
+sentiment back of him, he had fought off until after the Stone
+administration had ended. Hamilton Ferris, an old polo antagonist of
+his, represented one of the competing firms as its president, and
+Bobby had been most anxious that he should be the successful bidder,
+as was Agnes; for Bobby had brought Ferris to dinner at the Ellistons
+and to call a couple of times during his stay in the city, and all of
+the Ellistons liked him tremendously. Bobby was quite crestfallen when
+the opening of the bids proved Ferris to be the second lowest man.
+
+"I've tried hard enough for it," declared Ferris during a final dinner
+at the Ellistons that night. "There isn't much doing this year, and I
+figured closer than anybody in my employ would dared to have done. In
+view of my estimate I can not for the life of me see how your local
+company overbid us all by over a million dollars."
+
+"It is curious," admitted Bobby, still much puzzled.
+
+"It's rather unsportsmanlike in me to whine," resumed Ferris, "but I
+am bound to believe that there is a colored gentleman in the woodpile
+somewhere."
+
+"That would be no novelty," returned Bobby. "Ever since I bought the
+_Bulletin_ I have been gunning for Ethiopians amid the fuel and always
+found them. The Middle West Construction Company, however, is a new
+load of kindling to me. I never heard of it until it was announced
+this morning as the lowest bidder."
+
+"Nobody ever heard of it," asserted Ferris. "It was no doubt organized
+for the sole purpose of bidding on this job. Probably when you delve
+into the matter you will discover the fine Italian hand of your
+political boss."
+
+"Hardly," chuckled Uncle Dan, indulging in his recent propensity to
+brag on Bobby. "Our local boss was Sam Stone, and Bobby has just
+succeeded in running him and two of his expert wire workers out of the
+country."
+
+"If anybody here is the political boss it is Bobby," observed Agnes,
+laughing.
+
+"I'm sorry to have to suspect him," laughed Ferris. "Well, there is no
+use crying over spilled milk; but I had hoped to bring Mrs. Ferris out
+for a good long visit."
+
+"Give your wife my regards, Mr. Ferris, and tell her she must come
+anyhow," insisted Mrs. Elliston. "Since I have heard that you married
+the daughter of my old schoolmate, I have been wanting the Keystone
+Construction Company to have a big contract here more than you have, I
+think."
+
+"Sounds very nice, Constance," said her husband dryly, "but I doubt if
+any woman ever wanted to see the daughter of her old schoolmate as
+badly as any man ever wanted to make a million dollars. Bobby, I'll
+make you a small bet. I'll bet your new construction company is
+composed of the shattered fragments of the old Stone crowd. I'll even
+bet that Silas Trimmer is in it."
+
+"If he is," suddenly declared Agnes, "I'm going to go into the
+detective business," whereat Uncle Dan enjoyed himself hugely. Her
+vindictiveness whenever the name of Silas Trimmer was mentioned had
+become highly amusing to him, in spite of the fact that he admired her
+for it.
+
+"Go right ahead," said Bobby approvingly. "If you find anything that
+will enable me to give that gentleman a financial backset I'll see
+that you get a handsome reward. In the meantime I'm going to find out
+something about the Middle West Construction Company myself."
+
+Accordingly he asked his managing editor about that concern the first
+thing in the morning.
+
+Ben Jolter lit his old pipe, folded his bare arms and patted them
+alternately in speculative enjoyment.
+
+"I have something like two pages of information about them, if we
+could use it," he announced. "I have been getting reports from the
+entire scouting brigade ever since the contract was let yesterday, and
+you may now prepare for a shock. The largest stock-holders of the
+concern are Silas Trimmer and Frank Sharpe, and the minor
+stock-holders, almost to a man, consist of those who had their little
+crack at the public crib under your old, time-tried and true friend,
+Sam Stone."
+
+"I admit that I am properly shocked," responded Bobby.
+
+"It hinges together beautifully," Jolter went on. "The whole
+waterworks project was a Stone scheme, and Stone people--even though
+Stone himself is wiped out--secure the contract. The last expiring act
+of the Stone administration was to employ Ed Scales as chief engineer
+until the completion of the waterworks, which may occupy eight or ten
+years, and the contract with Scales is binding on the city unless he
+can be impeached for cause. Scales was city engineer under the
+previous reform spasm, but Stone probably found him good material and
+kept him on. The waterworks plans were prepared under his supervision
+and he got them ready for bidding. Now what's the answer?"
+
+"Easy," returned Bobby. "The city loses."
+
+"Right," agreed Jolter; "but how? I don't see that we can do anything.
+Scales, having prepared the plans, is the logical man to see that they
+are carried out, and he is perfectly competent. His record is clean,
+so that he owns no property, nor does any of his family--although that
+may be because he never had a chance. The Middle West Construction
+Company, though just incorporated, is financially sound, thoroughly
+bonded, and, moreover, has put into the hands of the city ample
+guarantee for its twenty per cent. forfeit as required by the terms of
+the contract. There isn't a thing that the _Bulletin_ can do except to
+boost local enterprise with a bit of reservation, then lay low and
+wait for developments."
+
+"I dislike to do it," objected Bobby. "It hurts me to think of
+mentioning Stone or Trimmer in any complimentary way whatsoever."
+
+Jolter laughed. "You're a fine and consistent enemy," he said.
+
+"I guess I came by it honestly," smiled Bobby, and from a drawer in
+his desk took one of the gray John Burnit letters.
+
+"'Always forgive your enemies,'" read Jolter aloud; "'that is, after
+you are good and even with them.'"
+
+"Here goes for them, then," said Jolter, passing back the letter with
+an approving chuckle. "We'll let them go right ahead, and in the
+meantime the _Bulletin_ will do a lot of real nifty old sleuthing."
+
+But the _Bulletin's_ sleuthing brought nothing wrong to light, and
+work upon the big waterworks contract was begun with a rush.
+
+In the meantime Agnes, true to her threat, was doing some
+investigating on her own account. She renewed her girlhood
+acquaintance with Trimmer's daughter, who was now Mrs. Clarence
+Smythe, and with others of the Trimmer connection, and she saw these
+women folk frequently for the sole purpose of gathering up any scraps
+of information that might drop. The best she could gather, however,
+was that Clarence Smythe and Silas Trimmer were no longer upon very
+friendly terms; that Mrs. Smythe had quarreled with her father about
+Clarence; also that Clarence's Trimmer and Company stock was in Mrs.
+Smythe's name. These scraps of information, slight as they were, she
+religiously brought to Bobby. When the new waterworks began Agnes
+saved all the newspaper clippings relating to that tremendous
+undertaking, and she frequently drove out there of evenings after the
+workmen had all gone home; with just what purpose she could not say,
+but she felt impelled, as she half-sheepishly confessed to her Uncle
+Dan, to "keep an eye on the job." She kept up her absurd surveillance
+in spite of all Uncle Dan's ridicule, and one evening she came home in
+a state of quivering excitement. She called up Bobby at once.
+
+"Bobby," she wanted to know, "has the city decided to cut down
+expenses on the waterworks, or have the plans been changed for any
+reason?"
+
+"Not that the public knows about," replied Bobby. "Why?"
+
+"The pumping station is not so big as the newspapers said it was to
+be. It is over thirty feet shorter and over twenty feet narrower."
+
+"How do you know?" demanded Bobby.
+
+"I took Wilkins out there with me to-night and had him measure it for
+me with a yard-stick while the watchman had gone for his supper,"
+replied Agnes triumphantly.
+
+Bobby stopped to laugh.
+
+"Impossible," said he. "You have measured it wrong or misunderstood it
+in some way or other."
+
+"You go out and measure it for yourself," insisted Agnes.
+
+Partly to humor her and partly because his interest had been aroused,
+Bobby went out the next night and measured the pumping station, the
+excavation for which was already completed, and to his astonishment
+found that Agnes' measurements were correct. He immediately wrote to
+Ferris about it, told him the present dimensions and asked him upon
+what basis he had figured. In place of replying Ferris came on.
+Arriving in the city on Saturday, on Sunday he and Bobby went out to
+the site, and Ferris examined the new waterworks with a deliberation
+which well-nigh got him into serious trouble with the watchman.
+
+"Well, young man, your fair city is stung," declared Ferris. "The
+trenches are not so deep as specified by two feet, and from their
+width I can tell that the foundation walls are to be at least six
+inches thinner. I bid on the best grade of Portland cement for that
+job. It was spelled with a _B_, however, in my copy of the
+specification, and I asked your man Scales about it. 'Oh,' said he,
+'that's a misprint in the typewriting,' and he changed the _B_ to _P_
+with a lead pencil. Under that shed are about a thousand barrels of
+_Bortland_ cement. I never heard of that brand, but I can tell cement
+when I see it, and this stuff will have no more adhesive power than
+plain mud. Bedford stone was specified. They have several car-loads of
+stone dumped down here which is not Bedford stone at all. I could tell
+a piece of Bedford in the dark. This is an inferior rock which will
+discolor in six months and will disintegrate in five years."
+
+Bobby thought the thing over quietly for some minutes.
+
+"About the dimensions of the building, Ferris, you might possibly be
+mistaken, might you not?" asked Bobby.
+
+"Impossible," returned Ferris. "I have not figured on many jobs for
+years, but our chief estimator had been sent down to Cuba when this
+thing came up and I did the work myself, so I have a very vivid memory
+of it and can not possibly have it confused with any other bid.
+Moreover, we have all those things on record in our office and I
+looked it up before I came away. The dimensions of the power house and
+pumping station were to be one hundred and ninety by one hundred and
+sixty feet. The present dimensions are one hundred and fifty-eight by
+one hundred and thirty-three."
+
+Bobby was thoughtfully silent for a while.
+
+"Do you remember who else bid on the contract?" he inquired presently.
+
+"Every one of them," smiled Ferris. "I can give you their addresses
+and the names of the people to wire to if that is what you want. We
+meet them on every big job."
+
+"Do you mind wiring yourself?" asked Bobby. "They would be more apt to
+give you confidential information."
+
+"With pleasure," agreed Ferris, and wrote the telegrams.
+
+On the following morning Bobby received answers at his office to all
+but one of his telegrams, and the information was unanimous that the
+original plans had called for a building one hundred and ninety by one
+hundred and sixty feet.
+
+"Now I begin to understand," said Ferris. "This was the first set of
+important plans I ever saw in which the dimensions were not marked,
+but they were most accurately drawn to scale, one-fourth inch to the
+foot. They are probably using the same drawings with an altered scale,
+although it would be an absurdly clumsy trick. If that is the case it
+is easy to see how the Middle West Construction Company could
+under-bid us by more than a million dollars and still make more money
+than we figured on."
+
+Bobby reached for the telephone.
+
+"Get me the mayor's office," he called to the girl at his private
+telephone exchange. "Will you 'stick around' to see the fuss?" he
+inquired with grim pleasure, as he hung up the receiver.
+
+Ferris grinned as he noted the light of battle dawning in Bobby's
+eyes.
+
+"I don't know," he replied. "It depends on the size and duration of
+the fuss."
+
+"If you don't stay I'll have you subpoenaed. I may have to, anyhow.
+As for the size of the fuss, I can promise you a bully one if what you
+surmise is correct."
+
+His telephone bell rang and Bobby turned to it quickly.
+
+"Hello, Chalmers!" he began, then laughed. "Beg pardon, Agnes; I
+thought it was the mayor's office;" he apologized, then listened
+intently. There were a few eager queries, and when Bobby hung up the
+telephone receiver it was with great satisfaction. "I haven't seen as
+much fun in sight since I began my fight on Stone," he declared. "Miss
+Elliston, who has developed a marvelous new capacity for finding out
+other men's business secrets through their women folk, has just
+telephoned me the results of her last night's detective work. It seems
+that Silas Trimmer, one of the heavy backers of the Middle West
+Construction Company, has just negotiated a loan upon his stock in the
+mercantile establishment of Trimmer and Company, my share of which was
+known as the John Burnit Store until Trimmer beat me out of control. I
+understand that Trimmer has mortgaged everything to the hilt to go
+into this waterworks deal."
+
+The bell rang again. This time it was Chalmers.
+
+[Illustration: I'd be tickled black in the face to make good any day]
+
+"Say, Chalmers," said Bobby, "I want you to get me some sort of a
+legal document that will allow me to take possession of and examine
+all the books, papers and drawings of the city engineer's department,
+including the waterworks engineer's office.... Yes, you can,
+Chalmers," he insisted, against an obvious protest. "There is some
+legal machinery you can put in motion to get it, and I want it right
+away. Moreover, I want you to secure me somebody to serve the writ and
+to keep it quiet."
+
+Then he explained briefly what had been partly discovered and partly
+surmised. Next Bobby sent for Jolter and laid the facts before him, to
+the great joy of that aggressive gentleman. Then he called up Biff
+Bates, and made an appointment with him to meet him at Jimmy Platt's
+office in half an hour. He would have telephoned Platt, but the
+engineer had no telephone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+BIFF RENEWS A PLEASANT ACQUAINTANCE AND BOBBY INAUGURATES A TRAGEDY
+
+
+"Is Mr. Platt in?"
+
+Biff stood hesitantly in the door when he found the place occupied
+only by a brown-haired girl, who was engaged in the quiet,
+unprofessional occupation of embroidering a shirtwaist pattern.
+
+The girl looked up with a smile at the young man's awkwardness, and
+felt impelled to put him at his ease.
+
+"He's not in just now, but I expect him within ten or fifteen minutes
+at the outside. Won't you sit down, Mr. Bates?"
+
+He looked at her much mystified at this calling of his name, but he
+mumbled his thanks for the chair which she put forward for him, and,
+sitting with his hat upon his knees, contemplated her furtively.
+
+"I guess you don't remember me," she said in frank enjoyment of his
+mystification, "but I remember you perfectly. I used to see you quite
+often out at Westmarsh when Mr. Burnit was trying to redeem that
+persistent swamp. I am Mr. Platt's sister."
+
+"No!" exclaimed Biff in amazement. "You can't be the kid that used to
+ride on the excavating cars, and go home with yellow clay on your
+dresses every day."
+
+"I'm the kid," said she with a musical laugh; "and I'm afraid I
+haven't quite outgrown my hoydenish tendencies even yet."
+
+Biff had no comment to make. He was lost in wonder over that eternal
+mystery--the transformation which occurs when a girl passes from
+fourteen to eighteen.
+
+"Don't you remember?" she gaily went on. "You gave me a boxing lesson
+out there one afternoon and promised to give me more of them, but you
+never did."
+
+Biff cleared a sudden huskiness from his throat.
+
+"I'd be tickled black in the face to make good any day," he urged
+earnestly, and then hastily corrected the offer to: "That is, I mean
+I'll be very glad to--to finish the job."
+
+Immediately he turned violently red.
+
+"I don't seem to care as much for the accomplishment as I did then,"
+observed the girl with a smile, "but I do wish I could learn to swing
+my nice Indian clubs without cracking the back of my head."
+
+"I got a medal for club swinging," said Biff diffidently. "I'll teach
+you any time you like. It's easy. Come right over to the gym on
+Tuesday and Friday forenoons. Those are ladies' mornings, and I've got
+nothing but real classy people at that."
+
+The entrance of Mr. Platt interrupted Biff just as he was beginning to
+feel at ease, and threw that young gentleman, who always appropriated
+and absorbed other people's troubles, into much concern; for Mr. Platt
+was hollow-eyed and sunken-cheeked from worry. His coat was very
+shiny, and his hat was shabby. The dusty and neglected drawing on his
+crude drawing-table told the story all too well. The engineering
+business, so far as Mr. Platt was concerned, seemed to be a total
+failure. Nevertheless, he greeted Mr. Bates warmly, and inquired after
+Mr. Burnit.
+
+"He's always fine," said Biff. "He had me come up here to meet him."
+
+"I should scarcely think he would care to come here after the
+unfortunate outcome of the work I did for him," said Mr. Platt.
+
+"You mean on old Applerod's Subtraction?"
+
+"You couldn't hardly call it the Applerod Addition, could you?"
+responded Jimmy with a smile. "That was a most unlucky transaction for
+me as well as for Mr. Burnit."
+
+Biff looked about the room comprehendingly.
+
+"I guess it put you on the hummer, all right," said he. "It don't look
+as if you done anything since."
+
+"But very little," confessed Mr. Platt. "My failure on that job hurt
+my reputation almost fatally."
+
+Biff gravely sought within himself for words of consolation, one of
+his fleeting ideas being to engage Mr. Platt on the spot to survey the
+site of Bates' Athletic Hall, although there was not the slightest
+possible need for such a survey. In the midst of his sympathetic gloom
+came in Mr. Ferris and Bobby.
+
+"Jimmy, how would you like to be chief construction engineer of the
+new waterworks?" asked Bobby, with scant waste of time, after he had
+introduced Ferris.
+
+Mr. Platt gasped and paled.
+
+"I think I could be urged, from a sense of public duty, to give up my
+highly lucrative private practice," he said with a pitiful attempt at
+levity, though his voice was husky, and his tightly clenched hand,
+where the white knuckles rested upon his drawing-table, trembled.
+
+"Don't build up too much hope on it, Jimmy; but if what we surmise is
+correct you will have a chance at it," and he briefly explained.
+"We're going right out there," concluded Bobby, "and I want you to go
+along to help investigate. We have to find some incriminating
+evidence, and you'd be more likely to know how and where to look for
+it than any of us."
+
+It is needless to say that Jimmy Platt took his hat with alacrity.
+Before he went out, with new hope in his heart, he turned and shook
+hands ecstatically with his sister. Still holding Jimmy's hand she
+turned to Bobby impulsively:
+
+"I do hope, Mr. Burnit, that this turns out right for Jimmy."
+
+Bobby turned to her abruptly and with a trace of a frown. It was a
+rather poorly trained office employee, he thought, who would intrude
+herself into conversation that it was her duty to forget, but Biff
+Bates caught that look and stepped into the breach.
+
+"This is Nellie, Bobby--that is, it used to be Nellie," he stated with
+a quick correction, and blushed violently.
+
+"It is Nellie still," laughed that young lady to Bobby, and the
+puzzled look upon his face was swiftly driven away by a smile, as he
+suddenly recognized in her traces of the long-legged girl who had been
+always present at the Applerod Addition, who had ridden in his
+automobile, and had confided to him most volubly, upon innumerable
+occasions, that her brother Jimmy was about the smartest man who ever
+sighted through a transit.
+
+In the hastily constructed frame office out at the waterworks site, Ed
+Scales, pale and emaciated and with black rings under his eyes, looked
+up nervously as Bobby's little army, reënforced from four to six by
+the addition of a "plain clothes man" and Dillingham, the _Bulletin's_
+star reporter, invaded the place. Before a word was spoken, Feeney,
+the plain clothes man, presented Scales with a writ, which the latter
+attempted to read with unseeing eyes, his fingers trembling.
+
+"What does this mean?"
+
+"That I have come to take possession," said Bobby, "with power to make
+an examination of every scrap of paper in the place. Frankly, Scales,
+we expect to find something crooked about the waterworks contract. If
+we do you know the result. If we do not, the interruption will be only
+temporary, and you will have very pretty grounds for action; for I am
+taking a long shot, and if I don't find what I am after I have put
+myself and the mayor into a bad scrape."
+
+Scales thrice opened his mouth to speak, and thrice there came no
+sound from his lips. Then he laid a bunch of keys upon his desk,
+shoving them toward Feeney, and rose. He half-staggered into the large
+coat room behind him. He had scarcely more than disappeared when there
+was the startling roar of a shot, and the body of Scales, with a round
+hole in the temple, toppled, face downward, out of the door. It was
+Scales' tragic confession of guilt. They sprang instantly to him, but
+nothing could be done for him. He was dead when they reached him.
+
+"Poor devil," said Ferris brokenly. "It is probably the first crooked
+thing he ever did in his life, and he hadn't nerve enough to go
+through with it. I feel like a murderer for my share in the matter."
+
+Bobby, too, had turned sick; his senses swam and he felt numb and
+cold. He was aroused by a calm, dispassionate voice at the telephone.
+It was Dillingham, sending to the _Bulletin_ a carefully lurid account
+of the tragedy, and of the probable causes leading up to it.
+
+"We'll have an extra on the street in five minutes," he told Bobby
+with satisfaction as he rose. "That means that the _Chronicle_ men
+will come out in a swarm, but it will take them a half-hour to get
+here. We have that much time, then, to dig up the evidence we are
+after, and if we hustle we can have a second extra out before the
+_Chronicle_ can get a line. It's the biggest beat in years. Come on,
+boys, let's get busy," and he took up the keys that Scales had left on
+the desk.
+
+Dillingham had no sooner left the telephone than Feeney took up the
+receiver and called for a number. The reporter turned upon him like a
+flash, recognizing that call as the number of the coroner's office.
+Dillingham suddenly caught himself before he had spoken, and looked
+hastily about the room. In the corner near the floor was a little box
+with the familiar bells upon it, and binding screws that held the
+wires. Quickly Dillingham slipped over to that corner just as Feeney
+was saying:
+
+"Hello! Coroner's office, this is Feeney. Is that you, Jack?...
+Well----"
+
+At that instant Dillingham loosened a binding screw and slipped off
+the loop of the wire.
+
+"Hello, coroner!" repeated Feeney. "I say, Jack! Hello! Hello! Hello,
+there! _Hello! Hello!_" Then Feeney pounded the mouthpiece, jerked the
+receiver hook up and down, yelled at exchange, and worked himself into
+a vast fever.
+
+"What's the matter with this thing, anyhow, Dill?" he finally
+demanded.
+
+"Exchange probably went to sleep on you," said Dillingham.
+
+Easily he was now opening one by one the immense flat drawers of a
+drawing-case, and with much interest delving into the huge drawings
+that it contained.
+
+"Come here, Mr. Platt," Dillingham went on. "You cast your eagle eye
+over these drawings while I do a little job of interviewing," and he
+walked over to the employees of the office, who, since they had been
+roughly warned by Feeney not to go near "that body," had huddled,
+scared and limp, in the far corner of the room.
+
+Perspiring and angry, Feeney tried for five solid minutes to obtain
+some response from the dead telephone, then he gave it up.
+
+"I've got to go out and hunt up another 'phone," he declared. "Biff,
+I'll appoint you my deputy. Don't let anybody touch the corpse till
+the coroner comes."
+
+"I'll go with you," said Bobby hastily, very glad to leave the room,
+and both he and Mr. Ferris accompanied Feeney. No sooner was Feeney
+out of the place than Dillingham reconnected the telephone and went
+back to his investigations. He was thoroughly satisfied, after a few
+questions, that the present employees knew nothing whatever, and Platt
+reported to him that every general drawing he could find was marked
+three-tenths inch to the foot, none being marked one-fourth.
+
+"That doesn't matter so much," mused Dillingham. "It will be easy
+enough to prove that these are the same drawings that were provided
+the contestants, and six firms will swear that they were marked
+one-fourth of an inch to the foot. What we have to do is to prove that
+the drawings the Middle West Company used as the basis of their bid
+were marked one-fourth inch to the foot."
+
+The telephone bell rang violently while Dillingham was puzzling over
+this matter, and one of the employees started to answer it.
+
+"No, you don't!" shouted Dillingham. "You fellows are dispossessed."
+
+He took down the receiver.
+
+"Waterworks engineer's office?" came a brisk voice through the
+telephone.
+
+"Yes," said Dillingham.
+
+"This is the _Chronicle_. The _Bulletin_ has an extra----"
+
+Dillingham waited to hear no more. He hung up the receiver with a
+grin, and it was music in his ears to hear those bells impatiently
+jangling for the next ten minutes. It seemed to quicken his
+intelligence, for presently he slapped his hand upon his leg and
+jumped toward the group of employees in the corner.
+
+"Say!" he demanded. "Who figured on this job for the Middle West
+Company?"
+
+"Dan Rubble, I suppose," answered a lanky draftsman, who, still
+wearing his apron, had slipped his coat on over his oversleeves and
+retained his eye-shade under his straw hat. "At least, he seemed to
+know all about the plans. He's the boss contractor. There he is now."
+
+Looking out of the window Dillingham saw a brawny, red-haired giant
+running from the tool-house, carrying a cylindrical tin case about
+five feet long. He pulled off the cap of this as he came and began to
+drag from the inside of the case a thick roll of blue-prints. He was
+hurrying toward a big asphalt caldron underneath which blazed a hot
+wood fire.
+
+"Come on, Biff," yelled Dillingham, and hurried out of the door,
+closely followed by Bates.
+
+They both ran with all their might toward the caldron, but before they
+could reach the spot Rubble had shoved the entire roll into the fire.
+Biff wasted no precious moments, but, glaring Mr. Rubble in the eye as
+he ran, doubled his fist with the evident intention of damaging that
+large gentleman's countenance with it. He suddenly ducked his round
+head as he approached, however, and plunged it into the middle of Mr.
+Rubble's appetite; whereupon Mr. Rubble grunted heavily, and sat down
+quite uncomfortably near to the caldron. Biff, though it scorched his
+hands, dragged the blazing roll of blue-prints from the flames and,
+seizing a near-by pail of water, started for the drawings, just as big
+Dan regained his feet and made a rush for him.
+
+Dillingham, slight and no fighter but full of sand, jumped crosswise
+into that mêlée, and with a flying leap literally hung himself about
+Rubble's neck. Big Dan, roaring like a bull at this unexpected and
+most unprofessional mode of warfare, placed his two hands upon
+Dillingham's hips and tried to force him away; failing in this, he ran
+straight forward with all this living clog hanging to him, and planted
+a terrific kick upon Biff's ribs, just as Biff had dashed the pail of
+water from end to end of the blazing roll of drawings. He poised for
+another kick, but Biff had dropped the pail by this time, and as the
+foot swung forward he grabbed it. Rubble, losing his balance, pitched
+forward, landing squarely upon the top of the unhappy Dillingham, who
+signified his retirement from the game with an astonishingly large
+"Woof!" to come from so small a body; moreover, he released his arms;
+but Rubble, freed from the weight on his chest, found another one on
+his back. Biff felt quite competent to manage him, but by this time
+half a dozen men came running from different directions, and as there
+were a hundred or more of them on the job, all beholden for their
+daily bread and butter to Mr. Rubble, things looked bad for Biff and
+Dillingham.
+
+"Back up there, you mutts, or I'll make peek-a-boo patterns out of the
+lot of you!" howled a penetrating voice, and Mr. Feeney, heading the
+relief party, which consisted only of Bobby and Mr. Ferris, whipped
+from each hip pocket a huge blue-steel revolver, at the same time
+brushing back his coat to display his badge.
+
+Those men might have fought Mr. Feeney's guns, but they had no mind to
+fight that badge, and they held back while Bobby and Mr. Ferris helped
+to calm Mr. Rubble by the simple expedient of sitting on him.
+
+Three days later Bobby induced Messrs. Sharpe, Trimmer and all of
+their associates, without any difficulty whatever, to meet with him in
+the office of the mayor.
+
+"Gentlemen of the Middle West Construction Company," said Bobby; "I am
+sorry to say that you are not telling the truth when you claim that
+you figured _in good faith_ on this absurd and almost unknown
+three-tenths-inch scale, when all the others figured on the same
+drawings at one-fourth inch. The rescue of these prints, covered with
+Rubble's marginal figures, does not leave you a leg to stand on," and
+Bobby tapped his knuckles upon the charred-edged blueprints that lay
+unrolled on the desk before him. Fortunately the three inside prints
+were left fairly intact, and these were plainly marked one-fourth inch
+to the foot. "Moreover, rolled up inside the blueprints was even
+better evidence," went on Bobby; "evidence that Mr. Trimmer has
+perhaps forgotten. Nothing has been said about it until now, and
+nothing has been published since we saved them from the fire."
+
+From the drawer of his desk he drew several sheets of white paper.
+They were letter-heads of Trimmer and Company and were covered with
+Rubble's figures.
+
+"Here's a note from Mr. Trimmer to Mr. Rubble, requesting him to
+prepare a statement showing the difference in cost '_between
+three-tenths and one-fourth_.' He does not say three-tenths or
+one-fourth what, but that is quite enough, taken in conjunction with
+these summaries on another sheet of paper. They are set down in two
+columns, one headed three-tenths and the other one-fourth. I have had
+Mr. Platt go over these figures, and he finds that the first number in
+one column exactly corresponds to the number of yards of excavating in
+this job when figured on the scale of three-tenths inch to the foot.
+The first number in the next column exactly corresponds to the
+excavating when figured at the one-fourth-inch scale. Every item will
+compare in the same manner: concrete, masonry, face-brick, and all.
+Now, if you chaps want to take this clumsy and almost laughable
+attempt at a steal into the courts I'm perfectly willing; but I should
+advise you not to do so."
+
+Mr. Sharpe cleared his throat. He, the first one to declare that the
+Middle West would "go into court and stand upon its rights," was now
+the first one to recant.
+
+"I don't suppose it's worth while to contest the matter," he admitted.
+"We have no show with your administration, I see. We lose the contract
+and will step down and out quite peaceably; although there ought to be
+some arrangement by which we might get credit for the amount of work
+already done."
+
+"No," declared Chalmers, with quite a reproving smile, "you may just
+keep on using the available part of it; for the point is that _you
+don't lose the contract_! You keep the contract, and you will build
+the power-house upon the original scale of one-fourth inch to the
+foot. Also you will carry out the rest of the work on the same basis
+as figured by other contractors. I want to remind you that you are
+well bonded, well financed, and that the city holds a guarantee of
+twenty per cent. of the contract price as a forfeit for the due and
+proper completion of this job."
+
+"Why, it means bankruptcy!" shrieked Silas Trimmer, the deeply-graven
+circle about his mouth now being but the pallid and piteous caricature
+of his old-time sinister smile.
+
+"That is precisely what I intend," retorted Bobby with a snap of his
+jaws. "I have long, long scores to settle with both of you gentlemen."
+
+"But you haven't against the other members of this company," protested
+Sharpe. "Our other stockholders are entirely innocent parties."
+
+"They have my sincere sympathy for being caught in such dubious
+company," replied Bobby with a contemptuous smile. "I happen to have a
+roster of your stock-holders, and every man of them has been mixed up
+in crooked deals in combination with Stone or Stone enterprises; so
+whatever they lose on this contract will be merely by way of
+restitution to the city."
+
+"Look here, Mr. Burnit," said Sharpe, dropping his tone of
+remonstrance for one intended to be wheedling; "I know there are a
+number of financial matters between us that might have a tendency to
+make you vindictive. Now why can't we just get together nicely on all
+of these things and compromise?"
+
+Chalmers rapped his knuckles sharply upon his desk.
+
+"Kindly remember where you are," he warned.
+
+"When I get around to settling day there will be no such thing as a
+compromise," declared Bobby with repressed anger. "I'll settle all
+those other matters in my own way and at my own time."
+
+"One thing more, gentlemen," said Chalmers, as the chopfallen
+committee of the Middle West Construction Company rose to depart; "I
+wish to remind you that there is a forfeit clause in your contract for
+delay, so I should advise you to resume operations at once. Mr. Platt
+succeeds the unfortunate Mr. Scales as constructing engineer, and he
+will see that the plans and specifications of the entire contract are
+carried out to the letter."
+
+Platt, who had said nothing, walked away with Bobby.
+
+"You were speaking about following the plans exactly, Mr. Burnit," he
+said when they were alone upon the street. "I find on an examination
+of the subsoil that there will be a few minor changes required. The
+runway, for instance, which goes down to the river northward from the
+power-house for the purpose of unloading coal barges, would be much
+better placed on the south side, away from the intake. There is
+practically no difference in expense, except that in running to the
+southward the riprap work will need to be carried about three feet
+deeper and with concreted walls, in place of being thrown loosely in
+the trenches as originally planned."
+
+"All those things are up to you, Jimmy," said Bobby indifferently.
+"You must use your own judgment. Any changes of the sort that you deem
+necessary just bring before the city council, and I am quite sure that
+you can secure permission to make them."
+
+"Very well," said Platt, and he left Bobby at the corner with a
+curious smile.
+
+He was a different looking Jimmy Platt from the one Bobby had found in
+his office a week before. He was clean-shaven now, and his clothing
+was quite prosperous looking. Bobby, surmising the condition of
+affairs, had delicately insisted on making Platt a loan, to be repaid
+from his salary at a conveniently distant period, and the world looked
+very bright indeed to him.
+
+The next day work on the new waterworks was resumed. In bitter
+consultation the Middle West Construction Company had discovered that
+they would lose less by fulfilling their contract than by forfeiting
+their twenty per cent., and they dispiritedly turned in again, kept
+constantly whipped up to the mark by Platt and by the knowledge that
+every day's non-completion of the work meant a heavy additional
+forfeit, which they had counted on being able to evade so long as the
+complaisant Mr. Scales was in charge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+JIMMY PLATT ENJOYS THE HAPPIEST DAY OF HIS LIFE
+
+
+The straightening out of the waterworks matter left Bobby free to turn
+his attention to the local gas and electric situation. The _Bulletin_,
+since Bobby had defeated his political enemies, had been put upon a
+paying basis and was rapidly earning its way out of the debt that he
+had been compelled to incur for it; but the Brightlight Electric
+Company was a thorn in his side. Its only business now was the street
+illumination of twelve blocks, under a municipal contract which lost
+him money every month, and it had been a terrific task to keep it
+going.
+
+The Consolidated Illuminating and Power Company, however, Bobby
+discovered by careful inquiry, was in even worse financial straits
+than the Brightlight. To its thirty millions of stock, mostly water,
+twenty more millions of water had been added, making a total
+organization of fifty million dollars; and the twenty million dollars'
+stock had been sold to the public for ten million dollars, each
+purchaser of one share of preferred being given one share of common.
+As the preferred was to draw five per cent., this meant that two and
+one-half million dollars a year must be paid out in dividends. The
+salary roll of the company was enormous, and the number of non-working
+officers who drew extravagant stipends would have swamped any company.
+Comparing the two concerns, Bobby felt that in the Brightlight he had
+vastly the better property of the two, in that there was no water in
+it at its present, half-million-dollar capitalization.
+
+It was while pondering these matters that Bobby, dropping in at the
+Idlers' Club one dull night, found no one there but Silas Trimmer's
+son-in-law, the vapid and dissolute Clarence Smythe, which was a
+trifle worse than finding the place entirely deserted. To-night
+Clarence was in possession of what was known at the Idlers' as "one of
+Smythe's soggy buns," and despite countless snubs in the past he
+seized upon Bobby as a receptacle for his woes.
+
+"I'm going to leave this town for good, Burnit!" he declared without
+any preliminaries, having waited so long to convey this startling and
+important information that salutations were entirely forgotten.
+
+"For good! For whose good?" inquired Bobby.
+
+"Mine," responded Clarence. "This town's gone to the bow-wows. It's in
+the hands of a lot of pikers. There's no chance to make big money any
+more."
+
+"Yes, I know," said Bobby dryly; "I had something to do with that,
+myself."
+
+"It was a fine lot of muck-raking you did," charged Clarence. "Well,
+I'll give you another item for your paper. I have resigned from the
+Consolidated."
+
+"It was cruel of you."
+
+"It was time," said Clarence, ignoring the flippancy. "Something's
+going to drop over there."
+
+Bobby smiled.
+
+"It's always dropping," he agreed.
+
+"This is the big drop," the other went on, with a wine-laden man's
+pride in the fact of possessing valuable secrets. "They're going to
+make a million-dollar bond issue."
+
+"What for?" inquired Bobby.
+
+"They need the money," chuckled Mr. Smythe. "Those city bonds, you
+know."
+
+"What bonds?" demanded Bobby eagerly, but trying to speak
+nonchalantly.
+
+Mr. Smythe suddenly realized the solemn gravity of his folly. Once
+more he was talking too much. Once more! It was a thing to weep over.
+"I'm a fool," he confessed in awe-stricken tones; "a rotten fool,
+Burnit. I'm ashamed to look anybody in the face. I'm ashamed----"
+
+"It's highly commendable of you, I'm sure," Bobby agreed, and took his
+hasty leave before Clarence should begin to sob.
+
+Immediately he called up Chalmers at his home.
+
+"Chalmers," he demanded, "why must the Consolidated Illuminating and
+Power Company purchase city bonds?"
+
+Chalmers laughed.
+
+"Originally so Sam Stone could lend money to the Consumers' Electric.
+It is a part of their franchise, which is renewable at their option in
+ten-year periods, and which became a part of the Consolidated's
+property when the combine was effected. To insure 'faithful
+performance of contract,' for which clause every crooked municipality
+has a particular affection, they were to purchase a million dollars'
+worth of city bonds. Each year one hundred thousand dollars' worth
+were retired. In the tenth year, in renewing their franchise for the
+next ten years, they were compelled to renew also their million
+dollars of city bonds. These bonds they then used as collateral. Stone
+carried all that he could, at enormous usury, I understand, and let
+some of his banker friends in on the rest; and I suppose the banks
+paid him a rake-off. The ten-year period is up this fall, and their
+bonds are naturally retired; but, of course, they will renew."
+
+"I'm not so sure about that," said Bobby. "Look up everything
+connected with it in the morning, and I'll see you at noon."
+
+When they met the next day at noon, however, before Bobby could talk
+about the business in hand, Chalmers, with a suppressed smile, handed
+him a folded slip of paper.
+
+Bobby examined that legal document--a dissolution of the injunction
+which had tied up a hundred and fifty thousand dollars in his bank for
+more than two years--with a sigh of relief.
+
+"It seems," said Chalmers dryly, "that at the time you laid yourself
+liable to Madam Villenauve's breach-of-promise suit she had an
+undivorced husband living, Monsieur Villenauve complacently hiding
+himself in France and waiting for his share of the money. Let this be
+a lesson to you, young man."
+
+Bobby hotly resented that grin.
+
+"I'll swear to you, Chalmers," he asserted, "I never so much as
+thought of the woman except as a nuisance."
+
+"I apologize, old man," said Chalmers. "But at least this will teach
+you not to back any more grand opera companies."
+
+"I prefer to talk about the electric situation," said Bobby severely.
+"What have you found out about it?"
+
+"That the Ebony Jewel Coal Company, a former Stone enterprise, has
+threatened suit against the Consolidated for their bill. The
+Consolidated is in a pinch and must raise money, not only to buy that
+allotment of the new waterworks bonds, but to meet the Ebony's and
+other pressing accounts. It must also float this bond issue, for it is
+likely to fall behind even on its salary list."
+
+"Fine!" said Bobby. "I can see a lot of good citizens in this town
+holding stock in a bankrupt illuminating concern. Just watch this
+thing, will you, Chalmers? About this nice, lucky hundred and fifty
+thousand, we may count it as spent."
+
+"What in?" asked Chalmers, smiling. "Do you think you can trust
+yourself with all that money?"
+
+"Hush," said Bobby. "Don't breathe it aloud. I'm going to buy up all
+the Brightlight Electric stock I can find. It's too bad, Chalmers," he
+added with a grin, "that as mayor of the city you could not, with
+propriety, hold stock in this company," and although Chalmers tried to
+call him back Bobby did not wait. He was too busy, he said.
+
+His business was to meet Agnes and Mrs. Elliston for luncheon
+down-town, and during the meal he happened to remark that Clarence
+Smythe had determined to shake the dust of the city from his feet.
+
+"I thought so," declared Agnes. "Aunt Constance, I'm afraid you'll
+have to finish your shopping without me. I must call upon Mrs.
+Smythe."
+
+Mrs. Elliston frowned her disapproval, but she knew better than to
+protest. Before Agnes called upon Mrs. Smythe, however, she dropped in
+at the manufacturing concern of D. A. Elliston and Company.
+
+"Uncle Dan, how much money of mine have you in charge just now?" she
+demanded to know.
+
+"Cash? About five or six thousand."
+
+"And how much more could you raise on my property?"
+
+"Right away? About fifteen, on bonds and such securities. This is no
+time to sacrifice real estate."
+
+"It isn't enough," said Agnes, frowning, and was silent for a time.
+"You'll just have to loan me about ten thousand more."
+
+"Oh, will I?" he retorted. "What for?"
+
+"I want to make an investment."
+
+"So I judged," he dryly responded. "Well, young lady, as your steward
+I reckon I'll have to know something more about this investment before
+I turn over any money."
+
+With sparkling eyes and blushes that would come in spite of her, she
+told him what she intended to do. When she had concluded, Dan Elliston
+slapped his knees in huge joy.
+
+"You shall have all the money you want," he declared.
+
+Upon that same afternoon Bobby started to buy up, here and there,
+nearly the entire stock of the Brightlight, purchasing it at an
+absurdly low price. Then he went to De Graff, to Dan Elliston, and to
+others to whose discretion he could trust. His own plans were well
+under way when the Consolidated Illuminating and Power Company
+announced, with a great flourish of trumpets, its new bond issue. The
+_Bulletin_ made no comment upon this. It merely published the news
+fact briefly and concisely--an unexpected attitude, which brought
+surprise, then wonder, then suspicion to the office of the
+_Chronicle_. The _Chronicle_ had been a Stone organ during the heydey
+of Stone's prosperity; the _Bulletin_ had fought the Consolidated
+tooth and toe-nail; the already criminally overcapitalized
+Consolidated was about to float a new bond issue; the _Bulletin_ did
+not fight this issue; _ergo_, the _Bulletin_ must have something to
+gain by the issue.
+
+The _Chronicle_ waited three days, then began to fight the bond issue
+itself, which was precisely the effect for which Bobby had planned.
+Grown astute, Bobby realized that if the bond issue failed the
+Consolidated would go bankrupt at once instead of a year or so later.
+The newspaper, however, which would force that bankruptcy would, by
+that act, be the apparent means of losing a vast amount of money to
+the poor investors of the town, and Bobby left that ungrateful task to
+the _Chronicle_. He even went so far as to defend the Consolidated in
+a mild sort of manner, a proceeding which fanned the _Chronicle_ into
+fresh fury.
+
+For three months desperate attempts were made by the Consolidated to
+make the new bonds attractive to the public, but less than one hundred
+thousand dollars was subscribed. Bobby was tabulating the known
+results of this subscription with much satisfaction one morning when
+Ferris walked into his office.
+
+"I hope you didn't come into town to dig up another scandal, old man,"
+said Bobby, greeting his contractor-friend with keen pleasure.
+
+"No," said Ferris; "came in to give you a bit of news. The Great
+Eastern and Western Railroad wants to locate its shop here, and is
+building by private bid. I have secured the contract, subject to
+certain alterations of price for distance of hauling and difficulty of
+excavation; but the thing is liable to fall through for lack of a
+location. They can't get the piece of property they are after, and
+there is only one other one large enough and near enough to the city.
+The chief engineer and I are going out to look at it again to-day.
+Come with us. If we decide that the property will do, and if we can
+secure it, you may have an exclusive news-item that would be very
+pretty, I should judge." And Ferris smiled at some secret joke.
+
+"I'll go with pleasure," said Bobby, "and not by any means just for
+the news. When do you want to go?"
+
+"Oh, right away, I guess. I'll telephone to Shepherd and have him
+order a rig."
+
+"What's the use?" demanded Bobby, much interested. "My car's right
+within call. I'll have it brought up."
+
+Shepherd, the chief engineer of the G. E. and W., when they picked him
+up at the hotel, proved to be an entire human being with red whiskers
+and not a care in the world. Bobby was enjoying a lot of preliminary
+persiflage when Shepherd incidentally mentioned their destination.
+
+"It is known as Westmarsh," he observed. "I suppose you know where it
+is."
+
+Bobby, who had already started the machine and had placed his hand on
+the steering wheel, gave a jerk so violent that he almost sent the
+machine diagonally across the street, and Ferris laughed aloud. His
+little joke was no longer a secret.
+
+"Westmarsh!" Bobby repeated. "Why, I own that undrainable swamp."
+
+"Swamp?" exclaimed Shepherd. "It's as dry as a bone. I looked it over
+last night and am going out to-day to study the possible approaches to
+it."
+
+"But you say it is dry!" protested Bobby, unable to believe it.
+
+"Dry as powder," asserted Shepherd. "There has been an immense amount
+of water out there, but it has been well taken care of by the splendid
+drainage system that has been put in."
+
+"It cost a lot of money to put in that drainage system," commented
+Bobby; "but we found it impracticable to drain an entire river."
+
+It was Shepherd's turn to be puzzled, a process in which he stopped to
+laugh.
+
+"This is the first time I ever heard an owner belittle his own
+property," he declared. "I suppose that next you'll only accept half
+the price we offer."
+
+Bobby kept up his part of the conversation but feebly as they whirled
+out to the site of the old Applerod Addition. He was lost in
+speculation upon what could possibly have happened to that unfortunate
+swamp area. When they arrived, however, he was surprised to find that
+Shepherd had been correct. The ground, though sunken in places and
+black with the residue of one-time stagnant water, was firm enough to
+walk upon, and after many tests he even ran the machine across and
+across it. Moreover, grass and weeds, forcing their way here and
+there, were already beginning to hide and redeem the ugly earthen
+surface.
+
+Bobby surveyed the miracle in amazement. It was the first time he had
+seen the place in a year. Even in his trips to the waterworks site,
+which was just north, beyond the hill, he had chosen the longer and
+less solid river road rather than to come past this spot of
+humiliating memories.
+
+"I can't understand it," he said again and again to the two men. "Why,
+Mr. Shepherd, I spent thousands of dollars in filling this swamp and
+draining it, with the idea of making a city subdivision here. Silas
+Trimmer, the man from whom I bought the place, imagined it to be fed
+by underground springs, but he let me spend a fortune to attract
+people out to see my new building lots so that he could, without cost,
+sell his own. That is his addition up there on the hills, and I'm glad
+to say he has recently mortgaged it for all that it will carry."
+
+"How about the springs?" asked Shepherd with a frown. "Did you find
+them? You must have stopped them. Are they liable to break out again?"
+
+"That's the worst of it," replied Bobby, still groping. "It wasn't
+springs at all. It was a peculiar geological formation, some
+disarranged strata leading beneath the hill from the river and
+emptying into the bottom of this pond. All through the year it seeped
+in faster than our extensive drainings could carry it away, and in the
+spring and fall, when the river was high, it poured in. I don't see
+what could have happened. Suppose we run over and see the engineer who
+worked on this with me. He is now in charge of the new waterworks."
+
+In five minutes they were over there. Jimmy Platt, out in his
+shirt-sleeves under a broad-brimmed straw hat, greeted them most
+cordially, but when Bobby explained to him the miracle that had
+happened to the old Applerod Addition, Platt laughed until the tears
+came into his eyes; and even after he stopped laughing there were
+traces of them there.
+
+"Come down here and I'll show you," said he.
+
+Leading south from the pumping station, diagonally down the steep bank
+to the river, had been built a splendid road, flanked on both sides by
+very solid, substantial-looking retaining walls.
+
+"You see this wall?" asked Jimmy, pointing to the inside one. "It runs
+twenty feet below low-water level, and is solidly cemented. You
+remember when I got permission to move this road from the north side
+to the south side of the pumping station? I did that after an
+examination of the subsoil. This wall cuts off the natural siphon that
+fed the water to your Applerod Addition. I have been going past there
+in huge joy twice a day, watching that swamp dry up."
+
+"In other words," said Bobby, "you have been doing a little private
+grafting on my account. How many additional dollars did that
+extra-deep wall cost?"
+
+"I'm not going to tell you," asserted Jimmy stoutly. "It isn't very
+much, but whatever it is the city good and plenty owes you for saving
+it over a million on this job. But if I'd had to pay for it myself I
+would have done it to correct the mistake I made when I started to
+drain that swamp for you. I guess this is about the most satisfactory
+minute of my life," and he looked it.
+
+"A fine piece of work," agreed Shepherd, casting a swift eye over the
+immense and busy waterworks site, and then glancing at the hill across
+which lay Bobby's property. "You're lucky to have had this chance, Mr.
+Platt," and he shook hands cordially with Jimmy. "I'm perfectly
+satisfied, Mr. Burnit. Do you want to sell that property?"
+
+"If I can get out at a profit," replied Bobby. "Otherwise I'll regrade
+the thing and split it up into building lots as I originally
+intended."
+
+"Let's go back down to the hotel and talk 'turkey,'" offered Shepherd
+briskly. "What do you think of the place, Ferris? Will it do?"
+
+"Fine!" said Ferris. "The property lies so low that we won't have to
+cart away a single load of our excavation. If we can only get a
+right-of-way through that natural approach to the northeast--"
+
+"I think I can guarantee a right-of-way," interrupted Bobby, smiling,
+with his mind upon the city council which had been created by his own
+efforts.
+
+"All right," said Shepherd. "We'll talk price until I have browbeaten
+you as low as you will go. Then I'll prepare a plat of the place and
+send it on to headquarters. You'll have an answer from them in three
+days."
+
+As they whirred away Bobby's eyes happened to rest upon a young man
+and a young woman rowing idly down-stream in a skiff, and he smiled as
+he recognized Biff Bates and Nellie Platt.
+
+On the day Bobby got the money for his Westmarsh property old Applerod
+came up from the office of the Brightlight Electric Company, where he
+held a lazy, sleepy afternoon job as "manager," and with an
+ingratiating smile handed Bobby a check for five thousand dollars.
+
+"What's this for?" asked Bobby, puzzled.
+
+"I have decided to give you back the money and take up again my
+approximate one-fifth share in the Applerod Addition," announced that
+gentleman complacently.
+
+Bobby was entirely too much surprised at this to be amused.
+
+"You're just a trifle too late, Mr. Applerod," said he. "Had you come
+to me two weeks ago, when I thought the land was worthless, out of
+common decency I would not have let you buy in again. Since then,
+however, I have sold the tract at a profit of forty thousand dollars."
+
+"You have?" exclaimed Applerod. "I heard you were going to do
+something of the kind. I'm entitled to one-fifth of that profit, Mr.
+Burnit--eight thousand dollars."
+
+"You're entitled to a good, swift poke in the neck!" exclaimed the
+voice of wizened old Johnson, who stood in the doorway, and who, since
+his friendship with Biff Bates, had absorbed some of that gentleman's
+vigorous vernacular. "Applerod, I'll give you just one minute to get
+out of this office. If you don't I'll throw you downstairs!"
+
+"Mr. Johnson," said Applerod with great dignity, "this office does not
+belong to you. I have as much right here--"
+
+Mr. Johnson, taking a trot around Bobby's desk so as to get Mr.
+Applerod between him and the door, made a threatening demonstration
+toward the rear, and Applerod, suddenly deserting his dignity, rushed
+out. Bobby straightened his face as Johnson, still blazing, came in
+from watching Applerod's ignominious retreat.
+
+"Well, Johnson," said he, ignoring the incident as closed, "what can I
+do for you to-day?"
+
+"Nothing!" snapped Johnson. "I have forgotten what I came for!" and
+going out he slammed the door behind him.
+
+In the course of an hour Bobby was through with his morning allotment
+of mail and his daily consultation with Jolter, and then he called
+Johnson to his office.
+
+"Johnson," said he, "I want you to do me a favor. There is one block
+of Brightlight stock that I have not yet bought up. It is in the hands
+of J. W. Williams, one of the old Stone crowd, who ought to be wanting
+money by this time. He holds one hundred shares, which you should be
+able to buy by now at fifty dollars a share. I want you to buy this
+stock in your own name, and I want to loan you five thousand dollars
+to do it with. I merely want voting power; so after you get it you may
+hold it if you like and still owe me the five thousand dollars, or
+I'll take it off your hands at any time you are tired of the
+obligation. You'd better go to Barrister and have him buy the stock
+for you."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Johnson.
+
+Bobby immediately went to De Graff.
+
+"I came to subscribe for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars' worth
+of additional stock in the New Brightlight. I have just deposited two
+hundred and eighty-five thousand dollars in your bank."
+
+"You're becoming an expert," said De Graff with a quizzical smile.
+"With the million dollars' valuation at which we are to buy in the
+present Brightlight, the two hundred and fifty thousand subscribed for
+by Dan Elliston, and the ten thousand held by Miss Elliston, this new
+subscription about gives you control of the New Brightlight, don't
+it?"
+
+"That's what I want," Bobby exulted. "You don't object, do you?"
+
+"Not on my own account," De Graff assured him; "but you'd better have
+Barrister buy this in for you until we are organized. Then you can
+take it over."
+
+"I guess you're right," agreed Bobby. "I'll send Barrister right over,
+and I think I shall make him take up the remaining ten thousand on his
+own account. A week from to-night is the council meeting at which the
+Consolidated must make good to renew their franchise, and we don't
+want any hitch in getting our final incorporation papers by that time.
+The members of the Consolidated are singing swan songs in seven
+simultaneous keys at this very moment."
+
+Bobby's description of the condition of the Consolidated was scarcely
+exaggerated. It was a trying and a hopeless period for them. The bond
+issue had failed miserably. It had not needed the _Chronicle_ to
+remind the public of what a shaky proposition the Consolidated was,
+for Bobby had thoroughly exposed the corporation during the
+_Bulletin's_ campaign against Sam Stone. Bond-floating companies from
+other cities were brought in, and after an examination of the books
+threw up their hands in horror at the crudest muddle they had ever
+found in any investigation of municipal affairs.
+
+On the night of the council meeting, Sharpe and Trimmer and Williams,
+representing the Consolidated, were compelled to come before the
+council and confess their inability to take up the bonds required to
+renew their franchise; but they begged that this clause, since it was
+an entirely unnecessary one and was not enjoined upon gas or electric
+companies in other cities, be not enforced. Council, however, was
+obdurate, and the committee thereupon begged for a further extension
+of time in which to raise the necessary amount of money. Council still
+was obdurate, and by that obduracy the franchise of the Consumers'
+Electric Company, said franchise being controlled by the Consolidated
+Illuminating and Power Company, became null and void.
+
+Thereupon Bobby Burnit, President De Graff and Dan Elliston,
+representing the New Brightlight Electric Company, recently organized
+for three million dollars, came forward and prayed for a franchise for
+the electric lighting of the entire city, agreeing to take over the
+poles and wiring of the Consolidated at a fair valuation; and council
+was not at all obdurate, which was scarcely strange when one reflected
+that every member of that municipal body had been selected and put in
+place through the direct instrumentality of Bobby Burnit. It was
+practical politics, true enough, but Bobby had no qualms whatever
+about it.
+
+"It may be quite true that I have not been actuated by any highly
+noble motives in this," he confessed to a hot charge by Williams, "but
+so long as in municipal affairs I am not actuated by any ignoble
+motives I am doing pretty fairly in this town."
+
+There was just the bare trace of brutality in Bobby as he said this,
+and he suddenly recognized it in himself with dismay. What pity Bobby
+might have felt for these bankrupt men, however, was swept away in a
+gust of renewed aggressiveness when Trimmer, arousing himself from the
+ashen age which seemed all at once to be creeping over him, said, with
+a return of that old circular smile which had so often before
+aggravated Bobby:
+
+"I am afraid I'll have to draw out of my other ventures and retire on
+my salary as president and manager of Trimmer and Company."
+
+Vengefulness was in Bobby's eyes as he followed Trimmer's sprawling
+figure, so much like a bloated spider's in its bigness of
+circumference and its attenuation of limbs, that suddenly he shuddered
+and turned away as when one finds oneself about to step upon a toad.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+IN WHICH, BEING THE LAST CHAPTER, EVERYTHING TURNS OUT RIGHT, AND
+EVERYBODY GETS MARRIED
+
+
+At the offices of the New Brightlight Electric Company there was
+universal rejoicing. Johnson was removed from the _Bulletin_ to take
+charge of the new organization until it should be completed, and Bobby
+himself, for a few days, was compelled to spend most of his time
+there. During the first week after the granting of the franchise Bobby
+called Johnson to him.
+
+"Mr. Johnson," said he quite severely, "you have been so careful and
+so faithful in all other things that I dislike to remind you of an
+overlooked duty."
+
+"I am sorry, sir," said Johnson. "What is it?"
+
+"You have neglected to make out a note for that five-thousand-dollar
+loan. Kindly draw it up now, payable in ten years, with interest at
+four per cent. _after_ the date of maturity."
+
+"But, sir," stammered Johnson, "the stock is worth par now."
+
+"Would you like to keep it?"
+
+"I'd be a fool to say I wouldn't, sir. But the stock is not only worth
+par,--it was worth that in the old Brightlight; and I received an
+exchange of two for one in the New Brightlight, which is also worth
+par this morning; so I hold twenty thousand dollars' worth of stock."
+
+"It cost me five thousand," insisted Bobby, "and we'll settle at that
+figure."
+
+"I don't know how to thank you, sir," trembled Johnson, but he
+stiffened immediately as Applerod intruded himself into the room with
+a bundle of papers which he laid upon the desk.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Mr. Burnit," began Applerod, "but I have five
+thousand dollars I'd like to invest in the New Brightlight Company if
+you could manage it for me."
+
+"I'm sorry, Applerod," said Bobby, "but there isn't a share for sale.
+It was subscribed to the full capitalization before the incorporation
+papers were issued."
+
+Applerod was about to leave the room in deep dejection when Johnson,
+with a sudden happy inspiration, called him back.
+
+"I think I know where you can buy five thousand," said Johnson; "but
+you will have to hurry to get it."
+
+"Where?" asked Applerod eagerly, while Bobby went to the window to
+conceal his broad smiles.
+
+"Just put on your hat and go right over to Barrister," directed
+Johnson; "and take a blank check with you. I'll telephone him, to save
+time for you. The stock is worth par, and that lonesome fifty shares
+will be snapped up before you know it."
+
+"You will excuse me till I go up-town, Mr. Burnit?" inquired Applerod,
+and bustled out eagerly.
+
+He had no sooner left the building than Johnson grabbed Bobby's
+telephone and called up Barrister.
+
+"This is Johnson," he said to the old attorney. "I have just sent
+Applerod over to you to buy fifty shares of New Brightlight at par.
+Take his check and hold it for delivery of the stock. I'll have it
+over to you within an hour, or as soon as I can have the transfer
+made. It is my stock, but I don't want him to know it."
+
+Hanging up the receiver old Johnson sat in the chair by Bobby's desk
+and his thin shoulders heaved with laughter.
+
+"Applerod will be plumb crazy when he finds that out," he said. "To
+think that I have fifteen thousand dollars' worth of this good stock
+that didn't cost me a cent, all paid for with Applerod's own five
+thousand dollars!"
+
+Johnson laughed so hard that finally he was compelled to lay his head
+on the desk in front of him, with his lean old fingers over his eyes.
+
+"Thanks to you, Robert; thanks to you," he added after a little
+silence.
+
+Bobby, turning from the window, saw the thin shoulders still heaving.
+There was a glint of moisture on the lean hands that had toiled for so
+many years in the Burnit service, and as Bobby passed he placed his
+hand on old Johnson's bowed head for just an instant, then went out,
+leaving Johnson alone.
+
+It was Applerod who, returning triumphantly with Barrister's promise
+of the precious block of New Brightlight for delivery in the
+afternoon, brought Bobby a copy of his own paper containing so much
+startling news that the front page consisted only of a hysteria of
+head-lines. Sudden proceedings in bankruptcy had been filed against
+the Consolidated Illuminating and Power Company. These proceedings had
+revealed the fact that Frank L. Sharpe, supposed to have left the city
+on business for the company, had in reality disappeared with the
+entire cash balance of the Consolidated. This disappearance had
+immediately thrust the Middle West Construction Company into
+bankruptcy. By Stone's own acts the Stone enterprises had crumpled and
+fallen, and all his adherents were ruined.
+
+Out of the chaos that the startling facts he was able to glean created
+in Bobby's mind there came a thought of Ferris, and he immediately
+telephoned him, out at the site of the new G. E. and W. shops, where
+ground was already being broken, that he would be out that way.
+
+Half an hour later he took Ferris into his machine and they whirled
+over to the waterworks site, where the work had stopped as abruptly as
+if that scene of animation had suddenly been stricken of a plague and
+died. On the way Bobby explained to Ferris what had happened.
+
+"You were the lowest legitimate bidder on the job, I believe," he
+concluded.
+
+"Yes, outside of the local company."
+
+"If I were you I'd get busy with Jimmy Platt on an estimate of the
+work already done," suggested Bobby. "I think it very likely that the
+city council will offer the Keystone Construction Company the contract
+at its former figure, with the proper deductions for present progress.
+We will make up the difference between their bid and yours, and
+whatever loss there is in taking up the work will come out of the
+forfeit put up by the Middle West Company."
+
+Jimmy Platt ran out to meet them like a lost soul. The waterworks
+project had become his pet. He lived with it and dreamed of it, and
+that there was a prospect of resuming work, and under such skilful
+supervision as that of Ferris, delighted him. While Jimmy and Mr.
+Ferris went into the office to prepare a basis of estimating, Bobby
+stayed behind to examine the carbureter of his machine, which had been
+acting suspiciously on the way out, and while he was engaged in this
+task a voice that he knew quite well saluted him with:
+
+"Fine work, old pal! I guess you put all your lemons into the squeezer
+and got the juice, eh?"
+
+Biff had a copy of the _Bulletin_ in his hand, which was sufficient
+explanation of his congratulations.
+
+"Things do seem to be turning out pretty lucky for me, Biff," Bobby
+confessed, and then, looking at Mr. Bates, he immediately apologized.
+"I beg pardon for calling you Biff," said he. "I should have said Mr.
+Bates."
+
+"Cut it!" growled Biff, looking himself over with some complacency
+nevertheless.
+
+From his nice new derby, which replaced the slouch cap he had always
+preferred, to his neat and uncomfortably-pointed gun-metal leathers
+which had supplanted the broad-toed tans, Mr. Bates was an epitome of
+neatly-pressed grooming. White cuffs edged the sleeves of his gray
+business suit, and--wonder of wonders!--he wore a white shirt with a
+white collar, in which there was tied a neat bow of--last wonder of
+all--modest gray!
+
+"I suppose that costume is due to distinctly feminine influence, eh,
+Biff?"
+
+"Guilty as Cassie Chadwick!" replied Biff with a sheepish grin. "She's
+tryin' to civilize me."
+
+"Who is?" demanded Bobby.
+
+"Oh, _she_ is. You know who I mean. Why, she's even taught me to cut
+out slang. Say, Bobby, I didn't know how much like a rough-neck I used
+to talk. I never opened my yawp but what I spilled a line of
+fricasseed gab so twisted and frazzled and shredded you could use it
+to stuff sofa-cushions; but now I've handed that string of talk the
+screw number. No more slang for your Uncle Biff."
+
+"I'm glad you have quit it," approved Bobby soberly. "I suppose the
+next thing I'll hear will be the wedding bells."
+
+"No!" Biff denied in a tone so pained and shocked that Bobby looked up
+in surprise to see his face gone pale. "Don't talk about that, Bobby.
+Why, I wouldn't dare even think of it myself. I--I never think about
+it. Me? with a mitt like a picnic ham? Did you ever see her hand,
+Bobby? And her eyes and her hair and all? Why, Bobby, if I'd ever
+catch myself daring to think about marrying that girl I'd take myself
+by the Adam's apple and give myself the damnedest choking that ever
+turned a mutt's map purple."
+
+"I'm sorry, after all, that you are through with slang, Biff," said
+Bobby, "because if you were still using it you might have expressed
+that idea so much more picturesquely;" but Biff did not hear him, for
+from the office came Nellie Platt with a sun-hat in her hand.
+
+"Right on time," she said gaily to Biff, and, with a pleasant word for
+Bobby, went down with Mr. Bates to the river bank, where lay the neat
+little skiff that Jimmy had bought for her.
+
+Bobby and Ferris and Platt, standing up near the filters, later on,
+were startled by a scream from the river, and, turning, they saw the
+skiff, in mid-stream, struck by a passing steamer and splintered as if
+it were made of pasteboard. Nellie had been rowing. Biff had called
+her attention to the approaching steamer, across the path of which
+they were passing. There had been plenty of time to row out of the way
+of it, but Nellie in grasping her oar for a quick turn had lost it.
+Fortunately the engines had been stopped immediately when the pilot
+had seen that they must strike, so that there was no appreciable
+underdrag. Biff's head had been grazed slightly, enough to daze him
+for an instant, but he held himself up mechanically. Nellie, clogged
+by her skirts, could not swim, and as Biff got his bearings he saw her
+close by him going down for the second time. Two men sprang from the
+lower deck of the steamer, but Biff reached her first, and, his senses
+instantly clearing as he caught her, he struck out for the shore.
+
+The three men on shore immediately ran down the bank, and sprang into
+the water to help Biff out with his burden. He was pale, but strangely
+cool and collected.
+
+"Don't go at it that way!" he called to them savagely, knowing neither
+friend nor foe in this emergency. "Get her loosened up someway, can't
+you?"
+
+Without waiting on them, Biff ripped a knife from his pocket, opened
+it and slit through waist and skirt-band and whatever else intervened,
+to her corset, which he opened with big fingers, the sudden deftness
+of which was marvelous. Directing them with crisp, sharp commands, he
+guided them through the first steps toward resuscitation, and then
+began the slow, careful pumping of the arms that should force breath
+back into the closed lungs.
+
+For twenty minutes, each of which seemed interminable, Jimmy and Biff
+worked, one on either side of her, Biff's face set, cold,
+expressionless, until at last there was a flutter of the eyelids, a
+cry of distress as the lungs took up their interrupted function, then
+the sharp, hissing sound of the intake and outgo of natural, though
+labored, breath; then Nellie Platt opened her big, brown eyes and
+gazed up into the gray ones of Biff Bates. She faintly smiled; then
+Biff did a thing that he had never done before in his mature life. He
+suddenly broke down and cried aloud, sobbing in great sobs that shook
+him from head to foot and that hurt him, as they tore from his throat,
+as the first breath of new life had hurt Nellie Platt; and, seeing and
+understanding, she raised up one weak arm and slipped it about his
+neck.
+
+It was about a week after this occurrence when Silas Trimmer, coming
+back from lunch to attend the annual stock-holders' meeting of Trimmer
+and Company, stopped on the sidewalk to inspect, with some curiosity,
+a strange, boxlike-looking structure which leaned face downward upon
+the edge of the curbing. It was three feet wide and full sixty feet
+long. He stooped and tried to tilt it up, but it was too heavy for his
+enfeebled frame, and with another curious glance at it he went into
+the store.
+
+The meeting was set for half-past two. It was now scarcely two, and
+yet, when he opened the door of his private office, which had been set
+apart for that day's meeting, he was surprised at the number of people
+he found in the room. A quick recognition of them mystified him the
+more. They were Bobby Burnit and Agnes, Johnson, Applerod and
+Chalmers.
+
+"I came a little early, Mr. Trimmer," said Bobby, in a polite
+conversational tone, "to have these three hundred shares transferred
+upon the books of Trimmer and Company, before the stock-holders'
+meeting convenes."
+
+"What shares are they?" inquired Silas in a voice grown strangely
+shrill and metallic.
+
+"The stock that was previously controlled by your son-in-law, Mr.
+Clarence Smythe. Miss Elliston bought them last week from your
+daughter, with the full consent of your son-in-law."
+
+"The dog!" Trimmer managed to gasp, and his fingers clutched
+convulsively.
+
+"Possibly," admitted Bobby dryly. "At any rate he has had to leave
+town, and I do not think you will be bothered with him any more. In
+the meantime, Mr. Trimmer, I'd like to call your attention to a few
+very interesting figures. When you urged me, four years ago, to
+consolidate the John Burnit and Trimmer and Company Stores, my
+father's business was appraised at two hundred and sixty thousand
+dollars and yours at two hundred and forty. On your suggestion we took
+in sixty thousand dollars of additional capital. I did not know as
+much at that time as I do now, and I let you sell this stock where you
+could control it, virtually giving you three thousand shares to my two
+thousand six hundred. You froze me out, elected your own board, made
+yourself manager at an enormous salary, and voted your son-in-law
+another one so ridiculous that it was put out of all possibility for
+my stock ever to yield any dividends. All right, Mr. Trimmer. With the
+purchase of this three hundred shares I now control two thousand nine
+hundred shares and you two thousand seven hundred. I presume I don't
+need to tell you what is going to happen in today's meeting."
+
+To this Silas returned no answer.
+
+"I am an old man," he muttered to himself as one suddenly stricken. "I
+am an old, old man."
+
+"I am going to oust you," continued Bobby, "and to oust all your
+relatives from their fat positions; and I am going to elect myself to
+everything worth while. I have brought Mr. Johnson with me to inspect
+your books, and Mr. Chalmers to take charge of certain legal matters
+connected with the concern immediately after the close of to-day's
+meeting. I am going to restore Applerod to his position here from
+which you so unceremoniously discharged him, and make Johnson general
+manager of this and all my affairs. I understand that your stock in
+this concern is mortgaged, and that you will be utterly unable to
+redeem it. I intend to buy it and practically own the entire company
+myself. Are there any questions you would like to ask, Mr. Trimmer?"
+
+There was none. Silas, crushed and dazed and pitiable, only moaned
+that he was an old man; that he was an old, old man.
+
+Bobby felt the gentle pressure of Agnes' hand upon his arm. There was
+a moment of silence.
+
+Trimmer looked around at them piteously. Once more Bobby felt that
+touch upon his sleeve. Understanding, he went over to Silas and took
+him gently by the arm.
+
+"Come over here to the window with me a minute," said he, "and we will
+have a little business talk."
+
+"Business! Oh, yes; business!" said Silas, brightening up at the
+mention of the word.
+
+He rose nervously and allowed Bobby to lead him, bent and almost
+palsied, over to the window, where they could look out on the busy
+street below, and the roofs of the tall buildings, and the blue sky
+beyond where it smiled down upon the river. It was only a fleeting
+glance that Silas Trimmer cast at the familiar scene outside, and
+almost immediately he turned to Bobby, clutching his coat sleeve
+eagerly. "You--you said something about business," he half-whispered,
+and over his face there came a shadow of that old, shrewd look.
+
+"Why, yes," replied Bobby uncomfortably. "I think we can find a place
+for you, Mr. Trimmer. You have kept this concern up splendidly, no
+matter how much beset you were outside, and--and I think Johnson will
+engage you, if you care for it, to look after certain details of
+buying and such matters as that."
+
+"Oh, yes, the buying," agreed Silas, nodding his head. "I always was a
+good buyer--and a good seller, too!" and he chuckled. "About what do
+you say, now, that my services would be worth?" and with the prospect
+of bartering more of his old self came back.
+
+"We'll make that satisfactory, I can assure you," said Bobby. "Your
+salary will be a very liberal one, I am certain, and it will begin
+from to-day. First, however, you must have a good rest--a vacation
+with pay, understand--and it will make you strong again. You are a
+little run down."
+
+"Yes," agreed Silas, nodding his head as the animation faded out of
+his eyes. "I'm getting old. I think, Mr. Burnit, if you don't mind
+I'll go into the little room there and lie on the couch for a few
+minutes."
+
+"That is a good idea," said Bobby. "You should be rested for the
+meeting."
+
+"Oh, yes," repeated Silas, nodding his head sagely; "the meeting."
+
+They were uncomfortably silent when Bobby had returned from the little
+room adjoining. The shadow of tragedy lay upon them all, and it was
+out of this shadow that Bobby spoke his determination.
+
+"I am going to get out of business," he declared. "It is a hard, hard
+game. I can win at it, but--well, I'd rather go back, if I only could,
+to my unsophistication of four years ago. I don't like business. Of
+course, I'll keep this place for tradition's sake, and because it
+would please my father--no, I mean it _will_ please him--but I'm going
+to sell the _Bulletin_. I have an offer for it at an excellent profit.
+I'm going to intrust the management of the electric plant to my good
+friend Biff, here, with Chalmers and Johnson as starboard and larboard
+bulwarks, until the stock is quoted at a high enough rating to be a
+profitable sale; then I'm going to turn it into money, and add it to
+the original fund. I think I shall be busy enough just looking after
+and enjoying my new partnership," and he smiled down at Agnes, who
+smiled back at him with a trusting admiration that needed no words to
+express.
+
+"Beg your pardon, sir," said old Johnson, "but I have a letter here
+for you," and from his inside pocket he drew one of the familiar
+steel-gray envelopes, which he handed to Bobby.
+
+It was addressed:
+
+    _To My Son Bobby, Upon His Regaining His Father's Business_
+
+The message inside was so brief that one who had not known well old
+John Burnit would never have known the full, full heart out of which
+he penned it:
+
+    "I knew you'd do it, dear boy. Whatever mystery I find in the
+    great hereafter I shall be satisfied--for I knew you'd do it."
+
+That was all.
+
+"Johnson," said Bobby, crumpling up the letter in his hand, and
+speaking briskly to beat back his emotion, "we will move our offices
+to the same old quarters, and we will move back, for my use, my
+father's old desk with my father's portrait hanging above it, just as
+they were when Silas Trimmer ordered them removed."
+
+Two of the stock-holders came in at this moment, and Agnes went down
+into the store to find Biff Bates and Nellie Platt, for there was much
+shopping to do. Agnes had taken pretty Nellie under her chaperonage,
+and every day now the girls were busy with preparations for certain
+events in which each was highly interested.
+
+Up in the office there was a meeting that was a shock to all the
+stock-holders but one, and after it was over Bobby joined the
+shoppers. When the four of them had clambered into Bobby's automobile
+and were rolling away, Bobby stopped his machine.
+
+"Look," he said in calm triumph, and pointed upward, his hand clasping
+a smaller hand which was to rest contentedly in his through life.
+
+Over the Grand Street front of the building from which they had
+emerged, workmen were just raising a huge electric sign, and it bore
+the legend:
+
+                     THE JOHN BURNIT'S SON STORES
+
+
+
+
+Popular Copyright Books
+
+AT MODERATE PRICES
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+Any of the following titles can be bought of your bookseller at the
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+  Beau Brocade. By Baroness Orczy.
+  Beechy. By Bettina Von Hutten.
+  Bella Donna. By Robert Hichens.
+  Betrayal, The. By E. Phillips Oppenheim.
+  Bill Toppers, The. By Andre Castaigne.
+  Butterfly Man, The. By George Barr McCutcheon.
+  Cab No. 44. By R. F. Foster.
+  Calling of Dan Matthews, The. By Harold Bell Wright
+  Cape Cod Stories. By Joseph C. Lincoln.
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+  City of Six, The. By C. L. Canfield.
+  Conspirators, The.  By Robert W. Chambers.
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+  Day of the Dog, The. By George Barr McCutcheon.
+  Depot Master, The. By Joseph C. Lincoln.
+  Derelicts. By William J. Locke.
+  Diamonds Cut Paste. By Agnes & Egerton Castle.
+  Early Bird, The. By George Randolph Chester.
+  Eleventh Hour, The. By David Potter.
+  Elizabeth in Rugen. By the author of Elizabeth and Her German Garden.
+  Flying Mercury, The. By Eleanor M. Ingram.
+  Gentleman, The. By Alfred Ollivant.
+  Girl Who Won, The. By Beth Ellis.
+  Going Some. By Rex Beach.
+  Hidden Water. By Dane Coolidge.
+  Honor of the Big Snows, The. By James Oliver Curwood.
+  Hopalong Cassidy. By Clarence E. Mulford.
+  House of the Whispering Pines, The. By Anna Katherine Green.
+  Imprudence of Prue, The. By Sophie Fisher.
+  In the Service of the Princess. By Henry C. Rowland.
+  Island of Regeneration, The. By Cyrus Townsend Brady.
+  Lady of Big Shanty, The. By Berkeley F. Smith.
+  Lady Merton, Colonist. By Mrs. Humphrey Ward.
+  Lord Loveland Discovers America. By C. N. & A. M. Williamson.
+  Love the Judge. By Wymond Carey.
+  Man Outside, The. By Wyndham Martyn.
+  Marriage of Theodora, The. By Molly Elliott Seawell.
+  My Brother's Keeper. By Charles Tenny Jackson.
+  My Lady of the South. By Randall Parrish.
+  Paternoster Ruby, The. By Charles Edmonds Walk.
+  Politician, The. By Edith Huntington Mason.
+  Pool of Flame, The. By Louis Joseph Vance.
+  Poppy. By Cynthia Stockley.
+  Redemption of Kenneth Galt, The. By Will N. Harben.
+  Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary, The. By Anna Warner.
+  Road to Providence, The. By Maria Thompson Davies.
+  Romance of a Plain Man, The. By Ellen Glasgow.
+  Running Fight, The. By Wm. Hamilton Osborne.
+  Septimus. By William J. Locke.
+  Silver Horde, The. By Rex Beach.
+  Spirit Trail, The. By Kate & Virgil D. Boyles.
+  Stanton Wins. By Eleanor M. Ingram.
+  Stolen Singer, The. By Martha Bellinger.
+  Three Brothers, The. By Eden Phillpotts.
+  Thurston of Orchard Valley. By Harold Bindloss.
+  Title Market, The. By Emily Post.
+  Vigilante Girl, A. By Jerome Hart.
+  Village of Vagabonds, A. By F. Berkeley Smith.
+  Wanted--A Chaperon. By Paul Leicester Ford.
+  Wanted: A Matchmaker. By Paul Leicester Ford.
+  Watchers of the Plains, The. By Ridgwell Cullum.
+  White Sister, The. By Marion Crawford.
+  Window at the White Cat, The. By Mary Roberts Rhinehart.
+  Woman in Question, The. By John Reed Scott.
+  Anna the Adventuress. By E. Phillips Oppenheim.
+  Ann Boyd. By Will N. Harben.
+  At The Moorings. By Rosa N. Carey.
+  By Right of Purchase. By Harold Bindloss.
+  Carlton Case, The. By Ellery H. Clark.
+  Chase of the Golden Plate. By Jacques Futrelle.
+  Cash Intrigue, The. By George Randolph Chester.
+  Delafield Affair, The. By Florence Finch Kelly.
+  Dominant Dollar, The. By Will Lillibridge.
+  Elusive Pimpernel, The. By Baroness Orczy.
+  Ganton & Co. By Arthur J. Eddy.
+  Gilbert Neal. By Will N. Harben.
+  Girl and the Bill, The. By Bannister Merwin.
+  Girl from His Town, The. By Marie Van Vorst.
+  Glass House, The. By Florence Morse Kingsley.
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+  Husbands of Edith, The. George Barr McCutcheon.
+  Inez. (Illustrated Ed.) By Augusta J. Evans.
+  Into the Primitive. By Robert Ames Bennet.
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+  Ladder of Swords, A. By Gilbert Parker.
+  Lorimer of the Northwest. By Harold Bindloss.
+  Lorraine. By Robert W. Chambers.
+  Loves of Miss Anne, The. By S. R. Crockett.
+  Marcaria. By Augusta J. Evans.
+  Mam' Linda. By Will N. Harben.
+  Maids of Paradise, The. By Robert W. Chambers.
+  Man in the Corner, The. By Baroness Orczy.
+  Marriage A La Mode. By Mrs. Humphry Ward.
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+  Much Ado About Peter. By Jean Webster.
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+  Paul Anthony, Christian. By Hiram W. Hays.
+  Prince of Sinners, A. By E. Phillips Oppenheim.
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+  Red Mouse, The. By William Hamilton Osborne.
+  Refugees, The. By A. Conan Doyle.
+  Round the Corner in Gay Street. Grace S. Richmond.
+  Rue: With a Difference. By Rosa N. Carey.
+  Set in Silver. By C. N. and A. M. Williamson.
+  St. Elmo. By Augusta J. Evans.
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+  Spirit in Prison, A. By Robert Hichens.
+  Strawberry Handkerchief, The. By Amelia E. Barr.
+  Tess of the D'Urbervilles. By Thomas Hardy.
+  Uncle William. By Jennette Lee.
+  Way of a Man, The. By Emerson Hough.
+  Whirl, The. By Foxcroft Davis.
+  With Juliet in England. By Grace S. Richmond.
+  Yellow Circle, The. By Charles E. Walk.
+
+
+Any of the following: titles can be bought of your bookseller at 50
+cents per volume.
+
+  The Shepherd of the Hills. By Harold Bell Wright.
+  Jane Cable. By George Barr McCutcheon.
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+  The Halo. By Bettina von Hutten.
+  Jerry Junior. By Jean Webster.
+  The Powers and Maxine. By C. N. and A. M. Williamson.
+  The Balance of Power. By Arthur Goodrich.
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+  Artemus Ward's Works (extra illustrated).
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+  Awakening of Helena Richie. By Margaret Deland.
+  Battle Ground, The. By Ellen Glasgow.
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+    Masquerader," "The Gambler").
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+  Order No. 11. By Caroline Abbot Stanley.
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+  President, The. By Alfred Henry Lewis.
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+  Princess Virginia, The. By C. N. and A. M. Williamson.
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+  Private War, The. By Louis Joseph Vance.
+  Prodigal Son, The. By Hall Caine.
+  Quickening, The. By Francis Lynde.
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+  Rose of the World. By Agnes and Egerton Castle.
+  Running Water. By A. E. W. Mason.
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+  Sir Nigel. By A. Conan Doyle.
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+  Spirit of the Border, The. By Zane Grey.
+  Spoilers, The. By Rex Beach.
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+  Stooping Lady, The.  By Maurice Hewlett.
+  Subjection of Isabel Carnaby. By Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler.
+  Sunset Trail, The. By Alfred Henry Lewis.
+  Sword of the Old Frontier, A. By Randall Parrish.
+  Tales of Sherlock Holmes. By A. Conan Doyle.
+  That Printer of Udell's. By Harold Bell Wright.
+  Throwback, The. By Alfred Henry Lewis.
+  Trail of the Sword, The. By Gilbert Parker.
+  Treasure of Heaven, The. By Marie Corelli.
+  Two Vanrevels, The. By Booth Tarkington.
+  Up From Slavery. By Booker T. Washington.
+  Vashti. By Augusta Evans Wilson.
+  Viper of Milan, The (original edition). By Marjorie Bowen.
+  Voice of the People, The. By Ellen Glasgow.
+  Wheel of Life, The. By Ellen Glasgow.
+  When Wilderness Was King. By Randall Parrish.
+  Where the Trail Divides. By Will Lillibridge.
+  Woman in Grey, A. By Mrs. C. N. Williamson.
+  Woman in the Alcove, The. By Anna Katharine Green.
+  Younger Set, The. By Robert W. Chambers.
+  The Weavers. By Gilbert Parker.
+  The Little Brown Jug at Kildare. By Meredith Nicholson.
+  The Prisoners of Chance. By Randall Parrish.
+  My Lady of Cleve. By Percy J. Hartley.
+  Loaded Dice. By Ellery H. Clark.
+  Get Rich Quick Wallingford. By George Randolph Chester.
+  The Orphan. By Clarence Mulford.
+  A Gentleman of France. By Stanley J. Weyman.
+  Purple Parasol, The. By George Barr McCutcheon.
+  Princess Dehra, The. By John Reed Scott.
+  Making of Bobby Burnit, The. By George Randolph Chester.
+  Last Voyage of the Donna Isabel, The. By Randall Parrish.
+  Bronze Bell, The. By Louis Joseph Vance.
+  Pole Baker. By Will N. Harben.
+  Four Million, The. By O. Henry.
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+  Wayfarers, The. By Mary Stewart Cutting.
+  Held for Orders. By Frank H. Spearman.
+  Story of the Outlaw, The. By Emerson Hough.
+  Mistress of Brae Farm, The. By Rosa N. Carey.
+  Explorer, The. By William Somerset Maugham.
+  Abbess of Vlaye, The. By Stanley Weyman.
+  Alton of Somasco. By Harold Bindloss.
+  Ancient Law, The. By Ellen Glasgow.
+  Barrier, The. By Rex Beach.
+  Bar 20. By Clarence E. Mulford.
+  Beloved Vagabond, The. By William J. Locke.
+  Beulah. (Illustrated Edition.) By Augusta J. Evans.
+  Chaperon, The. By C. N. and A. M. Williamson.
+  Colonel Greatheart. By H. C. Bailey.
+  Dissolving Circle, The. By Will Lillibridge.
+  Elusive Isabel. By Jacques Futrelle.
+  Fair Moon of Bath, The. By Elizabeth Ellis.
+  54-40 or Fight. By Emerson Hough.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Making of Bobby Burnit, by 
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+	<title>The Making of Bobby Burnit, by George Randolph Chester</title>
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+
+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's The Making of Bobby Burnit, by George Randolph Chester
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Making of Bobby Burnit
+       Being a Record of the Adventures of a Live American Young Man
+
+Author: George Randolph Chester
+
+Illustrator: James Montgomery Flagg
+             F. R. Gruger
+
+Release Date: August 30, 2008 [EBook #26485]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAKING OF BOBBY BURNIT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Mark C. Orton, Linda McKeown, Barbara Tozier
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+	<div id="the_beginning">&nbsp;</div>
+
+	<div id="front_matter">
+		<p class="internal_book_title"><a class="disguise pagenum" id="pagei" title="i"> </a>THE MAKING OF BOBBY BURNIT</p>
+		<!-- <a class="pagenum" id="pageii" title="ii"> </a>[Blank Page] -->
+		<!-- <a class="pagenum" id="pageiii" title="iii"> </a>[Blank Page] -->
+
+		<div id="frontis" class="illo"><a class="disguise pagenum" id="pageiv" title="iv"> </a>
+			<a href="images/frontis.jpg"><img src="images/frontis-sm.jpg" width="469" height="456" alt="A man and woman sit on a sofa and read a letter." /></a>
+			<p class="caption">I’m in for some of the severest drubbings of my life</p>
+		</div>
+
+		<div id="title_page" class="front_page"><a class="disguise pagenum" id="pagev" title="v"> </a>
+			<p id="book_title" style="font-size:2em;">THE MAKING OF<br />
+			BOBBY BURNIT<br />
+
+			<span id="subtitle" style="font-size:.8em;display:block;width:80%;margin-left:10%;padding-top:2em;">Being a Record of the Adventures
+			of a Live American Young Man</span></p>
+
+			<p id="author" style="font-size:1.2em;"><em>By GEORGE RANDOLPH CHESTER</em><br />
+ 				<span style="font-variant:small-caps;display:block;padding:2em 0em">Author of</span><br />
+				“Get Rich Quick Wallingford,� “The Cash Intrigue,� Etc.</p>
+
+			<div id="device" class="illo">
+				<img src="images/device.png" width="142" height="143" alt="Device" />
+			</div>
+
+			<p id="illustrators" style="font-variant:small-caps;"><span>With Four Illustrations</span><br />
+				By JAMES MONTGOMERY FLAGG<br />
+				and F. R. GRUGER</p>
+
+			<p id="publisher" style="font-style:italic;width:80%;margin-left:10%">A. L. BURT COMPANY<br />
+			Publishers         New York</p>
+		</div>
+
+		<div id="copyright_page" class="front_page"><a class="disguise pagenum" id="pagevi" title="vi"> </a>
+			<p>Copyright 1908<br />
+				The Curtis Publishing Company</p>
+			<p>Copyright 1909<br />
+				The Bobbs-Merrill Company<br />
+				June</p>
+		</div>
+		<div id="dedication" class="front_page"><a class="disguise pagenum" id="pagevii" title="vii"> </a>
+			<h2>DEDICATION</h2>
+
+			<p>To the Handicapped Sons of Able<br />
+			Fathers, and the Handicapped<br />
+			Fathers of Able Sons,<br />
+			with Sympathy for<br />
+			each, and a<br />
+			Smile for<br />
+			both</p>
+		</div>
+		<!-- <a class="pagenum" id="pageviii" title="viii">&nbsp;</a>[Blank Page] -->
+		<!-- <p class="internal_book_title"><a class="disguise pagenum" id="pageix" title="ix"> </a>THE MAKING OF BOBBY BURNIT</p> -->
+		<!-- Transcriber's Note: The above line is hidden because it's just in the way. -->
+		<!-- <a class="pagenum" id="pagex" title="x"> </a>[Blank Page] -->
+	</div>
+	<h1 class="book_title"><a class="pagenum" id="page1" title="1"> </a>THE MAKING<br />
+	OF BOBBY BURNIT</h1>
+	<div id="chapter_1" class="chapter">
+		<h2 class="chapter_title"><span class="chapter_number">CHAPTER I</span><br />
+			BOBBY MAKES SOME IMPORTANT PREPARATIONS FOR A
+			COMMERCIAL LIFE</h2>
+		<p><span class="first_word">“I am</span> profoundly convinced that my son is a fool,�
+		read the will of old John Burnit. “I am, however,
+		also convinced that I allowed him to become
+		so by too much absorption in my own affairs and
+		too little in his, and, therefore, his being a fool is
+		hereditary; consequently, I feel it my duty, first, to
+		give him a fair trial at making his own way, and
+		second, to place the balance of my fortune in such
+		trust that he can not starve. The trusteeship is already
+		created and the details are nobody’s present
+		business. My son Robert will take over the John
+		Burnit Store and personally conduct it, as his only resource,
+		without further question as to what else I
+		may have left behind me. This is my last will and testament.�</p>
+
+		<p>That is how cheerful Bobby Burnit, with no
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page2" title="2"> </a>thought heretofore above healthy amusements and
+		Agnes Elliston, suddenly became a business man, after
+		having been raised to become the idle heir to about
+		three million. Of course, having no kith nor kin in
+		all this wide world, he went immediately to consult
+		Agnes. It is quite likely that if he had been supplied
+		with dozens of uncles and aunts he would have gone
+		first to Agnes anyhow, having a mighty regard for
+		her keen judgment, even though her clear gaze rested
+		now and then all too critically upon himself. Just as
+		he came whirling up the avenue he saw Nick Allstyne’s
+		white car, several blocks ahead of him, stop at her
+		door, and a figure which he knew must be Nick jump
+		out and trip up the steps. Almost immediately the
+		figure came down again, much more slowly, and
+		climbed into the car, which whizzed away.</p>
+
+		<p>“Not at home,� grumbled Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>It was like him, however, that he should continue
+		straight to the quaint old house of the Ellistons and
+		proffer his own card, for, though his aims could seldom
+		be called really worth while, he invariably finished
+		the thing he set out to do. It seemed to be a
+		sort of disease. He could not help it. To his surprise,
+		the Cerberus who guarded the Elliston door received
+		him with a smile and a bow, and observed:</p>
+
+		<p>“Miss Elliston says you are to walk right on up to
+		the Turkish alcove, sir.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page3" title="3"> </a>While Wilkins took his hat and coat Bobby paused
+		for a moment figuratively to hug himself. At home
+		to no one else! Expecting him!</p>
+
+		<p>“I’ll ask her again,� said Bobby to himself with
+		determination, and stalked on up to the second floor
+		hall, upon which opened a delightful cozy corner where
+		Aunt Constance Elliston permitted the more “family-like�
+		male callers to smoke and loll and be at mannish
+		ease.</p>
+
+		<p>As he reached the landing the door of the library
+		below opened, and in it appeared Agnes and an unusually
+		well-set-up young man—a new one, who wore
+		a silky mustache and most fastidious tailoring. The
+		two were talking and laughing gaily as the door
+		opened, but as Agnes glanced up and saw Bobby she
+		suddenly stopped laughing, and he almost thought
+		that he overheard her say something in an aside to
+		her companion. The impression was but fleeting, however,
+		for she immediately nodded brightly. Bobby
+		bowed rather stiffly in return, and continued his ascent
+		of the stairs with a less sprightly footstep. Crestfallen,
+		and conscious that Agnes had again closed the
+		door of the library without either herself or the
+		strange visitor having emerged into the hall, he strode
+		into the Turkish alcove and let himself drop upon a
+		divan with a thump. He extracted a cigar from his
+		cigar-case, carefully cut off the tip and as carefully
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page4" title="4"> </a>restored the cigar to its place. Then he clasped his
+		interlocked fingers around his knee, and for the next
+		ten minutes strove, like a gentleman, not to listen.</p>
+
+		<p>When Agnes came up presently she made no mention
+		whatever of her caller, and, of course, Bobby had
+		no excuse upon which to hang impertinent questions,
+		though the sharp barbs of them were darting
+		through and through him. Such fuming as he felt,
+		however, was instantly allayed by the warm and
+		thoroughly honest clasp she gave him when she shook
+		hands with him. It was one of the twenty-two million
+		things he liked about her that she did not shake hands
+		like two ounces of cold fish, as did some of the girls he
+		knew. She was dressed in a half-formal house-gown,
+		and the one curl of her waving brown hair that would
+		persistently straggle down upon her forehead was in
+		its accustomed place. He had always been obsessed
+		with a nearly irresistible impulse to put his finger
+		through that curl.</p>
+
+		<p>“I have come around to consult you about a little
+		business matter, Agnes,� he found himself beginning
+		with sudden breathlessness, his perturbation forgotten
+		in the overwhelming charm of her. “The governor’s
+		will has just been read to me, and he’s plunged me
+		into a ripping mess. His whole fortune is in the hands
+		of a trusteeship, whatever that is, and I’m not even to
+		know the trustees. All I get is just the business, and
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page5" title="5"> </a>I’m to carry the John Burnit Store on from its present
+		blue-ribbon standing to still more dazzling heights,
+		I suppose. Well, I’d like to do it. The governor deserves
+		it. But, you see, I’m so beastly thick-headed.
+		Now, Agnes, you have perfectly stunning judgment
+		and all that, so if you would just——� and he came to
+		an abrupt and painful pause.</p>
+
+		<p>“Have you brought along the contract?� she asked
+		demurely. “Honestly, Bobby, you’re the most original
+		person in the world. The first time, I was to
+		marry you because you were so awkward, and the next
+		time because your father thought so much of me, and
+		another time because you wanted us to tour Norway
+		and not have a whole bothersome crowd along; then
+		you were tired living in a big, lonely house with just
+		you and your father and the servants; now, it’s an
+		advantageous business arrangement. What share of
+		the profits am I to receive?�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby’s face had turned red, but he stuck manfully
+		to his guns.</p>
+
+		<p>“All of them,� he blurted. “You know that none of
+		those is the real reason,� he as suddenly protested.
+		“It is only that when I come to tell you the actual
+		reason I rather choke up and can’t.�</p>
+
+		<p>“You’re a mighty nice boy, Bobby,� she confessed.
+		“Now sit down and behave, and tell me just what you
+		have decided to do.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page6" title="6"> </a>“Well,� said he, accepting his defeat with great
+		philosophy, since he had no reason to regard it as
+		final, “of course, my decision is made for me. I’m to
+		take hold of the business. I don’t know anything
+		about it, but I don’t see why it shouldn’t go straight
+		on as it always has.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Possibly,� she admitted thoughtfully; “but I imagine
+		your father expected you to have rather a difficult
+		time of it. Perhaps he wants you to, so that a
+		defeat or two will sting you into having a little more
+		serious purpose in life than you have at present. I’d
+		like, myself, to see you handle, with credit to him and
+		to you, the splendid establishment he built up.�</p>
+
+		<p>“If I do,� Bobby wanted to know, “will you marry
+		me?�</p>
+
+		<p>“That makes eleven times. I’m not saying, Bobby,
+		but you never can tell.�</p>
+
+		<p>“That settles it. I’m going to be a business man.
+		Let me use your ’phone a minute.� It was one of the
+		many advantages of the delightfully informal Turkish
+		alcove that it contained a telephone, and in two
+		minutes Bobby had his tailors. “Make me two or
+		three business suits,� he ordered. “Regular business
+		suits, I mean, for real business wear—you know the
+		sort of thing—and get them done as quickly as you
+		can, please. There!� said he as he hung up the receiver.
+		“I shall begin to-morrow morning. I’ll go
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page7" title="7"> </a>down early and take hold of the John Burnit Store
+		in earnest.�</p>
+
+		<p>“You’ve made a splendid start,� commented Agnes,
+		smiling. “Now tell me about the polo tournament,�
+		and she sat back to enjoy his enthusiasm over something
+		about which he was entirely posted.</p>
+
+		<p>He was good to look at, was Bobby, with his clean-cut
+		figure and his clean-cut face and his clean, blue
+		eyes and clean complexion, and she delighted in nothing
+		more than just to sit and watch him when he was
+		at ease; he was so restful, so certain to be always
+		telling the truth, to be always taking a charitably
+		good-humored view of life, to turn on wholesome topics
+		and wholesome points of view; but after he had
+		gone she smiled and sighed and shook her head.</p>
+
+		<p>“Poor Bobby,� she mused. “There won’t be a shred
+		left of his tender little fleece by the time he gets
+		through.�</p>
+
+		<p>One more monitor Bobby went to see that afternoon,
+		and this was Biff Bates. It required no sending in
+		of cards to enter the presence of this celebrity. One
+		simply stepped out of the elevator and used one’s
+		latch-key. It was so much more convenient. Entering
+		a big, barnlike room he found Mr. Bates, clad only in
+		trunks and canvas shoes, wreaking dire punishment
+		upon a punching-bag merely by way of amusement;
+		and Mr. Bates, with every symptom of joy illuminating
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page8" title="8"> </a>his rather horizontal features—wide brows,
+		wide cheek-bone, wide nose, wide mouth, wide chin,
+		wide jaw—stopped to shake hands most enthusiastically
+		with his caller without removing his padded
+		glove.</p>
+
+		<p>“What’s the good news, old pal?� he asked huskily.</p>
+
+		<p>He was half a head shorter than Bobby and four
+		inches broader across the shoulders, and his neck
+		spread out over all the top of his torso; but there
+		was something in the clear gaze of the eyes which
+		made the two gentlemen look quite alike as they
+		shook hands, vastly different as they were.</p>
+
+		<p>“Bad news for you, I’m afraid,� announced Bobby.
+		“That little partnership idea of the big gymnasium
+		will have to be called off for a while.�</p>
+
+		<p>Mr. Bates took a contemplative punch or two at
+		the still quivering bag.</p>
+
+		<p>“It was a fake, anyway,� he commented, putting
+		his arm around the top of the punching-bag and
+		leaning against it comfortably; “just like this place.
+		You went into partnership with me on this joint—that
+		is, you put up the coin and run in a lot of your
+		friends on me to be trained up—squarest lot of sports
+		I ever saw, too. You fill the place with business and
+		allow me a weekly envelope that makes me tilt my
+		chin till I have to wear my lid down over my eyes to
+		keep it from falling off the back of my head, and
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page9" title="9"> </a>when there’s profits to split up you shoves mine into
+		my mitt and puts yours into improvements. You put
+		in the new shower baths and new bars and traps, and
+		the last thing, that swimming-tank back there. I’m
+		glad the big game’s off. I’m so contented now I’m
+		getting over-weight, and you’d bilk me again. But
+		what’s the matter? Did the bookies get you?�</p>
+
+		<p>“No; I’ll tell you all about it,� and Bobby carefully
+		explained the terms of his father’s will and what
+		they meant.</p>
+
+		<p>Mr. Bates listened carefully, and when the explanation
+		was finished he thought for a long time.</p>
+
+		<p>“Well, Bobby,� said he, “here’s where you get it.
+		They’ll shred you clean. You’re too square for that
+		game. Your old man was a fine old sport and <em>he</em>
+		played it on the level, but, say, he could see a marked
+		card clear across a room. They’ll double-cross you,
+		though, to a fare-ye-well.�</p>
+
+		<p>The opinion seemed to be unanimous.</p>
+	</div>
+	<div id="chapter_2" class="chapter"><a class="pagenum" id="page10" title="10"> </a>
+		<h2 class="chapter_title"><span class="chapter_number">CHAPTER II</span><br />
+			PINK CARNATIONS APPEAR IN THE OFFICE OF THE
+			JOHN BURNIT STORE</h2>
+
+		<p><span class="first_word">Bobby</span> gave his man orders to wake him up
+		early next morning, say not later than eight,
+		and prided himself very much upon his energy
+		when, at ten-thirty, he descended from his
+		machine in front of the old and honored establishment
+		of John Burnit, and, leaving instructions for
+		his chauffeur to call for him at twelve, made his way
+		down the long aisles of white-piled counters and into
+		the dusty little office where old Johnson, thin as a
+		rail and with a face like whittled chalk, humped over
+		his desk exactly as he had sat for the past thirty-five
+		years.</p>
+
+		<p>“Good-morning, Johnson,� observed Bobby with an
+		affable nod. “I’ve come to take over the business.�</p>
+
+		<p>He said it in the same untroubled tone he had always
+		used in asking for his weekly check, and Johnson
+		looked up with a wry smile. Applerod, on the contrary,
+		was beaming with hearty admiration. He was
+		as florid as Johnson was colorless, and the two had
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page11" title="11"> </a>rubbed elbows and dispositions in that same room
+		almost since the house of Burnit had been founded.</p>
+
+		<p>“Very well, sir,� grudged Johnson, and immediately
+		laid upon the time-blackened desk which had
+		been old John Burnit’s, a closely typewritten statement
+		of some twenty pages. On top of this he placed
+		a plain gray envelope addressed:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="envelope">
+<p>To My Son Robert,<br />
+		Upon the Occasion of His Taking Over the
+		Business</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+		<p>Upon this envelope Bobby kept his eyes in mild
+		speculation, while he leisurely laid aside his cane and
+		removed his gloves and coat and hat; next he sat
+		down in his father’s jerky old swivel chair and lit a
+		cigarette; then he opened the letter. He read:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="letter">
+			<p>“Every business needs a pessimist and an optimist,
+			with ample opportunities to quarrel. Johnson is a
+			jackass, but honest. He is a pessimist and has a pea-green
+			liver. Listen to him and the business will die
+			painlessly, by inches. Applerod is also a jackass,
+			and I presume him to be honest; but I never tested it.
+			He suffers from too much health, and the surplus goes
+			into optimism. Listen to him and the business will
+			die in horrible agony, quickly. But keep both of them.
+			Let them fight things out until they come almost to
+			an understanding, then take the middle course.�</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page12" title="12"> </a>That was all. Bobby turned squarely to survey
+		the frowning Johnson and the still beaming Applerod,
+		and with a flash of clarity he saw his father’s
+		wisdom. He had always admired John Burnit, aside
+		from the fact that the sturdy pioneer had been his
+		father, had admired him much as one admires the
+		work of a master magician—without any hope of
+		emulation. As he read the note he could seem to
+		see the old gentleman standing there with his hands
+		behind him, ready to stretch on tiptoe and drop to
+		his heels with a thump as he reached a climax, his
+		spectacles shoved up on his forehead, his strong,
+		wrinkled face stern from the cheek-bones down, but
+		twinkling from that line upward, the twinkle, which
+		had its seat about the shrewd eyes, suddenly terminating
+		in a sharp, whimsical, little up-pointed curl
+		in the very middle of his forehead. To corroborate
+		his warm memory Bobby opened the front of his
+		watch-case, where the same face looked him squarely
+		in the eyes. Naturally, then, he opened the other lid,
+		where Agnes Elliston’s face smiled up at him. Suddenly
+		he shut both lids with a snap and turned, with
+		much distaste but with a great show of energy, to
+		the heavy statement which had all this time confronted
+		him. The first page he read over laboriously,
+		the second one he skimmed through, the third and
+		fourth he leafed over; and then he skipped to the
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page13" title="13"> </a>last sheet, where was set down a concise statement of
+		the net assets and liabilities.</p>
+
+		<p>“According to this,� observed Bobby with great
+		show of wisdom, “I take over the business in a very
+		flourishing condition.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Well,� grudgingly admitted Mr. Johnson, “it
+		might be worse.�</p>
+
+		<p>“It could hardly be better,� interposed Applerod—“that
+		is, without the extensions and improvements
+		that I think your father would have come in time
+		to make. Of course, at his age he was naturally a
+		bit conservative.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Mr. Applerod and myself have never agreed upon
+		that point,� wheezed Johnson sharply. “For my
+		part I considered your father—well, scarcely reckless,
+		but, say, sufficiently daring! Daring is about
+		the word.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby grinned cheerfully.</p>
+
+		<p>“He let the business go rather by its own weight,
+		didn’t he?�</p>
+
+		<p>Both gentlemen shook their heads, instantly and
+		most emphatically.</p>
+
+		<p>“He certainly must have,� insisted Bobby. “As I
+		recollect it, he only worked up here, of late years,
+		from about eleven fifty-five to twelve every other
+		Thursday.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Oftener than that,� solemnly corrected the literal
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page14" title="14"> </a>Mr. Johnson. “He was here from eleven until twelve-thirty
+		every day.�</p>
+
+		<p>“What did he do?�</p>
+
+		<p>It was Applerod who, with keen appreciation,
+		hastened to advise him upon this point.</p>
+
+		<p>“Said ‘yes’ twice and ‘no’ twelve times. Then, at
+		the very last minute, when we thought that he was
+		through, he usually landed on a proposition that
+		hadn’t been put up to him at all, and put it clear
+		out of the business.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Looks like good finessing to me,� said Bobby
+		complacently. “I think I shall play it that way.�</p>
+
+		<p>“It wouldn’t do, sir,� Mr. Johnson replied in a
+		tone of keen pain. “You must understand that when
+		your father started this business it was originally
+		a little fourteen-foot-front place, one story high.
+		He got down here at six o’clock every morning and
+		swept out. As he got along a little further he found
+		that he could trust somebody else with that job—<em>but
+		he always knew how to sweep</em>. It took him a lifetime
+		to simmer down his business to just ‘yes’ and
+		‘no.’�</p>
+
+		<p>“I see,� mused Bobby; “and I’m expected to take
+		that man’s place! How would you go about it?�</p>
+
+		<p>“I would suggest, without meaning any impertinence
+		whatever, sir,� insinuated Mr. Johnson, “that
+		if you were to start clerking——�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page15" title="15"> </a>“Or sweeping out at six o’clock in the morning?�
+		calmly interrupted Bobby. “I don’t like to stay up
+		so late. No, Johnson, about the only thing I’m
+		going to do to show my respect for the traditions of
+		the house is to leave this desk just as it is, and hang
+		an oil portrait of my father over it. And, by the
+		way, isn’t there some little side room where I can have
+		my office? I’m going into this thing very earnestly.�</p>
+
+		<p>Mr. Johnson and Mr. Applerod exchanged glances.</p>
+
+		<p>“The door just to the right there,� said Mr. Johnson,
+		“leads to a room which is at present filled with
+		old files of the credit department. No doubt those
+		could be moved somewhere else.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby walked into that room and gaged its possibilities.
+		It was a little small, to be sure, but it would
+		do for the present.</p>
+
+		<p>“Just have that cleared out and a ’phone put in.
+		I’ll get right down to business this afternoon and
+		see about the fittings for it.� Then he looked at
+		his watch once more. “By George!� he exclaimed, “I
+		almost forgot that I was to see Nick Allstyne at the
+		Idlers’ Club about that polo match. Just have one
+		of your boys stand out at the curb along about twelve,
+		will you, and tell my chauffeur to report at the club.�</p>
+
+		<p>Johnson eyed the closed door over his spectacles.</p>
+
+		<p>“He’ll be having blue suits and brass buttons on
+		us two next,� he snorted.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page16" title="16"> </a>“He don’t mean it at all that way,� protested
+		Applerod. “For my part, I think he’s a fine young
+		fellow.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I’ll give you to understand, sir,� retorted Johnson,
+		violently resenting this imputed defection, “that
+		he is the son of his father, and for that, if for nothing
+		else, would have my entire allegiance.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby, meanwhile, feeling very democratic and
+		very much a man of affairs, took a street-car to the
+		Idlers’, and strode through the classic portals of that
+		club with gravity upon his brow. Flaxen-haired Nick
+		Allstyne, standing by the registry desk, turned to
+		dark Payne Winthrop with a nod.</p>
+
+		<p>“You win,� he admitted. “I’ll have to charge it
+		up to you, Bobby. I just lost a quart of the special
+		to Payne that since you’d become immersed in the
+		cares of business you’d not be here.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby was almost austere in his reception of this
+		slight.</p>
+
+		<p>“Don’t you know,� he demanded, “that there is
+		nobody who keeps even his social engagements like a
+		business man?�</p>
+
+		<p>“That’s what I gambled on,� returned Payne confidentially,
+		“but I wasn’t sure just how much of a
+		business man you’d become. Nick, don’t you already
+		seem to see a crease in Bobby’s brow?�</p>
+
+		<p>“No, that’s his regular polo crease,� objected lanky
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page17" title="17"> </a>Stanley Rogers, joining them, and the four of them
+		fell upon polo as one man. Their especially anxious
+		part in the tournament was to be a grinding match
+		against Willie Ashler’s crack team, and the point of
+		worry was that so many of their fellows were out of
+		town. They badly needed one more good player.</p>
+
+		<p>“I have it,� declared Bobby finally. It was he who
+		usually decided things in this easy-going, athletic
+		crowd. “We’ll make Jack Starlett play, but the only
+		way to get him is to go over to Washington after him.
+		Payne, you’re to go along. You always keep a full
+		set of regalia here at the club, I know. Here, boy!�
+		he called to a passing page. “Find out for us the
+		next two trains to Washington.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Yes, sir,� said the boy with a grin, and was off
+		like a shot. They had a strict rule against tipping
+		in the Idlers’, but if he happened to meet Bobby outside,
+		say at the edge of the curb where his car was
+		standing, there was no rule against his receiving
+		something there. Besides, he liked Bobby, anyhow.
+		They all did. He was back in a moment.</p>
+
+		<p>“One at two-ten and one at four-twenty, sir.�</p>
+
+		<p>“The two-ten sounds about right,� announced
+		Bobby. “Now, Billy, telephone to my apartments
+		to have my Gladstone and my dress-suit togs brought
+		down to that train. Then, by the way, telephone
+		Leatherby and Pluscher to send up to my place of
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page18" title="18"> </a>business and have Mr. Johnson show their man my
+		new office. Have him take measurements of it and
+		fit it up at once, complete. They know the kind of
+		things I like. Really, fellows,� he continued, turning
+		to the others, after he had patiently repeated and
+		explained his instructions to the foggy but willing
+		Billy, “I’m in serious earnest about this thing. Up
+		to me, you know, to do credit to the governor, if I
+		can.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Bobby, the Boy Bargain Baron,� observed Nick.
+		“Well, I guess you can do it. All you need to do is
+		to take hold, and I’ll back you at any odds.�</p>
+
+		<p>“We’ll all put a bet on you,� encouraged Stanley
+		Rogers. “More, we’ll help. We’ll all get married
+		and send our wives around to open accounts with
+		you.�</p>
+
+		<p>In spite of the serious business intentions, the
+		luncheon which followed was the last the city saw of
+		Bobby Burnit for three days. Be it said to his
+		credit that he had accomplished his purpose when he
+		returned. He had brought reluctant Jack Starlett
+		back with him, and together they walked into the
+		John Burnit Store.</p>
+
+		<p>“New office fitted up yet, Johnson?� asked Bobby
+		pleasantly.</p>
+
+		<p>“Yes, sir,� replied Johnson sourly. “Just a moment,
+		Mr. Burnit,� and from an index cabinet back
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page19" title="19"> </a>of him he procured an oblong gray envelope which he
+		handed to Bobby. It was inscribed:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="envelope">
+			<p>To My Son,<br />
+				Upon the Fitting-Out of New Offices</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p>With a half-embarrassed smile, Bobby regarded
+		that letter thoughtfully and carried it into the luxurious
+		new office. He opened it and read it, and, still
+		with that queer smile, passed it over to Starlett. This
+		was old John Burnit’s message:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="letter">
+			<p>“I have seen a business work up to success, and
+			afterward add velvet rugs and dainty flowers on the
+			desk, but I never saw a successful business start
+			that way.�</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p>Bobby looked around him with a grin. There <em>was</em>
+		a velvet rug on the floor. There were no flowers upon
+		the mahogany desk, but there <em>was</em> a vase to receive
+		them. For just one moment he was nonplussed; then
+		he opened the door leading to the dingy apartment
+		occupied by Messrs. Johnson and Applerod.</p>
+
+		<p>“Mr. Johnson,� said he, “will you kindly send out
+		and get two dozen pink carnations for my room?�</p>
+
+		<p>Quiet, big Jack Starlett, having loaded and lit and
+		taken the first long puff, removed his pipe from his
+		lips.</p>
+
+		<p>“Bully!� said he.</p>
+	</div>
+	<div id="chapter_3" class="chapter"><a class="pagenum" id="page20" title="20"> </a>
+		<h2 class="chapter_title"><span class="chapter_number">CHAPTER III</span><br />
+			OLD JOHN BURNIT’S ANCIENT ENEMY POINTS OUT THE
+			WAY TO GRANDEUR</h2>
+
+		<p><span class="first_word">Mr. Johnson</span> had no hair in the very center
+		of his head, but, when he was more
+		than usually vexed, he ran his fingers
+		through what was left upon both sides of the center
+		and impatiently pushed it up toward a common point.
+		His hair was in that identical condition when he
+		knocked at the door of Bobby’s office and poked in
+		his head to announce Mr. Silas Trimmer.</p>
+
+		<p>“Trimmer,� mused Bobby. “Oh, yes; he is the
+		John Burnit Store’s chief competitor; concern backs
+		up against ours, fronting on Market Street. Show
+		him in, Johnson.�</p>
+
+		<p>Jack Starlett, who had dropped in to loaf a bit,
+		rose to go.</p>
+
+		<p>“Sit down,� insisted Bobby. “I’m conducting this
+		thing all open and aboveboard. You know, I think I
+		shall like business.�</p>
+
+		<p>“They tell me it’s the greatest game out,� commented
+		Starlett, and just then Mr. Trimmer entered.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page21" title="21"> </a>He was a little, wiry man as to legs and arms, but
+		fearfully rotund as to paunch, and he had a yellow
+		leather face and black eyes which, though gleaming
+		like beads, seemed to have a muddy cast. Bobby
+		rose to greet him with a cordiality in no degree
+		abashed by this appearance.</p>
+
+		<p>“And what can we do for you, Mr. Trimmer?� he
+		asked after the usual inanities of greeting had been
+		exchanged.</p>
+
+		<p>“Take lunch with me,� invited Mr. Trimmer, endeavoring
+		to beam, his heavy, down-drooping gray
+		mustache remaining immovable in front of the deeply-chiseled
+		smile that started far above the corners of his
+		nose and curved around a display of yellow teeth. “I
+		have just learned that you have taken over the business,
+		and I wish as quickly as possible to form with
+		the son the same cordial relations which for years
+		I enjoyed with the father.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby looked him contemplatively in the eye, but
+		had no experience upon which to base a picture of
+		his father and Mr. Trimmer enjoying perpetually
+		cordial relations with a knife down each boot leg.</p>
+
+		<p>“Very sorry, Mr. Trimmer, but I am engaged for
+		lunch.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Dinner, then—at the Traders’ Club,� insisted Mr.
+		Trimmer, who never for any one moment had remained
+		entirely still, either his foot or his hand
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page22" title="22"> </a>moving, or some portion of his body twitching almost
+		incessantly.</p>
+
+		<p>Inwardly Bobby frowned, for, so far, he had found
+		no points about his caller to arouse his personal enthusiasm;
+		and yet it suddenly occurred to him that
+		here was doubtless business, and that it ought to have
+		attention. His father, under similar circumstances,
+		would find out what the man was after. He cast a
+		hesitating glance at his friend.</p>
+
+		<p>“Don’t mind me, Bobby,� said Starlett briskly.
+		“You know I shall be compelled to take dinner with
+		the folks to-night.�</p>
+
+		<p>“At about what time, Mr. Trimmer?� Bobby asked.</p>
+
+		<p>“Oh, suit yourself. Any time,� responded that
+		gentleman eagerly. “Say half-past six.�</p>
+
+		<p>“The Traders’,� mused Bobby. “I think the governor
+		put me up there four or five years ago.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I seconded you,� the other informed him; “and
+		I had the pleasure of voting for you just the other
+		day, on the vacancy made by your father. You’re a
+		full-fledged member now.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Fine!� said Bobby. “Business suit or——�</p>
+
+		<p>“Anything you like.� With again that circular
+		smile behind his immovable mustache, Mr. Trimmer
+		backed out of the room, and Bobby, dropping into a
+		chair, turned perplexed eyes upon his friend.</p>
+
+		<p>“What do you suppose he wants?� he inquired.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page23" title="23"> </a>“Your eye-teeth,� returned Jack bluntly. “He
+		looks like a mucker to me.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Oh, I don’t know,� returned Bobby, a trifle uneasily.
+		“You see, Jack, he isn’t exactly our sort,
+		and maybe we can’t get just the right angle in judging
+		him. He’s been nailed down to business all his
+		life, you know, and a fellow in that line don’t have a
+		chance, as I take it, to cultivate all the little—well,
+		say artificial graces.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Your father wasn’t like him. He was as near a
+		thoroughbred as I ever saw, Bobby, and he was
+		nailed down, as you put it, all <em>his</em> life.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Oh, you couldn’t expect them all to be like the
+		governor,� responded Bobby instantly, shocked at
+		the idea. “But this chap may be no end of a good
+		sort in his style. No doubt at all he merely came
+		over in a friendly way to bid me a sort of welcome
+		into the fraternity of business men,� and Bobby felt
+		quite a little thrill of pride in that novel idea. “By
+		George! Wait a minute,� he exclaimed as still another
+		brilliant thought struck him, and going into
+		the other room he said to Johnson: “Please give
+		me the letter addressed: ‘To My Son Robert, Upon
+		the Occasion of Mr. Trimmer’s First Call.’�</p>
+
+		<p>For the first time in days a grin irradiated Johnson’s
+		face.</p>
+
+		<p>“Nothing here, sir,� he replied.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page24" title="24"> </a>“Let me go through that file.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Strictly against orders, sir,� said Johnson.</p>
+
+		<p>“Indeed,� responded Bobby quizzically; “I don’t
+		like to press the bet, Johnson, but really I’d like to
+		know who has the say here.�</p>
+
+		<p>“You have, sir, over everything except my private
+		affairs; and that letter file is my private property and
+		its contents my private trusteeship.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I can still take my castor oil like a little man, if
+		I have to,� Bobby resignedly observed. “I remember
+		that when I was a kiddy the governor once undertook
+		to teach me mathematics, and he never would let me
+		see the answers. More than ever it looks like it was
+		up to Bobby,� and whistling cheerfully he walked
+		back into his private office.</p>
+
+		<p>Johnson turned to Applerod with a snarl.</p>
+
+		<p>“Mr. Applerod,� said he, “you know that I almost
+		never swear. I am now about to do so. Darn it! It’s
+		a shame that Trimmer calls here again on that old
+		scheme about which he deviled this house for years,
+		and we forbidden to give Mr. Robert a word of advice
+		unless he asks for it.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Why is it a shame?� demanded Applerod. “I
+		always have thought that Trimmer’s plan was a great
+		one.�</p>
+
+		<p>So, all unprepared, Bobby went forth that evening,
+		to become acquainted with the great plan.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page25" title="25"> </a>At the restless Traders’ Club, where the precise
+		corridors and columns and walls and ceilings of white
+		marble were indicative of great formality, men with
+		creases in their brows wore their derbies on the backs
+		of their heads and ceaselessly talked shop. Mr.
+		Trimmer, more creased of brow than any of them, was
+		drifting from group to group with his eyes turned
+		anxiously toward the door until Bobby came in. Mr.
+		Trimmer was most effusively glad to see the son of
+		his old friend once again, and lost no time in seating
+		him at a most secluded table, where, by the time the
+		oysters came on, he was deep in a catalogue of the
+		virtues of John Burnit; and Bobby, with a very real
+		and a very deep affection for his father which seldom
+		found expression in words, grew restive. One thing
+		held him, aside from his obligations as a guest. He
+		was convinced now that his host’s kindness was in
+		truth a mere graceful act of welcome, due largely to
+		his father’s standing, and the idea flattered him very
+		much. He strove to look as businesslike as possible,
+		and thought again and again upon his father; of
+		how he had sat day after day in this stately dining-hall,
+		honored and venerated among these men who
+		were striving still for the ideal that he had attained.
+		It was a good thought, and made for pride of the
+		right sort. With the entrée Mr. Trimmer ordered
+		his favorite vintage champagne, and, as it boiled up
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page26" title="26"> </a>like molten amber in the glasses, so sturdily that the
+		center of the surface kept constantly a full quarter
+		of an inch above the sides, he waited anxiously for
+		Bobby to sample it. Even Bobby, long since disillusioned
+		of such things and grown abstemious from
+		healthy choice, after a critical taste sipped slowly
+		again and again.</p>
+
+		<p>“That’s ripping good wine,� he acknowledged.</p>
+
+		<p>“There’s only a little over two hundred bottles of
+		it left in the world,� Mr. Trimmer assured him, and
+		then he waited for that first glass to exert its warming
+		glow. He was a good waiter, was Silas Trimmer,
+		and keenly sensitive to personal influences. He knew
+		that Bobby had not been in entire harmony with
+		him at any period of the evening, but after the roast
+		came on—a most careful roast, indeed, prepared
+		under a certain formula upon which Mr. Trimmer
+		had painstakingly insisted—he saw that he had really
+		found his way for a moment to Bobby’s heart through
+		the channel provided by Nature for attacks upon
+		masculine sympathy, and at that moment he leaned
+		forward with his circular smile, and observed:</p>
+
+		<p>“By the way, Mr. Burnit, I suppose your father
+		often discussed with you the great plan we evolved
+		for the Burnit-Trimmer Arcade?�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby almost blushed at the confession he must
+		make.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page27" title="27"> </a>“I’m sorry to say that he didn’t,� he owned. “I
+		never took the interest in such things that I ought,
+		and so I missed a lot of confidences I’d like to have
+		had now.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Too bad,� sympathized Mr. Trimmer, now quite
+		sure of his ground, since he had found that Bobby
+		was not posted. “It was a splendid plan we had.
+		You know, your building and mine are precisely the
+		same width and precisely in a line with each other,
+		back to back, with only the alley separating us, the
+		Trimmer establishment fronting on Market Street
+		and the Burnit building on Grand. The alley is
+		fully five feet below our two floor lines, and we could,
+		I am quite sure, get permission to bridge it at a
+		clearance of not to exceed twelve feet. By raising
+		the rear departments of your store and of mine a
+		foot or so, and then building a flight of broad, easy
+		steps up and down, we could almost conceal the presence
+		of this bridge from the inside, and make one
+		immense establishment running straight through from
+		Grand to Market Streets. The floors above the first,
+		of course, would bridge over absolutely level, and
+		the combined stores would comprise by far the largest
+		establishment in the city. Of course, the advantage
+		of it from an advertising standpoint alone would be
+		well worth while.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby could instantly see the almost interminable
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page28" title="28"> </a>length of store area thus presented, and it appealed
+		to his sense of big things at once.</p>
+
+		<p>“What did father say about this?� he asked.</p>
+
+		<p>“Thought it a brilliant idea,� glibly returned Mr.
+		Trimmer. “In fact, I think it was he who first suggested
+		such a possibility, seeing very clearly the increased
+		trade and the increased profits that would
+		accrue from such an extension, which would, in fact,
+		be simply the doubling of our already big stores
+		without additional capitalization. We worked out
+		two or three plans for the consolidation, but in the
+		later years your father was very slow about making
+		actual extensions or alterations in his merchandising
+		business, preferring to expend his energies on his
+		successful outside enterprises. I feel sure, however,
+		that he would have come to it in time, for the development
+		is so logical, so much in keeping with the business
+		methods of the times.�</p>
+
+		<p>Here again was insidious flattery, the insinuation
+		that Bobby must be thoroughly aware of “the business
+		methods of the times.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Of course, the idea is new to me,� said Bobby,
+		assuming as best he could the air of business reserve
+		which seemed appropriate to the occasion; “but I
+		should say, in a general way, that I should not care
+		to give up the identity of the John Burnit Store.�</p>
+
+		<p>“That is a fine and a proper spirit,� agreed Mr.
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page29" title="29"> </a>Trimmer, with great enthusiasm. “I like to see it in
+		a young man, but I’ve no doubt that we can arrange
+		that little matter. Of course, we would have to incorporate,
+		say, as the Burnit-Trimmer Mercantile
+		Corporation, but while having that name on the front
+		of both buildings, it might not be a bad idea, for
+		business as well as sentimental reasons, to keep the
+		old signs at the tops of both, just as they now are.
+		Those are little details to discuss later; but as the
+		stock of the new company, based upon the present
+		invoice values of our respective concerns, would be
+		practically all in your hands and mine, this would be
+		a very amicable and easily arranged matter. I tell
+		you, Mr. Burnit, this is a tremendous plan, attractive
+		to the public and immensely profitable to us, and I do
+		not know of anything you could do that would so
+		well as this show you to be a worthy successor to John
+		Burnit; for, of course, it would scarcely be a credit to
+		you to carry on your father’s business without change
+		or advance.�</p>
+
+		<p>It was the best and the most crafty argument Mr.
+		Trimmer had used, and Bobby carried away from the
+		Traders’ Club a glowing impression of this point.
+		His father had built up this big business by his own
+		unaided efforts. Should Bobby leave that legacy just
+		where he had found it, or should he carry it on to still
+		greater heights? The answer was obvious.</p>
+	</div>
+	<div id="chapter_4" class="chapter"><a class="pagenum" id="page30" title="30"> </a>
+		<h2 class="chapter_title"><span class="chapter_number">CHAPTER IV</span><br />
+			AGNES EMPHATICALLY DECIDES THAT SHE DOES NOT
+			LIKE A CERTAIN PERSON</h2>
+
+		<p><span class="first_word">At</span> the theater that evening, Bobby, to his
+		vexation, found Agnes Elliston walking in
+		the promenade foyer with the well-set-up
+		stranger. He passed her with a nod and slipped
+		moodily into the rear of the Elliston box, where Aunt
+		Constance, perennially young, was entertaining Nick
+		Allstyne and Jack Starlett, and keeping them at a
+		keen wit’s edge, too. Bobby gave them the most perfunctory
+		of greetings, and, sitting back by himself,
+		sullenly moped. He grumbled to himself that he
+		had a headache; the play was a humdrum affair;
+		Trimmer was a bore; the proposed consolidation had
+		suddenly lost its prismatic coloring; the Traders’
+		Club was crude; Starlett and Allstyne were utterly
+		frivolous. All this because Agnes was out in the
+		foyer with a very likely-looking young man.</p>
+
+		<p>She did not return until the end of that act, and
+		found Bobby ready to go, pleading early morning
+		business.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page31" title="31"> </a>“Is it important?� she asked.</p>
+
+		<p>“Who’s the chap with the silky mustache?� he
+		suddenly demanded, unable to forbear any longer.
+		“He’s a new one.�</p>
+
+		<p>The eyes of Agnes gleamed mischievously.</p>
+
+		<p>“Bobby, I’m astonished at your manners,� she
+		chided him. “Now tell me what you’ve been doing
+		with yourself.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Trying to grow up into John Burnit’s truly son,�
+		he told her with some trace of pompous pride, being
+		ready in advance to accept his rebuke meekly, as he
+		always had to do, and being quite ready to cover up
+		his grievous error with a change of topic. “I had no
+		idea that business could so grip a fellow. But what
+		I’d like to find out just now is who is my trustee? It
+		must have been somebody with horse sense, or the
+		governor would not have appointed whoever it was.
+		I’m not going to ask anything I’m forbidden to know,
+		but I want some advice. Now, how shall I learn who
+		it is?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Well,� replied Agnes thoughtfully, “about the
+		only plan I can suggest is that you ask your father’s
+		legal and business advisers.�</p>
+
+		<p>He positively beamed down at her.</p>
+
+		<p>“You’re the dandy girl, all right,� he said admiringly.
+		“Now, if you would only——�</p>
+
+		<p>“Bobby,� she interrupted him, “do you know that
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page32" title="32"> </a>we are standing up here in a box, with something like
+		a thousand people, possibly, turned in our direction?�</p>
+
+		<p>He suddenly realized that they were alone, the
+		others having filed out into the promenade, and, placing
+		a chair for her in the extreme rear corner of the
+		box, where he could fence her off, sat down beside her.
+		He began to describe to her the plan of Silas Trimmer,
+		and as he went on his enthusiasm mounted. The
+		thing had caught his fancy. If he could only increase
+		the profits of the John Burnit Store in the
+		very first year, it would be a big feather in his cap.
+		It would be precisely what his father would have desired!
+		Agnes listened attentively all through the
+		fourth act to his glowing conception of what the
+		reorganized John Burnit Company would be like. He
+		was perfectly contented now. His headache was
+		gone; such occasional glimpses as he caught of the
+		play were delightful; Mr. Trimmer was a genius;
+		the Traders’ Club a fascinating introduction to a
+		new life; Starlett and Allstyne a joyous relief to him
+		after the sordid cares of business. In a word, Agnes
+		was with him.</p>
+
+		<p>“Do you think your father would accept this proposition?�
+		she asked him after he was all through.</p>
+
+		<p>“I think he would at my age,� decided Bobby
+		promptly.</p>
+
+		<p>“That is, if he had been brought up as you have,�
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page33" title="33"> </a>she laughed. “I think I should study a long time
+		over it, Bobby, before I made any such important and
+		sweeping change as this must necessarily be.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Oh, yes,� he agreed with an assumption of deep
+		conservatism; “of course I’ll think it over well, and
+		I’ll take good, sound advice on it.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I have never seen Mr. Trimmer,� mused Agnes.
+		“I seldom go into his store, for there always seems to
+		me something shoddy about the whole place; but to-morrow
+		I think I shall make it a point to secure a
+		glimpse of him.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby was delighted. Agnes had always been
+		interested in whatever interested him, but never so
+		absorbedly so as now, it seemed. He almost forgot
+		the stranger in his pleasure. He forgot him still
+		more when, dismissing his chauffeur, he seated Agnes
+		in the front of the car beside him, with Starlett and
+		Allstyne and Aunt Constance in the tonneau, and
+		went whirling through the streets and up the avenue.
+		It was but a brief trip, not over a half-hour, and
+		they had scarcely a chance to exchange a word; but
+		just to be up front there alone with her meant a
+		whole lot to Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>Afterward he took the other fellows down to the
+		gymnasium, where Biff Bates drew him to one side.</p>
+
+		<p>“Look here, old pal!� said Bates. “I saw you real
+		chummy with T. W. Tight-Wad Trimmer to-night.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page34" title="34"> </a>“Yes?� admitted Bobby interrogatively.</p>
+
+		<p>“Well, you know I don’t go around with my hammer
+		out, but I want to put you wise to this mut. He’s
+		in with a lot of political graft, for one thing, and
+		he’s a sure thing guy for another. He likes to take
+		a flyer at the bangtails a few times a season, and last
+		summer he welshed on Joe Poog’s book; claimed Joe
+		misunderstood his fingers for two thousand in place
+		of two hundred.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Well, maybe there was a mistake,� said Bobby,
+		loath to believe such a monstrous charge against any
+		one whom he knew.</p>
+
+		<p>“Mistake nawthin’,� insisted Biff. “Joe Poog
+		don’t take finger bets for hundreds, and Trimmer
+		never did bet that way. He’s a born welsher, anyhow.
+		He looks the part, and I just want to tell you, Bobby,
+		that if you go to the mat with this crab you’ll get up
+		with the marks of his pinchers on your windpipe;
+		that’s all.�</p>
+
+		<p>Early the next morning—that is, at about ten
+		o’clock—Bobby bounced energetically into the office
+		of Barrister and Coke, where old Mr. Barrister, who
+		had been his father’s lawyer for a great many years,
+		received him with all the unbending grace of an ebony
+		cane.</p>
+
+		<p>“I have come to find out who were the trustees appointed
+		by my father, Mr. Barrister,� began Bobby,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page35" title="35"> </a>with a cheerful air of expecting to be informed at
+		once, “not that I wish to inquire about the estate, but
+		that I need some advice on entirely different matters.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I shall be glad to serve you with any legal advice
+		that you may need,� offered Mr. Barrister, patting
+		his finger-tips gently together.</p>
+
+		<p>“Are you the trustee?�</p>
+
+		<p>“No, sir�—this with a dusty smile.</p>
+
+		<p>“Who is, then?�</p>
+
+		<p>“The only information which I am at liberty to
+		give you upon that point,� said Mr. Barrister drily,
+		“is that contained in your father’s will. Would you
+		care to examine a copy of that document again?�</p>
+
+		<p>“No, thanks,� declined Bobby politely. “It’s too
+		truthful for comfort.�</p>
+
+		<p>From there he went straight to his own place of
+		business, where he asked the same question of Johnson.
+		In reply, Mr. Johnson produced, from his own
+		personal and private index-file, an oblong gray envelope
+		addressed:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="envelope">
+			<p>To My Son Robert,<br />
+				Upon His Inquiring About the Trusteeship of
+				My Estate</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p>Opening this in the privacy of his own office, Bobby
+		read:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="letter">
+			<p><a class="pagenum" id="page36" title="36"> </a>“As stated in my will, it is none of your present
+			business.�</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p>“Up to Bobby again,� the son commented aloud.
+		“Well, Governor,� and his shoulders straightened
+		while his eyes snapped, “if you can stand it, I can.
+		Hereafter I shall take my own advice, and if I lose
+		I shall know how to find the chap who’s to blame.�</p>
+
+		<p>He had an opportunity to “go it alone� that very
+		morning, when Johnson and Applerod came in to him
+		together with a problem. Was or was not that Chicago
+		branch to be opened? The elder Mr. Burnit had
+		considered it most gravely, but had left the matter
+		undecided. Mr. Applerod was very keenly in favor
+		of it, Mr. Johnson as earnestly against it, and in
+		his office they argued the matter with such heat that
+		Bobby, accepting a typed statement of the figures in
+		the case, virtually turned them out.</p>
+
+		<p>“When must you have a decision?� he demanded.</p>
+
+		<p>“To-morrow. We must wire either our acceptance
+		or rejection of the lease.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Very well,� said Bobby, quite elated that he was
+		carrying the thing off with an air and a tone so crisp;
+		“just leave it to me, will you?�</p>
+
+		<p>He waded through the statement uncomprehendingly.
+		Here was a problem which was covered and
+		still not covered by his father’s observations anent
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page37" title="37"> </a>Johnson and Applerod. It was a matter for wrangling,
+		obviously enough, but there was no difference to
+		split. It was a case of deciding either yes or no.
+		For the balance of the time until Jack Starlett called
+		for him at twelve-thirty, he puzzled earnestly and
+		soberly over the thing, and next morning the problem
+		still weighed upon him when he turned in at the office.
+		He could see as he passed through the outer room that
+		both Johnson and Applerod were furtively eying
+		him, but he walked past them whistling. When he
+		had closed his own door behind him he drew again that
+		mass of data toward him and struggled against the
+		chin-high tide. Suddenly he shoved the papers aside,
+		and, taking a half-dollar from his pocket, flipped it
+		on the floor. Eagerly he leaned over to look at it.
+		Tails! With a sigh of relief he put the coin back in
+		his pocket and lit a cigarette. About half an hour
+		later the committee of two came solemnly in to see
+		him.</p>
+
+		<p>“Have you decided to open the Chicago branch,
+		sir?� asked Johnson.</p>
+
+		<p>“Not this year,� said Bobby coolly, and handed
+		back the data. “I wish, Mr. Johnson, you would
+		appoint a page to be in constant attendance upon
+		this room.�</p>
+
+		<p>Back at their own desks Johnson gloated in calm
+		triumph.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page38" title="38"> </a>“It may be quite possible that Mr. Robert may
+		turn out to be a duplicate of his father,� he opined.</p>
+
+		<p>“I don’t know,� confessed Applerod, crestfallen.
+		“I had thought that he would be more willing to
+		take a sporting chance.�</p>
+
+		<p>Mr. Johnson snorted. Mr. Applerod, who had
+		never bet two dollars on any proposition in his life,
+		considered himself very much of a sporting disposition.</p>
+
+		<p>Savagely in love with his new assertiveness Bobby
+		called on Agnes that evening.</p>
+
+		<p>“I saw Mr. Trimmer to-day,� she told him. “I
+		don’t like him.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I didn’t want you to,� he replied with a grin.
+		“You like too many people now.�</p>
+
+		<p>“But I’m serious, Bobby,� she protested, unconsciously
+		clinging to his hand as they sat down upon
+		the divan. “I wouldn’t enter into any business arrangements
+		with him. I don’t know just what there
+		is about him that repels me, but—well, I don’t <em>like</em>
+		him!�</p>
+
+		<p>“Can’t say I’ve fallen in love with him myself,�
+		he replied. “But, Agnes, if a fellow only did business
+		with the men his nearest women-folks liked, there
+		wouldn’t be much business done.�</p>
+
+		<p>“There wouldn’t be so many losses,� she retorted.</p>
+
+		<p>“Bound to have the last word, of course,� he answered,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page39" title="39"> </a>taking refuge in that old and quite false slur
+		against women in general; for a man suffers from
+		his spleen if he can not put the quietus on every argument.
+		“But, honestly, I don’t fear Mr. Trimmer.
+		I’ve been inquiring into this stock company business.
+		We are each to have stock in the new company, if we
+		form one, in exact proportion to the invoices of our
+		respective establishments. Well, the Trimmer concern
+		can’t possibly invoice as much as we shall, and
+		I’ll have the majority of stock, which is the same as
+		holding all the trumps. I had Mr. Barrister explain
+		all that to me. With the majority of stock you can
+		have everything your own way, and the other chap
+		can’t even protest. Seems sort of a shame, too.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I don’t like him,� declared Agnes.</p>
+
+		<p>The ensuing week Bobby spent mostly on the polo
+		match, though he called religiously at the office every
+		morning, coming down a few minutes earlier each
+		day. It was an uneasy week, too, as well as a busy
+		one, for twice during its progress he saw Agnes
+		driving with the unknown; and the fact that in both
+		instances a handsome young lady was with them
+		did not seem to mend matters much. He was astonished
+		to find that losing the great polo match did not
+		distress him at all. A year before it would have
+		broken his heart, but the multiplicity of new interests
+		had changed him entirely. As a matter of fact, he
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page40" title="40"> </a>had been long ripe for the change, though he had not
+		known it. As he had matured, the blood of his heredity
+		had begun to clamor for its expression; that was
+		all.</p>
+
+		<p>At the beginning of the next week Mr. Trimmer
+		came in to see him again, with a roll of drawings
+		under his arm. The drawings displayed the proposed
+		new bridge in elevation and in cross section. They
+		showed the total stretch of altered store-rooms from
+		street to street, and cleverly-drawn perspectives made
+		graphically real that splendid length. They were
+		accompanied by an estimate of the cost, and also by
+		a permit from the city to build the bridge. With
+		these were the preliminary papers for the organization
+		of the new company, and Bobby, by this time intensely
+		interested and convinced that his interest was
+		business acumen, went over each detail with contracted
+		brow and with kindling enthusiasm.</p>
+
+		<p>It was ten o’clock of that morning when Silas Trimmer
+		had found Bobby at his desk; by eleven Mr.
+		Johnson and Mr. Applerod, in the outer office, were
+		quite unable to work; by twelve they were snarling
+		at each other; at twelve-thirty Johnson ventured to
+		poke his head in at the door, framing some trivial
+		excuse as he did so, but found the two merchants with
+		their heads bent closely over the advantages of the
+		great combined stores. At a quarter-past one, returning
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page41" title="41"> </a>from a hasty lunch, Johnson tiptoed to the door
+		again. He still heard an insistent, high-pitched voice
+		inside. Mr. Trimmer was doing all the talking. He
+		had explained and explained until his tongue was
+		dry, and Bobby, with a full sense of the importance
+		of his decision, was trying to clear away the fog that
+		had grown up in his brain. Mr. Trimmer was pressing
+		him for a decision. Bobby suddenly slipped his
+		hand in his pocket, and, unseen, secured a half-dollar,
+		which he shook in his hand under the table. Opening
+		his palm he furtively looked at the coin. Heads!</p>
+
+		<p>“Get your papers ready, Mr. Trimmer,� he announced,
+		as one finally satisfied by good and sufficient
+		argument, “we’ll form the organization as soon as
+		you like.�</p>
+
+		<p>No sooner had he come to this decision than he felt
+		a strange sense of elation. He had actually consummated
+		a big business deal! He had made a positive
+		step in the direction of carrying the John Burnit
+		Store beyond the fame it had possessed at the time
+		his father had turned it over to him! Since he had
+		stiffened his back, he did not condescend to take Johnson
+		and Applerod into his confidence, though those
+		two gentlemen were quivering to receive it, but he
+		did order Johnson to allow Mr. Trimmer’s representatives
+		to go over the John Burnit books and to verify
+		their latest invoice, together with the purchases and
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page42" title="42"> </a>sales since the date of that stock-taking. To Mr. Applerod
+		he assigned the task of making a like examination
+		of the Trimmer establishment, and each day
+		felt more like a really-truly business man. He
+		affected the Traders’ Club now, formed an entirely
+		new set of acquaintances, and learned to go about
+		the stately rooms of that magnificent business annex
+		with his hat on the back of his head and creases in
+		his brow.</p>
+
+		<p>Even before the final papers were completed, a
+		huge gang of workmen, consisting of as many artisans
+		as could be crowded on the job without standing
+		on one another’s feet, began to construct the elaborate
+		bridge which was to connect the two stores, and Mr.
+		Trimmer’s publicity department was already securing
+		column after column of space in the local papers,
+		some of it paid matter and some gratis, wherein it
+		appeared that the son of old John Burnit had proved
+		himself to be a live, progressive young man—a
+		worthy heir of so enterprising a father.</p>
+	</div>
+	<div id="chapter_5" class="chapter"><a class="pagenum" id="page43" title="43"> </a>
+		<h2 class="chapter_title"><span class="chapter_number">CHAPTER V</span><br />
+			WHEREIN BOBBY ATTENDS A STOCK-HOLDERS’ MEETING
+			AND CUTS A WISDOM-TOOTH</h2>
+
+		<p><span class="first_word">Within</span> a very few days was completed
+		the complicated legal machinery which
+		threw the John Burnit Store and
+		Trimmer and Company into the hands of “The Burnit-Trimmer
+		Merchandise Corporation� as a holding
+		and operating concern. The John Burnit Store went
+		into that consolidation at an invoice value of two
+		hundred and sixty thousand dollars, Trimmer and
+		Company at two hundred and forty thousand; and
+		Bobby was duly pleased. He had the majority of
+		stock! On the later suggestion of Mr. Trimmer,
+		however, sixty thousand dollars of additional capital
+		was taken into the concern.</p>
+
+		<p>“The alterations, expansions, new departments and
+		publicity will compel the command of about that
+		much money,� Mr. Trimmer patiently explained;
+		“and while we could appropriate that amount from
+		our respective concerns, we ought not to weaken our
+		capital, particularly as financial affairs throughout
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page44" title="44"> </a>the country are so unsettled. This is not a brisk
+		commercial year, nor can it be.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Yes,� admitted Bobby, “I’ve heard something of
+		all this hard-times talk. I know Nick Allstyne sold
+		his French racer, and Nick’s supposed to be worth
+		no end of money.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Exactly,� agreed Mr. Trimmer dryly. “This
+		sixty thousand dollars’ worth of stock, Mr. Burnit,
+		I am quite sure that I can place with immediate purchasers,
+		and if you will leave the matter to me I can
+		have it all represented in our next meeting without
+		any bother at all to you.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Very kind of you, I am sure,� agreed Bobby,
+		thankful that this trifling detail was not to bore him.</p>
+
+		<p>And so it was that the Burnit-Trimmer Merchandise
+		Corporation was incorporated at five hundred and
+		sixty thousand dollars. It was considerably later
+		when Bobby realized the significance of the fact that
+		the subscribers to the additional capitalization consisted
+		of Mr. Trimmer’s son, his son-in-law, his head
+		bookkeeper, his confidential secretary and his cousin,
+		all of whom had also been minor stock-holders in the
+		concern of Trimmer and Company.</p>
+
+		<p>It was upon the day preceding the first stock-holders’
+		meeting of the reorganized company that Bobby,
+		quite proud of the fact that he had acted independently
+		of them, made the formal announcement to
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page45" title="45"> </a>Johnson and Applerod that the great consolidation
+		had been effected.</p>
+
+		<p>“Beginning with to-morrow morning, Mr. Johnson,�
+		said he to that worthy, “the John Burnit Store
+		will be merged into the Burnit-Trimmer Merchandise
+		Corporation, and Mr. Trimmer will doubtless
+		send his secretary to confer with you about an adjustment
+		of the clerical work.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Yes, sir,� said Mr. Johnson dismally, and rose
+		to open the filing case behind him. With his hand in
+		the case he paused and turned a most woebegone
+		countenance to the junior Burnit. “We shall be very
+		regretful, Mr. Applerod and myself, to lose our positions,
+		sir,� he stated. “We have grown up with the
+		business from boyhood.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Nonsense!� exploded Applerod. “We would be
+		regretful if that were to occur, but there is nothing
+		of the sort possible. Why, Mr. Burnit, I think this
+		consolidation is the greatest thing that ever happened.
+		I’ve been in favor of it for years; and as for its losing
+		me my position—Pooh!� and he snapped his
+		fingers.</p>
+
+		<p>“Applerod is quite right, Mr. Johnson,� said
+		Bobby severely. “Nothing of the sort is contemplated.
+		Yourself and Mr. Applerod are to remain
+		with me as long as fair treatment and liberal pay and
+		personal attachment can induce you to do so.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page46" title="46"> </a>“Thank you, sir,� said Mr. Johnson dryly, but
+		he shook his head, and from the file produced one of
+		the familiar gray envelopes.</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby eyed it askance as it came toward him, and
+		winced as he saw the inscription. He was beginning
+		to dread these missives. They seemed to follow him
+		about, to menace him, to give him a constant feeling
+		of guilt. Nevertheless, he took this one quite calmly
+		and walked into his own room. It was addressed:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="envelope">
+			<p>To My Son,<br />
+				Upon the Occasion of His Completing a Consolidation
+				with Silas Trimmer</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p>and it read:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="letter">
+			<p>“When a man devils you for years to enter a business
+			deal with him, you may rest assured that man has
+			more to gain by it than you have. Aside from his
+			wormwood business jealousy of me, Silas Trimmer
+			has wanted this Grand Street entrance to his store for
+			more than the third of a century; now he has it.
+			He’ll have your store next.�</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p>“Look here, Governor,� protested Bobby aloud, to
+		his lively remembrance of his father as he might have
+		stood in that very room, “I call this rather rubbing
+		it in. It’s a bit unsportsmanlike. It’s almost like
+		laying a trap for a chap who doesn’t know the game,�
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page47" title="47"> </a>and, rankling with a sense of injustice, he went out
+		to Johnson.</p>
+
+		<p>“I say, Johnson,� he complained, “it’s rather my
+		fault for being too stubborn to ask about it, but if
+		you knew that Mr. Trimmer was trying to work a
+		game on me that was dangerous to the business, why
+		didn’t you volunteer to explain it to me; to forewarn
+		me and give me a chance for judgment with all the
+		pros and cons in front of me?�</p>
+
+		<p>“From the bottom of my heart, Mr. Burnit,� said
+		Johnson with feeling, “I should like to have done it;
+		but it was forbidden.�</p>
+
+		<p>He already had lying before him another of the
+		gray envelopes, and this he solemnly handed over. It
+		was addressed:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="envelope">
+			<p>To My Son,<br />
+				Upon His Complaining that Johnson Gave Him No
+				Warning Concerning Silas Trimmer</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p>The message it contained was:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="letter">
+			<p>“It takes hard chiseling to make a man, but if the
+			material is the right grain the tool-marks won’t show.
+			If I had wanted you merely to make money, I would
+			have left the business entirely in the hands of Johnson
+			and Applerod. But there is no use to put off
+			pulling a tooth. It only hurts worse in the end.�</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page48" title="48"> </a>When Bobby left the office he felt like walking in
+		the middle of the street to avoid alley corners, since
+		he was unable to divine from what direction the next
+		brick might come. He had taken the business to heart
+		more than he had imagined that he would, and the
+		very fact of his father’s having foreseen that he
+		would succumb to this consolidation made him give
+		grave heed to the implied suggestion that he would
+		be a heavy loser by it. He had an engagement with
+		Allstyne and Starlett at the Idlers’ that afternoon,
+		but they found him most preoccupied, and openly
+		voted him a bore. He called on Agnes Elliston, but
+		learned that she was out driving, and he savagely
+		assured himself that he knew who was handling the
+		reins. He dined at the Traders’, and, for the first
+		time since he had begun to frequent that place, the
+		creases in his brow were real.</p>
+
+		<p>Later in the evening he dropped around to see Biff
+		Bates. In the very center of the gymnasium he found
+		that gentleman engaged in giving a preliminary boxing
+		lesson to a spider-like new pupil, who was none
+		other than Silas Trimmer. Responding to Biff’s
+		cheerful grin and Mr. Trimmer’s sheepish one with
+		what politeness he could muster, Bobby glumly went
+		home.</p>
+
+		<p>On the next morning occurred the first stock-holders’
+		meeting of the Burnit-Trimmer Merchandise Corporation,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page49" title="49"> </a>which Bobby attended with some feeling of
+		importance, for, with his twenty-six hundred shares,
+		he was the largest individual stock-holder present.
+		That was what had reassured him overnight: the
+		magic “majority of stock!� Mr. Trimmer only had
+		twenty-four hundred, and Bobby could swing things
+		as he pleased. His father, omniscient as he was, must
+		certainly have failed to foresee this fact. In his simplicity
+		of such matters and his general unsuspiciousness,
+		Bobby had not calculated that if the additional
+		six hundred shares were to vote solidly with Mr.
+		Trimmer against him, his twenty-six hundred shares
+		would be confronted by three thousand, and so rendered
+		paltry.</p>
+
+		<p>Mr. Trimmer was delighted to see young Mr.
+		Burnit. This was a great occasion indeed, both for
+		the John Burnit Store and for Trimmer and Company,
+		and, in the opinion of Mr. Trimmer, his circular
+		smile very much in evidence, John Burnit himself
+		would have been proud to see this day! Mr. Smythe,
+		Mr. Trimmer’s son-in-law, also thought it a great
+		day; Mr. Weldon, Mr. Trimmer’s head bookkeeper,
+		thought it a great day; Mr. Harvey, Mr. Trimmer’s
+		confidential secretary, and Mr. U. G. Trimmer, Mr.
+		Silas Trimmer’s cousin, shared this pleasant impression.</p>
+
+		<p>In the beginning the organization was without form
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page50" title="50"> </a>or void, as all such organizations are, but Mr. Trimmer,
+		having an extremely clear idea of what was to
+		be accomplished, proposed that Mr. Burnit accept
+		the chair <em lang="la" xml:lang="la">pro tem.</em>—where he would be out of the way.
+		The unanimous support which this motion received
+		was quite gratifying to the feelings of Mr. Burnit,
+		proving at once that his fears had been not only
+		groundless but ungenerous, and, in accepting the
+		chair, he made them what he considered a very neat
+		little speech indeed, striving the while to escape that
+		circular smile with its diameter of yellow teeth and
+		its intersecting crescent of stiff mustache; for he disliked
+		meanly to imagine that smile to have a sarcastic
+		turn to-day. At the suggestion of Mr. Trimmer,
+		Mr. Weldon accepted the post of secretary <em>pro
+		tem.</em> Mr. Trimmer then, with a nicely bound black
+		book in his hand, rose to propose the adoption of
+		the stock constitution and by-laws which were neatly
+		printed in the opening pages of this minute-book,
+		and in the articles of which he had made some trifling
+		amendments. Mr. Weldon, by request, read these
+		most carefully and conscientiously, making quite
+		plain that the entire working management of the
+		consolidated stores was to be under the direct charge
+		of a general manager and an assistant general manager,
+		who were to be appointed and have their salaries
+		fixed by the board of directors, as was meet and
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page51" title="51"> </a>proper. Gravely the stock-holders voted upon the
+		adoption of the constitution and by-laws, and, with
+		a feeling of pride, as the secretary called his name,
+		Bobby cast his first vote in the following conventional
+		form:</p>
+
+		<p>“Aye—twenty-six hundred shares.�</p>
+
+		<p>Mr. Trimmer followed, voting twenty-four hundred
+		shares; then Mr. Smythe, three hundred; Mr.
+		Weldon, fifty; Mr. Harvey, fifty; Mr. U. G. Trimmer,
+		fifty; Mr. Thomas Trimmer, whose proxy
+		was held by his father, one hundred and fifty; making
+		in all a total of fifty-six hundred shares unanimously
+		cast in favor of the motion; and Bobby, after
+		having roundly announced the result, felt that he was
+		conducting himself with vast parliamentary credit
+		and lit a cigarette with much satisfaction.</p>
+
+		<p>Mr. Trimmer, twirling his thumbs, displayed no
+		surprise, nor even gratification, when Mr. Smythe
+		almost immediately put him in nomination for president.
+		Mr. Weldon promptly seconded that nomination.
+		Mr. Harvey moved that the nominations for the
+		presidency be closed. Mr. U. G. Trimmer seconded
+		that motion, which was carried unanimously; and
+		with no ado whatever Mr. Silas Trimmer was made
+		president of the Burnit-Trimmer Merchandise Corporation,
+		Mr. Burnit having most courteously cast
+		twenty-six hundred votes for him; for was not Mr.
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page52" title="52"> </a>Trimmer entitled to this honor by right of seniority?
+		In similar manner Mr. Burnit, quite pleased, and not
+		realizing that the vice-president of a corporation has
+		a much less active and influential position than the
+		night watchman, was elected to the second highest
+		office, while Mr. Weldon was made secretary and Mr.
+		Smythe treasurer. Mr. Harvey, Mr. U. G. Trimmer
+		and Mr. Thomas Trimmer were, as a matter of
+		course, elected members of the board of directors,
+		the four officers already elected constituting the remaining
+		members of the board. There seemed but
+		very little business remaining for the stock-holders to
+		do, so they adjourned; then, the members of the board
+		being all present and having waived in writing all
+		formal notification, the directors went into immediate
+		session, with Mr. Trimmer in the chair and Mr.
+		Weldon in charge of the bright and shining new
+		book of minutes.</p>
+
+		<p>The first move of that body, after opening the
+		meeting in due form, was made by Mr. Harvey, who
+		proposed that Mr. Silas Trimmer be constituted general
+		manager of the consolidated stores at a salary
+		of fifty thousand dollars per year, a motion which
+		was immediately seconded by Mr. U. G. Trimmer.</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby was instantly upon his feet. Even with his
+		total lack of experience in such matters there was
+		something about this that struck him as overdrawn,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page53" title="53"> </a>and he protested that fancy salaries should have no
+		place in the reorganized business until experience
+		had proved that the business would stand it. He
+		was very much in earnest about it, and wanted the
+		subject discussed thoroughly before any such rash
+		step was taken. The balance of the discussion consisted
+		in one word from Mr. Smythe, echoed by all
+		his fellow-members.</p>
+
+		<p>“Question!� said that gentleman.</p>
+
+		<p>“You have all heard the question,� said Mr. Trimmer
+		calmly. “Those in favor will please signify by
+		saying ‘Aye.’�</p>
+
+		<p>“Aye!� voted four members of the board as with
+		one scarcely interested voice.</p>
+
+		<p>“No!� cried Bobby angrily, and sprang to his feet,
+		his anger confused, moreover, by the shock of finding
+		unsuspected wolves tearing at his vitals. “Gentlemen,
+		I protest against this action! I——�</p>
+
+		<p>Mr. Trimmer pounded on the table with his pencil
+		in lieu of a gavel.</p>
+
+		<p>“The motion is carried. Any other business?�</p>
+
+		<p>It seemed that there was. Mr. Harvey proposed
+		that Mr. Smythe be made assistant general manager
+		at a salary of twenty-five thousand dollars per year.
+		Again the farce of a ballot and the farce of a protest
+		was enacted. Where now was the voting power
+		of Bobby’s twenty-six hundred shares? In the directors’
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page54" title="54"> </a>meeting they voted as individuals, and they
+		were six against one. Rather indifferently, as if
+		the thing did not amount to much, Mr. Smythe proposed
+		that the selection of a firm name for advertising
+		and publicity purposes be left to the manager, and
+		though Bobby voted no as to this proposition on general
+		principles, it seemed of minor importance, in
+		his then bewildered state of mind. After all, the
+		thing which grieved him most just then was to find
+		that people <em>could</em> do these things!</p>
+	</div>
+	<div id="chapter_6" class="chapter"><a class="pagenum" id="page55" title="55"> </a>
+		<h2 class="chapter_title"><span class="chapter_number">CHAPTER VI</span><br />
+			CONSISTING ENTIRELY OF A RAPID SUCCESSION OF MOST
+			PAINFUL SHOCKS</h2>
+
+		<p><span class="first_word">He</span> was still dazed with what had happened,
+		when, the next morning, he turned into
+		the office and found Johnson and Applerod
+		packing-up their personal effects. Workmen
+		were removing letter-files and taking desks out of
+		the door.</p>
+
+		<p>“What’s the matter?� he asked, surveying the unwonted
+		confusion in perplexity.</p>
+
+		<p>“The entire office force of the now defunct John
+		Burnit Store has been dismissed, that’s all!� blurted
+		Applerod, now the aggrieved one. “You sold us out,
+		lock, stock and barrel!�</p>
+
+		<p>“Impossible!� gasped Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>Mr. Johnson glumly showed him curt letters of
+		dismissal from Trimmer.</p>
+
+		<p>“Where’s mine, I wonder?� inquired Bobby, trying
+		to take his terrific defeat with sportsmanlike
+		nonchalance.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page56" title="56"> </a>“I don’t suppose there is any for you, sir, inasmuch
+		as you never had a recognized position to lose,�
+		replied Johnson, not unkindly. “Did the board of
+		directors elect you to any salaried office?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Why, so they didn’t!� exclaimed Bobby, and for
+		the first time realized that no place had been made for
+		him. He had taken it as a matter of course that he
+		was to be a part of the consolidation, and the omission
+		of any definite provision for him had passed
+		unnoticed.</p>
+
+		<p>The door leading to his own private office banged
+		open, and two men appeared, shoving through it
+		the big mahogany desk turned edgewise.</p>
+
+		<p>“What are they doing?� Bobby asked sharply.</p>
+
+		<p>“Moving out all the furniture,� snapped Applerod
+		with bitter relish. “All the office work, I understand,
+		is to be done in the other building, and this
+		space is to be thrown into a special cut-glass department.
+		I suppose the new desk is for Mr. Trimmer.�</p>
+
+		<p>Furious, choking, Bobby left the office and strode
+		back through the store. The first floor passageway
+		was already completed between the two buildings,
+		and a steady stream of customers was going over the
+		bridge from the old Burnit store into the old Trimmer
+		store. There were very few coming in the other
+		direction. He had never been in Mr. Trimmer’s
+		offices, but he found his way there with no difficulty,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page57" title="57"> </a>and Mr. Trimmer came out of his private room to
+		receive him with all the suavity possible. In fact,
+		he had been saving up suavity all morning for this
+		very encounter.</p>
+
+		<p>“Well, what can we do for you this morning, Mr.
+		Burnit?� he wanted to know, and Bobby, though accustomed
+		to repression as he was, had a sudden impulse
+		to drive his fist straight through that false
+		circular smile.</p>
+
+		<p>“I want to know what provision has been made
+		for me in this new adjustment,� he demanded.</p>
+
+		<p>“Why, Mr. Burnit,� expostulated Mr. Trimmer in
+		much apparent surprise, “you have two hundred and
+		sixty thousand dollars’ worth of stock in what should
+		be the best paying mercantile venture in this city;
+		you are vice-president, and a member of the board of
+		directors!�</p>
+
+		<p>“I have no part, then, in the active management?�
+		Bobby wanted to know.</p>
+
+		<p>“It would be superfluous, Mr. Burnit. One of the
+		chief advantages of such a consolidation is the economy
+		that comes from condensing the office and managing
+		forces. I regretted very much indeed to dismiss
+		Mr. Johnson and Mr. Applerod, but they are
+		very valuable men and should have no difficulty in
+		placing themselves advantageously. In fact, I shall
+		be glad to aid them in securing new positions.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page58" title="58"> </a>“The thing is an outrage!� exclaimed Bobby with
+		passion.</p>
+
+		<p>“My dear Mr. Burnit, it is business,� said Mr.
+		Trimmer coldly, and, turning, went deliberately into
+		his own room, leaving Bobby standing in the middle
+		of the floor.</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby sprang to that door and threw it open, and
+		Trimmer, who had been secretly trembling all through
+		the interview, turned to him with a quick pallor overspreading
+		his face, a pallor which Bobby saw and
+		despised and ignored, and which turned his first mad
+		impulse.</p>
+
+		<p>“I’d like to ask one favor of you, Mr. Trimmer,�
+		said he. “In moving the furniture out of the John
+		Burnit offices I should be very glad, indeed, if you
+		would order my father’s desk removed to my house.
+		It is an old desk and can not possibly be of much use.
+		You may charge its value to my account, please.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Nonsense!� said Mr. Trimmer. “I’ll have it sent
+		out with pleasure. Is there anything else?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Nothing whatever at present,� said Bobby,
+		trembling with the task of holding himself steady,
+		and walked out, unable to analyze the bitter emotions
+		that surged within him.</p>
+
+		<p>On the sidewalk, standing beside his automobile,
+		he found Johnson and Applerod waiting for him,
+		and the moment he saw Johnson, cumbered with the
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page59" title="59"> </a>big index-file that he carried beneath his arm, he
+		knew why.</p>
+
+		<p>“Give me the letter, Johnson,� he said with a wry
+		smile, and Johnson, answering it with another equally
+		as grim, handed him a gray envelope.</p>
+
+		<p>Applerod, who had been the first to upbraid him,
+		was now the first to recover his spirits.</p>
+
+		<p>“Never mind, Mr. Burnit,� said he; “businesses
+		and even fortunes have been lost before and have
+		been regained. There are still ways to make money.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby did not answer him. He was opening the
+		letter, preparing to stand its contents in much the
+		same spirit that he had often gone to his father to
+		accept a reprimand which he knew he could not in
+		dignity evade. But there was no reprimand. He
+		read:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="letter">
+			<p>“There’s no use in telling a young man what to do
+			when he has been gouged. If he’s made of the right
+			stuff he’ll know, and if he isn’t, no amount of telling
+			will put the right stuff in him. I have faith in you.
+			Bobby, or I’d never have let you in for this goring.</p>
+
+			<p>“In the meantime, as there will be no dividends on
+			your stock for ten years to come, what with ‘improvements,
+			expenses and salaries,’ and as you will need to
+			continue your education by embarking in some other
+			line of business before being ripe enough to accomplish
+			what I am sure you will want to do, you may
+			<a class="pagenum" id="page60" title="60"> </a>now see your trustee, the only thoroughly sensible
+			person I know who is sincerely devoted to your interests.
+			Her name is Agnes Elliston.�</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p>“What is the matter?� asked Johnson in sudden
+		concern, and Applerod grabbed him by the arm.</p>
+
+		<p>“Oh, nothing much,� said Bobby; “a little groggy,
+		that’s all. The governor just handed me one under
+		the belt. By the way, boys�—and they scarcely
+		noted that he no longer said “gentlemen�—“if you
+		have nothing better in view I want you to consider
+		yourselves still in my employ. I’m going into business
+		again, at once. If you will call at my house tomorrow
+		forenoon I’ll talk with you about it,� and
+		anxious to be rid of them he told his driver “Idlers’,�
+		and jumped into his automobile.</p>
+
+		<p>Agnes! That surely was giving him a solar-plexus
+		blow! Why, what did the governor mean?
+		It was putting him very much in a kindergarten
+		position with the girl before whom he wanted to
+		make a better impression than before anybody else
+		in all the world.</p>
+
+		<p>It took him a long time to readjust himself to this
+		cataclysm.</p>
+
+		<p>After all, though, was not his father right in this,
+		as he had been in everything else? Humbly Bobby
+		was ready to confess that Agnes had more brains
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page61" title="61"> </a>and good common sense than anybody, and was altogether
+		about the most loyal and dependable person in
+		all the world, with the single and sole exception of
+		allowing that splendid looking and unknown chap to
+		hang around her so. They were in the congested
+		down-town district now, and as they came to a dead
+		stop at a crossing, Bobby, though immersed in
+		thought, became aware of a short, thick-set man,
+		who, standing at the very edge of the car, was apparently
+		trying to stare him out of countenance.</p>
+
+		<p>“Why, hello, Biff!� exclaimed Bobby. “Which
+		way?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Just waiting for a South Side trolley,� explained
+		Biff. “Going over to see Kid Mills about that lightweight
+		go we’re planning.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Jump in,� said Bobby, glad of any change in
+		his altogether indefinite program. “I’ll take you
+		over.�</p>
+
+		<p>On the way he detailed to his athletic friend what
+		had been done to him in the way of business.</p>
+
+		<p>“I know’d it,� said Biff excitedly. “I know’d it
+		from the start. That’s why I got old Trimmer to
+		join my class. Made him a special price of next to
+		nothing, and got Doc Willets to go around and tell
+		him he was in Dutch for want of training. Just
+		wait.�</p>
+
+		<p>“For what?� asked Bobby, smiling.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page62" title="62"> </a>“Till the next time he comes up,� declared Biff
+		vengefully. “Say, do you know I put that shrimp’s
+		hour a-purpose just when there wouldn’t be a soul up
+		there; and the next time I get him in front of me
+		I’m going to let a few slip that’ll jar him from the
+		cellar to the attic; and the next time anybody sees
+		him he’ll be nothing but splints and court-plaster.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Biff,� said Bobby severely, “you’ll do nothing of
+		the kind. You’ll leave one Silas Trimmer to me.
+		Merely bruising his body won’t get back my father’s
+		business. Let him alone.�</p>
+
+		<p>“But look here, Bobby——�</p>
+
+		<p>“No; I say let him alone,� insisted Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“All right,� said Biff sullenly; “but if you think
+		there’s a trick you can turn to double cross this
+		Trimmer you’ve got another think coming. He’s
+		sunk his fangs in the business he’s been after all his
+		life, and now you couldn’t pry it away from him
+		with a jimmy. You know what I told you about
+		him.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I know,� said Bobby wearily. “But honestly,
+		Biff, did you ever see me go into a game where I
+		was a loser in the end?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Not till this one,� confessed Biff.</p>
+
+		<p>“And this isn’t the end,� retorted Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>He knew that when he made such a confident assertion
+		that he had nothing upon which to base it; that
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page63" title="63"> </a>he was talking vaguely and at random; but he also
+		knew the intense desire that had arisen in him to reverse
+		conditions upon the man who had waited until
+		the father died to wrest that father’s pride from the
+		son; and in some way he felt coming strength. In
+		Biff’s present frame of conviction Bobby was pleased
+		enough to drop him in front of Kid Mills’ obscure
+		abode, and turn with a sudden hungry impulse in
+		the direction of Agnes. At the Ellistons’, when the
+		chauffeur was about to slow up, Bobby in a panic
+		told him to drive straight on. In the course of half
+		an hour he came back again, and this time pride
+		alone—fear of what his chauffeur might think—determined
+		him to stop. With much trepidation he
+		went up to the door. Agnes was just preparing to
+		go out, and she came down to him in the front
+		parlor.</p>
+
+		<p>“This is only a business call,� he confessed with
+		as much appearance of gaiety as he could summon
+		under the circumstance. “I’ve come around to see my
+		trustee.�</p>
+
+		<p>“So soon?� she said, with quick sympathy in her
+		voice. “I’m <em>so</em> sorry, Bobby! But I suppose, after
+		all, the sooner it happened the better. Tell me all
+		about it. What was the cause of it?�</p>
+
+		<p>“You wouldn’t marry me,� charged Bobby. “If
+		you had this never would have happened.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page64" title="64"> </a>She shook her head and smiled, but she laid her
+		hand upon his arm and drew closer to him.</p>
+
+		<p>“I’m afraid it would, Bobby. You might have
+		asked my advice, but I expect you wouldn’t have taken
+		it.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I guess you’re right about that,� admitted
+		Bobby; “but if you’d only married me—— Honest,
+		Agnes, when are you going to?�</p>
+
+		<p>“I shall not commit myself,� she replied, smiling
+		up at him rather wistfully.</p>
+
+		<p>“There’s somebody else,� declared Bobby, instantly
+		assured by this evasiveness that the unknown
+		had something to do with the matter.</p>
+
+		<p>“If there were, it would be my affair entirely,
+		wouldn’t it?� she wanted to know, still smiling.</p>
+
+		<p>“No!� he declared emphatically. “It would be
+		my affair. But really I want to know. Will you, if
+		I get my father’s business back?�</p>
+
+		<div id="illo-2" class="illo">
+			<a href="images/illo-2.jpg"><img src="images/illo-2-sm.jpg" width="448" height="678" alt="A man and a woman talk by a door." /></a>
+			<p class="caption">Will you if I get my father’s business back?</p>
+		</div>
+
+		<p>“I’ll not promise,� she said. “Why, Bobby, the
+		way you put it, you would be binding me <em>not</em> to
+		marry you in case you <em>didn’t</em> get it back!� and she
+		laughed at him. “But let’s talk business now. I
+		was just starting out upon your affairs, the securing
+		of some bonds for which the lawyer I have employed
+		has been negotiating, so you may take me
+		up there and he will arrange to get you the two
+		hundred and fifty thousand dollars you are to have.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page65" title="65"> </a>It’s for a new start, without restrictions except that
+		you are to engage in business with it. That’s all
+		the instructions I have.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Thanks,� said Bobby, with a gulp. “Honestly,
+		Agnes, it’s a shame. It’s a low-down trick the governor
+		played to put me in this helplessly belittled
+		position with you.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Why, how strange,� she replied quietly. “I look
+		upon it as a most graceful and agreeable position
+		for myself.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Oh!� he exclaimed blankly, as it occurred to him
+		just how uncomfortable the situation must be to her,
+		and he reproached himself with selfishness in not
+		having thought of this phase of the matter before.
+		“That’s a fact,� he admitted. “I say, Agnes, I’ll
+		say no more about that end of it if you don’t; and,
+		after all, I’m glad, too. It gives me a legitimate
+		excuse to see you much oftener.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Gracious, no!� she protested. “You fill up every
+		spare moment that I have now; but so long as you
+		are here on business this time, let’s attend to business.
+		You may take me up to see Mr. Chalmers. By the
+		way, I want you to meet him, anyhow. You have
+		seen him, I believe, once or twice. He was here one
+		day when you called, and he was walking with me in
+		the lobby of the theater when you came in to join us
+		one evening.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page66" title="66"> </a>“Y-e-s,� drawled Bobby, as if he were placing the
+		man with difficulty.</p>
+
+		<p>“The Chalmers’ are charming people,� she went on.
+		“His wife is perfectly fascinating. We used to go to
+		school together. They have only been married three
+		months, and when they came here to go into business
+		I was very glad to throw such of your father’s estate
+		as I am to handle into his hands. Whenever they
+		are ready I want to engineer them into our set, but
+		they live very quietly now. I know you’ll like them.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Oh, I’m sure I will,� agreed Bobby heartily, and
+		his face was positively radiant, as, for some unaccountable
+		reason, he clutched her hand. She lifted
+		it up beneath his arm, around which, for one ecstatic
+		moment, she clasped her other hand, and together
+		they went out into the hall, Bobby, simply driveling
+		in his supreme happiness, allowing her to lead him
+		wheresoever she listed. Still in the joy of knowing
+		that his one dreaded rival was removed in so pleasant
+		a fashion, he handed her into the automobile and
+		they started out to see Mr. Chalmers. Their way led
+		down Grand Street, past the John Burnit Store,
+		and with all that had happened still rankling sorely
+		in his mind, Bobby looked up and gave a gasp.
+		Workmen were taking down the plain, dignified old
+		sign of the John Burnit Store from the top of the
+		building, and in its place they were raising up a
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page67" title="67"> </a>glittering new one, ordered by Silas Trimmer on the
+		very day Bobby had agreed to go into the consolidation;
+		and it read:</p>
+
+		<p class="store_sign">“TRIMMER AND COMPANY�</p>
+
+	</div>
+	<div id="chapter_7" class="chapter"><a class="pagenum" id="page68" title="68"> </a>
+		<h2 class="chapter_title"><span class="chapter_number">CHAPTER VII</span><br />
+			PINK-CHEEKED APPLEROD RUSHES TO THE RESCUE
+			WITH A GOLDEN SCHEME</h2>
+
+		<p><span class="first_word">Agnes</span> had been surprised into an exclamation
+		of dismay by that new sign, but she
+		checked it abruptly as she saw Bobby’s
+		face. She could divine, but she could not fully know,
+		how that had hurt him; how the pain of it had sunk
+		into his soul; how the humiliation of it had tingled
+		in every fiber of him. For an instant his breath
+		had stopped, his heart had swelled as if it would burst,
+		a great lump had come in his throat, a sob almost tore
+		its way through his clenched teeth. He caught his
+		breath sharply, his jaws set and his nostrils dilated,
+		then the color came slowly back to his cheeks. Agnes,
+		though longing to do so, had feared to lay her hand
+		even upon his sleeve in sympathy lest she might unman
+		him, but now she saw that she need not have
+		feared. It had not weakened him, this blow; it had
+		strengthened him.</p>
+
+		<p>“That’s brutal,� he said steadily, though the
+		steadiness was purely a matter of will. “We must
+		change that sign before we do anything else.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page69" title="69"> </a>“Of course,� she answered simply.</p>
+
+		<p>Involuntarily she stretched out her small gloved
+		hand, and with it touched his own. Looking back once
+		more for a fleeting glimpse at the ascending symbol
+		of his defeat, he gripped her hand so hard that she
+		almost cried out with the pain of it; but she did not
+		wince. When he suddenly remembered, with a frightened
+		apology, and laid her hand upon her lap and
+		patted it, her fingers seemed as if they had been compressed
+		into a numb mass, and she separated them
+		slowly and with difficulty. Afterward she remembered
+		that as a dear hurt, after all, for in it she
+		shared his pain.</p>
+
+		<p>While they were still stunned and silent under Silas
+		Trimmer’s parting blow, the machine drew up at the
+		curb in front of the building in which Chalmers had
+		his office. Chalmers, Bobby found, was a most agreeable
+		fellow, to whom he took an instant liking. It
+		was strange what different qualities the man seemed
+		to possess than when Bobby had first seen him in the
+		company of Agnes. Their business there was very
+		brief. Chalmers held for Bobby, subject to Agnes’
+		order as trustee, the sum of two hundred and fifty
+		thousand dollars in instantly convertible securities,
+		and when they left, Bobby had a check for that
+		amount comfortably tucked in his pocket.</p>
+
+		<p>There was another brief visit to the office of old
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page70" title="70"> </a>Mr. Barrister, where Agnes, again as Bobby’s trustee,
+		exhibited the papers Chalmers had made out for her,
+		showing that the funds previously left in her charge
+		had been duly paid over to Bobby as per the provisions
+		of the will, and thereupon filed her order for
+		a similar amount. Barrister received them with an
+		“I told you so� air which amounted almost to satisfaction.
+		He was quite used to seeing the sons of rich
+		men hastening to become poor men, and he had so
+		evidently classed Bobby as one of the regular sort,
+		that Bobby took quite justifiable umbrage and decided
+		that if he had any legal business whatever he
+		would put it into the hands of Chalmers.</p>
+
+		<p>He spent the rest of the day with Agnes and took
+		dinner at the Ellistons’, where jolly Aunt Constance
+		and shrewd Uncle Dan, in genuine sympathy, desisted
+		so palpably from their usual joking about his
+		“business career,� that Bobby was more ill at ease
+		than if they had said all the grimly humorous things
+		which popped into their minds. For that reason he
+		went home rather early, and tumbled into bed resolving
+		upon the new future he was to face to-morrow.</p>
+
+		<p>At least, he consoled himself with a sigh, he was
+		now a man of experience. He had learned something
+		of the world. He was not further to be hoodwinked.
+		His last confused vision was of Silas Trimmer on his
+		knees begging for mercy, and the next thing he knew
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page71" title="71"> </a>was that some one was reminding him, with annoying
+		insistency, of the early call he had left.</p>
+
+		<p>The world looked brighter that morning, and he
+		was quite hopeful when, in the dim old study, seated
+		at his father’s desk and with the portrait of stern
+		old John Burnit frowning and yet shrewdly twinkling
+		down upon him, he received Johnson, dry and
+		sour looking as if he expected ill news, and Applerod,
+		bright and radiant as if Fortune’s purse were just
+		about to open to him.</p>
+
+		<p>“Well, boys,� said Bobby cheerily, “we’re going to
+		stick right together. We’re going to start into a new
+		business as soon as we can find one that suits us, and
+		your employment begins from this minute. We’re beginning
+		with a capital of two hundred and fifty thousand
+		dollars,� and rather pompously he spread the
+		check upon the desk. His pompousness faded in something
+		under fifteen seconds, for it was in about that
+		length of time that he caught sight of a plain gray
+		envelope then in the process of emerging from Johnson’s
+		pocket. He accepted it with something of reluctance,
+		but opened it nevertheless; and this was the
+		message of the late John Burnit:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="envelope">
+			<p>To my Son Upon the Occasion of his Being Intrusted
+				With Real Money</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<blockquote class="letter">
+			<p>“In most cases the difference between spending
+			<a class="pagenum" id="page72" title="72"> </a>money and investing it is wholly a matter of speed.
+			Not one man in ten knows when and where and how
+			to put a dollar properly to work; so the only financial
+			education I expect you to get out of an attempt to go
+			into business is a painful lesson in subtraction.�</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p>“This letter, Johnson, is only a delicate intimation
+		from the governor that I’ll make another blooming
+		ass of myself with this,� commented Bobby, tapping
+		his finger on the check, and placing the letter face
+		downward beside it, where he eyed it askance.</p>
+
+		<p>“A quarter of a million!� observed Applerod, rolling
+		out the amount with relish. “A great deal can be
+		done with two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, you
+		know.�</p>
+
+		<p>“That’s just the point,� observed Bobby with a
+		frown of perplexity, directed alternately to the faithful
+		gentlemen who for upward of thirty years had
+		been his father’s right and left bowers. “What am I
+		to do with it? Johnson, what would you do with two
+		hundred and fifty thousand dollars?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Lose it,� confessed stooped and bloodless Johnson.
+		“I never made a dollar out of a dollar in my
+		life.�</p>
+
+		<p>“What would you do with it, Applerod?�</p>
+
+		<p>Mr. Applerod, scarcely able to contain himself,
+		had been eagerly awaiting that question.</p>
+
+		<p>“Purchase, improve and market the Westmarsh Addition,�
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page73" title="73"> </a>he said promptly, expanding fully two inches
+		across his already rotund chest.</p>
+
+		<p>“What?� snorted Johnson, and cast upon his workmate
+		a look of withering scorn. “Are you still dreaming
+		about the possibilities of that old swamp?�</p>
+
+		<p>“To be sure it is a swamp,� admitted Mr. Applerod
+		with some heat. “Do you suppose you could buy
+		one hundred and twenty acres of directly accessible
+		land, almost at the very edge of the crowded city
+		limits, at two hundred dollars an acre if it wasn’t
+		swamp land?� he demanded. “Why, Mr. Burnit, it
+		is the opportunity of a lifetime!�</p>
+
+		<p>“How much capital would be needed?� asked
+		Bobby, gravely assuming the callous, inquisitorial
+		manner of the ideal business man.</p>
+
+		<p>“Well, I’ve managed to buy up twenty acres out of
+		my savings, and there are still one hundred acres to
+		be purchased, which will take twenty thousand dollars.
+		But this is the small part of it. Drainage, filling
+		and grading is to be done, streets and sidewalks
+		ought to be put down, a gift club-house, which would
+		serve at first as an office, would be a good thing to
+		build, and the thing would have to be most thoroughly
+		advertised. I’ve figured on it for years, and it would
+		require, all told, about a two-hundred-thousand investment.�</p>
+
+		<p>“And what would be the return?� asked Bobby
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page74" title="74"> </a>without blinking at these big figures, and proud of
+		his attitude, which, while conservative, was still one
+		of openness to conviction.</p>
+
+		<p>“Figure it out for yourself,� Mr. Applerod invited
+		him with much enthusiasm. “We get ten building
+		lots to the acre, turning one hundred and twenty
+		acres into one thousand two hundred lots. Improved
+		sites at any point surrounding this tract can not be
+		bought for less than twenty-five dollars per front foot.
+		Corner lots and those in the best locations would bring
+		much more, but taking the average price at only six
+		hundred dollars per lot, we would have, as a total
+		return for the investment, seven hundred and twenty
+		thousand dollars!�</p>
+
+		<p>“In how long?� Bobby inquired, not allowing himself
+		to become in the slightest degree excited.</p>
+
+		<p>“One year,� announced the optimistic Mr. Applerod
+		with conviction.</p>
+
+		<p>Mr. Johnson, his lips glued tightly together in one
+		firm, thin, straight line across his face, was glaring
+		steadfastly at the corner of the ceiling, permitting no
+		expression whatever to flicker in his eyes; noting
+		which, Bobby turned to him with a point-blank question:</p>
+
+		<p>“What do you think of this opportunity, Mr. Johnson?�
+		he asked.</p>
+
+		<p>Mr. Johnson glared quickly at Mr. Applerod.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page75" title="75"> </a>“Tell him,� defied that gentleman.</p>
+
+		<p>“I think nothing whatever of it!� snapped Mr.
+		Johnson.</p>
+
+		<p>“What is your chief ground of objection?� Bobby
+		wanted to know.</p>
+
+		<p>Again Mr. Johnson glared quickly at Mr. Applerod.</p>
+
+		<p>“Tell him,� insisted that gentleman with an outward
+		wave of both hands, expressive of his intense
+		desire to have every secret of his own soul and of
+		everybody’s else laid bare.</p>
+
+		<p>“I will,� said Johnson. “Your father, a dozen
+		times in my own hearing, refused to have anything
+		to do with the scheme.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby turned accusing eyes upon Applerod, who,
+		though red of face, was still strong of assertion.</p>
+
+		<p>“Mr. Burnit never declined on any other grounds
+		than that he already had too many irons in the fire,�
+		he declared. “Tell him that, too, Johnson!�</p>
+
+		<p>“It was only his polite way of putting it,� retorted
+		Mr. Johnson.</p>
+
+		<p>“John Burnit was noted for his polite way of putting
+		his business conclusions,� snapped Applerod in
+		return, whereat Bobby smiled with gleeful reminiscence,
+		and Mr. Johnson smiled grimly, albeit reluctantly,
+		and Mr. Applerod smiled triumphantly.</p>
+
+		<p>“I can see the governor doing it,� laughed Bobby,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page76" title="76"> </a>and dismissed the matter. “Mr. Johnson, as a start
+		in business we may as well turn this study into a temporary
+		office. Take this check down to the Commercial
+		Bank, please, and open an account. You already
+		have power of attorney for my signature. Procure
+		a small set of books and open them. Make out for me
+		against this account at the Commercial a check for
+		ten thousand. Mr. Applerod, kindly reduce your
+		swamp proposition to paper and let me have it by to-morrow.
+		I’ll not promise that I will do anything with
+		it, but it would be only fair to examine it.�</p>
+
+		<p>With these crisp remarks, upon the decisiveness of
+		which Bobby prided himself very much, he left the two
+		to open business for him under the supervision of the
+		portrait of stern but humor-given old John Burnit.</p>
+
+		<p>“Applerod,� said Johnson indignantly, his lean
+		frame almost quivering, “it is a wonder to me that
+		you can look up at that picture and reflect that you
+		are trying to drag John Burnit’s son into this fool
+		scheme.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Johnson,� said Mr. Applerod, puffing out his
+		cheeks indignantly, “you were given the first chance
+		to advise Mr. Robert what he should do with his
+		money, and you failed to do so. This is a magnificent
+		business opportunity, and I should consider myself
+		very remiss in my duty to John Burnit’s son if I
+		failed to urge it upon him.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page77" title="77"> </a>Mr. Johnson picked up the letter that Bobby, evidently
+		not caring whether they read it or not, had
+		left behind him. He ran through it with a grim smile
+		and handed it over to Applerod as his best retort.</p>
+
+		<p>At the home of Agnes Elliston Bobby’s car stopped
+		almost as a matter of habit, and though the hour was
+		a most informal one he walked up the steps as confidently
+		as if he intended opening the door with a
+		latch-key; for since Agnes was become his trustee,
+		Bobby had awakened, overnight, to the fact that he
+		had a proprietary interest in her which could not be
+		denied.</p>
+
+		<p>Agnes came down to meet him in a most ravishing
+		morning robe of pale green, a confection so stunning
+		in conjunction with her gold-brown eyes and waving
+		brown hair and round white throat that Bobby was
+		forced to audible comment upon it.</p>
+
+		<p>“Cracking!� said he. “I suppose that if I hadn’t
+		had nerve enough to pop in here unexpectedly before
+		noon I wouldn’t have seen that gown for ages.�</p>
+
+		<p>It was Aunt Constance, the irrepressible, who, leaning
+		over the stair railing, sank the iron deep into his
+		soul.</p>
+
+		<p>“It was bought at Trimmer and Company’s, Grand
+		Street side, Bobby,� she informed him, and with this
+		Parthian shot she went back through the up-stairs
+		hall, laughing.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page78" title="78"> </a>“Ouch!� said Bobby. “That was snowballing a
+		cripple,� and he was really most woebegone about it.</p>
+
+		<p>“Never mind, Bobby, you have still plenty of
+		chance to win,� comforted Agnes, who, though laughing,
+		had sympathetic inkling of that sore spot which
+		had been touched. He seemed so forlorn, in spite of
+		his big, good-natured self, that she moved closer to
+		him and unconsciously put her hand upon his arm.
+		It was too much for him in view of the way she looked,
+		and, suddenly emboldened, he did a thing the mere
+		thought of which, under premeditation, would have
+		scared him into a frappéd perspiration. He placed
+		his hands upon her shoulders, and, drawing her
+		toward him, bent swiftly down to kiss her. For a fleeting
+		instant she drew back, and then Bobby had the
+		surprise of his life, for her warm lips met his quite
+		willingly, and with a frank pressure almost equal to
+		his own. She sprang back from him at once with
+		sparkling eyes, but he had no mind to follow up his
+		advantage, for he was dazed. It had left him breathless,
+		amazed, incredulous. He stood for a full minute,
+		his face gone white with the overwhelming wonder of
+		this thing that had happened to him, and then the
+		blunt directness which was part of his inheritance
+		from his father returned to him.</p>
+
+		<p>“Well, anyhow, we’re to be engaged at last,� he
+		said.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page79" title="79"> </a>“No,� she rebuked him, with a sudden flash of mischief;
+		“that was perfectly wicked, and you mustn’t
+		do it again.�</p>
+
+		<p>“But I will,� he said, advancing with heightened
+		color.</p>
+
+		<p>“You mustn’t,� she said firmly, and although she
+		did not recede farther from him he stopped. “You
+		mustn’t make it hard for us, Bobby,� she warned him.
+		“I’m under promise, too; and that’s all I can tell you
+		now.�</p>
+
+		<p>“The governor again,� groaned Bobby. “I suppose
+		that I’m not to talk to you about marrying,
+		nor you to listen, until I have proved my right and
+		ability to take care of you and your fortune and
+		mine. Is that it?�</p>
+
+		<p>She smiled inscrutably.</p>
+
+		<p>“What brings you at this unearthly hour?� she
+		asked by way of evasion. “Some business pretext, I’ll
+		be bound.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Of course it is,� he assured her. “This morning
+		you are strictly in the rôle of my trustee. I want you
+		to look at some property.�</p>
+
+		<p>“But I have an appointment with my dressmaker.�</p>
+
+		<p>“The dressmaker must wait.�</p>
+
+		<p>“What a warning!� she laughed. “If you would
+		order a mere—a mere acquaintance around so peremptorily,
+		what would you do if you were married?�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page80" title="80"> </a>“I’d be the boss,� announced Bobby with calm confidence.</p>
+
+		<p>“Indeed?� she mocked, and started into the library.
+		“You’d ask permission first, wouldn’t you?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Where are you going?� he queried in return, and
+		grinned.</p>
+
+		<p>“To telephone my dressmaker,� she admitted, smiling,
+		and realizing, too, that it was not all banter.</p>
+
+		<p>“I told you to, remember,� asserted Bobby, with a
+		strange new sense of masterfulness which would not
+		down.</p>
+
+		<p>When she came down again, dressed for the trip,
+		he was still in that dazed elation, and it lasted through
+		their brisk ride to the far outskirts of the city, where,
+		at the side of a watery marsh that extended for nearly
+		a mile along the roadway, he halted.</p>
+
+		<p>“This is it,� waving his hand across the dismal
+		waste.</p>
+
+		<p>“It!� she repeated. “What?�</p>
+
+		<p>“The property that it was suggested I buy.�</p>
+
+		<p>“No wonder your father thought it necessary to
+		appoint a trustee,� was her first comment. “Why,
+		Bobby, what on earth could you do with it? It’s too
+		large for a frog farm and too small for a summer resort,�
+		and once more she turned incredulous eyes upon
+		the “property.�</p>
+
+		<p>Dark, oily water covered the entire expanse, and
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page81" title="81"> </a>through it emerged, here and there, clumps of dank
+		vegetation, from the nature and dispersement of
+		which one could judge that the water varied from one
+		to three feet in depth. Higher ground surrounded it
+		on all sides, and the urgent needs of suburban growth
+		had scattered a few small, cheap cottages, here and
+		there, upon the hills.</p>
+
+		<p>“It doesn’t seem very attractive until you consider
+		those houses,� Bobby confessed. “You must remember
+		that the city hasn’t room to grow, and must take
+		note that it is trying to spread in this direction.
+		Wouldn’t a fellow be doing a rather public-spirited
+		thing, and one in which he might take quite a bit of
+		satisfaction, if he drained that swamp, filled it, laid
+		out streets and turned the whole stretch into a cluster
+		of homes in place of a breeding-place for fevers?�</p>
+
+		<p>“You talk just like a civic improvement society,�
+		she said, laughing.</p>
+
+		<p>“We did have a chap lecturing on that down at the
+		club a few nights ago,� he admitted, “and maybe I
+		have picked up a bit of the talk. But wouldn’t it be a
+		good thing, anyhow?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Oh, I quite approve of it, now that I see your
+		plan,� she agreed; “but could it be made to pay?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Well,� he returned with a grave assumption of
+		that businesslike air he had recently been trying to
+		copy down at the Traders’ Club, “there are one hundred
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page82" title="82"> </a>and twenty acres in the tract. I can buy it for
+		two hundred dollars an acre, and sell each acre, in
+		building lots, for full six hundred. It seems to me
+		that this is enough margin to carry out the needed
+		improvements and make the marketing of it worth
+		while. What do you think of it?�</p>
+
+		<p>They both gazed out over that desolate expanse and
+		tried to picture it dotted with comfortable cottages,
+		set down in grassy lawns that bordered on white, clean
+		streets, and the idea of the transformation was an attractive
+		one.</p>
+
+		<p>“It looks to me like a perfectly splendid idea,�
+		Agnes admitted. “I wonder what your father would
+		have thought of it.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Well,� confessed Bobby a trifle reluctantly, “this
+		very proposition was presented to him several times, I
+		believe, but he always declined to go into it.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Then,� decided Agnes, so quickly and emphatically
+		that it startled him, “don’t touch it!�</p>
+
+		<p>“Oh, but you see,� he reminded her, “the governor
+		couldn’t go into everything that was offered him, and
+		to this plan he never urged any objection but that he
+		had too many irons in the fire.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I wouldn’t touch it,� declared Agnes, and that was
+		her final word in the matter, despite all his arguments.
+		If John Burnit had declined to go into it, no matter
+		for what reason, the plan was not worth considering.</p>
+	</div>
+	<div id="chapter_8" class="chapter"><a class="pagenum" id="page83" title="83"> </a>
+		<h2 class="chapter_title"><span class="chapter_number">CHAPTER VIII</span><br />
+			BOBBY SUCCEEDS IN SNAPPING A BARGAIN FROM UNDER
+			SILAS TRIMMER’S NOSE</h2>
+
+		<p><span class="first_word">Still</span> undecided, but carrying seriously the
+		thought that he must overlook no opportunity
+		if he was to prove himself the successful man
+		that his father had so ardently wished him to become,
+		Bobby dropped into the Idlers’ Club for lunch, where
+		Nick Allstyne and Payne Winthrop hailed him as one
+		returned from the dead.</p>
+
+		<p>“Just the chap,� declared Nick. “Stan Rogers has
+		written me that I’m to scrape the regular crowd together
+		and come up to his new Canadian lodge for a
+		hunt. Stag affair, you know. Real sport and no
+		pink-coat pretense.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Sorry, Nick,� said Bobby, pluming himself a trifle
+		upon his steadfastness to duty, “but I know what
+		Stan’s stag affairs are like. It would mean two weeks
+		at least, and I could not spare that much time from
+		the city.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Business again!� groaned Payne in mock dismay.
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page84" title="84"> </a>“This grasping greed for gain is blighting the most
+		promising young men of our avaricious country.
+		Why, it’s positively shameful, Bobby, when your father
+		must have left you over three million.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Two hundred and fifty thousand, so far as I’m allowed
+		to inquire just now,� corrected Bobby; “and
+		I’m ordered to go into business with that and prove
+		that I’m not such a blithering idiot that I can’t be
+		trusted with the rest of it, whatever there is.�</p>
+
+		<p>“But I thought you’d had your trial by fire and
+		pulled out of it,� interposed Nick. “I heard that you
+		had sold your interests or something, and when I saw
+		a new sign over the store I knew that it was true.
+		Sensible thing, I call it.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Sensible!� winced Bobby. “You’re allowing me a
+		mighty pleasant way out of it, but the fact of the
+		matter is that I lost in such a stinging way I’m bound
+		to get back into the game and do nothing else until I
+		win,� and he explained how Silas Trimmer had performed
+		upon him a neat and delicate operation in commercial
+		surgery.</p>
+
+		<p>They were properly sympathetic; not that they
+		cared much about business, but if Bobby had entered
+		any game whatsoever in which he had been soundly
+		beaten, they could quite understand his desire to stay
+		in that game until he could show points on the right
+		side.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page85" title="85"> </a>“Nevertheless,� Nick urged, “you ought to take a
+		little breathing spell in between.�</p>
+
+		<p>All through lunch, and through the game of billiards
+		which followed, they strove to make him see the
+		error of his ways, but Bobby was obdurate, and at
+		last they gave him up as a bad job, with the grave
+		prediction that later he would find himself nothing
+		more nor less than a beast of burden. When he left
+		them Bobby was surprised at himself. For a time he
+		had feared that in his declaration of such close attention
+		to business he might be posing; but he found
+		that to miss a stag hunting party, which heretofore
+		had been one of his keenest delights, weighed upon
+		him not at all; found actually that he would far
+		rather stay in the city to engage in the game of
+		finance which was unfolding before him! He came
+		upon this surprising discovery while he was on his
+		way across to a side street, where, on the fourth floor
+		of a store and warehouse building, he let himself in at
+		a wide door with a latch-key and entered the gymnasium
+		of Biff Bates. That gentleman, in trunks,
+		sweater and sandals, was padding all alone around and
+		around the edge of the hall at a steady jog, which,
+		after twenty solid minutes, had left no effect whatever
+		upon his respiration.</p>
+
+		<p>“Getting fat as a butcher again,� he announced as
+		he trotted steadily around to Bobby, suddenly stopping
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page86" title="86"> </a>short with an expansive grin across his wide face
+		and a handshake that it took an athlete to withstand.
+		“Got to cut it down or it’ll put me on the blink.
+		What’s the best thing you know, chum?�</p>
+
+		<p>“How does this hit you?� asked Bobby, taking
+		from his pocket the check Johnson had given him that
+		morning.</p>
+
+		<p>Mr. Bates looked at it with his hands behind him.</p>
+
+		<p>“Pleased to make your acquaintance,� he said to
+		the slip of paper, nodding profoundly.</p>
+
+		<p>“Oh, everybody’s friendly to these,� said Bobby,
+		indorsing the check. “It is for the new gymnasium,�
+		he explained. “Now, partner, turn loose and monopolize
+		the physical training business of this city.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Partner!� scorned Mr. Bates. “Look here, old
+		pal, there’s only one way I’ll take this big ticket, and
+		that is that you’ll drag down your split of the
+		profits.�</p>
+
+		<p>“But don’t I on this place?� protested Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“Nit!� retorted Mr. Bates with infinite scorn. “You
+		put them right back into the business, but that don’t
+		go any more. If we start this big joint it’s got to be
+		partners right, see? Or else take back this wealthy
+		handwriting. I don’t guess I want it, anyhow. From
+		past performances you need all the money in the
+		world, and ten thousand simoleons will put a crimp in
+		any wad.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page87" title="87"> </a>“No,� laughed Bobby; “you’re saving it for me
+		when you take it. I’ve just read a very nice note, left
+		for me by the governor, that I’ll be a fool and lose
+		anyhow.�</p>
+
+		<p>Mr. Bates grinned.</p>
+
+		<p>“You will, all right, all right, if you’re going into
+		business,� he admitted, and stuffed the check in the
+		upturned cuff of his sweater. “After these profit-and-loss
+		artists get your goat on all the starts your
+		old man left you, maybe I’ll have to put up the eats
+		and sleeps for you anyhow; huh?� and Mr. Bates
+		laughed with keen enjoyment of this delicately expressed
+		idea. “How are you going to divorce yourself
+		from the rest of it, Bobby?�</p>
+
+		<p>“I’m not quite sure,� said Bobby. “You know that
+		big stretch of swamp land, out on the Millberg
+		Road?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Where Paddy Dolan fell in and died from drinkin’
+		too much water? Sure I do.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Well, it has been suggested to me that I buy it,
+		drain it, fill it, put in paved streets, cut it up into
+		building lots and sell it.�</p>
+
+		<p>“And build it full of these pale yellow shacks that
+		the honest working slob buys with seventeen years of
+		his wages, and then loses the shack?� Biff incredulously
+		wanted to know.</p>
+
+		<p>“You guessed wrong, Biff,� laughed Bobby. “Just
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page88" title="88"> </a>selling the lots will be enough for me. What do you
+		think of it?�</p>
+
+		<p>“I don’t know,� said Mr. Bates thoughtfully. “I
+		know they frame up such stunts and boost ’em strong
+		in the papers, and if any of these real-estate sharps
+		is working just for their healths they’ve been stung
+		from all I’ve seen of ’em. But the main point is, who’s
+		the guy that’s tryin’ to lead you to it?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Oh, that part’s all right,� replied Bobby with perfect
+		assurance. “The man who wants me to finance
+		this, and who has already bought some of the land,
+		was one of my father’s right-hand men for nearly
+		thirty years.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Then that’s all right,� agreed Mr. Bates. “But
+		say!� he suddenly exclaimed as a new thought struck
+		him; “it’s a wonder this right-mitt mut of your father’s
+		didn’t make the old man fall for it long ago, if
+		it’s such a hot muffin.�</p>
+
+		<p>“He did try it,� confessed Bobby with hesitation
+		for the second time that day; “but the governor always
+		complained that he had too many other irons in
+		the fire.�</p>
+
+		<p>“He did, <em>did</em> he?� Mr. Bates wanted to know, fixing
+		accusing eyes on Bobby. “Then don’t be the fall
+		guy for any other touting. Your old man knew this
+		business dope from Sheepshead Bay to Oakland. You
+		take it from me that this tip ain’t the one best bet.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page89" title="89"> </a>Bobby left the gymnasium with a certain degree of
+		dissatisfaction, not only with Mr. Applerod’s scheme
+		but with the fact that wherever he went his father’s
+		business wisdom was thrown into his teeth. That evening,
+		drawn to the atmosphere into which events had
+		plunged him, he dined at the Traders’ Club. As he
+		passed one of the tables Silas Trimmer leered up at
+		him with the circular smile, which, bisected by a row
+		of yellow teeth and hooded with a bristle of stubby
+		mustache, had now come to aggravate him almost past
+		endurance. To-night it made him approach his dinner
+		with vexation, and, failing to find the man he had
+		sought, he finished hastily. As he went out, Silas
+		Trimmer, though looking straight in his direction,
+		did not seem to be at all aware of Bobby’s approach.
+		He was deep in a business discussion with his priggish
+		son-in-law.</p>
+
+		<p>“It’s a great opportunity,� he was loudly insisting.
+		“If I can secure that land I’ll drain and improve it
+		and cut it up into building lots. This city is ripe for
+		a suburban boom.�</p>
+
+		<p>That settled it with Bobby. No matter what arguments
+		there might be to the contrary, if Silas Trimmer
+		had his eye on that piece of property, Bobby
+		wanted it.</p>
+
+		<p>Applerod, though eagerness brought him early,
+		had no sooner entered the study next morning than
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page90" title="90"> </a>Bobby, who was already dressed for business and who
+		had his machine standing outside the door, met him
+		briskly.</p>
+
+		<p>“Keep your hat on, Applerod,� he ordered. “We’ll
+		go right around and buy the rest of that property at
+		once.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I thought those figures I left last night would
+		convince you,� beamed Mr. Applerod.</p>
+
+		<p>There is no describing the delight and pride with
+		which that highly-gratified gentleman followed the
+		energetic young Mr. Burnit to the curb, nor the dignity
+		with which, a few minutes later, he led the way
+		into the office of one Thorne, real-estate dealer.</p>
+
+		<p>“Mr. Thorne, Mr. Robert Burnit,� said Mr. Applerod,
+		hastening straight to business. “Mr. Burnit
+		has come around to close the deal for that Westmarsh
+		property.�</p>
+
+		<p>Mr. Thorne was suavity itself as he shook hands
+		with Mr. Burnit, but the most aching regret was in
+		his tone as he spoke.</p>
+
+		<p>“I’m very sorry indeed, Mr. Burnit,� he stated;
+		“but that property, which, by the way, seems very
+		much in demand, passed out of my hands yesterday
+		afternoon.�</p>
+
+		<p>“To whom?� Mr. Applerod excitedly wanted to
+		know. “I think you might have let us have time to
+		turn around, Thorne. I spoke about it to you yesterday
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page91" title="91"> </a>morning, you know, and said that I felt quite
+		hopeful Mr. Burnit would buy it.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I know,� said Mr. Thorne, politely but coldly;
+		“and I told you at the time we talked about it that
+		I never hold anything in the face of a bona fide
+		offer.�</p>
+
+		<p>“But who has it?� Bobby insisted, more eager now
+		to get it, since it had slipped away from him, than
+		ever before.</p>
+
+		<p>“The larger portion of it, the ninety-two acres adjoining
+		Mr. Applerod’s twenty,� Mr. Thorne advised
+		him, “was taken up by Miles, Eddy and Company.
+		The north eight acres are owned by Mr. Silas Trimmer,
+		and I am quite positive, from what Mr. Trimmer
+		told me, not two hours later, that this parcel is
+		not for sale.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby’s heart sank. Eight acres of that land had
+		already been gobbled up by Silas Trimmer, and, no
+		doubt, that astute and energetic business gentleman
+		was now after the balance.</p>
+
+		<p>“Where is the office of Miles, Eddy and Company?�
+		Bobby asked, with a crispness that pleased him tremendously
+		as he used it.</p>
+
+		<p>“Twenty-six Plum Street,� Mr. Thorne advised
+		him.</p>
+
+		<p>“Thanks,� said Bobby, and whirled out of the door,
+		followed by the disconsolate Applerod.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page92" title="92"> </a>At the office of Miles, Eddy and Company better
+		luck awaited them.</p>
+
+		<p>Yes, that firm had secured possession of the Westmarsh
+		ninety-two acres. Yes, the property was listed
+		for sale, having been bought strictly for speculative
+		purposes. And its figure? The price was now three
+		hundred dollars per acre.</p>
+
+		<p>“I’ll take it,� said Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>There was positive triumph in his voice as he announced
+		this decision. He would show Silas Trimmer
+		that he was awake at last, that he was not to be beaten
+		in every deal.</p>
+
+		<p>“Twenty-seven thousand six hundred dollars,� said
+		Bobby, figuring the amount on a pad he picked up
+		from Mr. Eddy’s desk. “Very well. Allow me to use
+		your telephone a moment. Mr. Chalmers,� directed
+		Bobby when he had his new lawyer on the wire,
+		“kindly get into communication with Miles, Eddy
+		and Company and look up the title on ninety-two
+		acres of Westmarsh property which they have for
+		sale. If the title is clear the price is to be three hundred
+		dollars per acre, for which amount you will have
+		a check, payable to your order, within half an hour.�</p>
+
+		<p>Then to Johnson—biting his pen-handle in Bobby’s
+		study and wondering where his principal and Applerod
+		could be at this hour—he telephoned to deliver a
+		check in the amount of twenty-seven thousand six
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page93" title="93"> </a>hundred dollars to Mr. Chalmers. Never, since he had
+		been plunged into “business,� had Bobby been so
+		elated with himself as when he walked from the office
+		of Miles, Eddy and Company; and, to keep up the
+		good work, as soon as he reached the hall he turned
+		to Applerod with a crisp, ringing voice, which was
+		the product of that elation.</p>
+
+		<p>“Now for an engineer,� he said.</p>
+
+		<p>“Already as good as secured,� Mr. Applerod announced,
+		triumphant that every necessity had been
+		anticipated. “Jimmy Platt, son of an old neighbor of
+		mine. Fine, smart boy, and knows all about the Westmarsh
+		proposition. Bless you, I figured on this with
+		him every vacation during his schooling!�</p>
+
+		<p>An hour later, Bobby, Mr. Applerod and the secretly
+		jubilant Jimmy Platt had sped out Westmarsh
+		way, and were inspecting the hundred and twelve acres
+		of swamp which the new firm of Burnit and Applerod
+		held between them.</p>
+
+		<p>“It’s a fine job,� said the young engineer, coveting
+		anew the tremendous task as he bent upon it an admiring
+		professional eye. “This time next year you
+		won’t recognize the place. It’s a noble thing, Mr.
+		Burnit, to turn an utterly useless stretch of swamp
+		like this into habitable land. Have you secured the
+		entire tract?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Unfortunately, no,� Bobby confessed with a
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page94" title="94"> </a>frown. “The extreme north eight acres are owned
+		by another party.�</p>
+
+		<p>“And when you drain your property,� mused
+		Jimmy, smiling, “you will drain his.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Not if I can help it,� declared Bobby emphatically.</p>
+
+		<p>“You must come to some arrangement before you
+		begin,� warned the engineer with the severe professional
+		authority common to the quite young. Already,
+		however, he was trying to grow regulation engineer’s
+		whiskers; also he immediately planned to get married
+		upon the proceeds of this big job, which, after
+		years of chimerical dreaming, had become too real,
+		almost, to be believed. “Perhaps you could get the
+		owner to stand his proportionate share of the expense
+		of drainage.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby smiled at the suggestion but made no other
+		answer. He knew Silas Trimmer, or thought that he
+		did, and the idea of Silas bearing a portion of a huge
+		expense like this, when he could not be forced to
+		shoulder it, struck him as distinctly humorous.</p>
+	</div>
+	<div id="chapter_9" class="chapter"><a class="pagenum" id="page95" title="95"> </a>
+		<h2 class="chapter_title"><span class="chapter_number">CHAPTER IX</span><br />
+
+			AGNES DELIVERS BOBBY A NOTE FROM OLD JOHN
+			BURNIT—IN A GRAY ENVELOPE</h2>
+
+		<p>That night, at the Traders’ Club, Bobby was
+		surprised when Mr. Trimmer walked over to
+		his table and dropped his pudgy trunk and
+		his lean limbs into a chair beside him. His yellow
+		countenance was creased with ingratiating wrinkles,
+		and the smile behind his immovable mustache became
+		of perfectly flawless circumference as his muddy black
+		eyes peered at Bobby through thick spectacles. It
+		seemed to Bobby that there was malice in the wrinkles
+		about those eyes, but the address of Mr. Trimmer was
+		most conciliatory.</p>
+
+		<p>“I have a fuss to pick with you, young man,� he
+		said with clumsy joviality. “You beat me upon the
+		purchase of that Westmarsh property. Very shrewd,
+		indeed, Mr. Burnit; very like your father. I suppose
+		that now, if I wanted to buy it from you, I’d have to
+		pay you a pretty advance.� And he rubbed his hands
+		as if to invite the opening of negotiations.</p>
+
+		<p>“It is not for sale,� said Bobby, stiffening; “but I
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page96" title="96"> </a>might consider a proposition to buy your eight acres.�
+		He offered this suggestion with reluctance, for he had
+		no mind to enter transactions of any sort with Silas
+		Trimmer. Still, he recalled to himself with a sudden
+		yielding to duty, business is business, and his father
+		would probably have waved all personal considerations
+		aside at such a point.</p>
+
+		<p>“Mine <em>is</em> for sale,� offered Silas, a trifle too eagerly,
+		Bobby thought.</p>
+
+		<p>“How much?� he asked.</p>
+
+		<p>“A thousand dollars an acre.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I won’t pay it,� declared Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“Well,� replied Mr. Trimmer with a deepening of
+		that circular smile which Bobby now felt sure was
+		maliciously sarcastic, “by the time it is drained it
+		will be worth that to any purchaser.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Suppose we drain it,� suggested Bobby, holding
+		both his temper and his business object remarkably
+		well in hand. “Will you stand your share of the
+		cost?�</p>
+
+		<p>“It strikes me as an entirely unnecessary expense
+		at present,� said Silas and smiled again.</p>
+
+		<p>“Then it won’t be drained,� snapped Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>Later in the evening he caught Silas laughing at
+		him, his shoulders heaving and every yellow fang
+		protruding. The next morning, keeping earlier hours
+		than ever before in his life, Bobby was waiting outside
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page97" title="97"> </a>Jimmy Platt’s door when that gentleman started
+		to work.</p>
+
+		<p>“The first thing you do,� he directed, still with a
+		memory of that aggravating laugh, “I want you to
+		build a cement wall straight across the north end of
+		my Westmarsh property.�</p>
+
+		<p>Mr. Platt smiled and shook his head.</p>
+
+		<p>“Evidently you can not buy that north eight acres,
+		and don’t intend to drain it,� he commented, stroking
+		sagely the sparse beginning of those slow professional
+		whiskers. “It’s your affair, of course, Mr. Burnit,
+		but I am quite sure that spite work in engineering can
+		not be made to pay.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Nevertheless,� insisted Bobby, “we’ll build that
+		wall.�</p>
+
+		<p>The previous afternoon Jimmy Platt had made a
+		scale drawing of the property from city surveys, and
+		now the two went over it carefully, discussing it in
+		various phases for fully an hour, proving estimates
+		of cost and general feasibility. At the conclusion of
+		that time Bobby, well pleased with his own practical
+		manner of looking into things, telephoned to Johnson
+		and asked for Applerod. Mr. Applerod had not yet
+		arrived.</p>
+
+		<p>“Very well,� said Bobby, “when he comes have him
+		step out and secure suitable offices for us,� and this
+		detail despatched he went out with his engineer to
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page98" title="98"> </a>make a circuit of the property and study its drainage
+		possibilities.</p>
+
+		<p>From profiles that Platt had made they found the
+		swamp at its upper point to be much lower than the
+		level of the river, which ran beyond low hills nearly
+		a mile away; but the river made a detour, including a
+		considerable fall, coming back again to within a scant
+		half-mile of the southern end of the tract, where it
+		was much lower than the marsh. Between marsh and
+		river at the south was an immense hill, too steep and
+		rugged for any practical purpose, and this they
+		scaled.</p>
+
+		<p>The west end of the city lay before them crowding
+		close to the river bank, and already its tentacles
+		had crept around and over the hills and on past
+		Westmarsh tract. Young Platt looked from river to
+		swamp, his eyes glowing over the possibilities that lay
+		before them.</p>
+
+		<p>“Mr. Burnit,� he announced, after a gravity of
+		thought which he strove his best to make take the
+		place of experience, “you ought to be able to buy this
+		hill very cheaply. Just through here we’ll construct
+		our drainage channel, and with the excavation fill your
+		marsh. It is one of the neatest opportunities I have
+		ever seen, and I want to congratulate you upon your
+		shrewdness in having picked out such a splendid investment.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page99" title="99"> </a>This, Bobby felt, was praise from Cæsar, and he
+		was correspondingly elated.</p>
+
+		<p>He did not return to the study until in the afternoon.
+		He found Johnson livid with abhorrence of
+		Applerod’s gaudy metamorphosis. That gentleman
+		wore a black frock-coat, a flowered gray waistcoat,
+		pin-striped light trousers, shining new shoes, sported
+		a gold-headed cane, and on the table was the glistening
+		new silk hat which had reposed upon his snow-white
+		curls. His pink face was beaming as he rose
+		to greet his partner.</p>
+
+		<p>“Mr. Burnit,� said he, shaking hands with almost
+		trembling gravity and importance, “this day
+		is the apex of my life, and I’m happy to have the
+		son of my old and revered employer as my partner.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I hope that it may prove fortunate for both of
+		us,� replied Bobby, repressing his smile at the acquisition
+		of the “make-up� which Applerod had for years
+		aspired to wear legitimately.</p>
+
+		<p>Johnson, humped over the desk that had once been
+		Bobby’s father’s, snorted and looked up at the stern
+		portrait of old John Burnit; then he drew from the
+		index-file which he had already placed upon the back
+		of that desk a gray-tinted envelope which he handed
+		to Bobby with a silence that was more eloquent than
+		words. It was inscribed:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="envelope">
+			<p><a class="pagenum" id="page100" title="100"> </a>To my Son if he is Fool Enough to Take up With
+				Applerod’s Swamp Scheme</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p>Rather impatiently Bobby tore it open, and on the
+		inside he found:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="letter">
+			<p>“When shrewd men persist in passing up an apparently
+			cinch proposition, don’t even try to find out
+			what’s the matter with it. In this six-cylinder age no
+			really good opportunity runs loose for twenty-four
+			hours.�</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p>“If the governor had only arranged to leave me
+		his advice beforehand instead of afterward,� Bobby
+		complained to Agnes Elliston that evening, “it might
+		have a chance at me.�</p>
+
+		<p>“The blow has fallen,� said Agnes with mock seriousness;
+		“but you must remember that you brought
+		it on yourself. You have complained to <em>me</em> of your
+		father’s carefully-laid plans for your course in progressive
+		bankruptcy, and he left in my keeping a letter
+		for you covering that very point.�</p>
+
+		<p>“<em>Not</em> in a gray envelope, I hope,� groaned Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“<em>In</em> a gray envelope,� she replied firmly, going
+		across to her own desk in the library.</p>
+
+		<p>“I had feared,� said Bobby dismally, “that sooner
+		or later I should find he had left letters for me in
+		your charge as well as in Johnson’s, but I had hoped,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page101" title="101"> </a>if that were the case, that at least they would be in
+		pink envelopes.�</p>
+
+		<p>She brought to him one of the familiar-looking missives,
+		and Bobby, as he took it, looked speculatively
+		at the big fireplace, in which, as it was early fall, comfortable-looking
+		real logs were crackling.</p>
+
+		<p>“Don’t do it, Bobby,� she warned him smiling.
+		“Let’s have the fun together,� and she sat beside him
+		on the couch, snuggling close.</p>
+
+		<p>The envelope was addressed:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="envelope">
+			<p>To My Son Upon his Complaining that His Father’s
+				Advice Comes too Late!</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p>He opened it, and together they read:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="letter">
+			<p>“No boy will believe green apples hurt him until he
+			gets the stomach-ache. Knowing you to be truly my
+			son, I am sure that if I gave you advice beforehand
+			you would not believe it. This way you will.�</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p>Bobby smiled grimly.</p>
+
+		<p>“I remember one painful incident of about the time
+		I put on knickerbockers,� he mused. “Father told me
+		to keep away from a rat-trap that he had bought. Of
+		course I caught my hand in it three minutes afterward.
+		It hurt and I howled, but he only looked at me
+		coldly until at last I asked him to help. He let the
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page102" title="102"> </a>thing squeeze while he asked if a rat-trap hurt. I
+		admitted that it did. Would I believe him next time?
+		I acknowledged that I would, and he opened the trap.
+		That was all there was to it except the raw place on
+		my hand; but that night he came to my room after
+		I had gone to bed, and lay beside me and cuddled me
+		in his arms until I went to sleep.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Bobby,� said Agnes seriously, “not one of these
+		letters but proves his aching love for you.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I know it,� admitted Bobby with again that grim
+		smile. “Which only goes to prove another thing, that
+		I’m in for some of the severest drubbings of my life.
+		I wonder where the clubs are hidden.�</p>
+
+		<p>He found one of them late that same night at
+		the Idlers’. Clarence Smythe, Silas Trimmer’s son-in-law,
+		drifted in toward the wee small hours in an unusual
+		condition of hilarity. He had a Vandyke, had
+		Mr. Smythe, and was one who cherished a mad passion
+		for clothes; also, as an utterly impossible
+		“climber,� he was as cordially hated as Bobby was
+		liked at the Idlers’, where he had crept in “while the
+		window was open,� as Nick Allstyne expressed it.
+		Ordinarily he was most prim and pretty of manner,
+		but to-night he was on vinously familiar terms with all
+		the world, and, crowding himself upon Bobby’s quiet
+		whist crowd, slapped Bobby joyously on the shoulder.</p>
+
+		<p>“Generous lad, Bobby!� he thickly informed Allstyne
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page103" title="103"> </a>and Winthrop and Starlett. “If you chaps have
+		any property you’ve wanted to unload for half a lifetime,
+		here’s the free-handed plunger to buy it.�</p>
+
+		<p>“How’s that?� Bobby wanted to know, guessing instantly
+		at the humiliating truth.</p>
+
+		<p>“That Westmarsh swamp belonged to Trimmer,�
+		laughed Mr. Smythe, so bubbling with the hugeness
+		of the joke that he could not keep his secret; “and
+		when Thorne, after pumping your puffy man, told
+		my clever father-in-law you wanted it, he promptly
+		bought it from himself in the name of Miles, Eddy
+		and Company and put up the price to three hundred
+		an acre. Besides taking the property off his shoulders
+		you’ve given him nearly a ten-thousand-dollar advance
+		for it. Fine business!�</p>
+
+		<p>“Great!� agreed blunt Jack Starlett. “Almost as
+		good a joke as refusing to pay a poker debt because
+		it isn’t legal.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby smiled his thanks for the shot, but inside he
+		was sick. The game they were playing was a parting
+		set-to, for the three others were leaving in the morning
+		for Stanley’s hunt, but Bobby was glad when it
+		was over. In the big, lonely house he sat in the study
+		for an hour before he went to bed, looking abstractedly
+		up at the picture of old John Burnit and worrying
+		over this new development. It cut him to the quick,
+		not so much that he had been made a fool of by
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page104" title="104"> </a>“clever� real-estate men, had been led, imbecile-like,
+		to pay an extra hundred dollars per acre for that
+		swamp land, but that the advantage had gone to Silas
+		Trimmer.</p>
+
+		<p>Moreover, why had Silas put a prohibitive valuation
+		upon that north eight acres? Why did he want
+		to keep it? It must be because Silas really expected
+		that his tract would be drained free of charge, and
+		that he would thus have the triumph of selling it for
+		an approximate six thousand dollars an acre in the
+		form of building lots. In the face of such a conclusion,
+		the thought of the cement wall that he had ordered
+		built was a great satisfaction.</p>
+
+		<p>It was a remarkably open winter that followed, and
+		outdoor operations could thereby go on uninterrupted.
+		In the office, the pompous Applerod, in
+		his frock-coat and silk hat, ground Johnson’s soul to
+		gall dust; for he had taken to saying “<em>Mr.</em> Johnson�
+		most formally, and issuing directions with maddening
+		politeness and consideration. An arrangement had
+		been effected with Applerod, whereby that gentleman,
+		for having suggested the golden opportunity, was to
+		reap the entire benefit of the improvement on his own
+		twenty acres, Bobby financing the whole deal and
+		charging Applerod’s share of it against his account.
+		Applerod stood thereby to gain about seventy-six
+		thousand dollars over and above the price he had paid
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page105" title="105"> </a>for his twenty acres; and, moreover, <em>Bobby had decided
+		to call the improved tract the Applerod Addition</em>!
+		When that name began to appear in print,
+		coupled with flaming advertisements of Applerod’s
+		devising, there was grave danger of the rosy-cheeked
+		old gentleman’s losing every button from every fancy
+		vest in his possession.</p>
+
+		<p>In the meantime, thoroughly in love with the vast
+		enterprise which he had projected, Bobby spent his
+		time outdoors, fascinated, unable to find any peace
+		elsewhere than upon his Titanic labor. His evenings
+		he spent in such social affairs as he could not avoid;
+		with Agnes Elliston; with Biff Bates; in an occasional
+		game of billiards at the Idlers’; but his days,
+		from early morning until the evening whistle, he spent
+		amid the clang of pick and shovel, the rattling of the
+		trams, the creaking of the crane. It was an absorbing
+		thing to see that enormous groove cut down through
+		the big hill, and to watch the growth of the great
+		mounds which grew up out of the marsh. The ditch
+		that should drain off all this murky water was, of
+		course, the first thing to be achieved, and, from the
+		base of the hill through which it was to be cut, the
+		engineer ran a tram bridge straight across the swamp
+		to the new retaining wall; and from this, with the aid
+		of a huge, long-armed crane which lifted cars bodily
+		from the track, the soil was dumped on either side as
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page106" title="106"> </a>it was removed from the cut. By the latter part of
+		December the ditch had been completed and connected
+		with the special sewer which, by permission of the
+		city, had been built to carry the overflow to the river,
+		and, the open weather still holding, the stagnant pool
+		which had been a blot upon the landscape for untold
+		ages began to flow sluggishly away, displaced by the
+		earth from the disappearing hill.</p>
+
+		<p>The city papers were teeming now with the vast
+		energy and public-spirited enterprise of young Robert
+		Burnit and Oliver P. Applerod, and there were
+		many indications that the enterprise was to be a most
+		successful one. Even before they were ready to receive
+		them, applications were daily made for reservations
+		in the new district, and individual home-seekers
+		began to take Sunday trips out to where the big undertaking
+		was in progress.</p>
+
+		<p>“You sure have got ’em going, Bobby,� confessed
+		the finally-convinced Biff Bates after a visit of inspection.
+		“Here’s where you put the hornet on one
+		Silas Tight-Wad Trimmer all right, all right. But
+		the bones don’t roll right that the side bet don’t go
+		for Johnson instead of Applegoat. He’s a shine, for
+		me. I think he’s all to the canary color inside, but
+		this man Johnson’s some man if he only had a shell
+		to put it in. Me for him!�</p>
+
+		<p>The unexpressed friendship that had sprung up
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page107" title="107"> </a>between the taciturn bookkeeper and the loquacious
+		ex-pugilist was both a puzzle and a delight to Bobby,
+		and it was one of his great joys to see them together,
+		they not knowing why they liked such companionship,
+		not having a single topic of conversation in common,
+		but unconsciously enjoying that vague, sympathetic
+		man-soul they found in each other.</p>
+	</div>
+	<div id="chapter_10" class="chapter"><a class="pagenum" id="page108" title="108"> </a>
+		<h2 class="chapter_title"><span class="chapter_number">CHAPTER X</span><br />
+			AGNES AND BOBBY DISCERN DIAMOND-STUDDED SPURS
+			FOR THE LATTER</h2>
+
+		<p><span class="first_word">About</span> the first of February the filling and
+		grading were finished and the construction
+		of the streets began, and the middle of
+		March saw the final disappearance of everything, except
+		that dark, eight-acre spot of Silas Trimmer’s,
+		which might remind one of the tract once known as
+		the Westmarsh. In its place lay a broad, yellow
+		checker-board, formed by intersecting streets of asphalt
+		edged with cement pavements, and in the center,
+		at the crossing of broad Burnit and Applerod
+		Avenues, there arose, over a spot where once frogs
+		had croaked and mosquitoes clustered in crowds, a
+		pretty club-house, which was later to be donated to
+		the suburb; and a great satisfaction fell upon the
+		soul of Bobby Burnit like a benediction.</p>
+
+		<p>Also one Oliver P. Applerod added two full inches
+		to his strut. He seldom came out to the scene of actual
+		operations, for there was none there except workmen
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page109" title="109"> </a>to see his frock-coat and silk hat; but occasionally,
+		from a sense of duty inextricably mingled with self-assertiveness,
+		he paid a visit of inspection, and upon
+		one of these his eyes were confronted by a huge new
+		board sign, visible for half a mile, that overlooked
+		the Applerod Addition from the hills to the north.
+		It bore but two words: “Trimmer’s Addition.� Applerod,
+		holding his broadcloth tight about him to keep
+		it from yellow contamination as a car rumbled by,
+		looked and wiped his glasses and looked again, then,
+		highly excited, he called Bobby to him.</p>
+
+		<p>“Why didn’t you tell me of this?� he demanded,
+		pointing to the sign.</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby, happy in sweater and high boots and liberal
+		decorations of clay, only laughed.</p>
+
+		<p>“The sign went up only yesterday,� he stated.</p>
+
+		<p>“But it is competition. Unfair competition! He is
+		stealing our thunder,� protested Applerod.</p>
+
+		<p>“He has a perfect right to lay out a subdivision if
+		he wants,� said Bobby. “But don’t worry, Applerod.
+		I’ve been over there and the thing is a joke. The tract
+		is one-fourth the size of ours, it is uphill and downhill,
+		only a little grading is being done, streets are
+		cut through but not paved, and a few cheap board
+		sidewalks are being put down. He’s had to pay a lot
+		more for his land than we have, and can not sell his
+		lots any cheaper.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page110" title="110"> </a>“There’s no telling what Silas Trimmer will do,�
+		said Applerod, shaking his head.</p>
+
+		<p>“Nonsense,� said Bobby; “there is no chance that
+		people will pass by our lots and buy one of his.�</p>
+
+		<p>Applerod walked away unconvinced. Had it been
+		any one else than Silas Trimmer who had set up this
+		opposition he would not have minded so much, but
+		Applerod had come to have a mighty fear of John
+		Burnit’s ancient enemy, and presently he came back
+		to Bobby more panic-stricken than ever.</p>
+
+		<p>“I’m going to sell my interest in the Applerod Addition
+		the minute I find a buyer,� he declared, “and
+		I’d advise you to do the same.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Don’t be foolish,� counseled Bobby, frowning.
+		“You <em>can’t</em> lose.�</p>
+
+		<p>“But man!� quavered Applerod. “I have four
+		thousand dollars of my own cash, all I’ve been able
+		to scrape together in a lifetime, tied up in this thing,
+		and I <em>mustn’t</em> lose!�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby regarded his father’s old confidential clerk
+		more in sorrow than in anger. He was not used to
+		dealing with men of any age so utterly lacking in
+		gameness.</p>
+
+		<p>“Four thousand,� he repeated, then he looked across
+		his big checker-board. “I’ll give you ten thousand
+		for it right now.�</p>
+
+		<p>“What!� objected Applerod, aghast. “Why, Burnit,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page111" title="111"> </a>the work is nearly done and I have already in sight
+		seventy-six thousand dollars of clear profit over my
+		investment.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby did not remind Applerod that his four thousand
+		dollars represented only a trifling part of the
+		investment required to yield this seventy-six thousand
+		dollars’ profit. Yet, after all, there was no flaw in
+		Applerod’s commercial reasoning.</p>
+
+		<p>“I didn’t expect you to accept it,� replied Bobby.
+		“If you were determined to get out, however, you’ve
+		had an offer of six thousand profit, with no risk.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I’d be crazy,� declared Applerod. “I can get a
+		better price than that.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby was thoughtful for an hour after Applerod
+		had left him; then he hurried into the club-house and
+		telephoned to Chalmers. This was in the forenoon.
+		In the afternoon Applerod was served with an injunction
+		based upon an indivisibility of interest, restraining
+		him from disposing of his share; and in his
+		anger he let it slip out that he had already been trying
+		to open negotiations with Trimmer!</p>
+
+		<p>“Honestly, it hurts!� said Bobby wearily, telling
+		of the incident to Agnes that night. “I didn’t know
+		there were so many unsportsmanlike people.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I think that is precisely what your father wanted
+		you to find out,� she observed.</p>
+
+		<p>“I don’t want to know it,� protested Bobby. “I’d
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page112" title="112"> </a>stay much happier to believe that everybody in the
+		world was of the right sort.�</p>
+
+		<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+		<p>“No, Bobby,� she said gently; “you have to know
+		that there is the other kind, in order properly to appreciate
+		truth and honor and loyalty.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I could almost believe I was in a Sunday-school
+		class,� grinned Bobby. “No wonder it’s snowing.�</p>
+
+		<p>Agnes looked out of the window with a cry of delight.
+		Those floating flakes were the very first snow
+		of the season; but they were by no means the last.
+		The winter, delayed, but apparently all the more violent
+		for that very reason, burst suddenly upon the
+		city, stopping the finishing touches on both suburban
+		additions. Came rain and sleet and snow, and rain
+		and sleet and snow again, then biting cold that sank
+		deep into the ground and sealed it as if with a crust
+		of iron. March, that had come in like a lamb, went
+		out like a lion, and the lion raged through April and
+		into May. Then, as suddenly as it had come, the
+		belated winter passed away and the warm sun beat
+		down upon the snow-clad hills and swept them clean.
+		It penetrated into the valleys and turned them into
+		rivulets, thousands of which poured into the river and
+		swelled its banks brimming full. The streets of the
+		Applerod Addition were quickly washed with their
+		own white covering and dried, and immediately with
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page113" title="113"> </a>this break-up began the great advertising campaign.
+		The papers flamed with full-page and half-page announcements
+		of the wonderful home-making opportunity;
+		circulars were mailed to possible home-buyers
+		by the hundred thousand; every street-car told of the
+		bargain on striking cards; immense electric signs
+		blazoned the project by night; sixteen-sheet posters
+		were spread upon all the bill-boards, and every device
+		known to expert advertising was requisitioned.
+		Not one soul within the city or within a radius of fifty
+		miles but had kept constantly before him the duty he
+		owed to himself to purchase a lot in the marvelous
+		Applerod Addition; and now indeed Oliver P. Applerod,
+		reassured once more, began to reap the fruit of
+		his life’s ambitions as prospective buyers thronged
+		to look at his frock-coat and silk hat.</p>
+
+		<p>June the first was set for the date of the “grand
+		opening,� and though it was not to be a month of
+		roses, still the earth looked bright and gay as the time
+		approached, and Bobby Burnit took Agnes out to
+		view his coming triumph. This was upon a bright day
+		toward the end of May, when those yellow squares
+		were tempered to a golden green by the tender young
+		grass that had been sown at the completion of the
+		grading. She had made frequent visits with him
+		through the winter, and now she gloried with him.</p>
+
+		<p>“It looks fine, Bobby,� she confessed with glowing
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page114" title="114"> </a>eyes. “Fine! It really seems as if you had won your
+		spurs.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Diamond-studded ones!� he exulted. “Why,
+		Agnes, the office is besieged with requests for allotments.
+		In spite of the fact that we have over eleven
+		hundred lots for sale at an average price of six hundred
+		dollars, we’re not going to have enough to go
+		around. The receipts will be fully seven hundred thousand
+		dollars, and our complete disbursements, by the
+		time we have sold out, will not amount to over two
+		hundred and twenty-five thousand. Of course, I don’t
+		know—I haven’t asked, and you wouldn’t tell me if I
+		did—just by what promises you are bound, but when
+		I close up this deal you’re going to marry me! That’s
+		flat!�</p>
+
+		<p>“You mustn’t be too sure of anything in this world,
+		Bobby,� she warned him, but she turned upon him a
+		smile that made her words but idle breath.</p>
+	</div>
+	<div id="chapter_11" class="chapter"><a class="pagenum" id="page115" title="115"> </a>
+		<h2 class="chapter_title"><span class="chapter_number">CHAPTER XI</span><br />
+			BOBBY DISCOVERS AN ENEMY GREATER THAN SILAS
+			TRIMMER</h2>
+
+		<p><span class="first_word">One</span> circumstance only had occurred to give
+		Bobby any anxiety. With the beginning of
+		the thaw the water in Silas Trimmer’s eight
+		acres had begun slowly to rise, and he saw with some
+		dismay that by far the larger part of the great natural
+		basin from which the surface water had been
+		supplied to this swamp sloped from the northern end.
+		Not having that expanse of one hundred and twenty
+		acres to spread over, it might overflow, and in considerable
+		trepidation he sought Jimmy Platt. That
+		happy young gentleman only smiled.</p>
+
+		<p>“I calculated upon that,� he informed Bobby, “and
+		built your retaining wall two feet higher than the
+		normal spring level for that very reason. It will carry
+		all the water than can shed down from those hills.�</p>
+
+		<p>Relieved, Bobby went ahead with the preparations
+		for turning the Applerod Addition into money, and
+		though he saw the water creeping up steadily against
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page116" title="116"> </a>the other side of his wall, he displayed no anxiety
+		until it had reached within three or four inches of the
+		top. Then he took Platt out with him to have a look
+		at it.</p>
+
+		<p>“Don’t you think you ought to get busy?� he inquired.
+		“Hadn’t we better add another foot to this
+		wall?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Not necessary,� said Jimmy, shaking his head
+		positively. “This has been an unusual spring, but the
+		wet weather is all over now, and you can see by the
+		water-mark where the level has gone down a half inch
+		since morning. All the moisture that has been trickling
+		down here during the past week has been from
+		the thawing out of the frozen hillsides, but those
+		slopes are almost dust dry now.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Suppose it should rain again?� insisted Bobby,
+		still worried.</p>
+
+		<p>“It couldn’t rain hard enough to fill up these four
+		inches,� declared Platt with decision. “Look here, Mr.
+		Burnit, I’d worry myself if there was any cause whatever.
+		Do you suppose I’d want anything to happen
+		to my biggest and best job so close to my wedding-day?�</p>
+
+		<p>“So you’ve set the time,� said Bobby, with eager
+		pleasure. He had met Platt’s “best girl� and her
+		mother out at the Addition, and liked her, as he did
+		earnest young Platt.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page117" title="117"> </a>“June the first,� replied Jimmy exultantly. “The
+		date of your opening—in the evening.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Don’t forget to send me an invitation.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Will you come?� said Platt. He had wanted to ask
+		Bobby before, but had not been quite sure that he
+		ought.</p>
+
+		<p>“Come!� replied Bobby. “Indeed I shall—unless I
+		happen to have a wedding of my own on that date.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby went away satisfied once more, and quite
+		willing to give up the additional foot of wall. The
+		work would entail considerable cost, and expense now
+		was much more of an item than it had been a few
+		months previously. Already he had spent upon this
+		project over two hundred and ten thousand dollars;
+		ten thousand he had given to Biff Bates; ten thousand
+		he had used personally, so there was but an insignificant
+		portion left of his two hundred and fifty thousand
+		dollars. Their “grand opening� would eat up
+		another tidy little sum, for it was to be an expensive
+		affair. The liberal advertising that had already appeared
+		was augmented as the great day approached,
+		a brass band had been engaged, a magnificent lunch,
+		sufficient to feed an army, had been arranged for, and
+		every available ‘bus and carry-all and picnic wagon
+		in the city had been secured to transport all comers,
+		free of charge, from the end of the car line to the new
+		Addition. The price of vehicles was high, however,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page118" title="118"> </a>for Silas Trimmer had already engaged quite a number
+		of them to run between the Applerod Addition
+		and his own. During the week preceding June first,
+		there had appeared, in the local papers, advertisements
+		of about one-fourth the size that Bobby was
+		using, calling attention to the opening of the Trimmer
+		Addition, which was to be upon the same date.</p>
+
+		<p>On the evening of May twenty-ninth, Bobby found
+		Silas pacing the top of the retaining wall which held
+		in his swamp, and waited for the spider-like figure to
+		come across and join him.</p>
+
+		<p>“Too bad you didn’t come in with me, or sell me
+		your property at a reasonable figure,� said Bobby
+		affably, willing, in spite of his recent bitter experience,
+		to meet his competitor upon the same friendly
+		grounds that he would a crack polo antagonist on the
+		eve of contest. “It’s a shame that this could not all
+		have been improved at one time.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I’d just as lief have my part of it the way it is,�
+		said Silas. “It’s no good now, but it’s as good as
+		yours,� and he climbed into his buggy and drove
+		away laughing, leaving Bobby strangely dissatisfied
+		and doubtful over that strange remark.</p>
+
+		<p>While he was still trying to unravel it, he noted
+		that the water in Silas’ pond, which but a day or so
+		previously had been down to fully nine inches from
+		the top, was now climbing rapidly upward again; and
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page119" title="119"> </a>there had been no rain for more than two weeks! The
+		thing was inexplicable. He was still puzzling over
+		this as he drove down the road and turned in at broad
+		Burnit Avenue toward the club-house. The asphalt
+		and the pavements were bone dry and as clean as a
+		ball-room floor, and it seemed to him that the young
+		grass was growing greener and higher here than anywhere.</p>
+
+		<p>Suddenly he ordered his chauffeur to stop the machine.
+		He had just passed a lot where, amid the tufts
+		of green, his eye had caught the glint of water. Running
+		back to it he saw that the center of that lot was
+		covered by a small pool scarcely half an inch deep,
+		through which the grass was growing dankly. This,
+		too, was queer, for the hot sun and strong breeze of
+		the past few days should have dried up every vestige
+		of moisture. He walked along the sidewalk, studying
+		each of the lots in turn. Here and there he discovered
+		other small pools, and every lot bore the appearance
+		of having just been freshly and too liberally watered.
+		He stepped from the pavement upon the earth, and
+		to his surprise his foot sank into it to the depth of
+		an inch or more. For a while he was deeply worried,
+		but presently it flashed upon him that all this soil had
+		been dumped into the marsh, displacing the water,
+		and that in this process it had naturally become
+		soaked through and through. Of course it would take
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page120" title="120"> </a>a long time to dry out and it would be all the better
+		for its moisture. The rate at which grass was growing
+		was proof enough of that.</p>
+
+		<p>On the next day, kept busy by the preparations for
+		the big opening, Bobby did not get out to the Applerod
+		Addition until evening again. As he neared it he
+		met Silas Trimmer coming back in his buck-board,
+		that false circle around his mouth very much in evidence.</p>
+
+		<p>“You ought to have had your opening yesterday.
+		I’d have been tempted to buy a lot myself then,�
+		shouted Silas as he passed, and Bobby was sure that
+		the tone was a mocking one.</p>
+
+		<p>Consumed with anxiety, he hurried on to see how
+		Silas’ swamp stood. Aghast, he found the level of the
+		water a full inch higher than any point that it had
+		ever before reached. Connecting this condition
+		vaguely with that other phenomenon that he had
+		noted, he whirled his runabout and ran back into
+		Burnit Avenue. In twenty-four hours a remarkable
+		change had been wrought. There were pools everywhere.
+		The lot where he had first noticed it was now
+		entirely covered with water, with barely the tips of
+		the grass showing through. Frightened, he drove over
+		the entire Addition, up one street and down another.
+		In many places the lots were flooded. One entire block
+		had become no more nor less than a pond. At other
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page121" title="121"> </a>points the water, carrying with it the yellow soil, was
+		flowing over his beautiful clean sidewalks and spreading
+		its stain upon his immaculate streets. The darkness
+		alone drove him from that inspection, and then
+		it occurred to him to send once more for Jimmy Platt.
+		At the first suburban telephone station he tried for
+		nearly an hour to locate his man, but in vain. Later
+		he tried it from his club, but could not reach him.
+		That night was a sleepless one, and the next morning’s
+		daybreak found him speeding out the roadway
+		to the Applerod Addition.</p>
+
+		<p>Early as he was, however, he found young Platt
+		there ahead of him and in despair. He had good
+		cause. The whole north end of the Applerod Addition
+		had turned black, and over the top of Bobby’s
+		now grimy cement wall poured a broad, dark sheet of
+		the murky swamp-water which had stained it. The
+		pond of Silas Trimmer had overflowed in spite of all
+		Platt’s confident figuring that it could not, and in
+		spite of the fact that dry weather had prevailed for
+		two solid weeks. That was the inexplicable part.
+		Clear weather, and still the entire suburb was becoming
+		practically submerged! With solid, dry soil
+		surrounding it, wherever the eye could reach it had
+		become but a morass of mud! Mud was smeared upon
+		every path and every roadway, and Bobby’s automobile
+		slipped and slid in the oily, yellow liquid that lay
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page122" title="122"> </a>sluggishly in every gutter and blotched every rod of
+		his clean asphalt.</p>
+
+		<p>Young Platt’s face blanched as he saw Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“I’ve made a miserable botch of it,� he confessed,
+		torn with an agony of regret at his failure; “and I
+		can’t see yet what I overlooked. I’d no right to tackle
+		a man’s job like this!�</p>
+
+		<p>“You!� replied Bobby vehemently. “It was Trimmer
+		who did this; somehow, someway he did it, and
+		he flaunts it in our faces. Look there!� and he
+		pointed to a huge signboard that had been erected
+		overnight just opposite the entrance to Burnit Avenue.
+		In huge, bold letters, surmounted by a giant
+		hand that pointed the way, it told prospective investors
+		to buy property in the high and dry Trimmer
+		Addition, the words “High and Dry� being twice
+		as large as any other lettering upon the board.</p>
+
+		<p>“It is surely a lot of nerve,� admitted Platt, “but
+		it is rank nonsense to say that the man had anything
+		to do with this catastrophe. It would have been impossible.
+		Let’s look this thing over. Drive past the
+		club-house to the extreme west side.�</p>
+
+		<p>Once more they traversed the mud of Burnit Avenue,
+		and upon the dry, sloping ground the young
+		engineer, cursing his inexperience, alighted and
+		walked along the edge of the property, seeking a solution
+		to the mystery. Still perplexed, he ascended
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page123" title="123"> </a>the rising ground and looked musingly across at the
+		yet swollen and clay-red river. Suddenly an exclamation
+		escaped his lips.</p>
+
+		<p>“There’s your enemy,� he said to Bobby who had
+		climbed up beside him, and pointed to the river. “The
+		river bank, I am sure, must edge upon a tilted shale
+		formation which dips just below this basin. Probably
+		at all times some of the water from the river
+		seeps down between two sand-separated layers of this
+		formation to find its outlet in the marsh, and it is this
+		water which, through a geological freak, has supplied
+		that swamp for ages. In the spring, however, and
+		in extraordinary flood times, it probably finds a higher
+		and looser stratum, and rushes down here with all the
+		force of a hydraulic stream. This spring it took it
+		a long time to wet thoroughly all our made ground
+		from the bottom upward. The frost, sinking deeper
+		in this loose, wet soil than elsewhere, held it back,
+		too, for a time, but as soon as this was thoroughly
+		out of the ground the river overflow came up like a
+		geyser.</p>
+
+		<p>“Mr. Burnit, your Applerod Addition is ruined,
+		and it can never be saved, unless by some extraordinary
+		means. Nature picked out this spot, centuries
+		and centuries ago, for a swamp, and she’s
+		going to have one here in spite of all that we can do.
+		In five years this basin won’t be a thing but black
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page124" title="124"> </a>water and weeds, with only that club-house as a decaying
+		monument to your enterprise.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby controlled himself with an effort. His face
+		was drawn and white; but part of that was from the
+		anxiety of the past two days, and he took the blow
+		stiff and erect, as a good soldier stands up to be disciplined.
+		His eye roved over the work in which he
+		had taken such pride, and already he could see in
+		fancy the dank weeds growing up, and the croaking
+		frogs diving into the oily surface, and the clouds of
+		mosquitoes hovering over it again. Over the top of
+		his retaining wall still poured the foul water which
+		was to leaven all this, and he gazed upon it with a
+		sharp intake of the breath.</p>
+
+		<p>“And to think that Silas Trimmer must have
+		known all this, and led me to waste a fortune just so
+		that he could reap the benefit of my advertising for
+		his own vulture advantage!�</p>
+
+		<p>That, at first, was the part which hurt more than
+		the overthrow of his plans, more than the loss of his
+		money, more than the failure of his fight to carry out
+		his father’s wishes for his success: that any one could
+		play the game so unfairly, that there could be in all
+		the world people so detestable, so unprincipled, so
+		<em>unsportsmanlike</em>!</p>
+
+		<p>Slowly the vanquished pair descended the hill to
+		where the automobile stood upon the solid, level sward,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page125" title="125"> </a>but before they climbed in Bobby shook hands with his
+		engineer.</p>
+
+		<p>“Don’t blame yourself too much, old man,� he
+		said. “It wasn’t a condition that you could foresee,
+		and I’m mighty sorry if it hurts your reputation.�</p>
+
+		<p>“It ought to!� exclaimed Platt with deep self-revilement.
+		“I should have investigated. I should not
+		have taken anything for granted. I ought to have
+		enough money so that you could sue me for damages
+		and recover all you lost.�</p>
+
+		<p>“It couldn’t be done,� said Bobby miserably. “I’ve
+		lost so much more than money.�</p>
+
+		<p>He did not tell Platt of Agnes, but that was the
+		one thought into which all his failure had finally resolved.
+		Agnes! How much longer must he wait for
+		her? They had just passed the club-house when a
+		light buggy turned into Burnit Avenue, driven furiously
+		by a white-haired man in a white vest and a
+		high silk hat.</p>
+
+		<p>“I accept your offer!� cried Applerod, as soon as
+		he came within talking distance, his usually ruddy
+		face now livid white.</p>
+
+		<p>“My offer,� repeated Bobby wonderingly.</p>
+
+		<p>“Yes; your offer of ten thousand dollars for my
+		share in the Applerod Addition.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby was forced to laugh. It had needed but
+		this to make the bitter jest of fortune complete.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page126" title="126"> </a>“You refused that offer the day it was made, Applerod!�
+		put in Platt indignantly. “I heard you. Anyhow,
+		you dragged Mr. Burnit into this thing!�</p>
+
+		<p>“He’s not to blame for that,� said Bobby. “But
+		still, I don’t think I care to buy any more of this
+		property.� And he smiled grimly at the absurdity
+		of it all.</p>
+
+		<p>“I’ll sue you for it!� shrieked Applerod, frantic
+		from thwarted self-interest. “You prevented me from
+		selling out at a profit when I had a chance! You
+		bound me hand and foot when I knew that if Silas
+		Trimmer had anything to gain by it we would lose!
+		He knew all the time that this swamp was fed by
+		underground springs. He bragged about it to me
+		this morning as I passed him on the road. He told
+		me last night I’d better come out here this morning.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I see,� said Bobby coldly, and he reached for his
+		lever.</p>
+
+		<p>“Then you won’t hold good to your offer?� gasped
+		the other.</p>
+
+		<p>Pale before, he had turned ashen now, and Bobby
+		looked at him with quick compunction. Applerod,
+		always so chubbily youthful for a man of his years,
+		was grown suddenly old. He seemed to have shrunk
+		inside his clothes, his face to have turned flabby, his
+		eyes to have dimmed. After all, he was an old man,
+		and the little that he had scraped together represented
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page127" title="127"> </a>all that he could hope to amass in a none too provident
+		lifetime. This day made him a pauper and there
+		was no chance for a fresh start. Bobby himself was
+		young and strong, and, moreover, his resources were
+		by no means exhausted.</p>
+
+		<p>“I’ll tell you what I’ll do, Applerod,� said he, after
+		a moment of very sober thought. “Your property
+		cost you in the neighborhood of four thousand. Interest
+		since the time you first began to invest in it
+		would bring it up to a little more than that. I’ll give
+		you five thousand.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I won’t accept it.—Yes, I will! yes, I will!� he
+		cried as Bobby impatiently reached again for his
+		lever.</p>
+
+		<p>“Very well,� said Bobby, “wait a minute.� And
+		tearing a leaf from his memorandum-book he wrote a
+		note to Johnson to see to the transfer of the property
+		and deliver to Applerod a check for five thousand
+		dollars.</p>
+
+		<p>“That was more than generous; it was foolish,�
+		protested Jimmy Platt, as they whirled away.</p>
+
+		<p>“No doubt,� admitted Bobby dryly. “But, if I’m
+		forced to be a fool, I might as well have a well-finished
+		job of it.�</p>
+	</div>
+	<div id="chapter_12" class="chapter"><a class="pagenum" id="page128" title="128"> </a>
+		<h2 class="chapter_title"><span class="chapter_number">CHAPTER XII</span><br />
+			AGNES DECIDES THAT SHE WILL WAIT</h2>
+
+		<p><span class="first_word">Applerod</span>, his poise nearly recovered,
+		bounded into the office where Johnson sat
+		stolidly working away, his sense of personal
+		contentedness enhanced by the presence of Biff Bates,
+		who sat idly upon the flat-top desk, dangling his legs
+		and waiting for Bobby. Mr. Applerod paid no attention
+		whatever to Mr. Bates, that gentleman being
+		quite beneath his notice, but with vast importance he
+		laid down in front of Mr. Johnson the note which
+		Bobby had given him.</p>
+
+		<p>“<em>Mr.</em> Johnson,� he pompously directed, “you will
+		please attend to this little matter as soon as possible.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Applerod,� said Johnson, glancing at the note
+		and looking up with sudden fire, “does this mean that
+		you are no longer even partially my employer?�</p>
+
+		<p>“That’s it exactly.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Then you, Applerod, don’t you dare call me <em>Mr.</em>
+		Johnson again!� And he shook a bony fist at his
+		old-time work-fellow.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page129" title="129"> </a>Biff Bates nearly fell off the desk, but with rare
+		presence of mind restrained his glee.</p>
+
+		<p>Mr. Applerod, smiling loftily, immediately wielded
+		his bludgeon.</p>
+
+		<p>“We should not quarrel over trifles,� he stated
+		commiseratingly. “We are once more companions in
+		misfortune. There is no Applerod Addition. It is a
+		swamp again.�</p>
+
+		<p>“What do you mean?� asked Johnson incredulously,
+		but suspending his indignation for the instant.</p>
+
+		<p>“This,� said Applerod: “that the entire addition
+		is a hundred-acre mud puddle this morning. You
+		couldn’t sell a lot in it to a blind man. Every cent
+		that was invested in it is lost. The whole marsh was
+		fed from underground springs that have come up
+		through it and overflowed the place.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Trimmer again,� said Biff Bates, and slid off the
+		desk; then he looked at his watch with a curious speculative
+		smile.</p>
+
+		<p>“But if it is all lost,� protested Johnson, looking
+		again at the note and pausing in the making out of
+		the check, “how do you come to get this?�</p>
+
+		<p>“He owed it to me,� asserted Applerod. “I wanted
+		to sell out when I first found that we were competing
+		with Silas Trimmer, and young Burnit kept me from
+		it by an injunction. He offered me ten thousand
+		dollars for my interest once, but this morning when
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page130" title="130"> </a>I went to accept that offer he would only give me
+		this five thousand. It’s just five thousand dollars that
+		he’s robbed me of.�</p>
+
+		<p>“<em>Robbed!</em>� shrilled Johnson, jumping from his
+		chair. “Applerod, you weigh a hundred and eighty
+		pounds and I weigh a hundred and thirty-seven, but
+		I can lick you the best day you ever lived; and by
+		thunder and blazes! if you let fall another remark like
+		that I’ll knock your infernal head off!�</p>
+
+		<p>Mr. Johnson had on no coat, but he felt the urgent
+		need to remove something, so he tore off one false
+		sleeve, wadded it up in a little ball and slammed it
+		on the floor with great vigor, tore off the other one,
+		wadded it up and slammed that down. Biff Bates,
+		quivering with joy, rang loudly upon a porcelain
+		electric-light shade with his pencil and called:
+		“Time!�</p>
+
+		<p>There was no employment for a referee, however,
+		for Mr. Applerod, with astonishing agility, sprang
+		to the door and held it half open, ready for a hurried
+		exit in case of any other demonstration. It was shocking
+		to think that he might be drawn into an undignified
+		altercation—and with a mere clerk! Also, it
+		might be dangerous.</p>
+
+		<p>“Nothing doing, chum,� said Biff Bates disgustedly
+		to his friend Johnson. “This bunch of mush-ripe
+		bananas ain’t even a quitter. He’s a never-beginner.
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page131" title="131"> </a>But you’ll do fine, old scout. Come along with me.
+		I got a treat for you.�</p>
+
+		<p>Mr. Johnson, breathing scorn that alternately
+		dented and inflated his nostrils, slowly donned his coat
+		and hat without removing his eyes from Applerod,
+		who, as the two approached the door, edged uncertainly
+		away from it.</p>
+
+		<p>“I’ve got to go out, anyhow,� said Johnson, addressing
+		his remarks exclusively to Mr. Bates, but
+		his glare exclusively to Mr. Applerod. “I’m going
+		to put this check into the hands of Mr. Chalmers, so
+		Mr. Robert don’t get cheated by any yellow-livered
+		<em>snake in the grass</em>!� And he spit out those last violent
+		words with a sudden vehemence which made Mr.
+		Applerod drop his shiny hat.</p>
+
+		<p>When Bobby came into the office a few minutes
+		later he found Applerod, his hat upon his lap, waiting
+		in one of the customers’ chairs with stiff solemnity.</p>
+
+		<p>“Why aren’t you at your desk, Applerod?� asked
+		Bobby sharply. “You have an immense amount of
+		unopened mail, and some of it may contain checks
+		which will have to be sent back.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Mr. Burnit,� said Mr. Applerod, rising with
+		great dignity and throwing back his shoulders, “I
+		consider myself no longer in your employ. I have
+		resigned.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby looked at him thoughtfully and weighed
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page132" title="132"> </a>rapidly in his mind a great many things. He remembered
+		that his father had once said of the two
+		men: “Johnson has a pea-green liver and is a pessimist,
+		but he is honest. Applerod suffers from too
+		much health and is an optimist, and I presume him
+		to be honest, but I never tested it.� Yet his father
+		had seen fit to keep Applerod in his intimate employ
+		all these years, recognizing in him material of value.
+		Moreover, he had advised Bobby to keep both men,
+		and Bobby, to-day more than ever, placed great faith
+		in the wisdom of his father.</p>
+
+		<p>“Mr. Applerod,� said he, “I dislike to be harsh
+		with you, but if you don’t put up your hat and get
+		at that bundle of mail I shall be compelled to consider
+		discharging you. Where’s Johnson?�</p>
+
+		<p>“He went out with Mr. Bates, sir.�</p>
+
+		<p>When Bobby left, Applerod was industriously
+		sorting the mail on his desk, preparing to open it.</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby let himself into the big new gymnasium
+		and walked back through the deserted hall to the
+		small room that was used for individual training.
+		As he neared the door he could hear the sound of loud
+		voices and the shuffling of feet, and heard the commanding
+		voice of Biff Bates shout “Break!�</p>
+
+		<p>The door was locked, but through the slide window
+		at the side a strange tableau met his eyes. Stooped
+		and lean Johnson, as chalk-white of face as ever, had
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page133" title="133"> </a>paunchy and thin-legged Silas Trimmer by the collar,
+		and over Biff Bates’ intervening body was trying
+		to rain blows into the center of the circular smile, now
+		flattened to an oval of distress.</p>
+
+		<p>“Break, Johnson, break!� begged Biff. “Don’t put
+		him out till you feed him all he’s got coming.� Thereupon
+		he succeeded in extracting Mr. Trimmer from
+		the grasp of Mr. Johnson and forced the former
+		back upon a chair, where he began to fan him with
+		a towel in most approved fashion.</p>
+
+		<p>“Let me out of this!� gasped Mr. Trimmer. “I’ll
+		have you arrested for assault and conspiracy.�</p>
+
+		<p>“They’ll only pinch a corpse, for the cops’ll find
+		me tickled to death when they get here,� responded
+		Mr. Bates gaily. “Now you’re all right. Get up!�</p>
+
+		<p>“Let me out of this, I say!� commanded Mr. Trimmer
+		frantically. “I’ll run you into the penitentiary!
+		I’ll break you up in business! I’ll hire thugs to break
+		every bone in your body!�</p>
+
+		<p>“Is that all?� inquired Biff complacently, and
+		grabbed him as he started to run around the room in
+		a wild hunt for an outlet. “Stand up here and put
+		up a fight or I’ll punch you myself. I’ve been aching
+		to do it for a year. That’s why I got Doc Willets
+		to dope it out to you that you was dyin’ for training,
+		and why I kept shifting your hour to when there was
+		nobody here. Go to him, chum!�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page134" title="134"> </a>Then ensued the strangest sparring match that the
+		grinning and stealthily silent Bobby had ever seen.
+		Johnson, with a true “tiger crouch� which he could
+		not have avoided if he had wished, began dancing
+		around and around the spherical body of Mr. Trimmer,
+		without science and without precaution, keeping
+		his two arms going like windmills, and occasionally
+		landing a light blow upon some portion of Mr. Trimmer’s
+		unresisting anatomy; but finally a whirl so
+		vigorous that it sent Johnson spinning upon his
+		own heel, landed squarely beneath the jaw of Silas.
+		That gentleman, with a puffed eye and a bleeding lip
+		and two teeth gone, rose from his feet with the impact
+		of the blow, and landed with a grunt in a huge
+		basket of soiled bath-towels.</p>
+
+		<p>“Johnson,� called the laughter-shaken voice of
+		Bobby through the window, “I’m ashamed of you!�</p>
+
+		<p>Mr. Johnson looked up happily from his task of
+		wiping away a little trickle of blood from his already
+		swollen nose.</p>
+
+		<p>“Did you see me do it?� he demanded, thrilling
+		with pride. “Mr. Burnit, I—I never had so much fun
+		in my life. Never, never! By the way, sir,� and
+		even upon that triumphant moment his duty obtruded,
+		“I have a letter for you that I brought away from
+		the office,� and through the window he handed one of
+		the inevitable gray envelopes. It was inscribed:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="envelope">
+			<p><a class="pagenum" id="page135" title="135"> </a>To My Son, Upon the Failure of Applerod’s Swamp
+				Scheme</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p>“In the midst of pleasure we are in pain,� murmured
+		Bobby, and tore open the letter. In it he
+		read:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="letter">
+			<p class="salutation">“My Dear Boy:</p>
+
+			<p>“A man must not only examine a business proposition
+			from all sides, but must also turn it over and
+			look well at the bottom. I never knew what was the
+			matter with that swamp scheme, except Applerod,
+			but I didn’t want to know any more. You did.</p>
+
+			<p>“Well, you don’t need wisdom. I’ve put one-half
+			your fortune where it will yield you a living income.
+			Try to cut at least one eye-tooth with the other half.
+			Your trustee is instructed to give you another start.</p>
+
+			<p class="closing">“Your Loving Father.�</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+
+		<p>His trustee! Once more he must face her with
+		failure; go to her beaten, and accept through her
+		hands the means to gain himself another buffeting.
+		He had not the heart to see her now, but he was not
+		turned altogether coward, for leaving the scene of
+		the late conflict abruptly, all its humor spoiled for
+		him, he telephoned her what had happened and that
+		he would be out in the evening.</p>
+
+		<p>“No, you must come now. I want you,� she gently
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page136" title="136"> </a>insisted, and when he had come to her she went directly
+		to him and put both her hands upon his shoulders.</p>
+
+		<p>“It wasn’t fair, Bobby; it wasn’t fair!� she cried.
+		“None of it is fair, and your father had no right to
+		bind me down with promises when you need me so.
+		I’m willing to break them all. Bobby, I’ll marry you
+		to-morrow if you say so.�</p>
+
+		<p>He drew a long, trembling breath, and then he
+		put his hands gently upon both her cheeks and kissed
+		her on the forehead.</p>
+
+		<p>“Let’s don’t,� he said simply. “I have my own
+		blood up now, and I want to take this other chance.
+		I want to play the game out to the end. You’ll wait,
+		won’t you?�</p>
+
+		<p>She looked up at him through moist eyes. He was
+		so big and so strong and so good, and already
+		through the past year of earnest purpose there had
+		come firm, new lines upon his face, lines that meant
+		something in the ultimate building of character; and
+		she recognized that perhaps stern old John Burnit
+		had been right after all.</p>
+
+		<p>“Indeed, I can wait,� she whispered. “Proudly,
+		Bobby.�</p>
+	</div>
+	<div id="chapter_13" class="chapter"><a class="pagenum" id="page137" title="137"> </a>
+		<h2 class="chapter_title"><span class="chapter_number">CHAPTER XIII</span><br />
+			IN WHICH A CHARMING GENTLEMAN OFFERS AN
+			INVESTMENT WITHOUT A FLAW</h2>
+
+		<p><span class="first_word">It</span> was pretty, in the succeeding days, to see
+		Agnes poring over advertisements and writing
+		down long lists of suggested enterprises for
+		investigation, enterprises which proved in every case
+		to be in the midst of an already too thickly contested
+		field, or to be hampered by monopoly, or subject to
+		some other vital drawback. There seemed to be a
+		strange dearth of safe and suitable commercial ventures,
+		a fact over which Bobby and Agnes together
+		puzzled almost nightly. There was to be no false
+		start this time; no stumbling in the middle of the
+		race; no third failure. The third time was to be the
+		charm. And yet too much time must not be wasted.
+		They both began to feel rather worried about this.</p>
+
+		<p>Of course, there was a letter, in the familiar gray
+		envelope. It had been handed to Bobby by Johnson
+		upon the day the second check for two hundred and
+		fifty thousand had been paid over by Chalmers upon
+		Agnes’ order, and it read:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="envelope">
+			<p><a class="pagenum" id="page138" title="138"> </a>To My Son Robert,
+				Upon His Third Attempt to Make Money</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<blockquote class="letter">
+			<p>“The man who has never failed has been either too
+			lucky or too timid to have much tried and tested
+			worth. The man who always fails is too useless to
+			talk about. As you’ve failed twice you’re neither too
+			lucky nor too timid. It remains to be seen if you are
+			too useless.</p>
+
+			<p>“Remember that money isn’t the only audible thing
+			in this world; but it makes more noise than anything
+			else. A vast number of people call money vulgar;
+			but, if you’ll notice, this opinion is chiefly held by
+			those who haven’t been able to secure any of it.</p>
+
+			<p>“I wouldn’t have you sacrifice any decent principle
+			to get it, because that is not necessary; but go get
+			money of your own, and see what a difference there
+			is between dollars. A dollar you’ve made is as different
+			from a dollar that’s given to you as your children
+			are from other people’s.�</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p>“If only the governor had pointed out some good
+		business for me to go into,� complained Bobby as he
+		read this letter over with Agnes.</p>
+
+		<p>She shook her head soberly. She realized, more
+		than he possibly could, as yet, just where Bobby’s
+		weaknesses lay. She had worried over them not a
+		little, of late, and she was just as anxious as old
+		John Burnit had been to have him correct those defects;
+		and she, like Bobby’s father, was only thankful
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page139" title="139"> </a>that they were not defects of manliness, of courage
+		or of moral or mental fiber. They were only defects
+		of training, for which the elder Burnit, as he had
+		himself confessed, was responsible.</p>
+
+		<p>“That isn’t what he wanted at all, Bobby,� she
+		protested. “The very fact of your two past failures
+		shows just how right he was in making you find out
+		things for yourself. The chief trouble, I am afraid,
+		is that you have been too ready to furnish the money
+		and let others spend it for you.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I know,� said Bobby. “I have been too willing
+		to take everybody’s word, I guess; but I have always
+		been able to do that in my crowd, and it is rather a
+		dash to me to find that in business you can not do it.
+		However, I have reformed.�</p>
+
+		<p>He said this so self-confidently that Agnes laughed.</p>
+
+		<p>“Yes,� she admitted, “you are convinced that
+		Silas Trimmer is a thief and a rascal, and you would
+		not take his word for anything. You are convinced
+		that Applerod’s judgment is useless and that your
+		own does not amount to much, but I still believe that
+		the next plausible looking and plausible talking man
+		who comes to you can engage you in any business that
+		seems fair on the surface.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I deserve what you say,� he confessed, but somewhat
+		piqued, nevertheless. “However, I don’t think
+		you are giving me credit for having learned any lesson
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page140" title="140"> </a>at all. Why, only to-day you ought to have heard
+		me turning down a proposition to finance a new and
+		improved washing-machine. Sounded very good and
+		feasible, too. The man was a good talker and thoroughly
+		earnest and honest, I am sure. I really did
+		want to help the fellow start his business, but somehow
+		or other I could not seem to like the idea of
+		washing-machines; such a sudsy sort of business.�</p>
+
+		<p>Agnes laughed the sort of a laugh that always
+		made him want to catch hold of her, but if he had any
+		intentions in that respect they were interfered with
+		just now by Uncle Dan, who strolled into the parlor
+		in his dressing-jacket and with a cigar tilted in the
+		corner of his mouth.</p>
+
+		<p>“How’s the Commercial Board of Strategy coming
+		on?� he inquired as he offered Bobby a cigar.</p>
+
+		<p>“Fine!� declared Bobby; “except that it can not
+		think of a stratagem.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I think you are very selfish not to help us out,
+		Uncle Dan,� declared Agnes. “With all your experience
+		you ought to be able to suggest something
+		for Bobby to go into that would be a nice business
+		and perfectly safe and make him lots of money without
+		requiring too much experience to start with.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Young lady,� said Uncle Dan severely, “if I knew
+		a business of that kind I’d sell some of the stock of
+		my factory and go into it myself; but I don’t. The
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page141" title="141"> </a>fact is, there are no business snaps lying around
+		loose. You have to make one, and that takes not just
+		money, but work and brains.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I’m perfectly willing to work,� declared Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“And you don’t mean to say that he hasn’t brains!�
+		objected Agnes.</p>
+
+		<p>“No-o-o,� admitted Uncle Dan. “I am quite sure
+		that Bobby has brains, but they have not been quite—a—a—well,
+		say solidified, yet. You’re not allowed
+		to smoke in this parlor, Bobby. Mrs. Elliston wants
+		a quiet home game of whist; sent me to bring you
+		up.�</p>
+
+		<p>Secretly, old Dan Elliston was himself puzzling
+		a great deal over a career for Bobby, but up to the
+		moment had not found anything that he thought
+		safe to propose. Not having a good idea he was
+		averse to discussing any project whatsoever, and so,
+		each time that he was consulted upon the subject, he
+		was as evasive as this about it, and Bobby each morning
+		dragged perplexedly into the handsome offices of
+		the defunct Applerod Addition, where Applerod and
+		Johnson were still working a solid eight hours a day
+		to straighten out the affairs of that unfortunate
+		venture.</p>
+
+		<p>Those offices were the dullest quarters Bobby knew,
+		for they contained nothing but the dead ashes of
+		bygone money; but one morning business picked up
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page142" title="142"> </a>with a jerk. He found a mine investment agent
+		awaiting him when he arrived, and before he was
+		through with this clever conversationalist a man was
+		in to get him to buy a racing stable. Affairs grew
+		still more brisk as the morning wore on. Within the
+		next two hours he had politely but firmly declined to
+		buy a partnership in a string of bucket shops, to refinance
+		a defunct irrigation company, to invest in a
+		Florida plantation, to take a tip on copper, and to
+		back an automobile factory which was to enter business
+		upon some designs of a new engine stolen by a
+		discharged workman.</p>
+
+		<p>“How did all these people find out that I have two
+		hundred and fifty thousand dollars to invest?� impatiently
+		demanded Bobby, after he had refused the
+		allurements of a patent-medicine scheme, the last of
+		that morning’s lot.</p>
+
+		<p>There followed a dense silence, in the midst of
+		which old Johnson looked up from the book in which
+		he was entering a long, long list of items on the wrong
+		side of the profit and loss account, and jerked his
+		lean thumb angrily in the direction of Applerod.</p>
+
+		<p>“Ask him,� he said.</p>
+
+		<p>Chubby-faced old Applerod, excessively meek of
+		spirit to-day, suffered a moment of embarrassment
+		under the accusing eyes of young Burnit.</p>
+
+		<p>“The newspapers, sir,� he admitted, twisting uncomfortably
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page143" title="143"> </a>in his swivel chair. “The reporters were
+		here yesterday afternoon with the idea that since you
+		haven’t announced any future plans, the failure of
+		our real estate scheme—<em>my</em> real estate scheme,� he
+		corrected in response to a snort and a glare from
+		Johnson—“had left you penniless. Of course I
+		wasn’t going to let them go away with that impression,
+		so I told them that you had another two hundred
+		and fifty thousand dollars to invest, with probably
+		more to follow, if necessary.�</p>
+
+		<p>“And of course,� groaned Bobby, “it is all in print,
+		with ingenious trimmings.�</p>
+
+		<p>From a drawer in his desk Johnson quietly drew
+		copies of the morning papers, each one folded carefully
+		to an article in which, under wide variations of
+		embarrassing head-lines, the facts of Bobby’s latest
+		frittering of his father’s good money were once more
+		facetiously, even gleefully, set forth and embellished,
+		with added humorous speculations as to how
+		he would probably cremate his new fund. Bobby
+		was about to turn into his own room to absorb his
+		humiliation in secret when Applerod hesitantly
+		stopped him.</p>
+
+		<p>“Another thing, sir,� he said. “Mr. Frank L.
+		Sharpe called up early this morning to know when
+		he would find you in, and I took the liberty of telling
+		him that you would very likely be here at ten o’clock.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page144" title="144"> </a>Bobby frowned slightly at the mention of that
+		name. He knew of Sharpe vaguely as a man whose
+		private life had been so scandalous that society had
+		ceased to shudder at his name—it simply refused to
+		hear it; a man who had even secured advancement by
+		obligingly divorcing his first wife so that the notorious
+		Sam Stone could marry her.</p>
+
+		<p>“What did he want?� he asked none too graciously.</p>
+
+		<p>“I don’t know, sir,� said Applerod; “but he telephoned
+		me again just as you were getting rid of this
+		last caller. I told him that you were here and he said
+		that he would be right over.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby made no reply to this, but went thoughtfully
+		into his room and closed the door after him. In less
+		than five minutes the door opened, and Mr. Applerod,
+		his voice fairly oily with obsequiousness, announced
+		Mr. Frank L. Sharpe! Why, here is a man whose
+		name was in the papers every morning, noon and
+		night! Mr. Sharpe had taken a trip to New York
+		on behalf of the Gas Company; Mr. Sharpe had returned
+		from his trip to New York on behalf of the
+		Gas Company; Mr. Sharpe had entertained at the
+		Hotel Spender; Mr. Sharpe had made a speech; Mr.
+		Sharpe had been interviewed; Mr. Sharpe had been
+		indisposed for half a day!</p>
+
+		<p>Quite prepossessing of appearance was Mr.
+		Sharpe; a tall, rather slight gentleman, whose features
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page145" title="145"> </a>no one ever analyzed because the eyes of the
+		observer stopped, fascinated, at his mustache. That
+		wonderful adornment was wonderfully luxuriant,
+		gray and curly, pretty to an extreme, and kept most
+		fastidiously trimmed, and it lifted when he smiled to
+		display a most engaging row of white, even teeth.
+		Centered upon this magnificent combination the gaze
+		never roved to the animal nose, to the lobeless ears,
+		to the watery blue eyes half obscured by the lower
+		lids. He was immaculately, though a shade too youthfully,
+		dressed in a gray frock suit, with pearl-gray
+		spats upon his shoes, and he was most charmed to see
+		young Mr. Burnit.</p>
+
+		<p>“You have a very neat little suite of offices here,
+		Mr. Burnit,� he commented, seating himself gracefully
+		and depositing his gray hat, his gray cane and
+		his gray gloves carefully to one side of him upon
+		Bobby’s desk.</p>
+
+		<p>“I’m afraid they are a little too nice for practical
+		purposes,� Bobby confessed. “I have found that
+		business isn’t a parlor game.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Precisely what I came to see you about,� said Mr.
+		Sharpe. “I understand you have been a trifle unfortunate,
+		but that is because you did not go into the
+		regular channels. An established and paying corporation
+		is the only worth-while proposition, and if
+		you have not yet settled upon an investment I would
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page146" title="146"> </a>like to suggest that you become interested in our local
+		Brightlight Electric Company.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I thought there was no gas or electric stock for
+		sale,� said Bobby slowly, clinging still to a vague impression
+		that he had gained five or six years before.</p>
+
+		<p>“Not to the public,� replied Mr. Sharpe, smiling,
+		“and there would not have been privately except for
+		the necessity of a reorganization. The Brightlight
+		needs more capital for expansion, and I have too
+		many other interests, even aside from the Consumers’
+		Electric Light and Power and the United Gas and
+		Fuel Companies, to spare the money myself—and the
+		Brightlight is too good to let the general public in
+		on.� He smiled again, quite meaningly this time.
+		“This is quite confidential, of course,� he added.</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby bowed his acknowledgment of the confidence
+		which had been reposed in him, and generously began
+		at once to reconstruct his impressions of the impossible
+		Mr. Sharpe. You couldn’t believe all you heard,
+		you know.</p>
+
+		<p>“The Brightlight,� went on Mr. Sharpe, “is at
+		present capitalized for two hundred and fifty thousand
+		dollars, and is a good ten-per-cent.-dividend-paying
+		stock at the present moment; but its business
+		is not growing, and I propose to take in sufficient capital
+		to raise the Brightlight to a half-million-dollar
+		corporation, clear off its indebtedness and project
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page147" title="147"> </a>certain extensions. I understand that you have the
+		necessary amount, and here is the proposition I offer
+		you. Brightlight stock is now quoted at a hundred
+		and seventy-two. We will double its present capitalization,
+		and you may take up the extra two hundred
+		and fifty thousand dollars’ worth of its stock at
+		par, or about three-fifths of its actual value. That
+		is a bargain to be snapped at, Mr. Burnit.�</p>
+
+		<p>Did Bobby Burnit snap at this proposition? He
+		did not. Bobby had learned caution through his two
+		bitter failures, and of caution is born wisdom.</p>
+
+		<p>“Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars’ worth of
+		stock in a five-hundred-thousand-dollar corporation
+		won’t do for me,� he declared with a firmness that was
+		pleasant to his own ears. “I don’t care to go into
+		any proposition in which I have not the controlling
+		interest.�</p>
+
+		<p>Mr. Sharpe, remembering the details of Bobby’s
+		Trimmer and Company experiment, hastily turned
+		his imminent smile of amusement into a merely engaging
+		one.</p>
+
+		<p>“I don’t blame you, Mr. Burnit,� said he; “but to
+		show you that I am more willing to trust you than
+		you are to trust me, if you care to go into this thing
+		I’ll agree to sell you from one to ten shares of my
+		individual stock—at its present market value, of
+		course.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page148" title="148"> </a>“That’s very good of you,� agreed Bobby, suddenly
+		ashamed of his ungenerous stand in the face
+		of this sportsmanlike attitude. “But really I’ve had
+		cause for timidity.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Caution is not cowardice,� said Mr. Sharpe in a
+		tone which conveyed a world of friendly approbation.
+		“This matter must be taken up very soon, however,
+		and I can not allow you more than a week to investigate.
+		I’d be pleased to receive your legal and business
+		advisers at any time you may nominate, and to
+		give them any advantage you may wish.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I’ll investigate it at least, and I thank you for
+		giving me the opportunity,� said Bobby, really very
+		contrite that he had been doing Sharpe such a mental
+		injustice all these years. “By the way,� he suddenly
+		added, “has Silas Trimmer anything whatever to do
+		with this proposition?�</p>
+
+		<p>Mr. Sharpe smiled.</p>
+
+		<p>“Mr. Trimmer does not own one share of stock in
+		the Brightlight Electric Company, nor will he own
+		it,� he answered.</p>
+
+		<p>“In that case,� said Bobby, “I am satisfied to consider
+		your offer without fear of heart-disease.�</p>
+
+		<p>The departing caller met an incoming one in the
+		outer office, and Agnes, sweeping into Bobby’s room,
+		breathlessly gasped:</p>
+
+		<p>“That was Frank Sharpe!�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page149" title="149"> </a>“The same,� admitted Bobby, smiling down at her
+		and taking both her hands.</p>
+
+		<p>“I never saw him so closely,� she declared. “Really,
+		he’s quite distinguished-looking.�</p>
+
+		<p>“As long as he avoids a close shave,� supplemented
+		Bobby. “But what brings you into the—the busy
+		marts of trade so early in the morning?�</p>
+
+		<p>“My trusteeship,� she answered him loftily, producing
+		some documents from her hand-bag. “And
+		I’m in a hurry. Sign them papers.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Them there papers,� he kindly corrected, and
+		seating himself at his desk he examined the minor
+		transfers perfunctorily and signed them.</p>
+
+		<p>“I’m afraid I’m a failure as a trustee,� she told
+		him. “I ought to have had more power. I ought to
+		have been authorized to keep you out of bad company.
+		How came Mr. Sharpe to call on you, for instance?�</p>
+
+		<p>“To make my fortune,� he gravely assured her.
+		“Mr. Sharpe wants me to go into the Brightlight
+		Electric Company with him.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I can imagine your courteous adroitness in putting
+		the man back in his place,� she laughed. “How
+		preposterous! Why, he’s utterly impossible!�</p>
+
+		<p>“Ye-e-es?� questioned Bobby. “But you know,
+		Agnes, this isn’t a pink-tea affair. It’s business,
+		which is at the other end of the world.�</p>
+
+		<p>“You’re not honestly defending him, Bobby?� she
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page150" title="150"> </a>protested incredulously. “Why, I do believe you are
+		considering the man seriously!�</p>
+
+		<p>“Why not?� he persisted, arguing against his own
+		convictions as much as against hers. “We want me
+		to make some money, don’t we? To make a success
+		that will let me marry you?�</p>
+
+		<p>“I’m not to say so, remember,� she reminded him.</p>
+
+		<p>“Father put no lock on my tongue, though,� he
+		reminded her in turn; “so I’ll just lay down the dictum
+		that as soon as I succeed in any one business
+		deal I’m going to marry you, and I don’t care whether
+		the commodity I handle is electricity or potatoes.�</p>
+
+		<p>“But Frank L. Sharpe!� she exclaimed, with
+		shocked remembrance of certain whispered stories she
+		had heard.</p>
+
+		<p>“Really, I don’t see where he enters into it,� persisted
+		Bobby. “The Brightlight Electric Company
+		is a stock corporation, in which Mr. Sharpe happens
+		to own some shares; that is all.�</p>
+
+		<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+		<p>“I can’t seem to like it,� she told him, and rose
+		to go.</p>
+
+		<p>The door opened, and Johnson, with much solemnity,
+		though in his eyes there lurked a twinkle,
+		brought in a card which, with much stiff ceremony,
+		he handed to Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“Professor Henry H. Bates,� read Bobby in some
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page151" title="151"> </a>perplexity, then suddenly his brow cleared and he
+		laughed uproariously. “Come right in, Biff,� he
+		called.</p>
+
+		<p>In response to this invitation there entered upon
+		Agnes’ vision a short, chunky, broad-shouldered
+		young man in a checked green suit and red tie, who,
+		finding himself suddenly confronted by a dazzlingly
+		beautiful young lady, froze instantly into speechless
+		awkwardness.</p>
+
+		<p>“This is my friend and partner, Mr. Biff—Mr.
+		Henry H. Bates—Miss Elliston,� introduced Bobby,
+		smiling.</p>
+
+		<p>Agnes held out her hand, which suddenly seemed to
+		dwindle in size as it was clasped by the huge palm of
+		Mr. Bates.</p>
+
+		<p>“I have heard so much of you from Mr. Burnit, and
+		always nice things,� she said, smiling at him so
+		frankly that Mr. Bates, though his face flushed red,
+		instantly thawed.</p>
+
+		<p>“Bobby’s right there with the boost,� commented
+		Mr. Bates, and then, not being quite satisfied with
+		that form of speech, he huskily corrected it to:
+		“Burnit’s always handing out those pleasant words.�
+		This form of expression seeming also to be somewhat
+		lacking in polish, he relapsed into more redness, and
+		wiped the strangely moist palms of his hands upon the
+		sides of his coat.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page152" title="152"> </a>“He doesn’t talk about any but pleasant people,�
+		Agnes assured him.</p>
+
+		<p>After she had gone Mr. Bates looked dazedly at
+		the door through which she had passed out, then
+		turned to Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“Carries a full line of that conversation,� he commented,
+		“but I like to fall for it. And say! I’ll bet
+		she’s game all right; the kind that would stick to a
+		guy when he was broke, in jail and had the smallpox.
+		That’s your steady, ain’t it, Bobby?�</p>
+
+		<p>Coming from any one else this query might have
+		seemed a trifle blunt, but Bobby understood precisely
+		how Mr. Bates meant it, and was gratified.</p>
+
+		<p>“She’s the real girl,� he admitted.</p>
+
+		<p>“I’m for her,� stoutly asserted Mr. Bates, as he
+		extracted a huge wad of crumpled bills from his
+		trousers pocket. “Any old time she wants anybody
+		strangled or stabbed and you ain’t handy, she can
+		call on your friend Biff. Here’s your split of last
+		month’s pickings at the gym. One hundred and
+		eighty-one large, juicy simoleons; count ’em, one
+		hundred and eighty-one!� And he threw the money
+		on the desk.</p>
+
+		<p>“Everything paid?� asked Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“Here’s the receipts,� and from inside his vest Mr.
+		Bates produced them. “Ground rent, light, heat, payroll,
+		advertising, my own little old weekly envelope
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page153" title="153"> </a>and everything; and I got one-eighty-one in my other
+		kick for my share.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Very well,� said Bobby; “you just put this money
+		of mine into a fund to buy further equipments when
+		we need them.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Nit and nix; also no!� declared Mr. Bates emphatically.
+		“This time the bet goes as she lays. You
+		take a real money drag-down from now on.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Mr. Johnson,� called Bobby through the open
+		door, “please take charge of this one hundred and
+		eighty-one dollars, and open a separate account for
+		my investment in the Bates Athletic Hall. It might
+		be, Biff,� he continued, turning to Mr. Bates, “that
+		yours would turn out to be the only safe business venture
+		I ever made.�</p>
+
+		<p>“It ain’t no millionaire stunt, but it sure does pay
+		a steady divvy,� Mr. Bates assured him. “I see a
+		man outside scraping the real-estate sign off the
+		door. Is he going to paint a new one?�</p>
+
+		<p>“I don’t know,� said Bobby, frowning. “I shall,
+		of course, get into something very shortly, but I’ve
+		not settled on anything as yet. The best thing that
+		has turned up so far is an interest in the Brightlight
+		Electric Company offered me to-day by Frank L.
+		Sharpe.�</p>
+
+		<p>“What!� shrieked Biff in a high falsetto, and
+		slapped himself smartly on the wrist. “Has he been
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page154" title="154"> </a>here? I thought it seemed kind of close. Give me a
+		cigarette till I fumigate.�</p>
+
+		<p>“What’s the matter with the Brightlight Electric
+		Company?� demanded Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“Nothing. It’s a cinch so far as I know. But
+		Sharpe! Why, say, Bobby, all the words I’d want to
+		use to tell you about him have been left out of the dictionary
+		so they could send it through the mails.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby frowned. The certain method to have him
+		make allowances for a man was to attack that man.
+		When he arrived at the Idlers’ Club at noon, however,
+		he was given another opportunity for Christian
+		charity. Nick Allstyne and Payne Winthrop and
+		Stanley Rogers were discussing something with great
+		indignation when he joined them, and Nick drew him
+		over to the bulletin board, where was displayed the
+		application of Frank L. Sharpe, proposed by Clarence
+		Smythe, Silas Trimmer’s son-in-law, and seconded
+		by another undesirable who had twice been
+		posted for non-payment of dues.</p>
+
+		<p>“There is only one thing about this that commends
+		itself to me, and that is the immaculate and colossal
+		nerve of the proceeding,� declared Nick indignantly.
+		“The next thing you know somebody will propose
+		Sam Stone.�</p>
+
+		<p>At this they all laughed. The Idlers’ Club was
+		the one institution that stood in no awe of the notorious
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page155" title="155"> </a>“boss� of the city and of the state; a man who
+		had never held an office, but who, until the past two
+		years, had controlled all offices; whose methods were
+		openly dishonest; who held underground control of
+		every public utility and a score of private enterprises.
+		The idea of Stone as an applicant for membership
+		in the Idlers’ Club was a good joke, but the
+		actual application of Sharpe was too serious for
+		jesting. Nevertheless, all this turmoil over the mere
+		name of the man worked a strange reaction in Bobby
+		Burnit.</p>
+
+		<p>“After all, business is business,� he declared to himself,
+		“and I don’t see where Sharpe’s personality
+		figures in this Brightlight Electric deal, especially
+		since I am to have control.�</p>
+
+		<p>Accordingly he directed Chalmers and Johnson to
+		make a thorough investigation of that corporation.</p>
+	</div>
+	<div id="chapter_14" class="chapter"><a class="pagenum" id="page156" title="156"> </a>
+		<h2 class="chapter_title"><span class="chapter_number">CHAPTER XIV</span><br />
+			BOBBY ENTERS A BUSINESS ALLIANCE, A SOCIAL ENTANGLEMENT
+			AND A QUARREL WITH AGNES</h2>
+
+		<p><span class="first_word">The</span> report of Mr. Johnson and Mr. Chalmers
+		upon the Brightlight Electric Company was
+		a complicated affair, but, upon the whole,
+		highly favorable. It was an old establishment, the
+		first electric company that had been formed in the
+		city, and it held, besides some minor concessions, an
+		ancient franchise for the exclusive supply of twelve
+		of the richest down-town blocks, this franchise, made
+		by a generous board of city fathers, still having
+		twenty years to run. The concern’s equipment was
+		old and much of it needed renewal, but its financial
+		affairs were in good shape, except for a mortgage of
+		a hundred thousand dollars held by one J. W.
+		Williams.</p>
+
+		<p>“About this mortgage,� Mr. Chalmers advised Mr.
+		Burnit; “its time limit expires within two months, and
+		I have no doubt that is why Sharpe wants to put additional
+		capital into the concern. Moreover, Williams
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page157" title="157"> </a>is notoriously reputed a lieutenant of Sam Stone’s,
+		and it is quite probable that Stone is the real holder
+		of the mortgage.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I don’t see where it makes much difference, so
+		long as the mortgage has to be paid, whether it is
+		paid to Stone or to somebody else,� said Bobby
+		reflectively.</p>
+
+		<p>“I don’t see any difference myself,� agreed Chalmers,
+		“except that I am suspicious of that whole
+		crowd, since Sharpe is only a figurehead for Stone.
+		I find that Sharpe is credited with holding two hundred
+		thousand dollars’ worth of the present stock.
+		The majority of the Consumers Company and a good
+		share of the United are also in his name. Just how
+		all these facts have a bearing upon each other I
+		can not at present state, but in view of the twenty
+		years’ franchise, and of the fact that you will hold
+		undisputed control, I do not see but that you have a
+		splendid investment here. The contract for the city
+		lighting of those twelve blocks is ironclad, and the
+		franchise for exclusive private lighting and power
+		is exclusive so long as ‘reasonably satisfactory service’
+		is maintained. As this has been undisputed for
+		thirty years I don’t think you need have much fear
+		upon that score,� and Chalmers smiled.</p>
+
+		<p>In the afternoon of that same day Sharpe called
+		up.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page158" title="158"> </a>“What dinner engagement have you for to-night?�
+		he inquired.</p>
+
+		<p>“None,� replied Bobby, after a moment of hesitation.</p>
+
+		<p>“Then I want you to dine with me at the Spender.
+		Can you make it?�</p>
+
+		<p>“I guess so,� replied Bobby reluctantly, after another
+		hesitant pause. “What time, say?�</p>
+
+		<p>“About seven. Just inquire at the desk. I’ll have
+		a dining-room reserved.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby was very thoughtful as he arrayed himself
+		for dinner, and he was still more thoughtful when, a
+		boy ushering him into the cozy little private dining-room,
+		he found the over-dazzling young Mrs. Sharpe
+		with her husband. She greeted the handsome young
+		Mr. Burnit most effusively, clasping his hand warmly
+		and rolling up her large eyes at him while Mr. Sharpe
+		looked on with smiling approval. Bobby experienced
+		that strange conflict which most men have known, a
+		feeling of revulsion at war with the undoubted lure
+		of the women. She was one of those who deliberately
+		make appeal through their femininity alone.</p>
+
+		<p>“Such a pleasure to meet you,� she said in the most
+		silvery of voices. “I have heard so much of Mr.
+		Burnit and his polo skill.�</p>
+
+		<p>“It’s the best trick I do,� confessed Bobby, laughing.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page159" title="159"> </a>“That’s because Mr. Burnit hasn’t found his proper
+		forte as yet,� interposed Sharpe. “He was really cut
+		out for the illuminating business.� And he led the
+		way to the table, upon which Bobby had already noted
+		that five places were laid.</p>
+
+		<p>“A couple of our friends might drop in,� said the
+		host in explanation; “they usually do.�</p>
+
+		<p>“If it’s Sam and Billy we’re not going to wait for
+		them,� said Mrs. Sharpe with a languishing glance
+		at Bobby. “They’re always ages and ages late, if
+		they come at all. Frank, where are those cocktails?
+		I’m running down.�</p>
+
+		<p>She took the drink with an avidity Bobby was not
+		used to seeing among his own women friends, and
+		almost immediately it heightened her vivacity. There
+		could be no question that she was a fascinating woman.
+		Again Bobby had that strange sense of revulsion, and
+		again he was conscious that, in spite of her trace of
+		a tendency to indecorum, there was a subtle appeal
+		in her; one, however, that he shrank from analyzing.
+		Her talk was mostly of the places she had been, with
+		almost pathetic little mention now and then of unattainable
+		people. Evidently she craved social position,
+		in spite of the fact that she was for ever shut out
+		from it.</p>
+
+		<p>While they were upon the fish the door opened and
+		two men came in. With a momentary frown Bobby
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page160" title="160"> </a>recognized both; one of them the great Sam Stone,
+		and the other William Garland, a rich young cigar
+		manufacturer, quite prominent in public affairs. The
+		latter he had met; the former he inspected quite curiously
+		as he acknowledged the introduction.</p>
+
+		<p>Stone gave one the idea that he was extremely
+		heavy; not that he was so grossly stout, although he
+		was large, but he seemed to convey an impression
+		of tremendous weight. His features and his expression
+		were heavy, his eyes were heavy-lidded, and he
+		was taciturnity itself. He gave Bobby a quick scrutiny
+		from head to foot, and in that instant had
+		weighed him, measured him, catalogued and indexed
+		him for future reference for ever. Stone’s only spoken
+		word had been a hoarse acknowledgment of his introduction,
+		and as soon as the entrée came on he attacked
+		it with a voracious appetite, which, however, did not
+		prevent him from weighing and absorbing in silence
+		every word that was spoken in his hearing. Bobby
+		found himself wondering how this unattractive man
+		could have secured his tremendous following, in spite
+		of the fact that Stone “never broke a promise and
+		never went back on a friend,� qualities which would
+		go far toward establishing any man in the esteem of
+		mankind.</p>
+
+		<p>It was not until the appearance of the salad that
+		any allusion was made to business, and then Garland,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page161" title="161"> </a>upon an impatient signal from Stone, turned to Bobby
+		with the suavity of which he was thorough master.</p>
+
+		<p>“Mr. Sharpe tells me that you consider taking a
+		dip into the public utilities line,� he suggested.</p>
+
+		<p>Instantly three of them bent an attention upon
+		Bobby so straight that it might have been palpable
+		even to him, had not Stone suddenly lighted a match
+		to attract their attention, and glared at them.</p>
+
+		<p>“I have already decided,� said Bobby frankly, seeing
+		no reason for fencing. “My legal and business
+		advisers tell me that it would be a good investment,
+		and I am ready to take hold of the Brightlight Electric
+		as soon as the formalities can be arranged.�</p>
+
+		<p>Stone grunted his approval, and immediately rose,
+		looking at his watch.</p>
+
+		<p>“Pleased to have met you, Mr. Burnit,� he rumbled
+		hoarsely, and took his coat and hat. “Sorry I can’t
+		stay. Promised to meet a man.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Coming back?� asked Garland.</p>
+
+		<p>“Might,� responded the other, and was gone.</p>
+
+		<p>As soon as Stone had left, the trifle of strain that
+		had been apparent prior to Bobby’s very decided
+		statement that he would go into the business, was
+		lifted; and Mrs. Sharpe, pink of cheek and sparkling
+		of eye and exhilarated by the wine to her utmost of
+		purely physical attractiveness, moved when the coffee
+		was served to a chair between Bobby and Garland,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page162" title="162"> </a>and, gifted with a purring charm, exerted herself to
+		the utmost to please the new-comer. She puzzled
+		Bobby. The woman was an entirely new type to him,
+		and he could not fathom her.</p>
+
+		<p>With the clearing of the table more champagne
+		was brought, and Bobby began to have an uneasy
+		dread of a “near-orgie,� such as was associated in
+		the minds of the knowing ones with this crowd.
+		Sharpe, however, quickly removed this fear, for,
+		pushing aside his own glass with a bare sip after it
+		had been filled, he drew forth a pencil and produced
+		some papers which he spread before Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“I imagined that you would have a very favorable
+		report on the Brightlight Electric,� he said with a
+		smile, “so I took the liberty of bringing along an
+		outline of my plan for reorganization. If Mr. Garland
+		and Mrs. Sharpe will excuse us for talking shop
+		we might glance over them together.�</p>
+
+		<p>“You’re selfish,� pouted Mrs. Sharpe quite prettily,
+		but, nevertheless, she turned her exclusive attention
+		to Garland for the time being.</p>
+
+		<p>With considerable interest Bobby plunged into
+		the business at hand. Here was a well-established
+		concern that had been doing business for three decades,
+		which had been paying ten per cent. dividends
+		for years, and which would doubtless continue to do
+		so for many years to come. An opportunity to obtain
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page163" title="163"> </a>control of it solved his problem of investment at
+		once, and he strove to approach its intricacies with
+		intelligence. He became vaguely aware, by and by,
+		that just behind him Garland and Mrs. Sharpe were
+		carrying on a most animated conversation in an undertone
+		interspersed with much laughter, and once,
+		with a start of annoyance, he overheard Garland telling
+		a slightly <em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">risqué</em> story, at which Mrs. Sharpe
+		laughed softly and with evident relish. He glanced
+		around involuntarily. Garland had his arm across
+		the back of her chair, and they were leaning toward
+		each other in a close proximity which Bobby reflected
+		with sudden savageness could not possibly occur if
+		that were his wife; nor was he much softened by the
+		later reflection that, in the first place, a woman of
+		her type never could have been his wife, and that, in
+		the second place, it was not the man who was to blame,
+		nor the woman so much, as Sharpe himself. Indeed,
+		Bobby somehow gained the impression that the others
+		flouted and despised Sharpe and held him as a weakling.</p>
+
+		<p>His glance was but a fleeting one, and he turned
+		from them with a look which Sharpe, noting, misinterpreted.</p>
+
+		<p>“I had hoped,� he said, “to go into this thing very
+		thoroughly, so that we could begin the reorganization
+		at once, with the preliminaries completely understood;
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page164" title="164"> </a>but if we are detaining you from any engagement,
+		Mr. Burnit—�</p>
+
+		<p>“Not at all, not at all,� the highly-interested Bobby
+		hastened to assure him. “I have no engagements
+		whatever to-night, and my time is entirely at your
+		disposal.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Then let’s drop down to the theater,� suddenly
+		interposed Mrs. Sharpe. “You can talk your dust-dry
+		business there just as well as here. Billy, telephone
+		down to the Orpheum and see if they have a
+		box.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby was far too unsuspecting to understand that
+		he had been deliberately trapped. Though not of
+		the ultra-exclusives, his social position was an excellent
+		one and he had the entrée everywhere. To be
+		seen publicly with young Burnit was a step upward,
+		as Mrs. Sharpe saw it, in that forbidding and painful
+		social climb.</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby started with dismay when Garland stepped
+		to the telephone, but he was fairly caught, and he
+		realized it in time to check the involuntary protest
+		that rose to his lips. He had acknowledged that his
+		time was free and at their disposal, and he regretted
+		deeply that no good, handy lie came to his rescue.</p>
+
+		<p>They arrived at the theater between acts, and with
+		the full blaze of the auditorium upon them. Bobby’s
+		comfort was not at all heightened when Stone almost
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page165" title="165"> </a>immediately followed them in. He had firmly made
+		up his mind as they entered to obtain a place in the
+		rear corner of the box, where he could not be seen;
+		but he was not prepared for the generalship of Mrs.
+		Sharpe, who so manœuvered it as to force him to the
+		very edge, between herself and Garland, and, as she
+		turned to him with a laughing remark which, in pantomime,
+		had all the confidential understanding of
+		most cordial and intimate acquaintanceship, Bobby
+		glanced apprehensively across at the other side of the
+		proscenium-arch. There, in the opposite box, staring
+		at him in shocked amazement, sat Agnes Elliston!</p>
+
+		<p>“But Agnes,� protested Bobby at the Elliston
+		home next day, “I could not possibly help it.�</p>
+
+		<p>“No?� she inquired incredulously. “I don’t imagine
+		that any one strongly advised you to have anything
+		to do with Mr. Sharpe—and it was through
+		him that you met <em>her</em>. Perhaps it is just as well
+		that it happened, however, because it has shown you
+		just how you were about to become involved.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby swallowed quite painfully. His tongue was
+		a little dry.</p>
+
+		<p>“Well, the fact of the matter is,� he admitted, reddening
+		and stammering, “that I have already ‘become
+		involved,’ if that’s the way you choose to put it; for—for—I
+		signed an agreement with Sharpe, and an
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page166" title="166"> </a>application for increase of capitalization, this morning.�</p>
+
+		<p>“You don’t mean it!� she gasped. “How could
+		you?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Why not?� he demanded. “Agnes, it seems quite
+		impossible for you to divorce business and social
+		affairs. I tell you they have absolutely nothing to
+		do with each other. The opportunity Sharpe offered
+		me is a splendid one. Chalmers and Johnson investigated
+		it thoroughly, and both advise me that it is
+		quite an unusually good chance.�</p>
+
+		<p>“You didn’t seem to be able to divorce business and
+		social affairs last night,� she reminded him rather
+		sharply, returning to the main point at issue and
+		ignoring all else.</p>
+
+		<p>There was the rub. She could not get out of her
+		mind the picture of Mrs. Sharpe chatting gaily with
+		him, smiling up at him and all but fawning upon
+		him, in full view of any number of people who knew
+		both Agnes and Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“You have made a deliberate choice of your companions,
+		Mr. Burnit, after being warned against
+		them from more than one source,� she told him, aflame
+		with indignant jealousy, but speaking with the rigidity
+		common in such quarrels, “and you may abide by
+		your choice.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Agnes!� he protested. “You don’t mean—�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page167" title="167"> </a>“I mean just this,� she interrupted him coldly,
+		“that I certainly can not afford to be seen in public,
+		and don’t particularly care to entertain in private,
+		any one who permits himself to be seen in public with,
+		or entertained in private by, the notorious Mrs. Frank
+		L. Sharpe.�</p>
+
+		<p>They were both of them pale, both trembling, both
+		stiffened by hurt and rebellious pride. Bobby gazed
+		at her a moment in a panic, and saw no relenting in
+		her eyes, in her pose, in her compressed lips. She was
+		still thinking of the way Mrs. Sharpe had looked at
+		him.</p>
+
+		<p>“Very well,� said he, quite calmly; “since our arrangements
+		for this evening are off, I presume I may
+		as well accept that invitation to dine at Sharpe’s,�
+		and with this petty threat he left the house.</p>
+
+		<p>At the Idlers’ he was met by a succession of grins
+		that were more aggravating because for the most part
+		they were but scantily explained. Nick Allstyne, indeed,
+		did take him into a corner, with a vast show of
+		secrecy, requested him to have an ordinance passed,
+		through his new and influential friends, turning Bedlow
+		Park into a polo ground; while Payne Winthrop
+		added insult to injury by shaking hands with him and
+		most gravely congratulating him—but upon what he
+		would not say. Bobby was half grinning and yet
+		half angry when he left the club and went over for
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page168" title="168"> </a>his usual half hour at the gymnasium. Professor
+		Henry H. Bates was also grinning.</p>
+
+		<p>“See you’re butting in with the swell mob,� observed
+		Mr. Bates cheerfully. “Getting your name in
+		the paper, ain’t you, along with the fake heavyweights
+		and the divorces?� and before Bobby’s eyes
+		he thrust a copy of the yellowest of the morning
+		papers, wherein it was set forth that Mr. and Mrs.
+		Frank L. Sharpe had entertained a notable box party
+		at the Orpheum, the night before, consisting of
+		Samuel Stone, William Garland and Robert Burnit,
+		the latter of whom, it was rumored, was soon to be
+		identified with the larger financial affairs of the city,
+		having already contracted to purchase a controlling
+		interest in the Brightlight Electric Company. The
+		paper had more to say about the significance of
+		Bobby’s appearance in this company, as indicating
+		the new political move which sought to ally the
+		younger business element with the progressive party
+		that had been so long in safe, sane and conservative
+		control of municipal affairs, except for the temporary
+		setback of the recent so-called “citizens’ movement�
+		hysteria. Bobby frowned more deeply as he read on,
+		and Mr. Bates grinned more and more cheerfully.</p>
+
+		<p>“Here’s where it happens,� he observed. “On the
+		level, Bobby, did they hook you up on this electric
+		deal?�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page169" title="169"> </a>“What’s the matter with it?� demanded Bobby.
+		“After thorough investigation by my own lawyer and
+		my own bookkeeper, the Brightlight proves to have
+		been a profitable enterprise for a great many years,
+		and is in as good condition now as it ever was. Why
+		shouldn’t I go into it?�</p>
+
+		<p>Biff winked.</p>
+
+		<p>“Because it’s no fun being the goat,� he replied.
+		“Say, tell me, did you ever earn a pull with this
+		bunch?�</p>
+
+		<p>“No.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Well, then, why should they hand you anything
+		but the buzzer? If this is a good stunt don’t you
+		suppose they’d keep it at home? Don’t you suppose
+		that Stone could go out and get half the money in
+		this town, if he wanted it, to put behind a deal that
+		was worth ten per cent. a year and pickings? I don’t
+		care what your lawyer or what Johnson says about it,
+		I know the men. This boy Garland is a good sport,
+		all right, but he’s for the easy-money crowd every
+		time—and they’re going to make the next mayor out
+		of him. Our local Hicks would rather be robbed by
+		a lot of friendly stick-up artists than have their
+		money wasted by a lot of wooden-heads, and after
+		this election the old Stone gang will have their feet
+		right back in the trough; yes! This is the way I
+		figure the dope. They’ve framed it up to dump the
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page170" title="170"> </a>Brightlight Electric, and you’re the fall guy. So
+		wear pads in your derby, because the first thing you
+		know the hammer’s going to drop on your coco.�</p>
+
+		<p>“How do you find out so much, Biff?� returned
+		Bobby, smiling.</p>
+
+		<p>“By sleeping seven hours a day in place of twenty-four.
+		If some of the marks I know would only cough
+		up for a good, reliable alarm clock they’d be better
+		off.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Meaning me, of course,� said Bobby. “For that
+		I’ll have to manhandle you a little. Where’s your
+		gloves?�</p>
+
+		<p>For fifteen minutes they punched away at each
+		other with soft gloves as determinedly and as energetically
+		as if they were deadly enemies, and then
+		Bobby went back up to his own office. He found Applerod
+		jubilant and Johnson glum. Already Applerod
+		heard himself saying to his old neighbors: “As
+		Frank L. Sharpe said to me this morning—,� or:
+		“I told Sharpe—,� or: “Say! Sam Stone stopped
+		at my desk yesterday—,� and already he began to
+		shine by this reflected glory.</p>
+
+		<p>“I hear that you have decided to go into the Brightlight
+		Electric,� he observed.</p>
+
+		<p>“Signed all the papers this morning,� admitted
+		Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“Allow me to congratulate you, sir,� said Applerod,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page171" title="171"> </a>but Johnson silently produced from an index
+		case a plain, gray envelope, which he handed to Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>It was inscribed:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="envelope">
+			<p>To My Son Upon His Putting Good Money Into any
+				Public Service Corporation</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p>and it read:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="letter">
+			<p>“When the manipulators of public service corporations
+			tire of skinning the dear public in bulk, they
+			skin individual specimens just to keep in practice. If
+			you have been fool enough to get into the crowd that
+			invokes the aid of dirty politics to help it hang people
+			on street-car straps, just write them out a check for
+			whatever money you have left, and tell your trustee
+			you are broke again; because you are not and never
+			can be of their stripe, and if you are not of their
+			stripe they will pick your bones. Turn a canary
+			loose in a colony of street sparrows and watch what
+			happens to it.�</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p>Bobby folded up the letter grimly and went into
+		his private room, where he thought long and soberly.
+		That evening he went out to Sharpe’s to dinner. As
+		he was about to ring the bell, he stopped, confronted
+		by a most unusual spectacle. Through the long plate-glass
+		of the door he could see clearly back through
+		the hall into the library, and there stood Mrs. Sharpe
+		and William Garland in a tableau “that would have
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page172" title="172"> </a>given Plato the pip,� as Biff Bates might have expressed
+		it had he known about Plato. At that moment
+		Sharpe came silently down the stairs and turned,
+		unobserved, toward the library. Seeing that his wife
+		and Garland were so pleasantly engaged, he very considerately
+		turned into the drawing-room instead, <em>and
+		as he entered the drawing-room he lit a cigarette</em>!
+		Bobby, vowing angrily that there could never be room
+		in the Brightlight for both Sharpe and himself, did
+		not ring the bell. Instead, he dropped in at the first
+		public telephone and ’phoned his regrets.</p>
+
+		<p>“By the way,� he added, “how soon will you need
+		me again?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Not before a week, at least,� Sharpe replied.</p>
+
+		<p>“Very well, then,� said Bobby; “I’ll be back a
+		week from to-day.�</p>
+
+		<p>Immediately upon his arrival down-town he telegraphed
+		the joyous news to Jack Starlett, in Washington,
+		to prepare for an old-fashioned loafing bee.</p>
+	</div>
+	<div id="chapter_15" class="chapter"><a class="pagenum" id="page173" title="173"> </a>
+		<h2 class="chapter_title"><span class="chapter_number">CHAPTER XV</span><br />
+			A STRANGE CONNECTION DEVELOPS BETWEEN ELECTRICITY
+			AND POLITICS</h2>
+
+		<p><span class="first_word">Chalmers</span>, during Bobby’s absence, secured
+		all the secret information that he could concerning
+		the Brightlight Electric, but nothing
+		to its detriment transpired in that investigation,
+		and when he returned, Bobby, very sensibly as he
+		thought, completed his investment. He paid his two
+		hundred and fifty thousand dollars into the coffers of
+		the company, and, at the first stock-holders’ meeting,
+		voting this stock and the ten shares he had bought
+		from Sharpe at a hundred and seventy-two, he elected
+		his own board of directors, consisting of Chalmers,
+		Johnson, Applerod, Biff Bates and himself, giving
+		one share of stock to each of the other four gentlemen
+		so that they would be eligible. The remaining
+		two members whom he allowed to be elected were
+		Sharpe and J. W. Williams, and the board of directors
+		promptly elected Bobby president and treasurer,
+		Johnson secretary and Chalmers vice-president—a result
+		which gave Bobby great satisfaction. Once he
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page174" title="174"> </a>had been frozen out of a stock company; this time he
+		had absolute control, and he found great pleasure in
+		exercising it, though against Chalmers’ protest. With
+		swelling triumph he voted to himself, through his
+		“dummy� directors, the salary of the former president—twelve
+		thousand dollars a year—though he
+		wondered a trifle that President Eastman submitted
+		to his retirement with such equanimity, and after he
+		walked away from that meeting he considered his
+		business career as accomplished. He was settled for
+		life if he wished to remain in the business, the salary
+		added to the dividends on two hundred and sixty thousand
+		dollars worth of stock bringing his own individual
+		income up to a quite respectable figure. If
+		there were no further revenue to be derived from the
+		estate of John Burnit, he felt that he had a very
+		fair prospect in life, indeed, and could, no doubt, make
+		his way very nicely.</p>
+
+		<p>He had been unfortunate enough to find Agnes
+		Elliston “not at home� upon the two occasions when
+		he had called since their disagreement upon the subject
+		of the Sharpes, but now he called her up by telephone
+		precisely as if nothing had happened, and explained
+		to her how good his prospects were; good
+		enough, in fact, he added, that he could look matrimony
+		very squarely in the eye.</p>
+
+		<p>“Allow me to congratulate you,� said Agnes
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page175" title="175"> </a>sweetly. “I presume I’ll read presently about the
+		divorce that precedes your marriage,� and she hung
+		up the receiver; all of which, had Bobby but paused
+		to reflect upon it, was a very fair indication that all
+		he had to do was to jump in his automobile and call
+		on Aunt Constance Elliston, force his way upon the
+		attention of Agnes and browbeat that young lady
+		into an immediate marriage. He chose, on the contrary,
+		to take the matter more gloomily, and Johnson,
+		after worrying about him for three dismal days, consulted
+		Biff Bates. But Biff, when the problem was
+		propounded to him, only laughed.</p>
+
+		<p>“His steady has lemoned him,� declared Biff. “Any
+		time a guy’s making plenty of money and got good
+		health and ain’t married, and goes around with an all-day
+		grouch, you can play it for a one to a hundred
+		favorite that his entry’s been scratched in the solitaire
+		diamond stakes.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Uh-huh,� responded the taciturn Johnson, and
+		stalked back with grim purpose to the Electric Company’s
+		office, of which Bobby and Johnson and Applerod
+		had taken immediate possession.</p>
+
+		<p>The next morning Johnson handed to Bobby one of
+		the familiar gray envelopes, inscribed:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="envelope">
+			<p>To My Son Upon the Occasion of His Having a
+				Misunderstanding with Agnes Elliston</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page176" title="176"> </a>He submitted the envelope with many qualms and
+		misgivings, though without apology, but one glance
+		at Bobby’s face as that young gentleman read the inscription
+		relieved him of all responsibility in the matter,
+		for if ever a face showed guilt, that face was the
+		face of Bobby Burnit. In the privacy of the president’s
+		office Bobby read the briefest note of the many
+		that his forethoughted father had left behind him in
+		Johnson’s charge:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="letter">
+			<p>“You’re a blithering idiot!�</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p>That was all. Somehow, that brief note seemed to
+		lighten the gloom, to lift the weight, to remove some
+		sort of a barrier, and he actually laughed. Immediately
+		he called up the Ellistons. He received the information
+		from the housekeeper that Agnes and Aunt
+		Constance had gone to New York on an extended shopping
+		trip, and thereby he lost his greatest and only
+		opportunity to prove that he had at last been successful
+		in business. That day, all the stock which
+		Frank L. Sharpe had held began to come in for transfer,
+		in small lots of from ten to twenty shares, and
+		inside a week not a certificate stood in Sharpe’s name.
+		All the stock held by Williams also came in for transfer.
+		Bobby went immediately to see Sharpe, and,
+		very much concerned, inquired into the meaning of
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page177" title="177"> </a>this. Mr. Sharpe was as pleasant as Christmas morning.</p>
+
+		<p>“To tell you the truth, Mr. Burnit,� said he,
+		“there were several very good reasons. In the first
+		place, I needed the money; in the second place, you
+		were insistent upon control and abused it; in the third
+		place, since the increased capitalization and change
+		of management the quotations on Brightlight Electric
+		dropped from one-seventy-two to one-sixty-five, and I
+		got out before it could drop any lower. You will
+		give me credit for selling the stock privately and in
+		small lots where it could not break the price. However,
+		Mr. Burnit, I don’t see where the sale of my
+		stock affects you in any way. You have the Brightlight
+		Electric now in good condition, and all it needs
+		to remain a good investment is proper management.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I’m afraid it needs more than that,� retorted
+		Bobby. “I’m afraid it needs to be in a position to
+		make more money for other people than for myself;�
+		through which remark it may be seen that, though
+		perhaps a trifle slow, Bobby was learning.</p>
+
+		<p>Another lesson awaited him. On the following
+		morning every paper in the city blazed with the disquieting
+		information that the Consumers’ Electric
+		Light and Power Company and the United Illuminating
+		and Fuel Company were to be consolidated!
+		Out of the two old concerns a fifty-million-dollar corporation
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page178" title="178"> </a>was to be formed, and a certain portion of
+		the stock was to be sold in small lots, as low, even, as
+		one share each, so that the public should be given a
+		chance to participate in this unparalleled investment.
+		Oh, it was to be a tremendous boon to the city!</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby, much worried, went straight to Chalmers.</p>
+
+		<p>“So far as I can see you have all the best of the
+		bargain,� Chalmers reassured him. “The Consumers’,
+		already four times watered and quoted at about seventy,
+		is to be increased from two to five million before
+		the consolidation, so that it can be taken in at
+		ten million. The Union, already watered from one
+		to nine million in its few brief years, takes on another
+		hydraulic spurt and will be bought for twenty
+		million. Of the thirty million dollars which is to be
+		paid for the old corporation, nineteen million represents
+		new water, the most of which will be distributed
+		among Stone and his henchmen. The other twenty
+		million will go to the dear public, who will probably
+		be given one share of common as a bonus with each
+		share of preferred, and pay ten million sweaty dollars
+		for it. Do you think this new company expects
+		to pay dividends? On their plants, worth at a high
+		valuation, five million dollars, and their new capital
+		of ten million, a profit must be earned for fifty million
+		dollars’ worth of stock, and it can not be done.
+		Within a year I expect to see Consolidated Illuminating
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page179" title="179"> </a>and Power Company stock quoted at around
+		thirty. By that time, however, Stone and his crowd
+		will have sold theirs, and will have cleaned up millions.
+		Brightlight Electric was probably too small
+		a factor to be considered in the consolidation. Did
+		you pay off that mortgage? Then Stone has his
+		hundred thousand dollars; the back salary list of
+		Stone’s henchmen has been paid up with your money;
+		Sharpe and Williams have converted their stock and
+		Stone’s into cash at a fancy figure; Eastman is to be
+		taken care of in the new company and they are satisfied.
+		In my estimation you are well rid of the entire
+		crowd, unless they have some neat little plan for
+		squeezing you. But I’ll tell you what I would do. I
+		would go direct to Stone, and see what he has to
+		say.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby smiled ironically at himself as he climbed
+		the dingy stairs up which it was said that every man
+		of affairs in the city must sooner or later toil to bend
+		the knee, but he was astonished when he walked into
+		the office of Stone to find it a narrow, bare little room,
+		with the door wide open to the hall. There was an
+		old, empty desk in it—for Stone never kept nor wrote
+		letters—and four common kitchen chairs for waiting
+		callers. At the desk near the one window sat Stone,
+		and over him bent a shabby-looking man, whispering.
+		Stone, grunting occasionally, looked out of the window
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page180" title="180"> </a>while he listened, and when the man was through
+		gave him a ten-dollar bill.</p>
+
+		<p>“It’s all right,� Stone said gruffly. “I’ll be in court
+		myself at ten o’clock to-morrow morning, and you
+		may tell Billy that I’ll get him out of it.�</p>
+
+		<p>Another man, a flashily-dressed fellow, was ahead
+		of Bobby, and he, too, now leaned over Stone and
+		whispered.</p>
+
+		<p>“Nothing doing,� rumbled Stone.</p>
+
+		<p>The man, from his gestures, protested earnestly.</p>
+
+		<p>“Nix!� declared Stone loudly. “You threw me two
+		years ago this fall, and you can’t come back till you’re
+		on your uppers good and proper. I don’t want to see
+		you nor hear of you for another year, and you needn’t
+		send any one to me to fix it, because it can’t be fixed.
+		Now beat it. I’m busy!�</p>
+
+		<p>The man, much crestfallen, “beat it.� Bobby was
+		thankful that there was no one else waiting when it
+		was his turn to approach the Mogul. Stone shook
+		hands cordially enough.</p>
+
+		<p>“Mr. Stone,� inquired Bobby, “how does it come
+		that the Brightlight Electric Company was not offered
+		a chance to come into this new consolidation?�</p>
+
+		<p>“How should I know?� asked Stone in reply.</p>
+
+		<p>“It is popularly supposed,� suggested Bobby, smiling,
+		“that you know a great deal about it.�</p>
+
+		<p>Mr. Stone ignored that supposition completely.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page181" title="181"> </a>“Mr. Burnit, how much political influence do you
+		think you could swing?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Frankly, I never thought of it,� said Bobby surprised.</p>
+
+		<p>“You belong to the Idlers’ Club, you belong to the
+		Traders’ Club, to the Fish and Game, the Brassie,
+		the Gourmet, and the Thespian Clubs. You are a
+		member of the board of governors in three of these
+		clubs, and are very popular in all of them. A man
+		like you, if he would get wise, could swing a strong
+		following.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Possibly,� admitted Bobby dryly; “although I
+		wouldn’t enjoy it.�</p>
+
+		<p>“One-third of the members of the Traders’ Club do
+		not vote, more than half of the members of the Fish
+		and Game and the Brassie do not vote, none of the
+		members of the other clubs vote at all,� went on Mr.
+		Stone. “They ain’t good citizens. If you’re the man
+		that can stir them up the right way you’d find it worth
+		while.�</p>
+
+		<p>“But just now,� evaded Bobby, “whom did you say
+		I should see about this consolidation?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Sharpe,� snapped Stone. “Good day, Mr. Burnit.�
+		And Bobby walked away rather belittled in his
+		own estimation.</p>
+
+		<p>He had been offered an excellent chance to become
+		one of Stone’s political lieutenants, had been given
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page182" title="182"> </a>an opportunity to step up to the pie counter, to enjoy
+		the very material benefits of the Stone style of municipal
+		government; and in exchange for this he had
+		only to sell his fellows. He knew now that his visit
+		to Sharpe would be fruitless, that before he could arrive
+		at Sharpe’s office that puppet would have had a
+		telephone message from Stone; yet, his curiosity
+		aroused, he saw the thing through. Mr. Sharpe,
+		upon his visit, met Bobby as coldly as the January
+		morning when the Christmas bills come in.</p>
+
+		<p>“We don’t really care for the Brightlight Electric
+		in the combination at all,� said Mr. Sharpe, “but if
+		you wish to come in at a valuation of five hundred
+		thousand I guess we can find a place for you.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Let me understand,� said Bobby. “By a valuation
+		of five hundred thousand dollars you mean that
+		the Brightlight stock-holders can exchange each share
+		of their stock for one share in the Consolidated?�</p>
+
+		<p>“That’s it, precisely,� said Mr. Sharpe without a
+		smile.</p>
+
+		<p>“You’re joking,� objected Bobby. “My stock in
+		the Brightlight is worth to-day one hundred and fifty
+		dollars a share. My two hundred and sixty thousand
+		dollars’ worth of stock in the Consolidated would not
+		be worth par, even, to-day. Why do you make this
+		discrimination when you are giving the stock-holders
+		of the Consumers’ an exchange of five shares for one,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page183" title="183"> </a>and the stock-holders of the United an exchange of
+		twenty shares for nine?�</p>
+
+		<p>“We need both those companies,� calmly explained
+		Sharpe, “and we don’t need the Brightlight.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Is that figure the best you will do?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Under the circumstances, yes.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Very well then,� said Bobby; “good day.�</p>
+
+		<p>“By the way, Mr. Burnit,� Sharpe said to him with
+		a return of the charming smile which had been conspicuously
+		absent on this occasion, “we needn’t consider
+		the talk entirely closed as yet. It might be possible
+		that we would be able, between now and the first
+		of the next month, when the consolidation is to be
+		completed, to make you a much more liberal offer to
+		come in with us; to be one of us, in fact.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby sat down again.</p>
+
+		<p>“How soon may I see you about it?� he asked.</p>
+
+		<p>“I’ll let you know when things are shaped up right.
+		By the way, Mr. Burnit, you are a very young man
+		yet, and just starting upon your career. Really you
+		ought to look about you a bit and study what advantages
+		you have in the way of personal influence and
+		following.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I have never counted that I had a ‘following.’�</p>
+
+		<p>“I understand that you have a very strong one,� insisted
+		Sharpe. “What you ought to do is to see Mr.
+		Stone.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page184" title="184"> </a>“I have been to see him,� replied Bobby with a
+		smile.</p>
+
+		<p>“So I understand,� said Sharpe dryly. “By the
+		way, next Tuesday I am to be voted upon in the
+		Idlers’. You are on the board of governors up there,
+		I believe?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Yes,� said Bobby steadily.</p>
+
+		<p>Sharpe studied him for a moment.</p>
+
+		<p>“Well, come around and see me about this consolidation
+		on Wednesday,� he suggested, “and in the
+		meantime have another talk with Stone. By all means,
+		go and see Stone.�</p>
+
+		<hr class="thoughtbreak" />
+
+		<p class="post_thoughtbreak">“Johnson,� asked Bobby, later, “what would you
+		do if a man should ask you to sell him your personal
+		influence, your self-respect and your immortal soul?�</p>
+
+		<p>“I’d ask his price,� interposed Applerod with a
+		grin.</p>
+
+		<p>“You’d never get an offer,� snapped Johnson to
+		Applerod, “for you haven’t any to sell. Why do you
+		ask, Mr. Burnit?�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby regarded Johnson thoughtfully for a moment.</p>
+
+		<p>“I know how to make the Brightlight Electric
+		Company yield me two hundred per cent. dividends
+		within a year or less,� he stated.</p>
+
+		<p>“Through Stone?� inquired Johnson.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page185" title="185"> </a>“Through Stone,� admitted Bobby, smiling at
+		Johnson’s penetration.</p>
+
+		<p>“I thought so. I guess your father has summed
+		up, better than I could put it, all there is to be said
+		upon that subject.� And from his index-file he produced
+		one of the familiar gray envelopes, inscribed:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="envelope">
+			<p>To My Son Robert Upon the Subject of Bribery</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<blockquote class="letter">
+			<p>“When a man sells his independence and the faith of
+			his friends he is bankrupt. Both the taker and the
+			giver of a bribe, even when it is called ‘preferment,’
+			are like dogs with fleas; they yelp in their sleep; only
+			the man gets callous after a while and the dog doesn’t.
+			Whoever the fellow is that’s trying to buy your self-respect,
+			go soak him in the eye, and pay your fine.�</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p>“For once I agree most heartily with the governor,�
+		said Bobby, and as a result he did not go to see Stone.
+		Moreover, Frank L. Sharpe was blackballed at the
+		Idlers’ Club with cheerful unanimity, and Bobby figuratively
+		squared his shoulders to receive the blow that
+		he was convinced must certainly fall.</p>
+	</div>
+	<div id="chapter_16" class="chapter"><a class="pagenum" id="page186" title="186"> </a>
+		<h2 class="chapter_title"><span class="chapter_number">CHAPTER XVI</span><br />
+			AGNES APPEARS PUBLICLY WITH MRS. SHARPE AND
+			BIFF BATES HAS A ONE-ROUND SCRAP</h2>
+
+		<p><span class="first_word">That</span> night, though rather preoccupied by
+		the grave consequences that might ensue on
+		this flat-footed defiance of Stone and his
+		crowd, Bobby went to the theater with Jack Starlett
+		and Jack’s sister and mother. As they seated themselves
+		he bowed gravely across the auditorium to
+		Agnes and Aunt Constance Elliston, who, with Uncle
+		Dan, were entertaining a young woman relative from
+		Savannah. He did not know how the others accepted
+		his greeting; he only saw Agnes, and she smiled quite
+		placidly at him, which was far worse than if she had
+		tilted her head. Through two dreary, interminable
+		acts he sat looking at the stage, trying to talk small
+		talk with the Starletts and remaining absolutely miserable;
+		but shortly before the beginning of the last
+		act he was able to take a quite new and gleeful interest
+		in life, for the young woman from Savannah came
+		fluttering into the Elliston box, bearing in tow the
+		beautiful and vivacious Mrs. Frank L. Sharpe!</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page187" title="187"> </a>Bobby turned his opera-glasses at once upon that
+		box, and pressed Jack Starlett into service. Being
+		thus attracted, the ladies of the Starlett box, mystified
+		and unable to extract any explanation from the two
+		gleeful men, were compelled, by force of circumstances
+		and curiosity, also to opera-glass and lorgnette the
+		sufferers.</p>
+
+		<p>Like the general into which he was developing,
+		Bobby managed to meet Agnes face to face in the
+		foyer after the show. Tears of mortification were in
+		her eyes, but still she was laughing when he strode
+		up to her and with masterful authority drew her arm
+		beneath his own.</p>
+
+		<p>“Your carriage is too small for four,� Bobby calmly
+		told Mr. Elliston, and, excusing himself from the
+		Starletts, deliberately conducted Agnes to a hansom.
+		As they got well under way he observed:</p>
+
+		<p>“You will notice that I make no question of being
+		seen in public with—�</p>
+
+		<p>“Bobby!� she protested. “Violet did not know.
+		The Sharpes visited in Savannah. His connections
+		down there are quite respectable, and no doubt Mrs.
+		Sharpe, who is really clever, held herself very circumspectly.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Fine!� said Bobby. “You will notice that I am
+		quite willing to listen to <em>you</em>. Explain some more.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Bobby!� she protested again, and then suddenly
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page188" title="188"> </a>she bent forward and pressed her handkerchief to her
+		eyes.</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby was astounded. She was actually crying!
+		In a moment he had her in his arms, was pressing her
+		head upon his shoulder, was saying soothing things
+		to her with perfectly idiotic volubility. For an infinitesimally
+		brief space Agnes yielded to that embrace,
+		and then suddenly she straightened up in dismay.</p>
+
+		<p>“Good gracious, Bobby!� she exclaimed. “This
+		hansom is all glass!�</p>
+
+		<p>He looked out upon the brilliantly lighted street
+		with a reflex of her own consternation, but quickly
+		found consolation.</p>
+
+		<p>“Well, after all,� he reflected philosophically, “I
+		don’t believe anybody who saw me would blame me.�</p>
+
+		<p>“You’re a perfectly incorrigible Bobby,� she
+		laughed. “The only check possible to put upon you
+		is to hold you rigidly to business. How are you coming
+		out with the Brightlight Electric Company? I
+		have been dying to ask you about it.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I have a telephone in my office,� he reminded her.</p>
+
+		<p>“I am completely ignoring that ungenerous suggestion,�
+		she replied.</p>
+
+		<p>“It wasn’t sportsmanlike,� he penitently admitted.
+		“Well, the Brightlight Electric is still making money,
+		and Johnson has stopped leaks to the amount of at
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page189" title="189"> </a>least twenty thousand dollars a year, which will permit
+		us to keep up the ten per cent. dividends, even
+		with our increased capitalization, and even without
+		an increase of business.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Glorious!� she said with sparkling eyes.</p>
+
+		<p>“Too good to be true,� he assured her. “They’ll
+		take it away from me.�</p>
+
+		<p>“How is it possible?� she asked.</p>
+
+		<p>“It isn’t; but it will happen, nevertheless,� he declared
+		with conviction.</p>
+
+		<p>He had already begun to spend his days and nights
+		in apprehension of this, and as the weeks went on and
+		nothing happened his apprehension grew rather than
+		diminished.</p>
+
+		<p>In the meantime, the Consolidated Illuminating and
+		Power Company went pompously on. The great combine
+		was formed, the fifty million dollars’ worth of
+		stock was opened for subscription, and the company
+		gave a vastly expensive banquet in the convention
+		hall of the Hotel Spender, at which a thousand of the
+		city’s foremost men were entertained, and where the
+		cleverest after-dinner speakers to be obtained talked
+		in relays until long after midnight. Those who came
+		to eat the rich food and drink the rare wine and lend
+		their countenances to the stupendous local enterprise,
+		being shrewd business graduates who had cut their
+		eye-teeth in their cradles, smiled and went home without
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page190" title="190"> </a>any thought of investing; but the hard-working,
+		economical chaps of the offices and shops, men who
+		felt elated if, after five years of slavery, they could
+		show ten hundred dollars of savings, glanced in awe
+		over this magnificent list of names in the next day’s
+		papers. If the stock of the Consolidated Illuminating
+		and Power Company was considered a good investment
+		by these generals and captains and lieutenants
+		of finance, who, of course, attended this Arabian
+		Nights banquet as investors, it must certainly be a
+		good investment for the corporals and privates.</p>
+
+		<p>Immediately vivid results were shown. Immense
+		electric signs, furnished at less than cost and some of
+		them as big as the buildings upon the roofs of which
+		they were erected, began to make constellations in the
+		city sky; buildings in the principal down-town squares
+		were studded, for little or nothing, with outside incandescent
+		lights as thickly as wall space could be
+		found for them, and the men whose only automobiles
+		are street-cars awoke to the fact that their city was
+		becoming intensely metropolitan; that it was blazing
+		with the blaze of Paris and London and New York;
+		that all this glittering advancement was due to the
+		great new Consolidated Illuminating and Power Company,
+		and more applications for stock were made!</p>
+
+		<p>Every applicant was supplied, but the treasury
+		stock of the company having been sold out, the scrip
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page191" title="191"> </a>had to come from some place else, and it came through
+		devious, secret ways from the holdings of such men
+		as Stone and Garland and Sharpe.</p>
+
+		<p>During the grand orgie of illumination the election
+		came on; the price of gas and electricity went
+		gloriously and recklessly down, and the men who were
+		identified with the triumphantly successful new illuminating
+		company were the leading figures in the
+		campaign. The puerile “reform party,� the blunders
+		of whose incompetence had been ridiculous, was swept
+		out of existence; Garland was elected mayor by the
+		most overwhelming majority that had ever been known
+		in the city, and with him was elected a council of the
+		same political faith. Sam Stone, always in the background,
+		always keeping his name out of the papers
+		as much as possible, came once more to the throne,
+		and owned the city and all its inhabitants and all its
+		business enterprises and all its public utilities, body
+		and soul.</p>
+
+		<p>One night, shortly after the new officials went into
+		power, there was no light in the twelve blocks over
+		which the Brightlight Company had exclusive control,
+		nor any light in the outside districts it supplied.
+		This was the first time in years that the company,
+		equipped with an emergency battery of dynamos
+		which now proved out of order, had ever failed for
+		an instant of proper service. Candles, kerosene lamps
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page192" title="192"> </a>and old gas fixtures, the rusty cocks of which had
+		not been turned in a decade, were put hastily in use,
+		while the streets were black with a blackness particularly
+		Stygian, contrasted with the brilliantly illuminated
+		squares supplied by the Consolidated Company.
+		All night long the mechanical force, attended by the
+		worried but painfully helpless Bobby, pounded and
+		tapped and worked in the grime, but it was not until
+		broad daylight that they were able to discover the
+		cause of trouble. For two nights the lights ran steadily.
+		On the third night, at about seven-thirty, they
+		turned to a dull, red glow, and slowly died out. This
+		time it was wire trouble, and through the long night
+		as large a force of men as could be mustered were
+		tracing it. Not until noon of the next day was the
+		leak found.</p>
+
+		<p>It was a full week before that section of the city
+		was for the third time in darkness, but when this
+		occurred the business men of the district, who had
+		been patient enough the first night and enduring
+		enough the second, loosed their reins and became
+		frantic.</p>
+
+		<p>At this happy juncture the Consolidated Company
+		threw an army of canvassers into those twelve monopolized
+		blocks, and the canvassers did not need to be
+		men who could talk, for arguments were not necessary.
+		The old, worn-out equipment of the Brightlight
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page193" title="193"> </a>Electric, and the fact that it was managed and
+		controlled by men who knew nothing whatever of the
+		business, its very president a young fellow who had
+		probably never seen a dynamo until he took charge,
+		were enough.</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby, passing over Plum Street one morning, was
+		surprised to see a large gang of men putting in new
+		poles, and when he reached the office he asked Johnson
+		about it. In two minutes he had definitely ascertained
+		that no orders had been issued by the Brightlight
+		Electric Company nor any one connected with
+		it, and further inquiry revealed the fact that these
+		poles were being put up by the Consolidated. He
+		called up Chalmers at once.</p>
+
+		<p>“I knew I’d hear from you,� said Chalmers, “and
+		I have already been at work on the thing. Of course,
+		you saw what was in the papers.�</p>
+
+		<p>“No,� confessed Bobby. “Only the sporting
+		pages.�</p>
+
+		<p>“You should read news, local and general, every
+		morning,� scolded Chalmers. “The new city council,
+		at their meeting last night, granted the Consolidated
+		a franchise to put up poles and wires in this district
+		for lighting.�</p>
+
+		<p>“But how could they?� expostulated Bobby. “Our
+		contract with the city has several years to run yet,
+		and guarantees us exclusive privilege to supply light,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page194" title="194"> </a>both to the city and to private individuals, in those
+		twelve blocks.�</p>
+
+		<p>“That cleverly unobtrusive joker clause about
+		‘reasonably satisfactory service,’� replied Chalmers
+		angrily. “By the way, have you investigated the
+		cause of those accidents very thoroughly? Whether
+		there was anything malicious about them?�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby confessed that he had not thought of the
+		possibility.</p>
+
+		<p>“I think it would pay you to do so. I am delving
+		into this thing as deeply as I can, and with your permission
+		I am going to call your father’s old attorney,
+		Mr. Barrister, into consultation.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Go ahead, by all means,� said Bobby, worried beyond
+		measure.</p>
+
+		<p>At five o’clock that evening Con Ripley came jauntily
+		to the plant of the Brightlight Electric Company.
+		Con was the engineer, and the world was a very good
+		joke to him, although not such a joke that he ever
+		overlooked his own interests. He spruced up considerably
+		outside of working hours, did Con, and,
+		although he was nearing forty, considered himself
+		very much a ladies’ man, also an accomplished athlete,
+		and positively the last word in electrical knowledge.
+		He was donning his working garments in very leisurely
+		fashion when a short, broad-shouldered, thickset
+		young man came back toward him from the office.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page195" title="195"> </a>“You’re Con Ripley?� said the new-comer by way
+		of introduction.</p>
+
+		<p>“Maybe,� agreed Con. “Who are you?�</p>
+
+		<p>“I’m the Assistant Works,� observed Professor
+		Henry H. Bates.</p>
+
+		<p>“Oh!� said Mr. Ripley in some wonder, looking
+		from the soft cap of Mr. Bates to the broad, thick
+		tan shoes of Mr. Bates, and then back up to the wide-set
+		eyes. “I hadn’t heard about it.�</p>
+
+		<p>“No?� responded Mr. Bates. “Well, I came in to
+		tell you. I don’t know enough about electricity to
+		say whether you feed it with a spoon or from a bottle,
+		but I’m here, just the same, to notice that the juice
+		slips through the wires all right to-night, all right.�</p>
+
+		<p>“The hell you are!� exclaimed Mr. Ripley, taking
+		sudden umbrage at both tone and words, and also at
+		the physical attitude of Mr. Bates, which had grown
+		somewhat threatening. “All right, Mr. Works,� and
+		Mr. Ripley began to step out of his overalls; “jump
+		right in and push juice till you get black in the face,
+		while I take a little vacation. I’ve been wanting a
+		lay-off for a long time.�</p>
+
+		<p>“You’ll lay on, Bo,� dissented Mr. Bates. “Nix
+		on the vacation. That’s just the point. You’re going
+		to stick on the job, and I’m going to stick within
+		four feet of you till old Jim-jams Jones shakes along
+		to get his morning’s morning; and it will be a sign
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page196" title="196"> </a>of awful bad luck for you if the lights in this end of
+		town flicker a single flick any time to-night.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Is that it?� Mr. Ripley wanted to know. “And
+		if they should happen to flicker some what are you
+		going to do about it?�</p>
+
+		<p>“I don’t know yet,� said Biff. “I’ll knock your
+		block off first and think about it afterward!�</p>
+
+		<p>Mr. Ripley hastily drew his overalls back on and
+		slipped the straps over his shoulders with a snap.</p>
+
+		<p>“You’ll tell me when you’re going to do it, won’t
+		you?� he asked banteringly, and, a full head taller
+		than Mr. Bates, glared down at him a moment in contempt.
+		Then he laughed. “I’ll give you ten to one
+		the lights will flicker,� he offered to bet. “I wouldn’t
+		stop such a cunning chance for exercise for real
+		money,� and, whirling upon his heel, Mr. Ripley
+		started upon his usual preliminary examination of
+		dynamos and engines and boilers.</p>
+
+		<p>Quite nonchalantly Mr. Bates, puffing at a particularly
+		villainous stogie and with his hands resting idly
+		in his pockets, swung after Mr. Ripley, keeping within
+		almost precisely four feet of him. In the boiler-room,
+		Ripley, finding Biff still at his heels, said to
+		the fireman, with a jerk of his thumb over his shoulder:</p>
+
+		<p>“Rocksey, be sure you keep a good head of steam
+		on to-night if you’re a friend of mine. This is Mr.
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page197" title="197"> </a>Assistant Works back here, and he’s come in to knock
+		my block off if the lights flicker.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Rocksey,� a lean man with gray beard-bristles like
+		pins and with muscles in astounding lumps upon his
+		grimy arms, surveyed Mr. Bates with a grin which
+		meant volumes.</p>
+
+		<p>“Ring a bell when it starts, will you, Con?� he requested.</p>
+
+		<p>To this Biff paid not the slightest attention, gazing
+		stolidly at the red fire where it shone through the
+		holes of the furnace doors; but when Mr. Ripley
+		moved away Biff moved also. Ripley introduced Biff
+		in much the same terms to a tall man who was oiling
+		the big, old-fashioned Corliss, and a sudden gleam
+		came into the tall man’s eyes as he recognized Mr.
+		Bates, but he turned back to his oiling without smile
+		or comment. Ripley eyed him sharply.</p>
+
+		<p>“You’ll hold the sponge and water-bottle for me,
+		won’t you, Daly?� he asked, with an evident attempt
+		at jovial conciliation.</p>
+
+		<p>Daly deliberately wiped the slender nose of his oil
+		can and went on oiling.</p>
+
+		<p>“What’s the matter?� asked Ripley with a frown.
+		“Got a grouch again?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Yes, I have,� admitted Daly without looking up,
+		and shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+		<p>“Then cut it out,� said Ripley, “and look real unpeeved
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page198" title="198"> </a>when somebody hands you tickets to the circus.�</p>
+
+		<p>From that moment Mr. Ripley seemed to take a
+		keen delight in goading Mr. Bates. He took a sudden
+		dash half-way down the length of the long room,
+		as if going to the extreme other end of the plant,
+		then suddenly whirled and retraced his steps to meet
+		Biff coming after him; made an equally sudden dart
+		for the mysterious switch-board, and seized a lever as
+		if to throw it, but suddenly changed his mind, apparently,
+		and went away, leaving Mr. Bates to infer that
+		the throwing of that particular lever would leave them
+		all in darkness; later, with Biff ready to spring upon
+		him, he threw that switch to show that it had no important
+		function to perform at all. To all these and
+		many more ingenious tricks to humiliate him, Mr.
+		Bates paid not the slightest attention, but, as calmly
+		and as impassively as Fate, kept as nearly as he could
+		to the four-foot distance he had promised.</p>
+
+		<p>It was about ten o’clock when Biff, interested for
+		a moment in the switch-board, suddenly missed Ripley,
+		and looking about him hastily he saw the fireman
+		standing in the door of the boiler-room grinning at
+		him, while the other workmen—all of whom were of
+		the old regime—were also enjoying his discomfort;
+		but Daly, catching his eye, nodded significantly toward
+		the side-door which led upon the street. It was
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page199" title="199"> </a>an almost imperceptible nod, but it was enough for
+		Biff, and he dashed out of that door. Half a block
+		ahead of him he saw Ripley hurrying, and took after
+		him with that light, cat-like run which is the height
+		of effortless and noiseless speed. Ripley, looking
+		back hastily, hurried into a saloon, and he had
+		scarcely closed the door when Biff entered after him,
+		in time to see his man standing at the telephone, receiver
+		in hand. It was the work of but an instant
+		to grab Ripley by the arm and jerk him away from
+		the ’phone. Quickly recovering his balance, with a
+		lunge of his whole body Ripley shot a swift fist at
+		the man who had interfered with him, but Biff, without
+		shifting his position, jerked his head to one side
+		and the fist shot harmlessly by. Before another blow
+		could be struck, or parried, the bartender, a brawny
+		giant, had rushed between them.</p>
+
+		<p>“Let us alone, Jeff,� panted Ripley. “I’ve got all
+		I can stand for from this rat.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Outside!� said Jeff with cold finality. “You can
+		beat him to a pulp in the street, Con, but there’ll be
+		no scrimmage in this place without me having a hand
+		in it.�</p>
+
+		<p>Ripley considered this ultimatum for a moment in
+		silence, and then, to Biff’s surprise, suddenly ran
+		out of the door. It was a tight race to the plant,
+		and there, with Biff not more than two arms’ length
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page200" title="200"> </a>behind him, Ripley jerked at a lever hitherto untouched,
+		and instantly the place was plunged into
+		complete darkness.</p>
+
+		<p>“There!� screamed Ripley.</p>
+
+		<p>A second later Biff had grappled him, and together
+		they went to the floor. It was only a moment that
+		the darkness lasted, however, for tall Tom Daly stood
+		by the replaced switch, looking down at them in quiet
+		joy. Immediately with the turning on of the light
+		Biff scrambled to his feet like a cat and waited for
+		Ripley to rise. It was Ripley who made the first
+		lunge, which Biff dexterously ducked, and immediately
+		after Biff’s right arm shot out, catching his
+		antagonist a glancing blow upon the side of the
+		cheek; a blow which drew blood. Infuriated, again
+		Ripley rushed, but was blocked, and for nearly a
+		minute there was a swift exchange of light blows
+		which did little damage; then Biff found his opening,
+		and, swinging about the axis of his own spine, threw
+		the entire force of his body behind his right arm,
+		and the fist of that arm caught Ripley below the ear
+		and dropped him like a beef, just as Bobby came
+		running back from, the office.</p>
+
+		<p>“What are you doing here, Biff? What’s the matter?�
+		demanded Bobby, as Ripley, dazed, struggled
+		to his feet, and, though weaving, drew himself together
+		for another onslaught.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page201" title="201"> </a>“Matter!� snarled Biff. “I landed on a frame-up,
+		that’s all. This afternoon I saw Sharpe and this
+		Ripley together in a bum wine-room on River Street,
+		swapping so much of that earnest conversation that
+		the partitions bulged, and I dropped to the double-cross
+		that’s being handed out to you. I’ve been trying
+		to telephone you ever since, but when I couldn’t
+		find you I came right down to run the plant. That’s
+		all.�</p>
+
+		<p>“You’re all right, Biff,� laughed Bobby, “but I
+		guess we’ll call this a one-round affair, and I’ll take
+		charge.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Don’t stop ’em!� cried Daly savagely, turning
+		to Bobby. “Hand it to him, Biff. He’s a crook
+		and an all-round sneak. He beat me out of this job
+		by underhand means, and there ain’t a man in the
+		place that ain’t tickled to death to see him get the
+		beating that’s coming to him. Paste him, Biff!�</p>
+
+		<p>“Biff!� repeated Mr. Ripley, suddenly dropping
+		his hands. “Biff who?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Mr. Biff Bates, the well-known and justly celebrated
+		ex-champion middleweight,� announced Bobby
+		with a grin. “Mr. Ripley—Mr. Bates.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Biff Bates!� repeated Con Ripley. “Why didn’t
+		some of you guys tell me this was Biff Bates? Mr.
+		Bates, I’m glad to meet you.� And with much respect
+		he held forth his hand.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page202" title="202"> </a>“Go chase yourself,� growled Mr. Bates, in infinite
+		scorn.</p>
+
+		<p>Ripley replied with a sudden volley of abuse,
+		couched in the vilest of language, but to this Biff
+		made no reply. He dropped his hands in his coat
+		pockets, and, considering his work done, walked over
+		to the wall and leaned against it, awaiting further
+		developments.</p>
+
+		<p>“Daly,� asked Bobby sharply, breaking in upon
+		Ripley’s tirade, “are you competent to run this
+		plant?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Certainly, sir,� replied Daly. “I should have had
+		the job four years ago. I was promised it.�</p>
+
+		<p>“You may consider yourself in charge, then. Mr.
+		Ripley, if you will walk up to the office I’ll pay
+		you off.�</p>
+	</div>
+	<div id="chapter_17" class="chapter"><a class="pagenum" id="page203" title="203"> </a>
+		<h2 class="chapter_title"><span class="chapter_number">CHAPTER XVII</span><br />
+			BOBBY’S MONEY IS ELECTROCUTED AND JOHN BURNIT’S
+			SON WAKES UP</h2>
+
+		<p><span class="first_word">Bobby</span>, jubilant, went to see Chalmers next
+		day. The lawyer listened gravely, but
+		shook his head.</p>
+
+		<p>“I’m bound to tell you, Mr. Burnit, that you have
+		no case. You must have more proof than this to
+		bring a charge of conspiracy. Ripley had a perfect
+		right to talk with Sharpe or to telephone to some
+		one, and mere hot-headedness could explain his shutting
+		off the lights. Your over-enthusiastic friend
+		Bates has ruined whatever prospect you might have
+		had. Your suspicions once aroused, you should have
+		let your man do as he liked, but should have watched
+		him and caught him in a trap of some sort. Now it
+		is too late. Moreover, I have bad news for you.
+		Your contract for city lighting is ironclad, and can
+		not be broken, but I saw to-day a paper signed by
+		an overwhelming majority of your private consumers
+		that the service is not even ‘reasonably satisfactory,’
+		and that they wish the field open to competition.
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page204" title="204"> </a>With this paper to back them, Stone’s council granted
+		the right to the Consolidated Company to erect poles,
+		string wires and supply current. We can bring suit
+		if you say so, but you will lose it.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Bring suit, then!� ordered Bobby vehemently.
+		“Why, Chalmers, the contract for the city lighting
+		alone would cost the Brightlight money every year.
+		The profit has all been made from private consumers.�</p>
+
+		<p>“That’s why you’re losing it,� said Chalmers
+		dryly. “The whole project is very plain to me now.
+		The Consumers and the United Companies never
+		cared to enter that field, because their controlling
+		stock-holders were also the Brightlight controlling
+		stock-holders, and they could get more money through
+		the Brightlight than they could through the other
+		companies; and so they led the public to believe that
+		there was no breaking the monopoly the Brightlight
+		held upon their service. Now, however, they want to
+		gain another stock-jobbing advertisement by driving
+		you out of the field. They planned from the first to
+		wreck you for just that purpose—to make Consolidated
+		stock seem more desirable when the stock sales
+		began to dwindle—and they are perfectly willing to
+		furnish the consumers in your twelve blocks with current
+		at their present ridiculously low rate, because,
+		with them, any possible profits to be derived from the
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page205" title="205"> </a>business are insignificant compared to the profits to
+		be derived from the sale of their watered stock. The
+		price of illumination and power, later, will <em>soar</em>!
+		Watch it. They’re a very bright crowd,� and Mr.
+		Chalmers paused to admire them.</p>
+
+		<p>“In other words,� said Bobby glumly. “I am
+		what Biff Bates told me I would be—the goat.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Precisely,� agreed Chalmers.</p>
+
+		<p>“Begin suit anyhow,� directed Bobby, “and we’ll
+		see what comes of it.�</p>
+
+		<p>“By the way,� called Chalmers with a curious smile
+		as Bobby opened the door; “I’ve just learned that
+		one of the foremost enthusiasts in this whole manipulation
+		has been quiet and conservative Silas Trimmer.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby did not swear. He simply slammed the
+		door.</p>
+
+		<p>Two days later Bobby was surprised to see Sharpe
+		drop in upon him.</p>
+
+		<p>“I understand you are bringing suit against the
+		Consolidated for encroachment upon your territory,
+		and against the city for abrogation of contract,�
+		began Sharpe.</p>
+
+		<p>“Yes,� said Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“Don’t you think it rather a waste of money, Mr.
+		Burnit? I can guarantee you positively that you will
+		not win either suit.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page206" title="206"> </a>“I’m willing to wait to find that out.�</p>
+
+		<p>“No use,� said Sharpe impatiently. “I’ll tell you
+		what we will do, Mr. Burnit. If you care to have us
+		to do so, the Consolidated, a little later on, will absorb
+		the Brightlight.�</p>
+
+		<p>“On what terms?� asked Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“It all depends. We might discuss that later.
+		There’s another matter I’d like to speak with you
+		about. Stone wants to see you, even yet. I want to
+		tell you, Mr. Burnit, he can get along a great deal
+		better without you than you can without him, as you
+		are probably willing to admit by now. But he still
+		wants you. Go and see Stone.�</p>
+
+		<p>“On—what—terms—will the Consolidated now absorb
+		the Brightlight?� demanded Bobby sternly.</p>
+
+		<p>“Well,� drawled Sharpe, with a complete change
+		of manner, “the property has deteriorated considerably
+		within a remarkably short space of time, but
+		I should say that we would buy the Brightlight for
+		three hundred thousand dollars in stock of the Consolidated,
+		half preferred and half common.�</p>
+
+		<p>“And this is your very best offer?�</p>
+
+		<p>“The very best,� replied Sharpe, making no attempt
+		to conceal his exultant grin.</p>
+
+		<p>“Not on your life,� declared Bobby. “I’m going
+		to hold the Brightlight intact. I’m going to fulfill
+		the city contract at a loss, if it takes every cent I can
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page207" title="207"> </a>scrape together, and then I’m going to enter politics
+		myself. I’m going to drive Stone and his crowd out
+		of this city, and we shall see if we can not make a readjustment
+		of the illuminating business on my basis
+		instead of his. Good day, Mr. Sharpe.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Good day, sir,� said Sharpe, and this time he
+		laughed aloud.</p>
+
+		<p>At the door he turned.</p>
+
+		<p>“I’d like to call your attention, young man, to the
+		fact that a great many very determined gentlemen
+		have announced their intention of driving Mr. Stone
+		and his associates out of this city. You might compare
+		that with the fact that Mr. Stone and his friends
+		are all here yet, and on top,� and with that he withdrew.</p>
+
+		<p>“If I may be so bold as to say so,� said Mr. Applerod,
+		worried to paleness by this foolish defiance of
+		so great and good a man, “you have made a very
+		grave error, Mr. Burnit, very grave, indeed. It is
+		suicidal to defy Mr. Sharpe, and through him <em>Mr.
+		Stone</em>!�</p>
+
+		<p>“Will you shut up!� snarled Johnson to his ancient
+		work-mate. “Mr. Burnit, I have no right to take
+		the liberty, but I am going to congratulate you, sir.
+		Whatever follies inexperience may have led you to
+		commit, you are, at any rate, sir, a <em>man</em>, like your
+		father was before you!� and by way of emphasis
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page208" title="208"> </a>Johnson smacked his fist on his desk as he glared in
+		Mr. Applerod’s direction.</p>
+
+		<p>“It’s all very well to show fight, Johnson,� said
+		Bobby, a little wanly, “but just the same I have to
+		acknowledge defeat. I am afraid I boasted too much.
+		Chalmers, after considering the matter, positively refuses
+		to bring suit. The whole game is over. I have
+		the Brightlight Company on my hands at a net dead
+		loss of every cent I have sunk into it, and it can not
+		pay me a penny so long as these men remain in power.
+		I am going to fight them with their own weapons,
+		but that is a matter of years. In the meantime, my
+		third business attempt is a hideous failure. Where’s
+		the gray envelope, Johnson?�</p>
+
+		<p>“It is here,� admitted Johnson, and from his file
+		took the missive in question.</p>
+
+		<p>As Bobby took the letter from Johnson Agnes came
+		into the office and swept toward him with outstretched
+		hand.</p>
+
+		<p>“It is perfectly shameful, Bobby! I just read
+		about it!�</p>
+
+		<p>“So soon?� he wanted to know.</p>
+
+		<p>She carried a paper in her hand and spread it before
+		him. In the very head-line his fate was pronounced.
+		“Brightlight Electric Tottering to Its
+		Fall,� was the cheerful line which confronted him,
+		and beneath this was set forth the facts that every
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page209" title="209"> </a>profitable contract heretofore held by the Brightlight
+		Electric had been taken away from that unfortunate
+		concern, in which the equipment was said to be so inefficient
+		as to render decent service out of the question,
+		and that, having remaining to it only a money-losing
+		contract for city lighting, business men were freely
+		predicting its very sudden dissolution. The item,
+		wherein the head-line took up more space than the
+		news, wound up with the climax statement that
+		Brightlight stock was being freely offered at around
+		forty, with no takers.</p>
+
+		<p>To her surprise, Bobby tossed the paper on Johnson’s
+		desk and laughed.</p>
+
+		<p>“I have been so long prepared for this bit of
+		‘news’ that it does not shock me much,� he said;
+		“moreover, the lower this stock goes the cheaper I can
+		buy it!�</p>
+
+		<p>“Buy it!� she incredulously exclaimed.</p>
+
+		<p>“Exactly,� he stated calmly. “I presume that, as
+		heretofore, I’ll be given another check, and I do not
+		see any better place to put the money than right
+		here. I am going to fight!�</p>
+
+		<p>“Beg your pardon, sir,� said Johnson. “Your
+		last remark was spoken loud enough to be taken as
+		general, and I am compelled to give you this envelope.�</p>
+
+		<p>Into his hands Johnson placed a mate to the missive
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page210" title="210"> </a>which Bobby had not yet opened, and this one
+		was inscribed:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="envelope">
+			<p>To My Son Robert, Upon His Declaration that He
+			Will Take Two Starts at the Same Business</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p>Bobby looked at the two letters in frowning perplexity,
+		and then silently walked into his own office,
+		where Agnes followed him; and it was she who closed
+		the door. He sat down at his desk and held that last
+		letter of his father’s before him in dread. He had so
+		airily built up his program; and apprehension told
+		him what this letter might contain! Presently he
+		was conscious that Agnes’ arm was slipped across his
+		shoulder. She was sitting upon the arm of his chair,
+		and had bent her cheek upon his head. So they read
+		the curt message:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="letter">
+			<p>“To throw good money after bad is like sprinkling
+			salt on a cut. It only intensifies the pain and doesn’t
+			work much of a cure. In your case it is strictly forbidden.
+			You must learn to cut your garment according
+			to your cloth, to bite off only what you can chew,
+			to lift no more than you can carry. Your next start
+			must not be encumbered.�</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p>“He’s wrong!� declared Bobby savagely.</p>
+
+		<p>“But if he is,� protested Agnes, “what can you do
+		about it?�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page211" title="211"> </a>“If his bequests are conditional I shall have to accept
+		the conditions; but, nevertheless, I am going to
+		fight; and I am going to keep the Brightlight Electric!�</p>
+
+		<p>Mechanically he opened the other letter now. The
+		contents were to this effect:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="envelope">
+			<p>To My Son Upon His Losing Money in a Public
+				Service Corporation</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<blockquote class="letter">
+			<p>“Every buzz-saw claims some fingers. Of course
+			you had to be a victim, but now you know how to handle
+			a buzz-saw. The first point about it is to treat
+			it with respect. When you realize thoroughly that a
+			buzz-saw is dangerous, half the danger is gone. So,
+			when your wound is healed, you might go ahead and
+			saw, just as a matter of accomplishment. Bobby, how
+			I wish I could talk with you now, for just one little
+			half hour.�</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p>Convulsively Bobby crumpled the letter in his hand
+		and the tears started to his eyes.</p>
+
+		<p>“Bully old dad!� he said brokenly, and opened his
+		watch-case, where the grim but humor-loving face of
+		old John Burnit looked up at his beloved children.</p>
+
+		<p>“And now what are you going to do?� Agnes
+		asked him presently, when they were calmer.</p>
+
+		<p>“Fight!� he vehemently declared. “For the governor’s
+		sake as well as my own.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page212" title="212"> </a>“I just found another letter for you, sir,� said
+		Johnson, handing in the third of the missives to come
+		in that day’s mail from beyond the Styx. It was
+		inscribed:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="envelope">
+			<p>To My Son Robert Upon the Occasion of His Declaring
+				Fight Against the Politicians Who
+				Robbed Him</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<blockquote class="letter">
+			<p>“Nothing but public laziness allows dishonest men
+			to control public affairs. Any time an honest man
+			puts up a sincere fight against a crook there’s a new
+			fat man in striped clothes. If you have a crawful
+			and want to fight against dirty politics in earnest,
+			jump in, and tell all my old friends to put a bet
+			down on you for me. I’d as soon have you spend in
+			that way the money I made as to buy yachts with it;
+			and I can see where the game might be made as interesting
+			as polo. Go in and win, boy.�</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p>“And now what are you going to do?� Agnes
+		asked him, laughing this time.</p>
+
+		<p>“Fight!� he declared exultantly. “I’m going to
+		fight entirely outside of my father’s money. I’m
+		going to fight with my own brawn and my own brain
+		and my own resources and my own personal following!
+		Why, Agnes, that is what the governor has
+		been goading me to do. It is what all this is planned
+		for, and the governor, after all, is right!�</p>
+	</div>
+	<div id="chapter_18" class="chapter"><a class="pagenum" id="page213" title="213"> </a>
+		<h2 class="chapter_title"><span class="chapter_number">CHAPTER XVIII</span><br />
+			SOME EMINENT ARTISTS AMUSE MEESTER BURNIT WHILE
+			HE WAITS</h2>
+
+		<p><span class="first_word">One</span> might imagine, after Bobby’s heroic
+		declarations, that, like young David of
+		old, he would immediately proceed to stride
+		forth and slay his giant. There stood his Goliath,
+		full panoplied, sneering, waiting; but alas! Bobby
+		had neither sling nor stone. It was all very well
+		to announce in fine frenzy that he would smash the
+		Consolidated, destroy the political ring, drive Sam
+		Stone and his henchmen out of town and wrest all
+		his goods and gear from Silas Trimmer; but until
+		he could find a place to plant his foot, descry an
+		opening in the armor and procure an adequate
+		weapon, he might just as well bottle his fuming and
+		wait; so Bobby waited. In the meantime he stuck
+		very closely to the Brightlight office, finding there,
+		in the practice of petty economics and the struggle
+		with well-nigh impossible conditions, ample food for
+		thought. In a separate bank reposed the new fund
+		of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which he
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page214" title="214"> </a>kept religiously aside from the affairs of the Brightlight,
+		and this fund also waited; for Bobby was not
+		nearly so feverish to find instant employment for it
+		as he had been with the previous ones—though he
+		had endless chances. People with the most unheard
+		of schemes seemed to have a peculiar scent for unsophisticated
+		money, and not only local experts in
+		the gentle art of separation flocked after him, but
+		out of town specialists came to him in shoals. To
+		these latter he took great satisfaction in displaying
+		the gem of his collection of post-mortem letters from
+		old John Burnit:</p>
+
+		<blockquote  class="letter">
+			<p>“You don’t need to go away from home to be
+			skinned; moreover, it isn’t patriotic.�</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p>That usually stopped them. He was growing quite
+		sophisticated, was Bobby, quite able to discern the
+		claws beneath the velvet paw, quite suspicious of all
+		the ingenious gentlemen who wanted to make a fortune
+		for him; and their frantic attempts to “get his
+		goat,� as Biff Bates expressed it, had become as good
+		as a play to this wise young person, as also to the
+		wise young person’s trustee.</p>
+
+		<p>Agnes, who was helping Bobby wait, came occasionally
+		to the office of the Brightlight on business,
+		and nearly always Bobby had reduced to paper some
+		gaudy new scheme that had been proposed to him,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page215" title="215"> </a>over which they both might laugh. In great hilarity
+		one morning they were going over the prospectus of
+		a plan to reclaim certain swamp lands in Florida,
+		when the telephone bell rang, and from Bobby’s difficulty
+		in understanding and his smile as he hung up
+		the receiver, Agnes knew that something else amusing
+		had turned up.</p>
+
+		<p>“It is from Schmirdonner,� he explained as he
+		turned to her again. “He’s the conductor of the
+		orchestra at the Orpheum, you know. I gather from
+		what he says that there are some stranded musicians
+		here who probably speak worse English than myself,
+		and he’s sending them up to me to see about arranging
+		a benefit for them. You’d better wait; it might
+		be fun, or you might want to help arrange the
+		benefit.�</p>
+
+		<p>“No,� disclaimed Agnes, laughing and drawing
+		her impedimenta together for departure, “I’ll leave
+		both the fun and the philanthropy to you. I know
+		you’re quite able to take care of them. I’ll just wait
+		long enough to hear how we’re to get rid of the water
+		down in Florida. I suppose we bore holes in the
+		ground and let it run out.�</p>
+
+		<p>“By no means,� laughed Bobby. “It’s no where
+		near so absurdly simple as that,� and he turned once
+		more to the prospectus which lay open on the desk
+		before them.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page216" title="216"> </a>Before they were through with it there suddenly
+		erupted into the outer office, where Johnson and Applerod
+		glared at each other day by day over their
+		books, a pandemonium of gabbling. Agnes, with a
+		little exclamation of dismay at the time she had
+		wasted, rose in a hurry, and immediately after she
+		passed through the door there bounded into the room
+		a rotund little German with enormous and extremely
+		thick glasses upon his knob of a nose, a grizzled
+		mustache that poked straight up on both sides of
+		that knob, and an absurd toupee that flared straight
+		out all around on top of the bald spot to which it was
+		pasted. Behind him trailed a pudgy man of so exactly
+		the Herr Professor’s height and build that it
+		seemed as if they were cast in the same spherical
+		mold, but he was much younger and had jet black
+		hair and a jet black mustache of such tiny proportions
+		as to excite amazement and even awe. Still behind
+		him was as unusually large young woman, fully
+		a head taller than either of the two men, who had an
+		abundance of jet black hair, and was dressed in a
+		very rich robe and wrap, both of which were somewhat
+		soiled and worn.</p>
+
+		<p>“Signor R-r-r-r-icardo, der grosse tenore—Mees-ter
+		Burnit,� introduced the rotund little German,
+		with a deep bow commensurate with the greatness of
+		the great tenor. “Signorina Car-r-r-avaggio—Mees-ter
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page217" title="217"> </a>Burnit. I, Mees-ter Burnit, <em lang="de" xml:lang="de">Ich bin</em> Brofessor
+		Frühlingsvogel.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby, for the lack of any other handy greeting,
+		merely bowed and smiled, whereupon Signorina Caravaggio,
+		stepping into a breach which otherwise would
+		certainly have been embarrassing, seated herself comfortably
+		upon the edge of Bobby’s desk and swung
+		one large but shapely foot while she explained
+		matters.</p>
+
+		<p>“It’s like this, Mr. Burnit,� she confidently began:
+		“when that dried-up little heathen, Matteo, who tried
+		to run the Neapolitan Grand Opera Company with
+		stage money, got us this far on a tour that is a disgrace
+		to the profession, he had a sudden notion that
+		he needed ocean air; so he took what few little dollars
+		were in the treasury and hopped right on into New
+		York.</p>
+
+		<p>“Here we are, then, at the place we were merely
+		‘to make connections,’ two hundred miles from
+		our next booking and without enough money among
+		us to buy a postage stamp. We haven’t seen a cent
+		of salary for six weeks, and the only thing we can
+		do is to seize the props and scenery and costumes, see
+		if they can be sold, and disband, unless somebody
+		gallops to the rescue in a hurry. Professor Frühlingsvogel
+		happened to know another Dutchman here
+		who conducts an orchestra at the Orpheum, and he
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page218" title="218"> </a>sent us to you. He said you knew all the swell set
+		and could start a benefit going if anybody in town
+		could.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Yes,� said Bobby, smiling; “Schmirdonner telephoned
+		me just a few minutes ago that the Herr Professor
+		Frühlingsvogel would be up to see me, and
+		asked me to do what I could. How many of you are
+		there?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Seventy-three,� promptly returned Signorina
+		Caravaggio, “and all hungry. Forty singers and an
+		orchestra of thirty—seventy—besides props and the
+		stage manager and Herr Frühlingsvogel, who is the
+		musical director.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Where are you stopping?� asked Bobby, aghast
+		at the size of the contract that was offered him.</p>
+
+		<p>“We’re not,� laughed the great Italian songstress.
+		“We all went up and registered at a fourth-rate place
+		they call the Hotel Larken, but that’s as far as we
+		got, for we were told before the ink was dry that
+		we’d have to come across before we got a single biscuit;
+		so there they are, scattered about the S. R. O.
+		parts of that little two-by-twice hotel, waiting for
+		little me to trot out and find an angel. Are you it?�</p>
+
+		<div id="illo-3" class="illo">
+			<a href="images/illo-3.jpg"><img src="images/illo-3-sm.jpg" width="481" height="556" alt="A standing man and woman who is sitting on a desk talk." /></a>
+			<p class="caption">Little me to trot out and find an angel. Are you it?</p>
+		</div>
+
+		<p>“I can’t really promise what I can do,� hesitated
+		Bobby, who had never been able to refuse assistance
+		where it seemed to be needed; “but I’ll run down to
+		the club and see some of the boys about getting up a
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page219" title="219"> </a>subscription concert for you. How much help will
+		you need?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Enough to land us on little old Manhattan
+		Island.�</p>
+
+		<p>“And there are over seventy of you to feed and
+		take care of for, say, three days, and then to pay
+		railroad fares for,� mused Bobby, a little startled as
+		the magnitude of the demand began to dawn upon
+		him. “Then there’s the music-hall, advertising, printing
+		and I suppose a score of other incidentals. You
+		need quite a pile of money. However, I’ll go down
+		to the club at lunch time and see what I can do for
+		you.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I knew you would the minute I looked at you,�
+		said the Signorina confidently, which was a compliment
+		or not, the way one looked at it. “But, say;
+		I’ve got a better scheme than that, one that will let
+		you make a little money instead of contributing. I
+		understand the Orpheum has next week dark, through
+		yesterday’s failure of The Married Bachelor Comedy
+		Company. Why don’t you get the Orpheum for us
+		and back our show for the week? We have twelve
+		operas in our repertoire. The scenery and props are
+		very poor, the costumes are only half-way decent and
+		the chorus is the rattiest-looking lot you ever saw in
+		your life; but they can sing. They went into the
+		discard on account of their faces, poor things. Suppose
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page220" title="220"> </a>you come over and have a look. They’d melt you
+		to tears.�</p>
+
+		<p>“That won’t be necessary,� hastily objected Bobby;
+		“but I’ll meet a lot of the fellows at lunch, and afterward
+		I’ll let you know.�</p>
+
+		<p>“After lunch!� exclaimed the Signorina with a
+		most expressive placing of her hands over her belt,
+		whereat the Herr Professor and Der Grosse Tenore
+		both turned most wistfully to Bobby to see what effect
+		this weighty plea might have upon him.
+		“Lunch!� she repeated. “If you would carry a fork-full
+		of steaming spaghetti into the Hotel Larken at
+		this minute you’d start a riot. Why, Mr. Burnit, if
+		you’re going to do anything for us you’ve got to
+		get into action, because we’ve been up since seven
+		and we still want our breakfasts.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Breakfast!� exclaimed Bobby, looking hastily
+		at his watch. It was now eleven-thirty. “Come on;
+		we’ll go right over to the Larken, wherever that may
+		be,� and he exhibited as much sudden haste as if he
+		had seen seventy people actually starving before his
+		very eyes.</p>
+
+		<p>Just as the quartette stepped out of the office, Biff
+		Bates, just coming in, bustled up to Bobby with:</p>
+
+		<p>“Can I see you just a minute, Bobby? Kid Mills
+		is coming around to my place this afternoon.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Haven’t time just now, Biff,� said Bobby; “but
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page221" title="221"> </a>jump into the machine with us and I’ll do the ‘chauffing.’
+		That will make room for all of us. We can
+		talk on the way to the Hotel Larken. Do you know
+		where it is?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Me?� scorned Biff. “If there is an inch of this
+		old town I can’t put my finger on in the dark, blindfolded,
+		I’ll have that inch dug out and thrown away.�</p>
+
+		<p>At the curb, with keen enjoyment of the joke of
+		it all, Bobby gravely introduced Mr. Biff Bates, ex-champion
+		middle-weight, to these imported artists,
+		but, very much to his surprise, Signorina Caravaggio
+		and Professor Bates struck up an instant and animated
+		conversation anent Biff’s well-known and
+		justly-famous victory over Slammer Young, and so
+		interested did they become in this conversation that
+		instead of Biff’s sitting up in the front seat, as Bobby
+		had intended, the eminent instructor of athletics
+		manœuvered the Herr Professor into that post of
+		honor and climbed into the tonneau with Signor Ricardo
+		and the Signorina, with the latter of whom he
+		talked most volubly all the way over, to the evidently
+		vast annoyance of Der Grosse Tenore.</p>
+
+		<p>The confusion of tongues must have been a very
+		tame and quiet affair as compared to the polyglot
+		chattering which burst upon Bobby’s ears when he
+		entered the small lobby of the Hotel Larken. The
+		male members of the Neapolitan Grand Opera Company,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page222" title="222"> </a>almost to a man, were smoking cigarettes.
+		There were swarthy little men and swarthy big men,
+		there seeming to be no medium sizes among them,
+		while the women were the most wooden-featured lot
+		that Bobby had ever encountered, and the entire crowd
+		was swathed in gay but dingy clothing of the most
+		nondescript nature. Really, had Bobby not been
+		assured that they were grand opera singers he would
+		have taken them for a lot of immigrants, for they
+		had that same unhappy expression of worry. The
+		principals could be told from the chorus and the members
+		of the orchestra from the fact that they stood
+		aloof from the rest and from one another, gloomily
+		nursing their grievances that they, each one the most
+		illustrious member of the company, should thus be
+		put to inconvenience! It was a monstrous thing that
+		they, the possessors of glorious voices which the entire
+		world should at once fall down and worship,
+		should be actually hungry and out of money! It
+		was, oh, unbelievable, atrocious, barbarous, positively
+		inhuman!</p>
+
+		<p>With the entrance of the Signorina Caravaggio,
+		bearing triumphantly with her the neatly-dressed
+		and altogether money-like Bobby Burnit, one hundred
+		and forty wistful eyes, mostly black and dark brown,
+		were immediately focused in eager interest upon the
+		possible savior. Behind the desk, perplexed and distracted
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page223" title="223"> </a>but still grimly firm, stood frowzy Widow
+		Larken herself, drawn and held to the post of duty
+		by this vast and unusual emergency. Not one room
+		had Madam Larken saved for all these alien warblers,
+		not one morsel of food had she loosed from her capacious
+		kitchen; and yet not one member of the company
+		had she permitted to stray outside her doors
+		while Signorina Caravaggio and Signor Ricardo and
+		the Herr Professor Frühlingsvogel had gone out to
+		secure an angel, two stout porters being kept at the
+		front door to turn back the restless. If provision
+		could be made to pay the bills of this caravan, the
+		Widow Larken—who was shaped like a pillow with
+		a string tied around it and wore a face like a huge,
+		underdone apple dumpling—was too good a business
+		woman to overlook that opportunity. Bobby took
+		one sweeping glance at that advancing circle of one
+		hundred and forty eyes and turned to Widow Larken.</p>
+
+		<p>“I will be responsible for the hotel bills of these
+		people until further notice,� said he.</p>
+
+		<p>The Widow Larken, looking intently at Bobby’s
+		scarf-pin, relented no whit in her uncompromising
+		attitude.</p>
+
+		<p>“And who might you be?� she demanded, with a
+		calm brow and cold determination.</p>
+
+		<p>“I am Robert J. Burnit,� said Bobby. “I’ll give
+		you a written order if you like—or a check.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page224" title="224"> </a>The Widow Larken’s uncompromising expression
+		instantly melted, but she did not smile—she grinned.
+		Bobby knew precisely the cause of that amused expression,
+		but if he had needed an interpreter, he had one
+		at his elbow in the person of Biff Bates, who looked
+		up at him with a reflection of the same grin.</p>
+
+		<p>“They’re all next to you, Bobby,� he observed.
+		“The whole town knows that you’re the real village
+		goat.�</p>
+
+		<p>The Widow Larken did not answer Bobby directly.
+		She called back to a blue-overall-clad porter at the end
+		of the lobby:</p>
+
+		<p>“Open the dining-room doors, Michael.�</p>
+
+		<p>Signorina Caravaggio immediately said a few guttural
+		words in German to Professor Frühlingsvogel,
+		a few limpid words in Italian to Signor Ricardo a
+		few crisp words in French to Madame Villenauve, a
+		nervous but rather attractive little woman with piercing
+		black eyes. The singers of other languages did
+		not wait to be informed; they joined the general
+		stampede toward the ravishing paradise of midday
+		breakfast, and as the last of them vacated the lobby,
+		the principals no whit behind the humble members of
+		the chorus in crowding and jamming through that
+		doorway, Bobby breathed a sigh of relief. Only the
+		Signorina was left to him, and Bobby hesitated just
+		a moment as it occurred to him that, perhaps, a more
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page225" title="225"> </a>personal entertainment was expected by this eminent
+		songstress. Biff Bates, however, relieved him of his
+		dilemma.</p>
+
+		<p>“While you’re gone down to see the boys at the
+		Idlers’ Club,� said Biff, “I’m going to take Miss
+		Carry—Miss—Miss—�</p>
+
+		<p>“Caravaggio,� interrupted the Signorina with a
+		repetition of a laugh which had convinced Bobby that,
+		after all, she might be a singer, though her speaking
+		voice gave no trace of it.</p>
+
+		<p>“Carrie for mine,� insisted Biff with a confident
+		grin. “I’m going to take Miss Carrie out to lunch
+		some place where they don’t serve prunes. I guess
+		the Hotel Spender will do for us.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby surveyed Biff with an indulgent smile.</p>
+
+		<p>“Thanks,� said he. “That will give me time to
+		see what I can do.�</p>
+
+		<p>“You take my advice, Mr. Burnit,� earnestly interposed
+		the Signorina. “Don’t bother with your
+		friends. Go and see the manager of the Orpheum
+		and ask him about that open date. Ask him if he
+		thinks it wouldn’t be a good investment for you to
+		back us.�</p>
+
+		<p>Biff, the conservative; Biff, whose vote was invariably
+		for the negative on any proposition involving an
+		investment of Bobby’s funds, unexpectedly added his
+		weight for the affirmative.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page226" title="226"> </a>“It’s a good stunt, Bobby. Go to it,� he counseled,
+		and the Caravaggio smiled down at him.</p>
+
+		<p>Again Bobby laughed.</p>
+
+		<p>“All right, Biff,� said he. “I’ll hunt up the manager
+		of the Orpheum right away.�</p>
+
+		<p>In his machine he conveyed Biff and the prima
+		donna to the Hotel Spender, and then drove to the
+		Orpheum.</p>
+	</div>
+	<div id="chapter_19" class="chapter"><a class="pagenum" id="page227" title="227"> </a>
+		<h2 class="chapter_title"><span class="chapter_number">CHAPTER XIX</span><br />
+			WITH THE RELUCTANT CONSENT OF AGNES, BOBBY BECOMES
+			A PATRON OF MUSIC</h2>
+
+		<p><span class="first_word">The</span> manager of the Orpheum was a strange
+		evolution. He was a man who had spent a
+		lifetime in the show business, running first
+		a concert hall that “broke into the papers� every
+		Sunday morning with an account of from two to seven
+		fights the night before, then an equally disreputable
+		“burlesque� house, the broad attractions of which
+		appealed to men and boys only. To this, as he made
+		money, he added the cheapest and most blood-curdling
+		melodrama theater in town, then a “regular� house
+		of the second grade. In his career he had endured
+		two divorce cases of the most unattractive sort, and,
+		among quiet and conventional citizens, was supposed
+		to have horns and a barbed tail that snapped sparks
+		where it struck on the pavement. When he first purchased
+		the Orpheum Theater, the most exclusive playhouse
+		of the city, he began to appear in its lobby
+		every night in a dinner-coat or a dress-suit, silk topper
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page228" title="228"> </a>and all, with an almost modest diamond stud in
+		his white shirt-front; and ladies, as they came in,
+		asked in awed whispers of their husbands: “Is <em>that</em>
+		Dan Spratt?� Some few who had occasion to meet
+		him went away gasping: “Why, the man seems
+		really nice!� Others of “the profession,� about whom
+		the public never knew, spoke his name with tears of
+		gratitude.</p>
+
+		<p>Mr. Spratt, immersed in troubles of his own,
+		scarcely looked up as Bobby entered, and only grunted
+		in greeting.</p>
+
+		<p>“Spratt,� began Bobby, who knew the man quite
+		well through “sporting� events engineered by Biff
+		Bates, “the Neapolitan Grand Opera Company is
+		stranded here, and—�</p>
+
+		<p>“Where are they?� interrupted Spratt eagerly, all
+		his abstraction gone.</p>
+
+		<p>“At the Hotel Larken,� began Bobby again.
+		“I—�</p>
+
+		<p>“Have they got their props and scenery?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Everything, I understand,� said Bobby. “I came
+		around to see you—�</p>
+
+		<p>“Who’s running the show?� demanded Spratt.</p>
+
+		<p>“Their manager decamped with the money—with
+		what little there was,� explained Bobby, “and they
+		came to me by accident. I understand you have an
+		open date next week.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page229" title="229"> </a>“It’s not open now,� declared Spratt. “The date
+		is filled with the Neapolitan Grand Opera Company.�</p>
+
+		<p>“There doesn’t seem to be much use of my talking,
+		then,� said Bobby, smiling.</p>
+
+		<p>“Not much,� said Spratt. “They’re a good company,
+		but I’ve noticed from the reports that they’ve
+		been badly managed. The Dago that brought them
+		over didn’t know the show business in this country
+		and tried to run the circus himself; and, of course,
+		they’ve gone on the rocks. It’s great luck that they
+		landed here. I just heard a bit ago that they were in
+		town. I suppose they’re flat broke.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Why, yes,� said Bobby. “I just went up to the
+		Hotel Larken and said I’d be responsible for their
+		hotel bill.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Oh,� said Spratt. “Then you’re backing them
+		for their week here.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Well, I’m not quite sure about that,� hesitated
+		Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“If you don’t, I will,� offered Spratt. “There’s
+		a long line of full-dress Willies here that’ll draw their
+		week’s wages in advance to attend grand opera in
+		cabs. At two and a half for the first sixteen rows
+		they’ll pack the house for the week, and every diamond
+		in the hock-shops will get an airing for the occasion.
+		But you saw it first, Burnit, and I won’t
+		interfere.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page230" title="230"> </a>“Well, I don’t know,� Bobby again hesitated. “I
+		haven’t fully—�</p>
+
+		<p>“Go ahead,� urged Spratt heartily. “It’s your
+		pick-up and I’ll get mine. Hey, Spencer!�</p>
+
+		<p>A thin young man, with hair so light that he seemed
+		to have no hair at all and no eyebrows, came in.</p>
+
+		<p>“We’ve booked the Neapolitan Grand Opera Company
+		for next week. Have they got Caravaggio and
+		Ricardo with them?� he asked, turning abruptly
+		to Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby, with a smile, nodded his head.</p>
+
+		<p>“All right, Spence; get busy on some press stuff
+		for the afternoon papers. You can fake notices
+		about them from what you know. Use two-inch
+		streamers clear across the pages, then you can get
+		some fresh stuff and the repertoire to-night for the
+		morning papers. Play it up strong, Spence. Use
+		plenty of space; and, say, tell Billy to get ready for a
+		three o’clock rehearsal. Now, Burnit, let’s go up to
+		the Larken and make arrangements.�</p>
+
+		<p>“We might just as well wait an hour,� counseled
+		Bobby. “The only one I found in the crowd who
+		could speak English was Signorina Caravaggio.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I know her,� said Spratt. “Her other name’s
+		Nora McGinnis. Smart woman, too, and straight
+		as a string; and sing! Why, that big ox can sing a
+		bird off a tree.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page231" title="231"> </a>“She’s just gone over to lunch with Biff Bates at
+		the Spender,� observed Bobby, “and we’d better wait
+		for her. She seems to be the leading spirit.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Of course she is. Let’s go right over to the
+		Spender.�</p>
+
+		<p>Biff Bates did not seem overly pleased when his
+		tête-à-tête luncheon was interrupted by Bobby and
+		Mr. Spratt, but the Signorina Nora very quickly
+		made it apparent that business was business. Arrangements
+		were promptly made to attach the carload
+		of effects for back salaries due the company, and
+		to lease these to Bobby for the week for a nominal
+		sum. Bobby was to pay the regular schedule of salaries
+		for that week and make what profit he could. A
+		rehearsal of <cite>Carmen</cite> was to be called that afternoon
+		at three, and a repertoire was arranged.</p>
+
+		<p>Feeling very much exhilarated after all this, Bobby
+		drove out in his automobile after lunch to see Agnes
+		Elliston. He found that young lady and Aunt Constance
+		about to start for a drive, their carriage being
+		already at the door, but without any ceremony he
+		bundled them into his machine instead.</p>
+
+		<p>“Purely as my trustee,� he explained, “Agnes must
+		inspect my new business venture.�</p>
+
+		<p>Aunt Constance smiled.</p>
+
+		<p>“The trusteeship of Agnes hasn’t done you very
+		much good so far,� she observed. “As a matter of
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page232" title="232"> </a>fact, if she wanted to build up a reputation as an
+		expert trustee, I don’t think she could accomplish
+		much by printing in her circulars the details of her
+		past stewardship.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I don’t want her to work up a reputation as a
+		trustee,� retorted Bobby. “She suits me just as she
+		is, and I’m inclined to thank the governor for having
+		loaded her down with the job.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I’m becoming reconciled to it myself,� admitted
+		Agnes, smiling up at him. “Really, I have great
+		faith that one day you will learn how to take care of
+		money—if the money holds out that long. What is
+		the new venture, Bobby?�</p>
+
+		<p>He grinned quite cheerfully.</p>
+
+		<p>“I am about to become an angel,� he said quite
+		solemnly.</p>
+
+		<p>Aunt Constance shook her head.</p>
+
+		<p>“No, Bobby,� she said kindly; “there <em>are</em> spots,
+		you know, where angels fear to tread.�</p>
+
+		<p>But Agnes took the declaration with no levity
+		whatever.</p>
+
+		<p>“You don’t mean in a theatrical sense?� she
+		inquired.</p>
+
+		<p>“<em>In</em> a theatrical sense,� he insisted. “I am about
+		to back the Neapolitan Grand Opera Company.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Why, Bobby!� objected Agnes, aghast. “You
+		surely don’t mean it! I never thought you would
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page233" title="233"> </a>contemplate anything so preposterous as that. I
+		thought it was to be only a benefit!�</p>
+
+		<p>“It’s only a temporary arrangement,� he reassured
+		her, laughing that he had been taken so seriously.
+		“I’m arranging so that they can earn their way out
+		of town; that’s all. I am taking you down now to see
+		their first rehearsal.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I don’t care to go,� she declared, in a tone so
+		piqued that Bobby turned to her in mute astonishment.</p>
+
+		<p>Aunt Constance laughed at his look of utter perplexity.</p>
+
+		<p>“How little you understand, Bobby,� she said.
+		“Don’t you see that Agnes is merely jealous?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Indeed not!� Agnes indignantly denied. “That
+		is an idea more absurd than the fact that Bobby
+		should go into such an enterprise at all. However,
+		since I lay myself open to such a suspicion I shall
+		offer no further objection to going.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby looked at her curiously and then he carefully
+		refrained from chuckling, for Aunt Constance,
+		though joking, had told the truth. Instant visions
+		of dazzling sopranos, of mezzos and contraltos, of
+		angelic voices and of vast beauty and exquisite gowning,
+		had flashed in appalling procession before her
+		mental vision. The idea, in the face of the appalling
+		actuality, was so rich that Bobby pursued it no
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page234" title="234"> </a>further lest he spoil it, and talked about the weather
+		and equally inane topics the rest of the way.</p>
+
+		<p>It was not until they had turned into the narrow
+		alley at the side of the Orpheum, and from that to the
+		still more narrow alley at its rear, that the zest of
+		adventure began to make amends to Agnes for certain
+		disagreeable moments of the ride. At the stage
+		door a particularly bewildered-looking man with a
+		rolling eye and a weak jaw, rendered limp and helpless
+		by the polyglot aliens who had flocked upon him,
+		strickenly let them in, to grope their way, amid what
+		seemed an inextricable confusion, but was in reality
+		the perfection of orderliness, upon the dim stage,
+		beyond which stretched, in vast emptiness, the big,
+		black auditorium. Upon the stage, chattering in
+		shrill voices, were the forty members of the company,
+		still in their queer clothing, while down in front,
+		where shaded lights—seeming dull and discouraged
+		amid all the surrounding darkness—streamed upon
+		the music, were the members of the orchestra, chattering
+		just as volubly. The general note was quite
+		different in pitch from the one Bobby had heard that
+		morning, for since he had seen them the members
+		of the organization had been fed, and life looked
+		cheerful.</p>
+
+		<p>Wandering at a loss among these people, and trying
+		in the dim twilight to find some face that he knew,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page235" title="235"> </a>the ears of Bobby and his party were suddenly assailed
+		by an extremely harsh and penetrating voice
+		which shouted:</p>
+
+		<p>“Clear!�</p>
+
+		<p>This was accompanied by a sharp clap from a pair
+		of very broad hands. The chattering suddenly took
+		on a rapid crescendo, ascending a full third in the
+		scale and then dying abruptly in a little high falsetto
+		shriek; and Bobby, with a lady upon either arm,
+		found his little trio immediately alone in the center
+		of the stage, a row of dim footlights cutting off
+		effectually any view into the vast emptiness of the
+		auditorium.</p>
+
+		<p>“Hey, you; <em>clear</em>!� came the harsh voice again,
+		accompanied by another sharp clap of the hands, and
+		a bundle of intense fighting energy bounced out from
+		the right tormentor wing, in the shape of a gaunt,
+		fiercely-mustached and entirely bald man of about
+		forty-five, who appeared perpetually to be in the last
+		stages of distraction.</p>
+
+		<p>“Who do you weesh to see?� demanded the gaunt
+		man, in a very decided foreign accent. He had made
+		a very evident attempt to be quite polite indeed, and
+		forgiving of people who did not know enough to
+		spring for the wings at the sound of that magic
+		word, “Clear!�</p>
+
+		<p>Any explanations that Bobby might have tried to
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page236" title="236"> </a>make were happily prevented by a voice from the
+		yawning blackness—a quiet voice, a voice of authority,
+		the voice of Mr. Spratt.</p>
+
+		<p>“Come right down in front here, Burnit. Jimmy,
+		show the gentleman how to get down.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Thees way,� snapped the gaunt man, with evident
+		relief but no abatement whatever of his briskness,
+		and he very hastily walked over to the right wings,
+		where Jimmy, the house electrician, piloted the trio
+		with equal relief through the clustered mass of singers
+		to the door behind the boxes. As they emerged
+		into the auditorium the raucous voice of the gaunt
+		man was heard to shout: “All ready now. <cite>Carmen</cite>
+		all ze way through.� An apparent repetition of
+		which statement he immediately made with equal
+		raucousness in two or three languages. There was a
+		call to Caravaggio in English, to Ricardo and the
+		Signers Fivizzano and Rivaroli in Italian, to Messrs.
+		Philippi and Schaerbeeken in Spanish and Dutch, to
+		Madam Villenauve in French, to Madam Kadanoff in
+		Russian, and to Mademoiselle Török in Hungarian,
+		to know if they were ready; then, in rough but
+		effective German, he informed the Herr Professor
+		down in the orchestra that all was prepared, clapped
+		his hands, cried “Overture,� and immediately plunged
+		to the right upper entrance, marked by two chairs,
+		where, with shrill objurgations, he began instructing
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page237" title="237"> </a>and drilling the Soldiers’ Chorus out of certain remembered
+		awkwardnesses, as Herr Frühlingsvogel’s
+		baton fell for the overture.</p>
+
+		<p>Shorn of all the glamor that scenic environment,
+		light effects and costume could give them, it was a
+		distinct shock to Agnes to gaze in wondering horror
+		from each one of those amazing faces to the other,
+		and when the cigarette girls trooped out, amazement
+		gave way to downright consternation. Nevertheless,
+		she cheered up considerably, and the apex of her
+		cheerfulness was reached when the oversized Signorina
+		Caravaggio sang, very musically, however,
+		the rôle of the petite and piquant Carmen. It was
+		then that, sitting by Bobby in the darkness, Agnes
+		observed with a sigh of content:</p>
+
+		<p>“Your trustee quite approves, Bobby. I don’t
+		mind being absolutely truthful for once in my life.
+		I <em>was</em> a little jealous. But how could I be? Really,
+		their voices are fine.�</p>
+
+		<p>Mr. Spratt, too, was of that opinion, and he
+		came back to Bobby to say so most emphatically.</p>
+
+		<p>“They’ll do,� said he. “After the first night
+		they’ll have this town crazy. If the seat sale don’t go
+		right for Monday we’ll pack the house with paper,
+		and the rest of the week will go big. Just hear that
+		Ricardo! The little bit of a sawed-off toad sings like
+		a canary. If you don’t look at ’em, they’re great.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page238" title="238"> </a>They <em>were</em> superb. From the throats of that ill-favored
+		chorus there came divine harmony, smooth,
+		evenly-balanced, exhilarating, almost flawless, and as
+		the great musical poem of passion unfolded and the
+		magnificent aria of Don José was finished in the second
+		act, the little group of listeners down in front
+		burst into involuntary applause, to which there was
+		but one dissenting voice. This voice, suddenly evolving
+		out of the darkness at Bobby’s side, ejaculated
+		with supreme disgust:</p>
+
+		<p>“Well, what do you think of that! Why, that fat
+		little fishworm of a Dago is actually gone bug-house
+		over Miss McGinnis,� a fact which had been obvious
+		to all of them the minute small Ricardo began to
+		sing his wonderful love song to large Caravaggio.</p>
+
+		<p>The rest of them had found only amusement in the
+		fact, but to Biff Bates there was nothing funny about
+		this. He sat in speechless disapproval throughout
+		the balance of that much-interrupted performance,
+		wherein Professor Frühlingsvogel, now and then,
+		stopped his music with a crash to shriek an excited
+		direction that it was all wrong, that it was execrable,
+		that it was a misdemeanor, a crime, a murder to sing
+		it in that way! The passage must be all sung over;
+		or, at other times, the gaunt stage director, whose
+		name was Monsieur Noire, would rush with a hoarse
+		howl down to Herr Professor, order him to stop the
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page239" title="239"> </a>music, and, turning, berate some unfortunate performer
+		who had defied the conventions of grand opera
+		by acting quite naturally. On the whole, however, it
+		was a very creditable performance, and Bobby’s advisers
+		gave the project their unqualified approval.</p>
+
+		<p>“It is really a commendable thing,� Aunt Constance
+		complacently announced, “to encourage music
+		of this order, and to furnish such a degree of cultivation
+		for the masses.�</p>
+
+		<p>It was a worthy project indeed. As for the company
+		itself there could be no question that it was a
+		good one. No one expected acting in grand opera,
+		no one expected that the performers would be physically
+		adaptable to their parts. The voice! The
+		voice was all. Even Agnes admitted that it was a
+		splendid thing to be a patron of the fine arts; but
+		Bobby, in his profound new wisdom and his thorough
+		conversion to strictly commercial standards, said with
+		vast iconoclasm:</p>
+
+		<p>“You are overlooking the main point. I am not so
+		anxious to become a patron of the fine arts as I am
+		to make money,� with which terrible heresy he left
+		them at home, with a thorough understanding that he
+		was quite justified in his new venture; though next
+		morning, when he confided the fact to Johnson, that
+		worthy, with a sigh, presented him with an appropriate
+		missive from among those in the gray envelopes
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page240" title="240"> </a>left in his care by the late John Burnit. It was inscribed:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="envelope">
+			<p>To My Son Robert, Upon His Deciding to Back a
+				Theatrical Venture</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<blockquote class="letter">
+			<p>“Sooner or later, every man thinks it would be a
+			fine thing to run a show, and the earlier in life it happens
+			the sooner a man will have it out of his system.
+			I tried it once myself, and I know. So good luck to
+			you, my boy, and here’s hoping that you don’t get
+			stung too badly.�</p>
+		</blockquote>
+	</div>
+	<div id="chapter_20" class="chapter"><a class="pagenum" id="page241" title="241"> </a>
+		<h2 class="chapter_title"><span class="chapter_number">CHAPTER XX</span><br />
+			STILL WITH THE RELUCTANT CONSENT OF AGNES,
+			BOBBY INVESTS IN THE FINE ARTS</h2>
+
+		<p><span class="first_word">That</span> week’s “season of grand opera� was an
+		unqualified success, following closely the
+		lines laid down by the experienced Mr.
+		Spratt. Caravaggio and Ricardo and Philippi and
+		Villenauve became household words, after the Monday
+		night performance of <cite>Carmen</cite>, and for the balance
+		of the week shining carriages rolled up to the entrance
+		of the Orpheum, disgorging load after load of high-hatted
+		gentlemen and long-plumed ladies. Before the
+		end of the engagement it was definitely known that
+		Bobby’s investment would yield a profit, even deducting
+		for the days of idleness during which he had been
+		compelled to support the rehearsing company. The
+		powers of darkness thereupon set vigorously to work
+		upon him to carry the company on through the rest
+		of its season.</p>
+
+		<p>It was then that the storm broke. Against his
+		going further with the company Agnes Elliston interposed
+		an objection so decided and so unflattering
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page242" title="242"> </a>that the <em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">entente cordiale</em> at the Elliston home was
+		strained dangerously near to the breaking point, and
+		in this she was aided and abetted by Aunt Constance,
+		who ridiculed him, and by Uncle Dan Elliston, who
+		took him confidentially for a grave and hardheaded
+		remonstrance. Chalmers, Johnson, and even Applerod
+		wrestled with him in spirit; his friends at the
+		Idlers’ Club “guyed� him unmercifully, and even Biff
+		Bates, though his support was earnestly sought by
+		the Signorina Caravaggio, also counseled him roughly
+		against it, and through it all Bobby was made to feel
+		that he was a small boy who had proposed to eat a
+		peck of green apples and then go in swimming in dog-days.
+		Another note from his father, handed to him
+		by the faithful and worried Johnson, was the deciding
+		straw:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="envelope">
+			<p>To My Son Robert, About That Theatrical Venture</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<blockquote class="letter">
+			<p>“When a man who knows nothing of the business
+			backs a show, there’s usually a woman at the bottom of
+			it—and that kind of woman is mostly rank poison to
+			a normal man, even if she is a good woman. No butterfly
+			ever goes back into its chrysalis and becomes a
+			grub again. Let birds of a feather flock together,
+			Bobby.�</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p>That unfortunate missive, for once shooting so wide
+		the mark, pushed Bobby over the edge. There was
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page243" title="243"> </a>a streak of stubbornness in him which, well developed
+		and turned into proper channels, was likely to be very
+		valuable, but until he learned to use that stubbornness
+		in the right way it bade fair to plunge him into
+		more difficulties than he could extricate himself from
+		with profit. Even Agnes, reading that note, indignantly
+		agreed with Bobby that he was being unjustly
+		misread.</p>
+
+		<p>“It is absurd,� he explained to her. “This is the
+		first dividend-paying investment I have been able to
+		make so far, and I’m going to keep it up just as long
+		as I can make money out of it. I’d be very foolish if
+		I didn’t. Besides, this is just a little in-between flyer,
+		while I’m conservatively waiting for a good, legitimate
+		opening. It can take, at most, but a very small
+		part of my two hundred and fifty thousand.�</p>
+
+		<p>Agnes, though defending him against his father,
+		was still reluctant about the trip, but suddenly, with
+		a curious smile, she withdrew all objections and even
+		urged him to go ahead.</p>
+
+		<p>“Bobby,� said she, still with that curious smile and
+		strangely shining eyes, and putting both her hands
+		upon his shoulders, “I see that you must go ahead
+		with this. I—I guess it will be good for you. Somehow,
+		I think that this is to be your last folly, that
+		you are really learning that the world is not all polo
+		and honor-bets. So go ahead—and I’ll wait here.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page244" title="244"> </a>He could not know how much that hurt her. He
+		only knew, after she had talked more lightly of his
+		trip, that he had her full and free consent, and,
+		highly elated with his first successful business venture,
+		he took up the contracts of the Neapolitan
+		Grand Opera Company where Signor Matteo, the decamped
+		manager and producer, had dropped them.
+		The members of the company having attached the
+		scenery and effects for back salaries, sold them to
+		Bobby for ten thousand dollars, and he immediately
+		found himself confronted by demands for settlements,
+		with the alternative of damage suits, from the two
+		cities in which the company had been booked for the
+		two past weeks.</p>
+
+		<p>Had Bobby not bound himself irrevocably to contracts
+		which made him liable for the salaries of
+		every member of this company for the next twenty
+		weeks, he would have withdrawn instantly at the
+		first hint of these suits; but, now that he was in for
+		it, he promptly compromised them at a rate which
+		made Spratt furious.</p>
+
+		<p>“If I’d thought,� said Spratt angrily in the privacy
+		of the Orpheum office, “that you were sucker
+		enough to get roped in for the full season, I’d have
+		tossed you out of the running for this week. This
+		game is a bigger gamble than the Stock Exchange.
+		The smartest producers in the business never know
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page245" title="245"> </a>when they have a winner or a loser. More than
+		that, while all actors are hard to handle, of all the
+		combinations on earth, a grand opera company is
+		the worst. I’ll bet a couple of cold bottles that
+		before you’re a week on the road you’ll have leaks
+		in your dirigible over some crazy dramatic stunts
+		that are not in the book of any opera of the Neapolitan
+		repertoire.�</p>
+
+		<p>The prediction was so true that it was proved
+		that very night, which was Friday, during the repetition
+		of <cite>Carmen</cite>. It seemed that Biff Bates, by
+		means of the supreme dominance of the Caravaggio,
+		had been made free of the stage, a rare privilege,
+		and one that enabled Biff to spend his time, under
+		unusual and romantic circumstances, very much in
+		the company of the Celtic Signorina; all of which
+		was very much to the annoyance, distress and fury
+		of Signor Ricardo, especially on <cite>Carmen</cite> night. At
+		all other times the great Ricardo thought very well
+		indeed of the Signorina Nora, only being in any
+		degree near to unfaithfulness when, on <cite>Aïda</cite> nights,
+		he sang to vivacious little Madam Villenauve; but on
+		<cite>Carmen</cite> nights he was devotedly, passionately,
+		madly in love with the divine Car-r-r-r-avaggio!
+		Else how could he sing the magnificent second act
+		aria? Life without her on those nights would be a
+		hollow mockery, the glance of any possible rival in
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page246" title="246"> </a>her direction a desecration. Why, he even had to
+		restrain himself to keep from doing actual damage
+		to Philippi, who, though on the shady side of forty-five,
+		still sang a most dashing Escamillo; nor was
+		his jealousy less poignant because Philippi and Caravaggio
+		were sworn enemies.</p>
+
+		<p>Thus it may be understood—by any one, at least,
+		who has ever loved ecstatically and fervidly and even
+		hectically, like the great Ricardo—how on Monday
+		and Wednesday nights and the Thursday matinée,
+		all of which were Caravaggio performances, he resented
+		Biff’s presence. From dark corners he more
+		darkly watched them chatting in frank enjoyment
+		of each other’s company; he made unexpected darts
+		in front of their very eyes to greet them with the
+		most alarming scowls; and because he insolently
+		brushed the shoulder of the peaceably inclined and
+		self-sure Biff upon divers occasions, and Biff made
+		no sign of resentment, he imagined that Biff trembled
+		in his boots whenever he noted the approach
+		of the redoubtable Ricardo with his infinitesimal but
+		ferocious mustachios. Great, then, was his wonder,
+		to say nothing of his rage, when Biff, after all the
+		scowls and shoulderings that he had received on
+		Thursday, actually came around for Friday night’s
+		<cite>Carmen</cite> performance!</p>
+
+		<p>Even before the fierce Ricardo had gone into his
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page247" title="247"> </a>dressing-room he was already taking upon himself
+		the deadly character of Don José, and his face
+		surged red with fury when he saw Biff Bates, gaily
+		laughing as if no doom impended, come in at the
+		stage door with the equally gay and care-free Caravaggio.
+		But after Signor Ricardo had donned the
+		costume and the desperateness of the brigadier Don
+		José—it was then that the fury sank into his soul!
+		And that fury boiled and seethed as, during the first
+		and second acts, he found in the wings Signorina
+		Car-r-r-r-r-r-avaggio absorbed in pleasant but very
+		significant chat with his deadly enemy, the crude, unmusical,
+		inartistic, soulless Biffo de Bates-s-s-s! But,
+		ah! There was another act to come, the third act,
+		at the beginning of which the property man handed
+		him the long, sharp, wicked-looking, bloodthirsty
+		knife with which he was to fight Escamillo, and with
+		which in the fourth act he was to kill Carmen. The
+		mere possession of that knife wrought the great
+		tenor’s soul to gory tragedy; so much so that immediately
+		after the third act curtain calls he rushed
+		directly to the spot where he knew the contemptible
+		Signor Biffo de Bates-s-s-s to be standing, and with
+		shrill Latin imprecations flourished that keen, glistening
+		blade before the eyes of the very much astounded
+		Biff.</p>
+
+		<p>For a moment, thoroughly incredulous, Biff refused
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page248" title="248"> </a>to believe it, until a second demonstration compelled
+		him to acknowledge that the great Ricardo
+		actually meant threatening things toward himself.
+		When this conviction forced its way upon him, Biff
+		calmly reached out, and, with a grip very much like
+		a bear-trap, seized Signor Ricardo by the forearm
+		of the hand which held the knife. With his unengaged
+		hand Biff then smacked the Signor Ricardo
+		right severely on the wrist.</p>
+
+		<p>“You don’t mean it, you know, Sig-nor Garlic,�
+		he calmly observed. “If I thought you did I’d
+		smack you on both wrists. Why, you little red
+		balloon, I ain’t afraid of any mutt on earth that
+		carries a knife like that, as long as I got my back
+		to the wall.�</p>
+
+		<p>Still holding the putty-like Signor by the forearm,
+		he delicately abstracted from his clasp the huge knife,
+		and, folding it up gravely, handed it back to him;
+		then deliberately he turned his back on the Signor
+		and pushed his way through the delightedly horror-stricken
+		emotionalists who had gathered at the fray,
+		and strolled over to where Signorina Caravaggio had
+		stood an interested and mirth-shaken observer.</p>
+
+		<p>“You mustn’t think all Italians are like that, Biff,�
+		she said, her first impulse, as always, to see justice
+		done; “but singers are a different breed. I don’t
+		think he’s bluffing, altogether. If he got a real good
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page249" title="249"> </a>chance some place in the dark, and was sure that he
+		wouldn’t be caught, he might use a stiletto on you.�</p>
+
+		<p>“If he ever does I’ll slap his forehead,� said Biff.
+		“But say, he uses that cleaver again in the show?�</p>
+
+		<p>The Signorina Nora shrugged her shoulders.</p>
+
+		<p>“He’s supposed to stab me with it in this next
+		act.�</p>
+
+		<p>“He is!� exclaimed Biff. “Well, just so he don’t
+		make any mistake I’m going over and paste him
+		one.�</p>
+
+		<p>It was not necessary, for Signor Ricardo, after
+		studying the matter over and seeing no other way
+		out of it, proceeded to have a fit. No one, not even
+		the illustrious Signor, could tell just how much of
+		that fit was deliberate and artificial, and just how
+		much was due to an overwrought sensitive organization,
+		but certain it was that the Signor Ricardo was
+		quite unable to go on with the performance, and
+		Monsieur Noire himself, as agitated as a moment
+		before the great Ricardo had been, frantically rushed
+		up to Biff and grabbed him roughly by the shoulders.</p>
+
+		<p>“Too long,� shrieked he, “we have let you be annoying
+		the artists, by reason of the Caravaggio.
+		But now you shall do the skidooing.�</p>
+
+		<p>With a laugh Biff looked back over his shoulder
+		at the Caravaggio, and permitted Monsieur Noire
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page250" title="250"> </a>to eject him bodily from the stage door upon the
+		alley.</p>
+
+		<p>The next morning, owing to the prompt action
+		and foresightedness of Spratt, all the papers contained
+		the very pretty story that the great Ricardo
+		had succumbed to his own intensity of emotions after
+		the third act of <cite>Carmen</cite>, and had been unable to go
+		on, giving way to the scarcely less great Signor
+		Dulceo. That same morning Bobby was confronted
+		by the first of a long series of similar dilemmas.
+		The Signorina Caravaggio must leave the company
+		or Signor Ricardo would do so. No stage was big
+		enough to hold the two; moreover, Ricardo meant to
+		have the heart’s blood of Signor Biffo de Bates-s-s-s!</p>
+
+		<p>With a sigh, Bobby, out of his ignorance and independence,
+		took the only possible course to preserve
+		peace, and emphatically told Signor Ricardo to pack
+		up and go as quickly as possible, which he went
+		away vowing to do. Naturally the great tenor
+		thought better of it after that, and though he had
+		already been dropped from the cast of <cite lang="it" xml:lang="it">Il Trovatore</cite>
+		on Saturday afternoon, he reported just the same.
+		And he went on with the company.</p>
+
+		<p>It was not until they went upon the road, however,
+		that Bobby fully realized what a lot of irresponsible,
+		fretful, peevish children he had upon his
+		hands. With the exception of serene Nora McGinnis,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page251" title="251"> </a>every one of the principals was at daggers
+		drawn with all the others, sulking over the least advantage
+		obtained by any one else, and accepting advantage
+		of their own as only a partial payment of
+		their supreme rank. The one most at war with her
+		own world was Madam Villenauve, whose especial <em>bête
+		noire</em> was the MeeGeenees, whom, by no possibility,
+		could she ever under any circumstance be induced to
+		call Caravaggio.</p>
+
+		<p>On the second day of their next engagement, as
+		Bobby strode through the corridor of the hotel,
+		shortly after luncheon, he was stopped by Madam
+		Villenauve, who had been waiting for him in the door
+		of her room. She was herself apparently just dressing
+		to go out, for her coiffure was made and she had
+		on a short underskirt, a kimono-like dressing-jacket
+		and her street shoes.</p>
+
+		<p>“I wish to speak wiz you on some beezness, Meester
+		Burnit,� she told him abruptly, and with an
+		imperatively beckoning hand stepped back with a bow
+		for him to enter.</p>
+
+		<p>With just a moment of surprised hesitation he
+		stepped into the room, whereupon the Villenauve
+		promptly closed the door. A week before Bobby
+		would have been a trifle astonished by this proceeding,
+		but in that week he had seen so many examples
+		of unconscious unconventionalities in and about the
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page252" title="252"> </a>dressing-rooms and at the hotel, that he had readjusted
+		his point of view to meet the peculiar way of
+		life of these people, and, as usual with readjustments,
+		had readjusted himself too far. He found the room
+		in a litter, with garments of all sorts cast about in
+		reckless disorder.</p>
+
+		<p>“I have been seeing you last night,� began Madam
+		Villenauve, shaking her finger at him archly
+		as she swept some skirts off a chair for him to sit
+		down, and then took her place before her dressing-table,
+		where she added the last deft touch to her
+		coiffure. “I have been seeing you smiling at ze
+		reedeec’lous Carmen. Oh, la, la! Carmen!� she
+		shrilled. “It is I, monsieur, I zat am ze Carmen.
+		It was zis Matteo, the scoundrel who run away wiz
+		our money, zat allow le Ricardo to say whom he like
+		to sing to for Carmen. Ricardo ees in loaf wiz la
+		MeeGeenees. Le Ricardo is a fool, so zis Ricardo
+		sing Carmen ever tam to ze great, grosse monstair
+		MeeGeenees; an’ ever’body zey laugh. Ze chorus
+		laugh, ze principals laugh, le Monsieur Noire he
+		laugh, even zat Frühlingsvogel zat have no humair,
+		he laugh, an’ ze audience laugh, an’ las’ night I am
+		seeing you laugh. Ees eet not so? <em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Mais!</em> It is
+		absurd! It is reedeec’lous. Le Ricardo make fool
+		over la MeeGeenees. <em>I</em> sing ze Carmen! I <em>am</em> ze
+		Carmen! You hear me sing Aïda? Eet ees zat way.
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page253" title="253"> </a>I sing Carmen. Now I s’all sing Carmen again!
+		Ees eet not?�</p>
+
+		<p>As Madam Villenauve talked, punctuating her remarks
+		with quick, impatient little gestures, she jerked
+		off her dressing-jacket and threw it on the floor, and
+		Bobby saved himself from panic by reminding himself
+		that her frank anatomical display was, in the
+		peculiar ethics of these people, no more to be noticed
+		than if she were in an evening gown, which was very
+		reasonable, after all, once you understood the code.
+		Still voicing her indignation at having been displaced
+		in the role of Carmen by the utterly impossible
+		and preposterous Caravaggio, she caught up
+		her waist and was about to slip it on, while Bobby,
+		with an amused smile, reflected that presently he
+		would no doubt be nonchalantly requested to hook
+		it in the back, when some one tried the door-knob.
+		A knock followed and Madam Villenauve went to
+		the door.</p>
+
+		<p>“Who ees it?� she asked with her hand on the
+		knob.</p>
+
+		<p>“It is I; Monsieur Noire,� was the reply.</p>
+
+		<p>“Oh, la, come in, zen,� she invited, and threw open
+		the door.</p>
+
+		<p>Monsieur Noire entered, but, finding Bobby in
+		the chair by the dresser, stopped uncertainly in the
+		doorway.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page254" title="254"> </a>“Oh, come on een,� she gaily invited; “we are all
+		ze good friends; <em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">oui</em>?�</p>
+
+		<p>It appeared that Monsieur Noire came in all politeness,
+		yet with rigid intention, to inquire about
+		a missing piece of music from the score of <em>Les
+		Huguenots</em>, and Madam Villenauve, in all politeness
+		and yet with much indignation, assured him that
+		she did not have it; whereupon Monsieur Noire, with
+		all politeness but cold insistence, demanded that she
+		look for it; whereupon Madam Villenauve, though
+		once more protesting that she had it not, in all politeness
+		and yet with considerable asperity, declared
+		that she would not search for it; whereupon Monsieur
+		Noire, observing the piece of music in question
+		peeping out from beneath a conglomerate pile of
+		newspapers, clothing and toilet articles, laid hands
+		upon it and departed. Madam Villenauve, entirely
+		unruffled now that it was all over, but still chattering
+		away with great volubility about the crime of
+		Carmen, finished her dressing and bade Bobby hook
+		the back of her waist, and by sheer calmness and
+		certainty of intention forced him to accompany her
+		over to rehearsal.</p>
+
+		<p>Whatever annoyance he might have felt over this
+		was lost in his amusement when he reached the theater
+		in finding Biff Bates upon the stage waiting
+		for him; and Biff, while waiting, was quite excusably
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page255" title="255"> </a>whiling the time away with the adorable Miss McGinnis.</p>
+
+		<p>“You see, Young Fitz lives here,� Biff brazenly
+		explained, “and I run up to see him about that exhibition
+		night I’m going to have at the gym. I’m
+		going to have him go on with Kid Jeffreys.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Biff,� said Bobby warmly, “I want to congratulate
+		you on your business enterprise. Have you seen
+		Young Fitz yet?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Well, no,� confessed Biff. “I just got here about
+		an hour ago. I didn’t know your hotel, but it was
+		a cinch from the bills to tell where the show was,
+		so I came right around to the theater to see you first.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Exactly,� admitted Bobby. “Do you <em>expect</em> to
+		see Young Fitz?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Well, maybe, if I get time,� said Biff with a
+		sheepish grin. “Just now I’m going out for a drive
+		with Miss McGinnis.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Caravaggio,� corrected that young lady with a
+		laugh.</p>
+
+		<p>“McGinnis for mine,� declared Biff. “By the way,
+		Bobby, I saw a certain party before I left town and
+		she gave me this letter for you. Certain party is as
+		cheerful as a chunk of lead about your trip, Bobby,
+		but she makes the swellest bluff I ever saw that she’s
+		tickled to death with it.�</p>
+
+		<p>With this vengeful shot in retaliation for his excuse
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page256" title="256"> </a>about Young Fitz having been doubted he sailed
+		away with the Caravaggio, who, though required
+		to report at every rehearsal, was not in the cast for
+		that night and was readily excused from further attendance.
+		Since Bobby had received a very pleasant
+		letter from Agnes when he got up that morning he
+		opened this missive with a touch of curiosity added
+		to the thrill with which he always took in his hands
+		any missive, no matter how trivial, from her. It was
+		but a brief note calling attention to the enclosed
+		newspaper clipping, and wishing him success in his
+		new venture. The clipping was a flamboyant article
+		describing the decision of the city council to install
+		a magnificent new ten-million-dollar waterworks system,
+		and the personally interesting item in it, ringed
+		around with a pencil mark, was that Silas Trimmer
+		had been appointed by Mayor Garland as president
+		of the waterworks commission.</p>
+
+		<p>It was not news that could alter his fortunes in
+		any way so far as he could see, but it did remind
+		him, with a strange whipping of his conscience, that,
+		after all, his place was back home, and that his proper
+		employment should be the looking after his home
+		interests. For the first time he began to have a dim
+		realization that a man’s place was among his enemies,
+		where he could watch them.</p>
+	</div>
+	<div id="chapter_21" class="chapter"><a class="pagenum" id="page257" title="257"> </a>
+		<h2 class="chapter_title"><span class="chapter_number">CHAPTER XXI</span><br />
+			WHEREIN THE FINE ARTS PRESENT BOBBY WITH A
+			MOST EMBARRASSING DILEMMA</h2>
+
+		<p><span class="first_word">It</span> had become by no means strange to Bobby,
+		even before the company “took the road,� that
+		some one of the principals should attach themselves
+		to him in all his possible goings and comings,
+		for each and every one of them had some complaint
+		to make about all the others. They wanted readjustments
+		of cast, better parts to sing, better dressing-rooms,
+		better hotel quarters, better everything
+		than the others had, and with the unhappy and excited
+		Monsieur Noire he shared this unending strife.
+		At first he saw it all in a humorous light, but, by
+		and by, he came to a period of ennui and tried to
+		rebel. This period gave him more trouble than the
+		other, so within a short time he lapsed into an apathetic
+		complaint-receptacle and dreamed no more of
+		walking or riding to and from the hotel without one
+		of these impulsive children of art, who seethed perpetually
+		in self-prodded artificial emotions, attached
+		to him. If it seemed strange at times that Madam
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page258" title="258"> </a>Villenauve was more frequently with him than any of
+		the others he only reflected that the vivacious little
+		Frenchwoman was much more persistent; nor did he
+		note that, presently, the others came rather to give
+		way before her and to let her monopolize him more
+		and more.</p>
+
+		<p>It was during the third week that Professor Frühlingsvogel
+		was to endure another birthday, and
+		Bobby, full of generous impulses as always, announced
+		at rehearsal that in honor of the Professor’s
+		unwelcome milestone he intended to give a little supper
+		that night at the hotel. Madam Villenauve,
+		standing beside him, suddenly threw her arms around
+		his neck and kissed him smack upon the lips, with
+		a quite enthusiastic declaration, in very charmingly
+		warped English, that he was “a dear old sing.�
+		Bobby, reverting quickly in mind to the fact of the
+		extreme unconventionally of these people, took the
+		occurrence quite as a matter of course, though it
+		embarrassed him somewhat. He rather counted himself
+		a prig that he could not sooner get over this
+		habit of embarrassment, and every time Madam Villenauve
+		insisted on calling him into her dressing-room
+		when she was in much more of dishabille than
+		he would have thought permissible in ordinary people,
+		he felt that same painful lack of sophistication.</p>
+
+		<p>At the supper that night, Madam Villenauve, with
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page259" title="259"> </a>a great show of playful indignation, routed Madam
+		Kadanoff from her accidental seat next to Bobby,
+		and, in giving up the seat, which she did quite gracefully
+		enough, Madam Kadanoff dropped some remark
+		in choice Russian, which, of course, Bobby did
+		not understand, but which Madam Villenauve did,
+		for she laughed a little shrilly and, with an engaging
+		upward smile at Bobby, observed:</p>
+
+		<p>“I theenk I shall say it zat zees so chairming
+		Monsieur Burnit is soon to marry wiz me; ees eet
+		not, monsieur?�</p>
+
+		<p>Whereupon Bobby, with his customary courtesy,
+		replied:</p>
+
+		<p>“No gentleman would care to deny such a charming
+		and attractive possibility, Madam Villenauve.�</p>
+
+		<p>But the gracious speech was of the lips alone, and
+		spoken with a warning glare against “kidding� at
+		the grinning Biff Bates, who had found business of
+		urgent importance for that night in the city where
+		the company was booked. Bobby, in fact, had begun
+		to tire very much of the whole business. To
+		begin with, he found the organization a much more
+		expensive one to keep up than he had imagined. The
+		route, badly laid out, was one of tremendous long
+		jumps; of his singers, like other rare and expensive
+		creatures, extravagant care must be taken, and not
+		every place that they stopped was so eager for grand
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page260" title="260"> </a>opera as it might have been. At the end of three
+		weeks he was able to compute that he had lost about
+		a thousand dollars a week, and in the fourth week
+		they struck an engagement so fruitless that even the
+		cheerful Caravaggio became dismal.</p>
+
+		<p>“It’s a sure enough frost,� she confided to Bobby;
+		“but cheer up, for the worst is yet to come. Your
+		route sheet for the next two months looks like a
+		morgue to me, and unless you interpolate a few coon
+		songs in <cite lang="de" xml:lang="de">Tannhäuser</cite> and some song and dance specialties
+		between the acts of <cite lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Les Huguenots</cite> you’re
+		gone. You know I used to sing this route in musical
+		comedy, and, on the level, I’ve got a fine part waiting
+		for me right now in <cite>The Giddy Queen</cite>. I like
+		this highbrow music all right, but the people that
+		come to hear it make me so sad. You’re a good sport,
+		though, and as long as you need me I’ll stick.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Thanks,� said Bobby sincerely. “It’s a pleasure
+		to speak to a real human being once in a while, even
+		if you don’t offer any encouragement. However,
+		we’ll not be buried till we’re dead, notwithstanding
+		that we now enter upon the graveyard route.�</p>
+
+		<p>Doleful experience, however, confirmed the Caravaggio’s
+		gloomy prophecy. They embarked now
+		upon a season of one and two and three night stands
+		that gave Bobby more of the real discomforts of life
+		than he had ever before dreamed possible. To close
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page261" title="261"> </a>a performance at eleven, to pack and hurry for a
+		twelve-thirty train, to ride until five o’clock in the
+		morning—a distance too short for sleep and too long
+		to stay awake—to tumble into a hotel at six and sleep
+		until noon, this was one program; to close a performance
+		at eleven, to wait up for a four-o’clock
+		train, to ride until eight and get into a hotel at nine,
+		with a vitally necessary rehearsal between that and
+		the evening performance, was another program,
+		either one of which wore on health and temper and
+		purse alike. The losses now exceeded two thousand
+		dollars a week. Moreover, the frequent visits of Biff
+		Bates and his constant baiting of Signor Ricardo
+		had driven that great tenor to such a point of distraction
+		that one night, being near New York, he
+		drew his pay and departed without notice. There
+		was no use, in spite of Monsieur Noire’s frantic
+		insistence, in trying to make the public believe that
+		the lank Dulceo was the fat Ricardo; moreover, immediately
+		upon his arrival in New York, Signor
+		Ricardo let it be known that he had left the Neapolitan
+		Company, so the prestige of the company fell
+		off at once, for the “country� press pays sharp
+		attention to these things.</p>
+
+		<p>A letter from Johnson at just this time also had
+		its influence upon Bobby, who now was in an
+		humble, not an antagonistic mood, and quite ripe for
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page262" title="262"> </a>advice. Mr. Johnson had just conferred with Mr.
+		Bates upon his return from a visit to the Neapolitan
+		Company, and Mr. Bates had detailed to Mr. Johnson
+		much that he had seen with his own eyes, and
+		much that the Caravaggio had told him. Mr. Johnson,
+		thereupon, begging pardon for the presumption,
+		deemed this a fitting time, from what he had
+		heard, to forward Bobby the inclosed letter, which,
+		in its gray envelope, had been left behind by Bobby’s
+		father:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="envelope">
+			<p>To My Son in the Midst of a Losing Fight</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<blockquote class="letter">
+			<p>“Determination is a magnificent quality, but bullheadedness
+			is not. The most foolish kind of pride
+			on earth is that which makes a man refuse to acknowledge
+			himself beaten when he is beaten. It takes
+			a pretty brave man, and one with good stuff in him,
+			to let all his friends know that he’s been licked. Figure
+			this out.�</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p>Bobby wrestled with that letter all night. In the
+		morning he received one from Agnes which served
+		to increase and intensify the feeling of homesickness
+		that had been overwhelming him. She, too, had seen
+		Biff Bates. She had asked him out to the house expressly
+		to talk with him, but she had written a pleasant,
+		cheerful letter wherein she hoped that the end
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page263" title="263"> </a>of the season would repay the losses she understood
+		that he was enduring; but she admitted that she was
+		very lonesome without him. She gave him quite a
+		budget of gay gossip concerning all the young people
+		of his set, and after he had read that letter he
+		was quite prepared to swallow his grit and make the
+		announcement that for a week had been almost upon
+		his tongue.</p>
+
+		<p>Through Monsieur Noire, at rehearsal that afternoon,
+		he declared his intention of closing the season,
+		and offered them each two weeks’ advance pay and
+		their fare to New York. It was Signorina Caravaggio
+		who broke the hush that followed this announcement.</p>
+
+		<p>“You’re a good sort, Bobby Burnit,� she said,
+		with kindly intent to lead the others, “and I’ll take
+		your offer and thank you.�</p>
+
+		<p>It appeared that the majority of them had dreaded
+		some such dénouement as this; some had been prepared
+		for even less advantageous terms, and several,
+		upon direct inquiry, announced their willingness
+		to accept this proposal. A few declared their intention
+		to hold him for the full contract. These were
+		the ones who had made sure of his entire solvency,
+		and these afterward swayed the balance of the company
+		to a stand which won a better compromise.
+		When Monsieur Noire, with a curious smile, asked
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page264" title="264"> </a>Madam Villenauve, however, she laughed very pleasantly.</p>
+
+		<p>“Oh, non,� said she; “it does not apply, zis offair,
+		to me. I do not need it, for Monsieur Burnit ees
+		to marry wiz me zis Christmastam.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I am afraid, Madam Villenauve, that we will have
+		to quit joking about that,� said Bobby coldly.</p>
+
+		<p>“Joking!� screamed the shrill voice of madam.
+		“Eet ees not any joke. You can not fool wiz me,
+		Monsieur Burnit. You mean to tell all zese people
+		zat you are not to marry wiz me?�</p>
+
+		<p>“I certainly have no intention of the kind,� said
+		Bobby impatiently, “nor have I ever expressed such
+		an intention.�</p>
+
+		<p>“We s’all see about zat,� declared the madam with
+		righteous indignation. “We s’all see how you can
+		amuse yourself. You refuse to keep your word zat
+		you marry me? All right zen, you do! I bring suit
+		to-day for brich promise, and I have here one, two,
+		three, a dozen weetness. I make what you call subpœna
+		on zem all. We s’all see.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Monsieur Noire,� said Bobby, more sick and sore
+		than panic-stricken, “you will please settle matters
+		with all these people and come to me at the hotel for
+		whatever checks you need,� and, hurt beyond measure
+		at this one more instance that there were, really, rapacious
+		schemers in the world, who sought loathsome
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page265" title="265"> </a>advantage at the expense of decent folk, Bobby crept
+		away, to hide himself and try to understand.</p>
+
+		<p>They were here for the latter half of the week, and,
+		since business seemed to be fairly good, Bobby had
+		decided to fill this engagement, canceling all others.
+		In the morning it seemed that Madam Villenauve had
+		been in earnest in her absurd intentions, for, in his
+		room, at eleven o’clock, he was served with papers
+		in the breach-of-promise suit of Villenauve <em lang="la" xml:lang="la">versus</em>
+		Burnit, and the amount of damages claimed was the
+		tremendous sum of one hundred and fifty thousand
+		dollars, an amount, of course, only commensurate with
+		Madam Villenauve’s standing in the profession and
+		her earning capacity as an artist, her pride and shattered
+		feelings and the dashing to earth of her love’s
+		young dream being of corresponding value. Moreover,
+		he learned that an injunction had been issued
+		completely tying up his bank account. That was the
+		parting blow. Settling up with the performers upon
+		a blood-letting basis, he most ignominiously fled. Before
+		he went away, however, Signorina Nora McGinnis
+		Caravaggio called him to one side and confided a
+		most delicate message to him.</p>
+
+		<p>“Your friend, Mr. Bates,� she began with an
+		embarrassed hesitation quite unusual in the direct
+		Irish girl; “he’s a nice boy, from the ground up,
+		and give him an easy word from me. But, Mr.
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page266" title="266"> </a>Burnit, give him a hint not to do any more traveling
+		on my account; for I’ve got a husband back in New
+		York that ain’t worth the rat poison to put him out of
+		his misery, but I’m not getting any divorces. One
+		mistake is enough. But don’t be too hard on me
+		when you tell Biff. Honest, up to just the last, I
+		thought he’d come only to see you; but I enjoyed his
+		visits.� And in the eyes of the Caravaggio there
+		stood real tears.</p>
+
+		<p>A newsboy met Bobby on the train with the morning
+		papers from home, and in them he read delightfully
+		flavored and spiced accounts of the great Villenauve
+		breach-of-promise case, embellished with many
+		details that were entirely new to him. He had not
+		counted on this phase of the matter, and it struck him
+		almost as with an ague. The notoriety, the askance
+		looks he would receive from his more conservative
+		acquaintances, the “ragging� he would get at his
+		clubs, all these he could stand. But Agnes! How
+		could he ever face her? How would she receive him?
+		From the train he took a cab directly home and buried
+		himself there to think it all over. He spent a morning
+		of intense dejection and an afternoon of the utmost
+		misery. In the evening, not caring to dine in
+		solitary gloom at home nor to appear yet among his
+		fellows, he went out to an obscure restaurant in the
+		neighborhood and ate his dinner, then came back
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page267" title="267"> </a>again to his lonely room, seeing nothing ahead of
+		him but an evening of melancholy alone. His butler,
+		however, met him in the hall on his return.</p>
+
+		<p>“Miss Elliston called up on the ’phone while you
+		were out, sir.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Did you tell her I was at home?� asked Bobby
+		with quick apprehension.</p>
+
+		<p>“Yes, sir; you hadn’t told me not to do so, sir;
+		and she left word that you were to come straight out
+		to the house as soon as you came in.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Very well,� said Bobby, and went into the library.</p>
+
+		<p>He sat down before the telephone and rested his
+		hand upon the receiver for perhaps as much as five
+		long minutes of hesitation, then abruptly he turned
+		away from that unsatisfactory means of communication
+		and had his car ordered; then hurriedly changed
+		to the evening clothes he had not intended to don that
+		night.</p>
+
+		<p>In most uncertain anticipation, but quite sure of
+		the most vigorous “blowing up� of his career, he
+		whirled out to the home of the Ellistons and ascended
+		the steps. The ring at the bell brought the ever imperturbable
+		Wilkins, who nodded gravely upon seeing
+		that it was Bobby and, relieving him of his coat
+		and hat, told him:</p>
+
+		<p>“Right up to the Turkish room, sir.�</p>
+
+		<p>There seemed a strange quietness about the house,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page268" title="268"> </a>and he felt more and more as if he might be approaching
+		a sentence as he climbed the silent stairs.
+		At the door of the Turkish room, however, Agnes
+		met him with outstretched hands and a smile of welcome
+		which bore traces of quite too much amusement
+		for his entire comfort. When she had drawn
+		him within the big alcove she laughed aloud, a light
+		laugh in which there was no possible trace of resentment,
+		and it lifted from his mind the load that had
+		been oppressing it all day long.</p>
+
+		<p>“I’m afraid you haven’t heard,� he began awkwardly.</p>
+
+		<p>“Heard!� she repeated, and laughed again. “Why,
+		Bobby, I read all the morning papers and all the
+		evening papers, and I presume there will be excellent
+		reading in every one of them for days and days to
+		come.�</p>
+
+		<p>“And you’re not angry?� he said, astounded.</p>
+
+		<p>“Angry!� she laughed. “Why, you poor Bobby.
+		I remember this Madam Villenauve perfectly, besides
+		seeing her ten-years-ago pictures in the papers, and
+		you don’t suppose for a minute that I could be jealous
+		of her, do you? Moreover, I can prove by Aunt
+		Constance and Uncle Dan that I predicted just this
+		very thing when you first insisted upon going on
+		the road.�</p>
+
+		<p>He looked around, dreading the keen satire of
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page269" title="269"> </a>Uncle Dan and the incisive ridicule of Aunt Constance,
+		but she relieved his mind of that fear.</p>
+
+		<p>“We were all invited out to dinner to-night, but
+		I refused to go, for really I wanted to soften the
+		blow for you. There is nobody in the house but
+		myself and the servants. Now, do behave, Bobby!
+		Wait a minute, sir! I’ve something else to crush
+		you with. Have you seen the evening papers?�</p>
+
+		<p>No; the morning papers had been enough for him.</p>
+
+		<p>“Well, I’ll tell you what they are doing. The
+		Consolidated Illuminating and Power Company has
+		secured an order from the city council compelling
+		the Brightlight Electric Company to remove their
+		poles from Market Street.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby caught his breath sharply. Stone and
+		Sharpe and Garland, the political manipulators of
+		the city, and its owners, lock, stock and barrel were
+		responsible for this. They had taken advantage of
+		his absence.</p>
+
+		<p>“What a fool I have been,� he bitterly confessed,
+		“to have taken up with this entirely irregular and
+		idiotic enterprise, a venture of which I knew nothing
+		whatever, and let go the serious fight I had intended
+		to make on Stone and his crowd.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Never mind, Bobby,� said Agnes. “I have a
+		suspicion that you have cut a wisdom-tooth. I rather
+		imagined that you needed this one last folly as a sort
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page270" title="270"> </a>of relapse before complete convalescence, to settle you
+		down and bring you back to me for a more serious
+		effort. I see that the most of your money is tied up
+		in this embarrassing suit, and when I read that you
+		were on your way home I went to Mr. Chalmers and
+		got him to arrange for the release of some bonds.
+		Following the provisions of your father’s will your
+		next two hundred and fifty thousand is waiting for
+		you. Moreover, Bobby, this time I want you to listen
+		to your trustee. I have found a new business for
+		you, one about which you know nothing whatever,
+		but one that you must learn; I want to put a weapon
+		into your hands with which to fight for everything
+		you have lost.�</p>
+
+		<p>He looked at her in wonder.</p>
+
+		<p>“I always told you I needed you,� he declared.
+		“When <em>are</em> you going to marry me?�</p>
+
+		<p>“When you have won your fight, Bobby, or when
+		you have proved entirely hopeless,� she replied with
+		a smile in which there was a certain amount of wistfulness.</p>
+
+		<p>“You’re a good sort, Agnes,� he said a little huskily,
+		and he pondered for some little time in awe over
+		the existence of women like this. “I guess the governor
+		was mighty right in making you my trustee,
+		after all. But what is this business?�</p>
+
+		<p>“The <cite>Evening Bulletin</cite> is for sale, I have learned.
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page271" title="271"> </a>Just now it is an independent paper, but it seems
+		to me you could not have a better weapon, with your
+		following, for fighting your political and business
+		enemies.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I’ll think that over very seriously,� he said with
+		much soberness. “I have refused everybody’s advice so
+		far, and have taken only my own. I have begun to
+		believe that I am not the wisest person in the world;
+		also I have come to believe that there are more ways
+		to lose money than there are to make money; also
+		I’ve found out that men are not the only gold-brick
+		salesmen. Agnes, I’m what Biff Bates calls a
+		‘Hick’!�</p>
+
+		<p>“Look what your father has to say about this last
+		escapade of yours,� she said, smiling, and from her
+		desk brought him one of the familiar gray envelopes.
+		This was the letter:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="envelope">
+			<p>To My Daughter Agnes, Upon Bobby’s Entanglement
+				with a Blackmailing Woman</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<blockquote class="letter">
+			<p>“No man can guard against being roped in by a
+			scheming woman the first time; but if it happens
+			twice he deserves it, and he should be turned out to
+			stay an idiot, for the signs are so plain. A man
+			swindler takes a man’s money and makes a fool of
+			him; but a woman swindler takes a man’s money and
+			leaves a smirch on him. Only a man’s nearest and
+			<a class="pagenum" id="page272" title="272"> </a>dearest can help him live down such a smirch; so,
+			Agnes, if my son has been this particular variety of
+			everlasting blank fool, don’t turn against him. He
+			needs you. Moreover, you’ll find him improved by
+			it. He’ll be so much more humble.�</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p>“I didn’t really need that letter,� Agnes shyly
+		confessed; “but maybe it helped some.�</p>
+	</div>
+	<div id="chapter_22" class="chapter"><a class="pagenum" id="page273" title="273"> </a>
+		<h2 class="chapter_title"><span class="chapter_number">CHAPTER XXII</span><br />
+			AGNES FINDS BOBBY A SLING AND BOBBY PUTS A STONE
+			IN IT</h2>
+
+		<p><span class="first_word">The</span> wonderful change in a girl who, through
+		her love, has become all woman, that was
+		the marvel to Bobby; the breadth of her
+		knowledge, the depth of her sympathy, the boundlessness
+		of her compassionate forgiveness, her quality
+		of motherliness; and this last was perhaps the greatest
+		marvel of all. Yet even his marveling did not encompass
+		all the wonder. In his last exploit, more full
+		of folly than anything into which he had yet blundered,
+		and the one which, of all others, might most
+		have turned her from him, Agnes had had the harder
+		part; to sit at home and wait, to dread she knew
+		not what. The certainty which finally evolved had
+		less of distress in it than not to know while day by
+		day passed by. One thing had made it easier: never
+		for one moment had she lost faith in Bobby, in any
+		way. She was certain, however, that financially his
+		trip would be a losing one, and from the time he left
+		she kept her mind almost constantly upon the thought
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page274" title="274"> </a>of his future. She had become almost desperately
+		anxious for him to fulfill the hopes of his father,
+		and day by day she studied the commercial field as
+		she had never thought it possible that she could do.
+		There was no line of industry upon which she did
+		not ponder, and there was scarcely any morning that
+		she did not at the breakfast table ask Dan Elliston
+		the ins and outs of some business. If he was not
+		able to tell her all she wanted to know, she usually
+		commissioned him to find out. He took these requests
+		in good part, and if she accomplished nothing else
+		by all her inquiries she acquired such a commercial
+		education as falls to the lot of but few home-kept
+		young women.</p>
+
+		<p>One morning her uncle came down a trifle late
+		for breakfast and was in a hurry.</p>
+
+		<p>“The Elliston School of Commercial Instruction
+		will have a recess for this session,� he observed as he
+		popped into his chair. “I have an important engagement
+		at the factory this morning and have about
+		seven minutes for breakfast. During that seven
+		minutes I prefer to eat rather than to talk. However,
+		I do not object to listening. This being my
+		last word except to request you to gather things
+		closely about my plate, you may now start.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Very well,� said she, dimpling as she usually did
+		at any evidence of briskness on the part of her
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page275" title="275"> </a>Uncle Dan, for from long experience she knew the
+		harmlessness of his bark. “Nick Allstyne happened
+		to remark to me last night that the <cite>Bulletin</cite> is for
+		sale. What do you think of the newspaper business
+		for Bobby?�</p>
+
+		<p>“The time necessary to answer that question takes
+		my orange from me,� objected Uncle Dan as he
+		hastily sipped another bite of the fruit and pushed it
+		away. “The newspaper business for Bobby!� He
+		drew the muffins toward him and took one upon his
+		plate, then he stopped and pondered a moment. “Do
+		you know,� said he, “that’s about the best suggestion
+		you’ve made. I believe he could make a hummer
+		out of a newspaper. I’ve noticed this about the boy’s
+		failures; they have all of them been due to lack of
+		experience; none of them has been due to any absence
+		of backbone. Nobody has ever bluffed him.�</p>
+
+		<p>Agnes softly clapped her hands.</p>
+
+		<p>“Exactly!� she cried. “Well, Uncle Dan, this is
+		the last word <em>I’m</em> going to say. For the balance of
+		your seven minutes I’m going to help stuff you with
+		enough food to keep you until luncheon time; but
+		sometime to-day, if you find time, I want you to go
+		over and see the proprietor of the <cite>Bulletin</cite> and find
+		out how much he wants for his property, and investigate
+		it as a business proposition just the same
+		as if you were going into it yourself.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page276" title="276"> </a>Uncle Dan, dipping voraciously into his soft boiled
+		eggs, grinned and said: “Huh!� Then he looked
+		at his watch. When he came home to dinner, however,
+		he hunted up Agnes at once.</p>
+
+		<p>“Your <cite>Bulletin</cite> proposition looks pretty good,� he
+		told her. “I saw Greenleaf. He’s a physical wreck
+		and has been for two years. He has to get away or
+		die. Moreover, his physical condition has reacted
+		upon his paper. His circulation has run down, but
+		he has a magnificent plant and a good office organization.
+		He wants two hundred thousand dollars for
+		his plant, good will and franchises. I’m going to
+		investigate this a little further. Do you suppose
+		Bobby will have two hundred thousand left when he
+		gets through with grand opera?�</p>
+
+		<p>“I hope so,� replied Agnes; “but if he hasn’t I’ll
+		have him waste the balance of this two hundred and
+		fifty thousand so that he can draw the next one.�</p>
+
+		<p>Uncle Dan laughed in huge enjoyment of this
+		solution.</p>
+
+		<p>“You surely were cut out for high finance,� he
+		told her.</p>
+
+		<p>She smiled, and was silent a while, hesitating.</p>
+
+		<p>“You seem to think pretty well of the business
+		as a business proposition,� she ventured anxiously,
+		by and by; “but you haven’t told me what you think
+		of it as applicable to Bobby.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page277" title="277"> </a>“If he’ll take you in the office with him, he’ll do
+		all right,� he answered her banteringly; but when
+		he went up-stairs and found his wife he said: “Constance,
+		if that girl don’t pull Bobby Burnit through
+		his puppyhood in good shape there is something
+		wrong with the scheme of creation. There is something
+		about you women of the Elliston family that
+		every once in a while makes me pause and reverence
+		the Almighty,� whereupon Aunt Constance flushed
+		prettily, as became her.</p>
+
+		<p>With the same earnestness of purpose Agnes handled
+		the question of Bobby’s breach-of-promise suit
+		in so far as it affected his social reception. The
+		Ellistons went to the theater and sat in a box to
+		exhibit him on the second night after his return, and
+		Agnes took careful count of all the people she knew
+		who attended the theater that night. The next day
+		she went to see all of them, among others Mrs. Horace
+		Wickersham, whose social word was social law.</p>
+
+		<p>“My dear,� said the redoubtable Mrs. Wickersham,
+		“it does Bobby Burnit great credit that he did
+		not marry the creature. Of course I shall invite him
+		to our affair next Friday night.�</p>
+
+		<p>After that there could be no further question of
+		Bobby’s standing, though without the firm support
+		of Agnes he might possibly have been ostracised,
+		for a time at least.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page278" title="278"> </a>It was with much less certainty that she spread
+		before Bobby the facts and figures which Uncle Dan
+		had secured about the condition and prospects of the
+		<cite>Bulletin</cite>. She did not urge the project upon him.
+		Instead, though in considerable anxiety, she left
+		the proposition open to his own judgment. He pondered
+		the question more soberly and seriously than
+		he had yet considered anything. There were but two
+		chances left to redeem himself now, and he felt much
+		like a gambler who has been reduced to his last
+		desperate stake. He grew almost haggard over the
+		proposition, and he spent two solid weeks in investigation.
+		He went to Washington to see Jack Starlett,
+		who knew three or four newspaper proprietors in
+		Philadelphia and elsewhere. He obtained introductions
+		to these people and consulted with them, inspected
+		their plants and listened to all they would
+		say; as they liked him, they said much. Ripened
+		considerably by what he had found out he came back
+		home and bought the <cite>Bulletin</cite>. Moreover, he had
+		very definitely made up his mind precisely what to
+		do with it.</p>
+
+		<p>On the first morning that he walked into the office
+		of that paper as its sole owner and proprietor, he
+		called the managing editor to him and asked:</p>
+
+		<p>“What, heretofore, has been the politics of this
+		paper?�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page279" title="279"> </a>“Pale yellow jelly,� snapped Ben Jolter wrathfully.</p>
+
+		<p>“Supposed to be anti-Stone, hasn’t it been?�
+		Bobby smilingly inquired.</p>
+
+		<p>“But always perfectly ladylike in what it said
+		about him.�</p>
+
+		<p>“And what are the politics of the employees?�</p>
+
+		<p>At this Mr. Jolter snorted.</p>
+
+		<p>“They are good newspaper men, Mr. Burnit,� he
+		stated in quick defense; “and a good newspaper man
+		has no politics.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby eyed Mr. Jolter with contemplative favor.
+		He was a stout, stockily-built man, with a square
+		head and sparse gray hair that would persist in
+		tangling and curling at the ends; and he perpetually
+		kept his sleeves rolled up over his big arms.</p>
+
+		<p>“I don’t know anything about this business,� confessed
+		Bobby, “but I hope to. First of all, I’d like
+		to find out why the <cite>Bulletin</cite> has no circulation.�</p>
+
+		<p>“The lack of a spinal column,� asserted Jolter.
+		“It has had no policy, stood pat on no proposition,
+		and made no aggressive fight on anything.�</p>
+
+		<p>“If I understand what you mean by the word,�
+		said Bobby slowly, “the <cite>Bulletin</cite> is going to have a
+		policy.�</p>
+
+		<p>It was now Mr. Jolter’s turn to gaze contemplatively
+		at Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page280" title="280"> </a>“If you were ten years older I would feel more
+		hopeful about it,� he decided bluntly.</p>
+
+		<p>The young man flushed uncomfortably. He was
+		keenly aware that he had made an ass of himself in
+		business four successive times, and that Jolter knew
+		it. By way of facing the music, however, he showed
+		to his managing editor a letter, left behind with old
+		Johnson for Bobby by the late John Burnit:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="letter">
+			<p>The mere fact that a man has been foolish four
+			times is no absolute proof that he is a fool; but it’s a
+			mighty significant hint. However, Bobby, I’m still
+			betting on you, for by this time you ought to have
+			your fighting blood at the right temperature; and
+			I’ve seen you play great polo in spite of a cracked
+			rib.</p>
+
+			<p>“P. S. If any one else intimates that you are a fool,
+			trounce him one for me.�</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p>“If there’s anything in heredity you’re a lucky
+		young man,� said Jolter seriously, as he handed back
+		the letter.</p>
+
+		<p>“I think the governor was worried about it himself,�
+		admitted Bobby with a smile; “and if he was
+		doubtful I can’t blame you for being so. Nevertheless,
+		Mr. Jolter, I must insist that we are going to have a
+		policy,� and he quietly outlined it.</p>
+
+		<p>Mr. Jolter had been so long a directing voice in the
+		newspaper business that he could not be startled by
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page281" title="281"> </a>anything short of a presidential assassination, and
+		that at press time. Nevertheless, at Bobby’s announcement
+		he immediately sought for his pipe and was
+		compelled to go into his own office after it. He came
+		back lighting it and felt better.</p>
+
+		<p>“It’s suicide!� he declared.</p>
+
+		<p>“Then we’ll commit suicide,� said Bobby pleasantly.</p>
+
+		<p>Mr. Jolter, after long, grinning thought, solemnly
+		shook hands with him.</p>
+
+		<p>“I’m for it,� said he. “Here’s hoping that we survive
+		long enough to write our own obituary!�</p>
+
+		<p>Mr. Jolter, to whom fighting was as the breath of
+		new-mown hay, and who had long been curbed in that
+		delightful occupation, went back into his own office
+		with a more cheerful air than he had worn for many
+		a day, and issued a few forceful orders, winding up
+		with a direction to the press foreman to prepare for
+		ten thousand extra copies that evening.</p>
+
+		<p>When the three o’clock edition of the <cite>Bulletin</cite> came
+		on the street, the entire first page was taken up by a
+		life-size half-tone portrait of Sam Stone, and underneath
+		it was the simple legend:</p>
+
+		<p class="headline">THIS MAN MUST LEAVE TOWN</p>
+
+		<p>The first citizens to awake to the fact that the
+		<cite>Bulletin</cite> was born anew were the newsboys. Those live
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page282" title="282"> </a>and enterprising merchants, with a very keen judgment
+		of comparative values, had long since ceased to
+		call the <cite>Bulletin</cite> at all; half of them had even ceased
+		to carry it. Within two minutes after this edition was
+		out they were clamoring for additional copies, and for
+		the first time in years the alley door of the <cite>Bulletin</cite>
+		was besieged by a seething mob of ragged, diminutive,
+		howling masculinity. Out on the street, however, they
+		were not even now calling the name of the paper.
+		They were holding forth that black first page and
+		screaming just the name of Sam Stone.</p>
+
+		<p>Sam Stone! It was a magic name, for Stone had
+		been the boss of the town since years without number;
+		a man who had never held office, but who dictated
+		the filling of all offices; a man who was not ostensibly
+		in any business, but who swayed the fortune of
+		every public enterprise; a self-confessed grafter whom
+		crusade after crusade had failed to dislodge from absolute
+		power. The crowds upon the street snapped
+		eagerly at that huge portrait and searched as eagerly
+		through the paper for more about the Boss. They
+		did not find it, except upon the editorial page, where,
+		in the space usually devoted to drivel about “How
+		Kind We Should Be to Dumb Animals,� and “Why
+		Fathers Should Confide More in Their Sons,� appeared
+		in black type a paraphrase of the legend on
+		the outside: “<em>Sam Stone Must Leave Town.</em>� Beneath
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page283" title="283"> </a>was the additional information: “Further issues
+		of the <cite>Bulletin</cite> will tell why.� Above and below
+		this was nothing but startlingly white blank paper,
+		two solid columns of it up and down the page.</p>
+
+		<p>Down in the deep basement of the <cite>Bulletin</cite>, the big
+		three-deck presses, two of which had been standing
+		idle since the last presidential election, were pounding
+		out copies by the thousand, while grimy pressmen,
+		blackened with ink, perspired most happily.</p>
+
+		<p>By five o’clock, men and even girls, pouring from
+		their offices, and laborers coming from work, had all
+		heard of it, and on the street the bold defiance created
+		first a gasp and then a smile. Another attempt to
+		dislodge Sam Stone was, in the light of previous efforts,
+		a laughable thing to contemplate; and yet it
+		was interesting.</p>
+
+		<p>In the office of the <cite>Bulletin</cite> it was a gleeful occasion.
+		Nonchalant reporters sat down with that amazing
+		front page spread out before them, studied the brutal
+		face of Stone and chuckled cynically. Lean Doc Miller,
+		“assistant city editor,� or rather head copy reader,
+		lit one cigarette from the stub of another and observed,
+		to nobody in particular but to everybody in general:</p>
+
+		<p>“I can see where we all contribute for a beautiful
+		Gates Ajar floral piece for one Robert Burnit;�
+		whereupon fat “Bugs� Roach, “handling copy� across
+		the table from him, inquired:</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page284" title="284"> </a>“Do you suppose the new boss really has this much
+		nerve, or is he just a damned fool?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Stone won’t do a thing to <em>him</em>!� ingratiatingly
+		observed a “cub� reporter, laying down twelve pages
+		of “copy� about a man who had almost been burglarized.</p>
+
+		<p>“Look here, you Greenleaf Whittier Squiggs,� said
+		Doc Miller most savagely, not because he had any particular
+		grudge against the unfortunately named G.
+		W., but because of discipline and the custom with
+		“cubs,� “the next time you’re sent out on a twenty-minute
+		assignment like this, remember the number of
+		the <cite>Bulletin</cite>, 427 Grand Street. The telephone is Central
+		2051, and don’t forget to report the same day.
+		Did you get the man’s name? Uh-huh. His address?
+		Uh-huh. Well, we don’t want the item.�</p>
+
+		<p>Slow and phlegmatic Jim Brown, who had been city
+		editor on the <cite>Bulletin</cite> almost since it was the <cite>Bulletin</cite>
+		under half a dozen changes of ownership and nearly
+		a score of managing editors, sauntered over into Jolter’s
+		room with a copy of the paper in his hand, and
+		a long black stogie held by some miracle in the corner
+		of his mouth, where it would be quite out of the road
+		of conversation.</p>
+
+		<p>“Pretty good stuff,� he drawled, indicating the remarkable
+		first page.</p>
+
+		<p>“The greatest circus act that was ever pulled off
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page285" title="285"> </a>in the newspaper business,� asserted Jolter. “It will
+		quadruple the present circulation of the <cite>Bulletin</cite> in
+		a week.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Make or break,� assented the city editor, “with
+		the odds in favor of the break.�</p>
+
+		<p>A slenderly-built young man, whose red face needed
+		a shave and whose clothes, though wrinkled and unbrushed,
+		shrieked of quality, came stumbling up the
+		stairs in such hot haste as was possible in his condition,
+		and without ceremony or announcement burst
+		into the room where Bobby Burnit, with that day’s
+		issue of the <cite>Bulletin</cite> spread out before him, was trying
+		earnestly to get a professional idea of the proper
+		contents of a newspaper.</p>
+
+		<p>“Great goods, old man!� said the stranger. “I want
+		to congratulate you on your lovely nerve,� and seizing
+		Bobby’s hand he shook it violently.</p>
+
+		<p>“Thanks,� said Bobby, not quite sure whether to
+		be amused or resentful. “Who are you?�</p>
+
+		<p>“I’m Dillingham,� announced the red-faced young
+		man with a cheerful smile.</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby was about to insist upon further information,
+		when Mr. Jolter came in to introduce Brown,
+		who had not yet met Mr. Burnit.</p>
+
+		<p>“Dill,� drawled Brown, with a twinkle in his eye,
+		“how much money have you?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Money to burn; money in every pocket,� asserted
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page286" title="286"> </a>Mr. Dillingham; “money to last for ever,� and he
+		jammed both hands in his trousers’ pockets.</p>
+
+		<p>It was an astonishing surprise to Mr. Dillingham,
+		after groping in those pockets, to find that he brought
+		up only a dollar bill in his left hand and forty-five
+		cents in silver in his right. He was still contemplating
+		in awed silence this perplexing fact when
+		Brown handed him a five-dollar bill.</p>
+
+		<p>“Now, you run right out and get stewed to the eyebrows
+		again,� directed Brown. “Get properly pickled
+		and have it over with, then show up here in the morning
+		with a headache and get to work. We want you to
+		take charge of the Sam Stone exposé, and in to-morrow’s
+		<cite>Bulletin</cite> we want the star introduction of your
+		life.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Do you mean to say you’re going to trust the
+		whole field conduct of this campaign to that chap?�
+		asked Bobby, frowning, when Dillingham had gone.</p>
+
+		<p>“This is his third day, so Dill’s safe for to-morrow
+		morning,� Brown hastened to assure him. “He’ll be
+		up here early, so penitent that he’ll be incased in a
+		blue fog—and he’ll certainly deliver the goods.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby sighed and gave it up. This was a new
+		world.</p>
+
+		<p>Over in his dingy little office, up his dingy flight
+		of stairs, Sam Stone sat at his bare and empty old
+		desk, looking contemplatively out of the window, when
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page287" title="287"> </a>Frank Sharpe—his luxuriant gray mustache in an
+		extraordinary and most violent state of straggling
+		curliness—came nervously bustling in with a copy of
+		the <cite>Bulletin</cite> in his hand.</p>
+
+		<p>“Have you seen this?� he shrilled.</p>
+
+		<p>“Heard about it,� grunted Stone.</p>
+
+		<p>“But what do you think of it?� demanded Sharpe
+		indignantly, and spread the paper out on the desk
+		before the Boss, thumping it violently with his
+		knuckles.</p>
+
+		<p>Stone studied it well, without the slightest change
+		of expression upon his heavy features.</p>
+
+		<p>“It’s a swell likeness,� he quietly conceded, by and
+		by.</p>
+	</div>
+	<div id="chapter_23" class="chapter"><a class="pagenum" id="page288" title="288"> </a>
+		<h2 class="chapter_title"><span class="chapter_number">CHAPTER XXIII</span><br />
+			BOBBY BEGINS TO GIVE TESTIMONY THAT HE IS OLD
+			JOHN BURNIT’S SON</h2>
+
+		<p><span class="first_word">Closeted</span> with Jolter and Brown, and mapping
+		out with them the dangerous campaign
+		into which they had plunged, Bobby did not
+		leave the office of the <cite>Bulletin</cite> until six o’clock. At
+		the curb, just as he was about to step into his waiting
+		machine, Biff Bates hailed him with vast enthusiasm.</p>
+
+		<p>“Go to it, Bobby!� said he. “I’m backing you
+		across the board, win, place and show; but let me give
+		you a hot tip right from the stables. You want to be
+		afraid to go home in the dark, or Stone’s lobbygows
+		will lean on you with a section of plumbing.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I’ve thought of that, Biff,� laughed Bobby; “and
+		I think I’ll organize a band of murderers of my own.�</p>
+
+		<p>Johnson, whom Bobby had quite forgotten in the
+		stress of the day, joined them at this moment. Thirty
+		years as head bookkeeper and confidential adviser in
+		old John Burnit’s merchandise establishment had not
+		fitted lean Johnson for the less dignified and more
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page289" title="289"> </a>flurried work of a newspaper office, even in the business
+		department, and he was looking very much
+		fagged.</p>
+
+		<p>“Well, Johnson, what do you think of my first issue
+		of the <cite>Bulletin</cite>?� asked Bobby pleasantly.</p>
+
+		<p>Johnson looked genuinely distressed.</p>
+
+		<p>“To tell you the truth, Mr. Burnit,� said he, “I
+		have not seen it. I never in all my life saw a place
+		where there were so many interruptions to work. If
+		we could only be back in your father’s store, sir.�</p>
+
+		<p>“We’ll be back there before we quit,� said Bobby
+		confidently; “or I’ll be in the incurable ward.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I hope so, sir,� said Johnson dismally, and strode
+		across the street to catch his car; but he came back
+		hastily to add: “I meant about the store; not about
+		the asylum.�</p>
+
+		<p>Biff Bates laughed as he clambered into the tonneau
+		with Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“If you’d make a billion dollars, Bobby, but didn’t
+		get back your father’s business that Silas Trimmer
+		snaked away from you, Johnson would think you’d
+		overlooked the one best bet.�</p>
+
+		<p>“So would I,� said Bobby soberly, and he had but
+		very little more to say until the chauffeur stopped at
+		Bobby’s own door, where puffy old Applerod, who had
+		been next to Johnson in his usefulness to old John
+		Burnit, stood nervously awaiting him on the steps.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page290" title="290"> </a>“Terrible, sir! Terrible!� spluttered Applerod the
+		moment he caught sight of Bobby. “This open defiance
+		of Mr. Stone will put entirely out of existence
+		what little there is left of the Brightlight Electric
+		Company.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Cheer up, Applerod, for death must come to us
+		all,� encouraged Bobby. “Such shreds and fragments
+		of the Brightlight as there are left would have been
+		wiped out anyhow; and frankly, if you must have it,
+		I put you in there as general manager, when I shifted
+		Johnson to the <cite>Bulletin</cite> this morning, because there
+		was nothing to manage.�</p>
+
+		<p>Applerod threw up his hands in dismay.</p>
+
+		<p>“And there will be less. Oh, Mr. Burnit, if your
+		father were only here!�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby, whose suavity Applerod had never before
+		seen ruffled, turned upon him angrily.</p>
+
+		<p>“I’m tired hearing about my father, Applerod,�
+		he declared. “I revere the governor’s memory too
+		much to want to be made angry by the mention of his
+		name. Hereafter, kindly catch the idea, if you can,
+		that I am my own man and must work out my own
+		salvation; and I propose to do it! Biff, you don’t
+		mind if I put off seeing you until to-morrow? I have
+		a dinner engagement this evening and very little time
+		to dress.�</p>
+
+		<p>“His own man,� said Applerod sorrowfully when
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page291" title="291"> </a>Bobby had left them. “John Burnit would be half
+		crazy if he could know what a botch his son is making
+		of things. I don’t see how a man could let himself be
+		cheated four times in business.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I can tell you,� retorted Biff. “All his old man
+		ever did for him was to stuff his pockets with kale,
+		and let him grow up into the sort of clubs where one
+		sport says: ‘I’m going to walk down to the corner.’
+		Says the other sport: ‘I’ll bet you see more red-headed
+		girls on the way down than you do on the way back.’
+		Says the first sport: ‘You’re on for a hundred.’ He
+		goes down to the corner and he comes back. ‘How
+		about the red-headed girls?’ asks the second sport. ‘I
+		lose,’ says the first sport; ‘here’s your hundred.’ Now,
+		when Bobby is left real money, he starts in to play
+		the same open-face game, and when one of these business
+		wolves tells him anything Bobby don’t stop to
+		figure whether the mut means what he says, or means
+		something else that sounds like the same thing. Now,
+		if Bobby was a simp they’d sting him in so many
+		places that he’d be swelled all over, like an exhibition
+		cream puff; but he ain’t a simp. It took him four
+		times to learn that he can’t take a man’s word in business.
+		That’s all he needed. Bobby’s awake now, and
+		more than that he’s mad, and if I hear you make another
+		crack that he ain’t about all the candy I’ll sick
+		old Johnson on you,� and with this dire threat Biff
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page292" title="292"> </a>wheeled, leaving Mr. Applerod speechless with red-faced
+		indignation.</p>
+
+		<p>It was just a quiet family dinner that Bobby attended
+		that night at the Ellistons’, with Uncle Dan
+		and Aunt Constance Elliston at the head and foot of
+		the table, and across from him the smiling face of
+		Agnes. He was so good to look at that Agnes was
+		content just to watch him, but Aunt Constance noted
+		his abstraction and chided him upon it.</p>
+
+		<p>“Really, Bobby,� said she, “since you have gone
+		into business you’re ruined socially.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Frankly, I don’t mind,� he replied, smiling. “I’d
+		rather be ruined socially than financially. In spite of
+		certain disagreeable features of it, I have a feeling
+		upon me to-night that I’m going to like the struggle.�</p>
+
+		<p>“You’re starting a stiff one now,� observed Uncle
+		Dan dryly. “Beginning an open fight against Sam
+		Stone is a good deal like being suspended over Hades
+		by a single hair—amidst a shower of Roman candles.�</p>
+
+		<p>“That’s putting it about right, I guess,� admitted
+		Bobby; “but I’m relying on the fact that the public
+		at heart is decent.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Do you remember, Bobby, what Commodore Vanderbilt
+		said about the public?� retorted Uncle Dan.
+		“They’re decent, all right, but they won’t stick together
+		in any aggressive movement short of gunpowder.
+		In the meantime, Stone has more entrenchments
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page293" title="293"> </a>than even you can dream. For instance, I should
+		not wonder but that within a very short time I shall
+		be forced to try my influence with you in his behalf.�</p>
+
+		<p>“How?� asked Bobby incredulously.</p>
+
+		<p>“Well, I am trying to get a spur track from the
+		X. Y. Z. Railroad to my factory on Spindle Street.
+		The X. Y. Z. is perfectly willing to put in the track,
+		and I’m trying to have the city council grant us a
+		permit. Now, who is the city council?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Stone,� Bobby was compelled to admit.</p>
+
+		<p>“Of course. I have already arranged to pay quite a
+		sum of money to the capable and honest city councilman
+		of that ward. The capable and honest councilman
+		will go to Stone and give up about three-fourths of
+		what I pay him. Then Stone will pass the word out
+		to the other councilmen that he’s for Alderman Holdup’s
+		spur track permit, and I get it. Very simple arrangement,
+		and satisfactory, but, if they do not shove
+		that measure through at their meeting to-morrow
+		night, before Stone finds out any possible connection
+		between you and me, the price of it will not be money.
+		I’ll be sent to you.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I see,� said Bobby in dismay. “In other words, it
+		will be put flatly up to me; I’ll either have to quit my
+		attacks on Stone, or be directly responsible for your
+		losing your valuable spur track.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Exactly,� said Uncle Dan.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page294" title="294"> </a>Bobby drew a long breath.</p>
+
+		<p>“I’m very much afraid, Mr. Elliston, that you will
+		have to do without your spur.�</p>
+
+		<p>Uncle Dan’s eyes twinkled.</p>
+
+		<p>“I’m willing,� said he. “I have a good offer to sell
+		that branch of my plant anyhow, and I think I’ll dispose
+		of it. I have been very frank with you about this,
+		so that you will know exactly what to expect when
+		other people come at you. You will be beset as you
+		never were before.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I have been looking for an injunction, myself.�</p>
+
+		<p>“You will have no injunction, for Stone scarcely
+		dares go publicly into his own courts,� said Uncle
+		Dan, with a pretty thorough knowledge, gained
+		through experience, of the methods of the “Stone
+		gang�; “though he might even use that as a last resort.
+		That will be after intimidation fails, for it is
+		quite seriously probable that they will hire somebody
+		to beat you into insensibility. If that don’t teach you
+		the proper lesson, they will probably kill you.�</p>
+
+		<p>Agnes looked up apprehensively, but catching Bobby’s
+		smile took this latter phase of the matter as a
+		joke. Bobby himself was not deeply impressed with
+		it, but before he went away that night Uncle Dan took
+		him aside and urged upon him the seriousness of the
+		matter.</p>
+
+		<p>“I’ll fight them with their own weapons, then,� declared
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page295" title="295"> </a>Bobby. “I’ll organize a counter band of thugs,
+		and I’ll block every move they make with one of the
+		same sort. Somehow or other I think I am going to
+		win.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Of course you will win,� said Agnes confidently,
+		overhearing this last phrase; and with that most
+		prized of all encouragement, the faith in his prowess
+		of <em>the</em> one woman, Bobby, for that night at least, felt
+		quite contemptuous of the grilling fight to come.</p>
+
+		<p>His second issue of the <cite>Bulletin</cite> contained on the
+		front page a three-column picture of Sam Stone,
+		with the same caption, together with a full-page article,
+		written by Dillingham from data secured by himself
+		and the others who were put upon the “story.�
+		This set forth the main iniquities of Sam Stone and
+		his crew of municipal grafters. In the third day’s
+		issue the picture was reduced to two columns, occupying
+		the left-hand upper corner of the front page,
+		where Bobby ordered it to remain permanently as the
+		slogan of the <cite>Bulletin</cite>; and now Dillingham began his
+		long series of articles, taking up point by point the
+		ramifications of Stone’s machine, and coming closer
+		and closer daily to people who would much rather have
+		been left entirely out of the picture.</p>
+
+		<p>It was upon this third day that Bobby, becoming
+		apprehensive merely because nothing had happened,
+		received a visit from Frank Sharpe. Mr. Sharpe was
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page296" title="296"> </a>as nattily dressed as ever, and presented himself as
+		pleasantly as a summer breeze across fields of clover.</p>
+
+		<p>“I came in to see you about merging the Brightlight
+		Electric Company with the Consolidated, Mr.
+		Burnit,� said Mr. Sharpe in a chatty tone, laying his
+		hat, cane and gloves upon Bobby’s desk and seating
+		himself comfortably.</p>
+
+		<p>From his face there was no doubt in Mr. Sharpe’s
+		mind that this was a mere matter of an interview with
+		a satisfactory termination, for Mr. Sharpe had done
+		business with Bobby before; but something had happened
+		to Bobby in the meantime.</p>
+
+		<p>“When I get ready for a merger of the Brightlight
+		with the Consolidated I’ll tell you about it; and also
+		I’ll tell you the terms,� Bobby advised him with a
+		snap, and for the first time Mr. Sharpe noted what a
+		good jaw Bobby had.</p>
+
+		<p>“I should think,� hesitated Sharpe, “that in the
+		present condition of the Brightlight almost any terms
+		would be attractive to you. You have no private consumers
+		now, and your contract for city lighting,
+		which you can not evade except by bankruptcy, is
+		losing you money.�</p>
+
+		<p>“If that were news to me it would be quite startling,�
+		responded Bobby, “but you see, Mr. Sharpe,
+		I am quite well acquainted with the facts myself.
+		Also, I have a strong suspicion that you tampered
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page297" title="297"> </a>with my plant; that your hired agents cut my wires,
+		ruined my dynamos and destroyed the efficiency of
+		my service generally.�</p>
+
+		<p>“You will find it very difficult to prove that, Mr.
+		Burnit,� said Sharpe, with a sternness which could
+		not quite conceal a lurking smile.</p>
+
+		<p>“I’m beginning to like difficulty,� retorted Bobby.
+		“I do not mind telling you that I was never angry
+		before in my life, and I’m surprised to find myself
+		enjoying the sensation.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby was still more astonished to find himself laying
+		his fist tensely upon his desk. The lurking smile
+		was now gone entirely from Mr. Sharpe’s face.</p>
+
+		<p>“I must admit, Mr. Burnit, that your affairs have
+		turned out rather unfortunately,� he said, “but I
+		think that they might be remedied for you a bit, perhaps.
+		Suppose you go and see Stone.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I do not care to see Mr. Stone,� said Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“But he wants to see you,� persisted Sharpe. “In
+		fact, he told me so this morning. I’m quite sure you
+		would find it to your advantage to drop over there.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I shall never enter Mr. Stone’s office until he has
+		vacated it for good,� said Bobby; “then I might be
+		induced to come over and break up the furniture. If
+		Stone wants to see me I’m keeping fairly regular office
+		hours here.�</p>
+
+		<p>“It is not Mr. Stone’s habit to go to other people,�
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page298" title="298"> </a>bluffed Sharpe, growing somewhat nervous; for it was
+		one of Stone’s traits not to forgive the failure of a
+		mission. He had no use for extenuating circumstances,
+		He never looked at anything in this world but results.</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby took down the receiver of his house telephone.</p>
+
+		<p>“I’d like to speak to Mr. Jolter, please,� said he.</p>
+
+		<p>Sharpe rose to go.</p>
+
+		<p>“Just wait a moment, Mr. Sharpe,� said Bobby
+		peremptorily, and Sharpe stopped. “Jolter,� he directed
+		crisply, turning again to the ’phone, “kindly
+		step into my office, will you?�</p>
+
+		<p>A moment later, while Sharpe stood wondering,
+		Jolter came in, and grinned as he noted Bobby’s visitor.</p>
+
+		<p>“Mr. Jolter,� asked Bobby, “have we a good portrait
+		of Mr. Sharpe?�</p>
+
+		<p>Jolter, still grinning, stated that they had.</p>
+
+		<p>“Have a three-column half-tone made of it for this
+		evening’s <cite>Bulletin</cite>.�</p>
+
+		<p>Sharpe fairly spluttered.</p>
+
+		<p>“Mr. Burnit, if you print my picture in the <cite>Bulletin</cite>
+		connected with anything derogatory, I’ll—I’ll—�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby waited politely for a moment.</p>
+
+		<p>“Go ahead, Mr. Sharpe,� said he. “I’m interested
+		to know just what you will do, because we’re going to
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page299" title="299"> </a>print the picture, connected with something quite derogatory.
+		Now finish your threat.�</p>
+
+		<p>Sharpe gazed at him a moment, speechless with
+		rage, and then stamped from the office.</p>
+
+		<p>Jolter, quietly chuckling, turned to Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“I guess you’ll do,� he commented. “If you last
+		long enough you’ll win.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Thanks,� said Bobby dryly, and then he smiled.
+		“Say, Jolter,� he added, “it’s bully fun being angry.
+		I’m just beginning to realize what I have been missing
+		all these years. Go ahead with Sharpe’s picture
+		and print anything you please about him. I guess
+		you can secure enough material without going out of
+		the office, and if you can’t I’ll supply you with some.�</p>
+
+		<p>Jolter looked at his watch and hurried for the door.
+		Minutes were precious if he wanted to get that Sharpe
+		cut made in time for the afternoon edition. At the
+		door, however, he turned a bit anxiously.</p>
+
+		<p>“I suppose you carry a gun, don’t you?�</p>
+
+		<p>“By no means,� said Bobby. “Never owned one.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I’d advise you to get a good one at once,� and
+		Jolter hurried away.</p>
+
+		<p>That evening’s edition of the <cite>Bulletin</cite> contained a
+		beautiful half-tone of Mr. Sharpe. Above it was
+		printed: “The <cite>Bulletin’s</cite> Rogues’ Gallery,� and beneath
+		was the caption: “Hadn’t this man better go,
+		too?�</p>
+
+	</div>
+	<div id="chapter_24" class="chapter"><a class="pagenum" id="page300" title="300"> </a>
+		<h2 class="chapter_title"><span class="chapter_number">CHAPTER XXIV</span><br />
+			EDITOR BURNIT DISCOVERS THAT HE IS FIGHTING AN
+			ENTIRE CITY INSTEAD OF ONE MAN</h2>
+
+		<p><span class="first_word">At</span> four o’clock of that same day Mr. Brown
+		came in, and Mr. Brown was grinning. In
+		the last three days a grin had become the
+		trade-mark of the office, for the staff of the <cite>Bulletin</cite>
+		was enjoying itself as never before in all its history.</p>
+
+		<p>“Stone’s in my office,� said Brown. “Wants to see
+		you.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby was interestedly leafing over the pages of
+		the <cite>Bulletin</cite>. He looked leisurely at his watch and
+		yawned.</p>
+
+		<p>“Tell Mr. Stone that I am busy, but that I will
+		receive him in fifteen minutes,� he directed, whereupon
+		Mr. Brown, appreciating the joke, grinned still
+		more expansively and withdrew.</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby, as calmly as he could, went on with his
+		perusal of the <cite>Bulletin</cite>. To deny that he was somewhat
+		tense over the coming interview would be foolish.
+		Never had a quarter of an hour dragged so slowly,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page301" title="301"> </a>but he waited it out, with five minutes more on top of
+		it, and then he telephoned to Brown to know if Stone
+		was still there. He was relieved to find that he was.</p>
+
+		<p>“Tell him to come in,� he ordered.</p>
+
+		<p>If Stone was inwardly fuming when he entered the
+		room he gave no indication of it. His heavy face bore
+		only his habitually sullen expression, his heavy-lidded
+		eyes bore only their usual somberness, his heavy brow
+		had in it no crease other than those that time had
+		graven there. With the deliberateness peculiar to him
+		he planted his heavy body in a big arm-chair opposite
+		to Bobby, without removing his hat.</p>
+
+		<p>“I don’t believe in beating around the bush, Mr.
+		Burnit,� said he, with a glance over his shoulder to
+		make sure that the door was closed. “Of course you’re
+		after something. What do you want?�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby looked at him in wonder. He had heard much
+		of Stone’s bluntness, and now he was fascinated by it.
+		Nevertheless, he did not forget his own viewpoint.</p>
+
+		<p>“Oh, I don’t want much,� he observed pleasantly,
+		“only just your scalp; yours and the scalps of a few
+		others who gave me my education, from Silas Trimmer
+		up and down. I think one of the things that aggravated
+		me most was the recent elevation of Trimmer to
+		the chairmanship of your waterworks commission.
+		Trivial as it was, this probably had as much to do
+		with my sudden determination to wipe you out, as
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page302" title="302"> </a>your having the Brightlight’s poles removed from
+		Market Street.�</p>
+
+		<p>Stone laid a heavy hand easily upon Bobby’s desk.
+		It was a strong hand, a big hand, brown and hairy,
+		and from the third pudgy finger glowed a huge diamond.</p>
+
+		<p>“As far as Trimmer is concerned,� said he, quite
+		undisturbed, “you can have his head any minute. He’s
+		a mutt.�</p>
+
+		<p>“You don’t need to give me Mr. Trimmer’s head,�
+		replied Bobby, quite as calmly. “I intend to get that
+		myself.�</p>
+
+		<p>“And as for the Brightlight,� continued Stone as
+		if he had not been interrupted, “I sent Sharpe over
+		to see you about that this morning. I think we can
+		fix it so that you can get back your two hundred and
+		fifty thousand. The deal’s been worth a lot more than
+		that to the Consolidated.�</p>
+
+		<p>“No doubt,� agreed Bobby. “However, I’m not
+		looking, at the present moment, for a sop to the
+		Brightlight Company. It will be time enough for that
+		when I have forced the Consolidated into the hands of
+		a receiver.�</p>
+
+		<p>Stone looked at Bobby thoughtfully between narrowed
+		eyelids.</p>
+
+		<p>“Look here, young fellow,� said he presently.
+		“Now, you take it from me, and I have been through
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page303" title="303"> </a>the mill, that there ain’t any use holding a grouch.
+		The mere doing damage don’t get you anything unless
+		it’s to whip somebody else into line with a warning.
+		I take it that this ain’t what you’re trying to do.
+		You think you’re simply playing a grouch game,
+		table stakes; but if you’ll simmer down you’ll find
+		you’ve got a price. Now, I’d rather have you with
+		me than against me. If you’ll just say what you want
+		I’ll get it for you if it’s in reach. But don’t froth.
+		I’ve cleaned up as much money as your daddy did,
+		just by keeping my temper.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I’m going to keep mine, too,� Bobby informed him
+		quite cheerfully. “I have just found that I have one,
+		and I like it.�</p>
+
+		<p>Stone brushed this triviality aside with a wave of
+		his heavy hand.</p>
+
+		<p>“Quit kidding,� he said, “and come out with it. I
+		see you’re no piker, anyhow. You’re playing for big
+		game. What is it you want?�</p>
+
+		<p>“As I said before, not very much,� declared Bobby.
+		“I only want to grind your machine into powder. I
+		want to dig up the rotten municipal control of this
+		city, root and branch. I want to ferret out every bit
+		of crookedness in which you have been concerned, and
+		every bit that you have caused. I want to uncover
+		every man, high or low, for just what he is, and I
+		don’t care how well protected he is nor how shining
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page304" title="304"> </a>his reputation, if he’s concerned in a crooked deal I’m
+		going after him—�</p>
+
+		<p>“There won’t be many of us left,� Stone interrupted
+		with a smile.</p>
+
+		<p>“—I want to get back some of the money you have
+		stolen from this city,� continued Bobby; “and I want,
+		last of all, to drive you out of this town for good.�</p>
+
+		<p>Stone rose with a sigh.</p>
+
+		<p>“This is the only chance I’ll give you to climb in
+		with the music,� he rumbled. “I’ve kept off three
+		days, figuring out where you were leading to and what
+		you were after. Now, last of all, what will you take
+		to call it off?�</p>
+
+		<p>“I have told you the price,� said Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“Then you’re looking for trouble and you must
+		have it, eh?�</p>
+
+		<p>“I suppose I must.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Then you’ll get it,� and without the sign of a
+		frown upon his brow Mr. Stone left the office.</p>
+
+		<p>The next morning things began to happen. The
+		First National Bank called up the business office of
+		the <cite>Bulletin</cite> and ordered its advertisement discontinued.
+		Not content alone with that, President De Graff
+		called up Bobby personally, and in a very cold and
+		dignified voice told him that the First National was
+		compelled to withdraw its patronage on account of the
+		undignified personal attacks in which the <cite>Bulletin</cite> was
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page305" title="305"> </a>indulging. Bobby whistled softly. He knew De Graff
+		quite well; they were, in fact, upon most intimate
+		terms, socially.</p>
+
+		<p>“I should think, De Graff,� Bobby remonstrated,
+		“that of all people the banks should be glad to have
+		all this crookedness rooted out of the city. As a matter
+		of fact, I intended shortly to ask your coöperation
+		in the formation of a citizens’ committee to insure honest
+		politics.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I really could not take any active part in such a
+		movement, Mr. Burnit,� returned De Graff, still more
+		coldly. “The conservatism necessary to my position
+		forbids my connection with any sensational publicity
+		whatsoever.�</p>
+
+		<p>An hour later, Crone, the advertising manager,
+		came up to Bobby very much worried, to report that
+		not only the First National but the Second Market
+		Bank had stopped their advertising, as had Trimmer
+		and Company, and another of the leading dry-goods
+		firms.</p>
+
+		<p>“Of course,� said Crone, “your editorial policy is
+		your own, but I’m afraid that it is going to be ruinous
+		to your advertising.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I shouldn’t wonder,� admitted Bobby dryly, and
+		that was all the satisfaction he gave Crone; but inwardly
+		he was somewhat disturbed.</p>
+
+		<p>He had not thought of the potency of this line of
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page306" title="306"> </a>attack. While he knew nothing of the newspaper business,
+		he had already made sure that the profit was in
+		the advertising. He sent for Jolter.</p>
+
+		<p>“Ben,� he asked, “what is the connection between
+		the First National and the Second Market Banks and
+		Sam Stone?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Money,� said the managing editor promptly.
+		“Both banks are depositories of city funds.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I see,� said Bobby slowly. “Do any other banks
+		enjoy this patronage?�</p>
+
+		<p>“The Merchants’ and the Planters’ and Traders’
+		hold the county funds, which are equally at Stone’s
+		disposal.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby heard this news in silence, and Jolter, after
+		looking at him narrowly for a moment, added:</p>
+
+		<p>“I’ll tell you something else. Not one of the four
+		banks pays to the city or the county one penny of
+		interest on these deposits. This is well known to the
+		newspapers, but none of them has dared use it.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Go after them,� said Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“Moreover, it is strongly suspected that the banks
+		pay interest privately to Stone, through a small and
+		select ring in the court-house and in the city hall.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Go after them.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I suppose you know the men who will be involved
+		in this,� said Jolter.</p>
+
+		<p>“Some of my best friends, I expect,� said Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page307" title="307"> </a>“And some of the most influential citizens in this
+		town,� retorted Jolter. “They can ruin the <cite>Bulletin</cite>.
+		They could ruin any business.�</p>
+
+		<p>“The thing’s crooked, isn’t it?� demanded Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“As a dog’s hind leg.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Go after them, Jolter!� Bobby reiterated. Then
+		he laughed aloud. “De Graff just telephoned me that
+		‘the conservatism of his position forbids him to take
+		part in any sensational publicity whatsoever.’�</p>
+
+		<p>Comment other than a chuckle was superfluous from
+		either one of them, and Jolter departed to the city
+		editor’s room, to bring joy to the heart of the staff.</p>
+
+		<p>It was “Bugs� Roach who scented the far-reaching
+		odor of this move with the greatest joy.</p>
+
+		<p>“You know what this means, don’t you?� he delightedly
+		commented. “A grand jury investigation.
+		Oh, listen to the band!�</p>
+
+		<p>Before noon the Merchants’ and the Planters’ and
+		Traders’ Banks had withdrawn their advertisements.</p>
+
+		<p>At about the same hour a particularly atrocious
+		murder was committed in one of the suburbs. Up in
+		the reporters’ room of the police station, Thomas, of
+		the <cite>Bulletin</cite>, and Graham, of the <cite>Chronicle</cite>, were indulging
+		in a quiet game of whist with two of the morning
+		newspaper boys, when a roundsman stepped to the
+		door and called Graham out. Graham came back a
+		moment later after his coat, with such studied nonchalance
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page308" title="308"> </a>that the other boys, eternally suspicious as
+		police reporters grow to be, looked at him narrowly,
+		and Thomas asked him, also with studied nonchalance:</p>
+
+		<p>“The candy-store girl, or the one in the laundry
+		office?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Business, young fellow, business,� returned Graham
+		loftily. “I guess the <cite>Chronicle</cite> knows when it has
+		a good man. I’m called into the office to save the paper.
+		They’re sending a cub down to cover the afternoon.
+		Don’t scoop him, old man.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Not unless I get a chance,� promised Thomas, but
+		after Graham had gone he went down to the desk and,
+		still unsatisfied, asked:</p>
+
+		<p>“Anything doing, Lieut.?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Dead as a door-nail,� replied the lieutenant, and
+		Thomas, still with an instinct that something was
+		wrong, still sensitive to a certain suppressed tingling
+		excitement about the very atmosphere of the place,
+		went slowly back to the reporters’ room, where he
+		spent a worried half-hour.</p>
+
+		<p>The noonday edition of the <cite>Chronicle</cite> carried, in
+		the identical columns devoted in the <cite>Bulletin</cite> to a further
+		attack on Stone, a lurid account of the big murder;
+		and the <cite>Bulletin</cite> had not a line of it! A sharp
+		call from Brown to Thomas, at central police, apprised
+		the latter that he had been “scooped,� and
+		brought out the facts in the case. Thomas hurried
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page309" title="309"> </a>down-stairs and bitterly upbraided Lieutenant Casper.</p>
+
+		<p>“Look here, you Thomas,� snapped Casper; “you
+		<cite>Bulletin</cite> guys have been too fresh around here for a
+		long time.�</p>
+
+		<p>In Casper’s eyes—Casper with whom he had always
+		been on cordial joking terms—he saw cruel implacability,
+		and, furious, he knew himself to be “in�
+		for that most wearing of all newspaper jobs—“doing
+		police� for a paper that was “in bad� with the administration.
+		He needed no one to tell him the cause.
+		At three-thirty, Thomas, and Camden, who was doing
+		the city hall, and Greenleaf Whittier Squiggs, who
+		was subbing for the day on the courts, appeared before
+		Jim Brown in an agonized body. Thomas had been
+		scooped on the big murder, Camden and G. W.
+		Squiggs had been scooped, at the city hall and the
+		county building, on the only items worth while, and
+		they were all at white heat; though it was a great consolation
+		to Squiggs, after all, to find himself in such
+		distinguished company.</p>
+
+		<p>Brown heard them in silence, and with great solemnity
+		conducted them across the hall to Jolter, who
+		also heard them in silence and conducted them into
+		the adjoining room to Bobby. Here Jolter stood
+		back and eyed young Mr. Burnit with great interest
+		as his two experienced veterans and his ambitious
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page310" title="310"> </a>youngster poured forth their several tales of woe.
+		Bobby, as it became him to be, was much disturbed.</p>
+
+		<p>“How’s the circulation of the <cite>Bulletin</cite>?� he asked
+		of Jolter.</p>
+
+		<p>“Five times what it ever was in its history,� responded
+		Jolter.</p>
+
+		<p>“Do you suppose we can hold it?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Possibly.�</p>
+
+		<p>“How much does a scoop amount to?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Well,� confessed Jolter, with his eyes twinkling,
+		“I hate to tell you before the boys, but my own opinion
+		is that we know it and the <cite>Chronicle</cite> knows it and
+		Stone knows it, but day after to-morrow the public
+		couldn’t tell you on its sacred oath whether it read the
+		first account of the murder in the <cite>Bulletin</cite> or in the
+		<cite>Chronicle</cite>.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby heaved a sigh of relief.</p>
+
+		<p>“I always had the impression that a ‘beat’ meant
+		the death, cortège and cremation of the newspaper
+		that fell behind in the race,� he smiled. “Boys, I’m
+		afraid you’ll have to stand it for a while. Do the
+		best you can and get beaten as little as possible. By
+		the way, Jolter, I want to see you a minute,� and the
+		mournful delegation of three, no whit less mournful
+		because they had been assured that they would not
+		be held accountable for being scooped, filed out.</p>
+
+		<p>“What’s the connection,� demanded Bobby, the
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page311" title="311"> </a>minute they were alone, “between the police department
+		and Sam Stone?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Money!� replied Jolter. “Chief of Police Cooley
+		is in reality chief collector. The police graft is one
+		of the richest Stone has. The rake-off from saloons
+		that are supposed to close at one and from crooked
+		gambling joints and illegal resorts of various kinds,
+		amounts, I suppose, to not less than ten to fifteen
+		thousand dollars a week. Of course, the patrolmen
+		get some, but the bulk of it goes to Cooley, who was
+		appointed by Stone, and the biggest slice of all goes
+		to the Boss.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Go after Cooley,� said Bobby. Then suddenly he
+		struck his fist upon the desk. “Great Heavens, man!�
+		he exclaimed. “At the end of every avenue and street
+		and alley that I turn down with the <cite>Bulletin</cite> I find an
+		open sewer.�</p>
+
+		<p>“The town is pretty well supplied,� admitted
+		Jolter. “How do you feel now about your policy?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Pretty well staggered,� confessed Bobby; “but
+		we’re going through with the thing just the same.�</p>
+
+		<p>“It’s a man’s-size job,� declared Jolter; “but if
+		you get away with it the <cite>Bulletin</cite> will be the best-paying
+		piece of newspaper property west of New
+		York.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Not the way the advertising’s going,� said Bobby,
+		shaking his head and consulting a list on his desk.
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page312" title="312"> </a>“Where has Stone a hold on the dry-goods firm of
+		Rolands and Crawford?�</p>
+
+		<p>“They built out circular show-windows, all around
+		their big block, and these extend illegally upon two
+		feet of the sidewalk.�</p>
+
+		<p>“And how about the Ebony Jewel Coal Company?�</p>
+
+		<p>“They have been practically allowed to close up
+		Second Street, from Water to Canal, for a dump.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby sighed hopelessly.</p>
+
+		<p>“We can’t fight everybody in town,� he complained.</p>
+
+		<p>“Yes, but we can!� exclaimed Jolter with a sudden
+		fire that surprised Bobby, since it was the first the
+		managing editor displayed. “Don’t weaken, Burnit!
+		I’m with you in this thing, heart and soul! If we
+		can hold out until next election we will sweep everything
+		before us.�</p>
+
+		<p>“We will hold out!� declared Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“I am so sure of it that I’ll stand treat,� assented
+		Mr. Jolter with vast enthusiasm, and over an old oak
+		table, in a quiet place, Mr. Jolter and Mr. Burnit,
+		having found the sand in each other’s craws, cemented
+		a pretty strong liking.</p>
+	</div>
+	<div id="chapter_25" class="chapter"><a class="pagenum" id="page313" title="313"> </a>
+		<h2 class="chapter_title"><span class="chapter_number">CHAPTER XXV</span><br />
+			AN EXCITING GAME OF TIT FOR TAT WITH HIRED THUGS</h2>
+
+		<p><span class="first_word">The</span> <cite>Bulletin</cite>, continuing its warfare upon
+		Stone and every one who supported him, hit
+		upon names that had never before been mentioned
+		but in terms of the highest respect, and divers
+		and sundry complacent gentlemen who attended
+		church quite regularly began to look for a cyclone
+		cellar. They were compromised with Stone and they
+		could not placate Bobby. The four banks that had
+		withdrawn their advertisements, after a hasty conference
+		with Stone put them back again the first day
+		their names were mentioned. The business department
+		of the <cite>Bulletin</cite> cheerfully accepted those advertisements
+		at the increased rate justified by the
+		<cite>Bulletin’s</cite> increased circulation; but the editorial department
+		just as cheerfully kept castigating the
+		erring conservators of the public money, and the advertisements
+		disappeared again.</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby’s days now were beset from a hundred quarters
+		with agonized appeals to change his policy.
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page314" title="314"> </a>This man and that man and the other man high in
+		commercial and social and political circles came to
+		him with all sorts of pressure, and even Payne Winthrop
+		and Nick Allstyne, two of his particular cronies
+		of the Idlers’, not being able to catch him at the
+		club any more, came up to his office.</p>
+
+		<p>“This won’t do, old man,� protested Payne; “we’re
+		missing you at billiards and bridge whist, but your
+		refusal to take part in the coming polo tourney was
+		the last straw. You’re getting to be a regular plebe.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I am a plebe,� admitted Bobby. “What’s the
+		use to deny it? My father was a plebe. He came
+		off the farm with no earthly possessions more valuable
+		than the patches on his trousers. I am one generation
+		from the soil, and since I have turned over a
+		furrow or two, just plain earth smells good to me.�</p>
+
+		<p>Both of Bobby’s friends laughed. They liked him
+		too well to take him seriously in this.</p>
+
+		<p>“But really,� said Nick, returning to the attack,
+		“the boys at the club were talking over the thing and
+		think this rather bad form, this sort of a fight you’re
+		making. You’re bound to become involved in a nasty
+		controversy.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Yes?� inquired Bobby pleasantly. “Watch me
+		become worse involved. More than that, I think I
+		shall come down to the Idlers’, when I get things
+		straightened out here, organize a club league and
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page315" title="315"> </a>make you fellows march with banners and torch-lights.�</p>
+
+		<p>This being a more hilarious joke than the other
+		the boys laughed quite politely, though Payne Winthrop
+		grew immediately serious again.</p>
+
+		<p>“But we can’t lose you, Bobby,� he insisted. “We
+		want you to quit this sort of business and come back
+		again to the old crowd. There are so few of us left,
+		you know, that we’re getting lonesome. Stan Rogers
+		is getting up a glorious hunt and he wants us all to
+		come up to his lodge for a month at least. You should
+		be tired of this by now, anyhow.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Not a bit of it,� declared Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“Oh, of course, you have your money involved,�
+		admitted Payne, “and you must play it through on
+		that account; but I’ll tell you: if you do want to
+		sell I know where I could find a buyer for you at a
+		profit.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby turned on him like a flash.</p>
+
+		<p>“Look here, Payne,� said he. “Where is your interest
+		in this?�</p>
+
+		<p>“My interest?� repeated Payne blankly.</p>
+
+		<p>“Yes, your interest. What have you to gain by
+		having me sell out?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Why, really, Bobby—� began Payne, thinking to
+		temporize.</p>
+
+		<p>“You’re here for that purpose, and must tell me
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page316" title="316"> </a>why,� insisted Bobby sternly, tapping his finger on
+		the desk.</p>
+
+		<p>“Well, if you must know,� stammered Payne, taken
+		out of himself by sheer force of Bobby’s manner,
+		“my respected and revered—�</p>
+
+		<p>“I see,� said Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“The—the pater is thinking of entering politics
+		next year, and he rather wants an organ.�</p>
+
+		<p>“And Nick, where’s yours?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Well,� confessed Nick, with no more force of
+		reservation than had Payne when mastery was used
+		upon him, “mother’s city property and mine, you
+		know, contains some rather tumbledown buildings that
+		are really good for a number of years yet, but which
+		adverse municipal government might—might depreciate
+		in value.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Just a minute,� said Bobby, and he sent for
+		Jolter.</p>
+
+		<p>“Ben,� he asked, “do you know anything about Mr.
+		Adam Winthrop’s political aspirations?�</p>
+
+		<p>“I understand he’s being groomed for governor,�
+		said Jolter.</p>
+
+		<p>“Meet his son, Mr. Jolter—Mr. Payne Winthrop.
+		Also Mr. Nick Allstyne. I suppose Mr. Winthrop
+		is to run on Stone’s ticket?� continued Bobby, breaking
+		in upon the formalities as quickly as possible.</p>
+
+		<p>“Certainly.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page317" title="317"> </a>“Payne,� said Bobby, “if your father wants to
+		talk with me about the <cite>Bulletin</cite> he must come himself.
+		Jolter, do you know where the Allstyne properties
+		are?�</p>
+
+		<p>Jolter looked at Nick and Nick colored.</p>
+
+		<p>“That’s rather a blunt question, under the circumstances,
+		Mr. Burnit,� said Jolter, “but I don’t see
+		why it shouldn’t be answered as bluntly. It’s a row
+		of two blocks on the most notorious street of the town,
+		frame shacks that are likely to be the start of a
+		holocaust, any windy night, which will sweep the
+		entire down-town district. They should have been
+		condemned years ago.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Nick,� said Bobby, “I’ll give you one month to
+		dispose of that property, because after that length
+		of time I’m going after it.�</p>
+
+		<p>This was but a sample. Bobby had at last become
+		suspicious, and as old John Burnit had shrewdly
+		observed in one of his letters: “It hurts to acquire
+		suspiciousness, but it is quite necessary; only don’t
+		overdo it.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby, however, was in a field where suspiciousness
+		could scarcely be overdone. When any man came
+		to protest or to use influence on Bobby in his fight,
+		Bobby took the bull by the horns, called for Jolter,
+		who was a mine of information upon local affairs, and
+		promptly found out the reason for that man’s interest;
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page318" title="318"> </a>whereupon he either warned him off or attacked
+		him, and made an average of ten good, healthy enemies
+		a day. He scared Adam Winthrop out of the
+		political race entirely, he made the Allstynes tear
+		down their fire-traps and erect better-paying and consequently
+		more desirable tenements, and he had De
+		Graff and the other involved bankers “staggering in
+		circles and hoarsely barking,� as “Bugs� Roach
+		put it.</p>
+
+		<p>So far, Bobby had been subjected to no personal
+		annoyances, but on the day after his first attack on
+		the chief of police he began to be arrested for breaking
+		the speed laws, and fined the limit, even though he
+		drove his car but eight miles an hour, while his news
+		carriers and his employees were “pinched� upon the
+		most trivial pretexts. Libel suits were brought wherever
+		a merchant or an official had a record clear
+		enough to risk such procedure, and three of these
+		suits were decided against him; whereupon Bobby,
+		finding the money chain which bound certain of the
+		judges to Sam Stone, promptly attacked these members
+		of the judiciary and appealed his cases.</p>
+
+		<p>His very name became a red rag to every member
+		of Stone’s crowd; but up to this point no violence had
+		been offered him. One night, however, as he was driving
+		his own car homeward, men on the watch for him
+		stepped out of an alley mouth two blocks above the
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page319" title="319"> </a>Burnit residence and strewed the street thickly with
+		sharp-pointed coil springs. One of these caught a
+		tire, and Bobby, always on the alert for the first sign
+		of such accidents, brought his car to a sudden stop,
+		reached down for his tire-wrench and jumped out.
+		Just as he stooped over to examine the tire, some instinct
+		warned him, and he turned quickly to find three
+		men coming upon him from the alley, the nearest one
+		with an uplifted slung-shot. It was with just a
+		glance from the corner of his eye as he turned that
+		Bobby caught the import of the figure towering above
+		him, and then his fine athletic training came in good
+		stead. With a sidewise spring he was out of the
+		sphere of that descending blow, and, swinging with
+		his heavy wrench, caught the fellow a smash upon the
+		temple which laid him unconscious. Before the two
+		other men had time to think, he was upon them and
+		gave one a broken shoulder-blade. The other escaped.
+		There had been no word from any of the
+		three men which might lead to an explanation of this
+		attack, but Bobby needed no explanation; he divined
+		at once the source from which it came, and in the
+		morning he sent for Biff Bates.</p>
+
+		<p>“Biff,� said he, “I spoke once about securing some
+		thugs to act as a counter-irritant against Stone, but
+		I have neglected it. How long will it take to get hold
+		of some?�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page320" title="320"> </a>“Ten minutes, if I wait till dark,� replied Biff. “I
+		can go down to the Blue Star, and for ten iron men
+		apiece can get you as fine a bunch of yeggs as ever
+		beat out a cripple’s brains with his own wooden leg.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby smiled.</p>
+
+		<p>“I don’t want them to go quite that far,� he objected.
+		“Are they men you can depend upon not to
+		sell out to Stone?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Just one way,� replied Biff. “The choice line of
+		murderers that hang out down around the levee are
+		half of them sore on Stone, anyhow; but they’re
+		afraid of him, and the only way you can use them
+		is to give ’em enough to get ’em out of town. For
+		ten a throw you can buy them body and soul.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I’ll take about four, to start on duty to-night, and
+		stay on duty till they accomplish what I want done,�
+		and Bobby detailed his plan to Biff.</p>
+
+		<p>Stone had one peculiarity. Knowing that he had
+		enemies, and those among the most reckless class in
+		the world, he seldom allowed himself to be caught
+		alone; but every night he held counsel with some of
+		his followers at a certain respectable beer-garden
+		where, in the summer-time, a long table in a quiet,
+		half-screened corner was reserved for him and his followers,
+		and in the winter a back room was given up
+		for the same purpose. Here Stone transacted all
+		the real business of his local organization, drinking
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page321" title="321"> </a>beer, reviving strange-looking callers, and confining
+		his own remarks to a grunted yes or no, or a brief
+		direction. Every night at about nine-thirty he rose,
+		yawned, and, unattended, walked back through the
+		beer-garden to the alley, where he stood for some five
+		minutes. This was his retreat for uninterrupted
+		thought, and when he came back from it he had the
+		day’s developments summed up and the necessary
+		course of action resolved upon.</p>
+
+		<p>On the second night after the attempted assault
+		upon Bobby he had no sooner closed the alley door
+		behind him than a man sprang upon him from either
+		side, a heavy hand was placed over his mouth, and he
+		was dragged to the ground, where a third brawny
+		thug straddled his chest and showed him a long
+		knife.</p>
+
+		<p>“See it?� demanded the man as he passed the blade
+		before Stone’s eyes. “It’s hungry. You let ’em clip
+		my brother in stir for a three-stretch when you could
+		have saved him with a grunt, and if I wasn’t workin’
+		under orders, in half an hour they’d have you on slab
+		six with ice packed around you and a sheet over you.
+		But we’re under orders. We’re part of the reform
+		committee, we are,� and all three of them laughed
+		silently, “and there’s a string of us longer than the
+		Christmas bread-line, all crazy for a piece of this getaway
+		coin. And here’s the little message I got to
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page322" title="322"> </a>give you. This time you’re to go free. Next time
+		you’re to have your head beat off. This thuggin’ of
+		peaceable citizens has got to be stopped; see?�</p>
+
+		<p>A low whistle from a man stationed at the mouth of
+		the alley interrupted the speech which the man with
+		the knife was enjoying so much, and he sprang from
+		the chest of Stone, who had been struggling vainly
+		all this time. As the man sprang up and started to
+		run, he suddenly whirled and gave Stone a vicious
+		kick upon the hip, and as Stone rose, another man
+		kicked him in the ribs. All three of them ran, and
+		Stone, scrambling to his feet with difficulty, whipped
+		his revolver from his pocket and snapped it. Long
+		disused, however, the trigger stuck, but he took after
+		them on foot in spite of the pain of the two fearful
+		kicks that he had received. Instead of darting
+		straight out of the alley, the men turned in at a small
+		gate at the side of a narrow building on the corner,
+		and slammed the gate behind them. He could hear
+		the drop of the wooden bolt. He knew perfectly that
+		entrance. It was to the littered back yard of a cheap
+		saloon, at the side of which ran a narrow passageway
+		to the street beyond, where street-cars passed every
+		half-minute.</p>
+
+		<p>Just as he came furiously up to the gate a policeman
+		darted in at the alley mouth, and, catching the
+		glint of Stone’s revolver, whipped his own. He
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page323" title="323"> </a>ran quite fearlessly to Stone, and with a dextrous
+		blow upon the wrist sent the revolver spinning.</p>
+
+		<p>“You’re under arrest,� said he.</p>
+
+		<p>For just one second he covered his man, then his
+		arm dropped and his jaw opened in astonishment.</p>
+
+		<p>“Why, it’s Stone!� he exclaimed.</p>
+
+		<p>“Yes, damn you, it’s Stone!� screamed the Boss,
+		livid with fury, and overcome with anger he dealt the
+		policeman a staggering blow in the face. “You
+		damned flat-foot, I’ll teach you to notice who you put
+		your hands on! Give me that badge!�</p>
+
+		<p>White-faced and with trembling fingers, and with a
+		trickle of blood starting slowly from a cut upon his
+		cheek, the man unfastened his badge.</p>
+
+		<p>“Now, go back to Cooley and tell him I broke you,�
+		Stone ordered, and turned on his heel.</p>
+
+		<p>By the time he reached the back door of the beer-garden
+		he was limping most painfully, but when he
+		rejoined his crowd he said nothing of the incident.
+		In the brief time that it had taken him to go from
+		the alley mouth to that table he had divined the significance
+		of the whole thing. For the first time in
+		his career he knew himself to be a systematically
+		marked man, as he had systematically marked others;
+		and he was not beyond reason. Thereafter, Bobby
+		Burnit was in no more jeopardy from hired thugs,
+		and for a solid year he kept up his fight, with plenty
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page324" title="324"> </a>of material to last him for still another twelvemonth.
+		It was a year which improved him in many ways, but
+		Aunt Constance Elliston objected to the improvement.</p>
+
+		<p>“Bobby, they <em>are</em> spoiling you,� she complained.
+		“They’re taking your suavity away from you, and
+		you’re acquiring grim, hard lines around your
+		mouth.�</p>
+
+		<p>“They’re making him,� declared Agnes, looking
+		fondly across at the firm face and into the clear, unwavering
+		eyes.</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby answered the look of Agnes with one that
+		needed no words to interpret, and laughed at Aunt
+		Constance.</p>
+
+		<p>“I suppose they are spoiling me,� he confessed,
+		“and I’m glad of it. I’m glad, above all, that I’m
+		losing the sort of suavity which led me to smile and
+		tell a man politely to take it, when he reached his
+		hand into my pocket for my money.�</p>
+
+		<p>“You’ll do,� agreed Uncle Dan. “When you took
+		hold of the <cite>Bulletin</cite>, your best friends only gave you
+		two months, But are you making any money?�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby’s face clouded.</p>
+
+		<p>“Spending it like water. We have practically no
+		advertising, and a larger circulation than I want.
+		We lose money on every copy of the paper that we
+		sell.�</p>
+
+		<p>Uncle Dan shook his head.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page325" title="325"> </a>“Is there a chance that you will ever get it back?�
+		he asked.</p>
+
+		<p>“Bobby’s so used to failure that he doesn’t mind,�
+		interjected Aunt Constance.</p>
+
+		<p>“Mind!� exclaimed Bobby. “I never minded it
+		so much in my life as I do now. The <cite>Bulletin</cite> must
+		win. I’m bound that it shall win! If we come out
+		ahead in our fight against Stone I’ll get all my advertising
+		back, and I’ll keep my circulation, which
+		makes advertising rates.�</p>
+
+		<p>The telephone bell rang in the study adjoining
+		the dining-room, and Bobby, who had been more or
+		less distrait all evening, half rose from his chair.
+		In a moment more the maid informed them that the
+		call was for Mr. Burnit. In the study they could hear
+		his voice, excited and exultant. He returned as delighted
+		as a school-boy.</p>
+
+		<p>“Now I can tell you something,� he announced.
+		“Within five minutes the <cite>Bulletin</cite> will have exclusive
+		extras on the street, announcing that the legislature
+		has just appointed a committee to investigate municipal
+		affairs throughout the state. That means this
+		town. I have spent ten thousand dollars in lobbying
+		that measure through, and charged it all to improvements’
+		on the <cite>Bulletin</cite>. Sounds like I had joined the
+		ranks of the ‘boodlers,’ don’t it? Well, I don’t give a
+		cooky for ethics so long as I know I’m right. I’d
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page326" title="326"> </a>have been a simp, as Biff Bates calls it, to go among
+		that crowd of hungry law jugglers with kind words
+		and the ten commandments. I’m not using crossbows
+		against cannon, and as a result I’m winning.
+		I got my measure through, and now I think we’ll put
+		Stone and his crew of freebooters on the grill, with
+		some extra-hot coals for my friend De Graff and the
+		other saintly sinners who have been playing into
+		Stone’s hands. I have been working a year for this,
+		and the entire politics of this town, with wide-reaching
+		results in the state, is disrupted.�</p>
+
+		<p>“You selfish boy,� chided Aunt Constance. “You
+		have been here with us for more than an hour, expecting
+		this all the time, and have not breathed one
+		word of it to us. Don’t you trust anybody any
+		more?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Oh, yes,� replied Bobby easily; “but only when
+		it is necessary.�</p>
+
+		<p>Agnes smiled across at him in calm content. She
+		had but very little to say now. She was in that blissful
+		happiness that comes to any woman when the man
+		most in her mind is reaping his meed of success from
+		a long and hard-fought battle.</p>
+
+		<p>“Spoken like your father, Bobby,� laughed Uncle
+		Dan. “You’re coming to look more and more like him
+		every day. You talk like him and act like him. You
+		have the same snap of your jaws. Your father, however,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page327" title="327"> </a>never dabbled in politics. He always despised
+		it, and I see you’re bound to be knee-deep in it.�</p>
+
+		<p>“My father would have succeeded in politics,� said
+		Bobby confidently, “as he succeeded in everything
+		else, after he once got started. I have his confession
+		in writing, however, that he made a few fool mistakes
+		himself along at first. As for politics, I <em>am</em> in it
+		knee-deep, and I’m going to elect my own slate next
+		fall.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Another reform party, of course,� suggested
+		Uncle Dan with a smile.</p>
+
+		<p>“Not for Bobby,� replied that decided young gentleman.
+		“I am forming an affiliation with Cal Lewis.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Cal Lewis!� exclaimed Uncle Dan aghast. Then
+		he closed his eyes and laughed softly. “As notorious
+		in his way as Sam Stone himself. Why, Bobby, that’s
+		fighting fire with gasolene.�</p>
+
+		<p>“It’s setting a thief to catch a thief. You must
+		remember that for fifteen years Cal hasn’t had any
+		of the pie except in a minor way, and all this time
+		he’s been fighting Stone tooth and toe-nail. The late
+		reform movement, which failed so lamentably to carry
+		out its gaudy promises after it had won, left him entirely
+		out of its calculations, and Lewis actually
+		joined with Stone in overturning it. I propose to use
+		Lewis’ knowledge of political machinery, but in my
+		own way. As a matter of fact, I have already engaged
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page328" title="328"> </a>him and put him on salary; a good, stiff one,
+		too. His business is to organize my political machine.
+		I’m going to have a slate of clean men, who will not
+		only conduct the business of this county and city with
+		probity but with discretion, and I do not mind telling
+		you that my candidate for mayor is Chalmers.�</p>
+
+		<p>Agnes gave a little cry of delight, and even Aunt
+		Constance clapped her hands lightly, for Chalmers, a
+		young lawyer of excellent social connections, was a
+		prime favorite with the Ellistons, and in the business
+		he had transacted for the Burnit estate Bobby had
+		found in him sterling qualities.</p>
+
+		<p>“Chalmers is a good man,� agreed Uncle Dan,
+		“though he is young, and practically without political
+		influence; but, if you can make him mayor, I predict
+		a brilliant political future for him.�</p>
+
+		<p>“He will have it,� said Bobby confidently, “for I
+		intend to make him the attorney for the investigating
+		committee, and through his work I expect to have
+		not less than a hundred thousand dollars of stolen
+		money turned back into the city and county
+		treasuries.�</p>
+
+		<p>As Bobby announced this he rose mechanically,
+		and, still absorbed in the details of his big fight,
+		walked out into the hall. It was not until he had his
+		coat on and his hat in his hand that he came to himself;
+		and with the deepest confusion found that he had
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page329" title="329"> </a>been about to walk out without making any adieus
+		whatever.</p>
+
+		<p>“Why, where are you going?� inquired Agnes, as
+		he came back into the drawing-room.</p>
+
+		<p>He laughed sheepishly.</p>
+
+		<p>“Why,� he explained, “ever since I received that
+		telephone message I have been seeing before me the
+		<cite>Bulletin</cite> extra that they are throwing on the street
+		right now, and I forgot everything else. I’ll simply
+		have to go down and hold a copy of it in my hands.�</p>
+
+		<p>“You’re just a big boy,� laughed Aunt Constance.
+		“Will you ever grow up?�</p>
+
+		<p>“I hope not,� declared Agnes, and taking his arm
+		she strolled with him to the door in perfect peace and
+		confidence.</p>
+	</div>
+	<div id="chapter_26" class="chapter"><a class="pagenum" id="page330" title="330"> </a>
+		<h2 class="chapter_title"><span class="chapter_number">CHAPTER XXVI</span><br />
+
+		MR. STONE LEAVES BOBBY A PARTING COMMISSION AND
+		A LEFT-HANDED BLESSING</h2>
+
+		<p><span class="first_word">It</span> looked good to Bobby, that late extra of the
+		<cite>Bulletin</cite>, and the force that he had kept on duty
+		to get it out greeted him, as he walked through
+		the office, with a running fire of comment and congratulation
+		that was almost like applause. He had
+		bought a copy on the street as he came in, and as he
+		spread it out there came upon him a thrill of realization
+		that this ought to be the beginning of the end.</p>
+
+		<p>It was. The fact that Bobby, through the <cite>Bulletin</cite>,
+		had forced this action, made him a power to be
+		reckoned with; and straws, whole bales of them, began
+		to show which way the wind was blowing.</p>
+
+		<p>One morning a delegation headed by the Reverend
+		Doctor Larynx waited upon him. The Reverend
+		Doctor was a minister of great ingenuity and force,
+		who sought the salvation of souls through such vital
+		topics as Shall Men Go Coatless in Summer? The
+		Justice of Three-Cent Car Fares, and The Billboards
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page331" title="331"> </a>Must Go. All public questions, civic, state or national,
+		were thoroughly thrashed out in the pulpit
+		of the Reverend Larynx, and turned adrift with the
+		seal of his condemnation or approval duly fixed upon
+		them; and he managed to get his name and picture in
+		the papers almost as often as the man who took
+		eighty-seven bottles of Elixo and still survived. With
+		him were four thoroughly respectable men of business,
+		two of whom wore side-whiskers and the other
+		two of whom wore white bow-ties.</p>
+
+		<p>“Fine business, Mr. Burnit,� said the Reverend
+		Doctor Larynx in a loud, hearty voice, advancing
+		with three strides and clasping Bobby’s hand in a
+		vise-like grip; for he was a red-blooded minister, was
+		the Reverend Doctor Larynx, and he believed in
+		getting down among the “pee-pul.� “The <cite>Bulletin</cite>
+		has proved itself a mighty fine engine of reform, and
+		the reputable citizens of this municipality now see a
+		ray of hope before them.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I’m afraid that the reputable citizens,� ventured
+		Bobby, “have no one but themselves to blame for their
+		past hopeless condition. They’re too selfish to vote.�</p>
+
+		<p>“You have hit the nail on the head,� declaimed the
+		Reverend Larynx with a loud, hearty laugh, “but
+		the <cite>Bulletin</cite> will rouse them to a sense of duty. Last
+		night, Mr. Burnit, the Utopian Club was formed with
+		an initial membership of over seventy, and it selected
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page332" title="332"> </a>a candidate for mayor of whom the <cite>Bulletin</cite> is bound
+		to approve. Shake hands with Mr. Freedom, the
+		Utopian Club’s candidate for mayor, Mr. Burnit.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby shook hands with Mr. Freedom quite nicely,
+		and studied him curiously.</p>
+
+		<p>He was one of the two who wore side-whiskers and
+		a habitual Prince Albert, and he displayed a phenomenal
+		length from lower lip to chin, which, by
+		reason of his extremely high and narrow forehead,
+		gave his features the appearance of being grouped in
+		tiny spots somewhere near the center of a long, yellow
+		cylinder. Mr. Freedom, he afterward ascertained,
+		was a respectable singing-teacher.</p>
+
+		<p>“Professor Freedom,� went on the Reverend Doctor
+		Larynx, still loudly and heartily, “has the time to
+		devote to this office, as well as the ideal qualifications.
+		He has no vices whatever. He does not even smoke
+		nor use tobacco in any form, and under his régime
+		the saloons of this town would be turned into vacant
+		store-rooms, if there are laws to make possible such
+		action.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I do not want the saloons put out of business,�
+		declared Bobby. “I merely want them vacated at
+		twelve every night, without exception.�</p>
+
+		<p>When Doctor Larynx and his delegation went away
+		in wrath the leader was already preparing his sermon
+		upon The Iniquity of the Sons of Rich Fathers.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page333" title="333"> </a>On the following day a delegation from the business
+		men’s club waited upon him. The business men’s
+		club wanted a business administration. This crowd
+		Bobby handled differently. Upon his desk, tabulated
+		in advance against just such an emergency, he had
+		statistics concerning all the business men’s administrations
+		that had been tried in various cities, and he
+		submitted this statement without argument. It
+		needed none.</p>
+
+		<p>“Politics is in itself a distinct business,� he explained.
+		“You would not one of you take up the
+		duties of a surveyor without previous training. The
+		only trouble is that there are no restrictions placed
+		upon politicians. I propose to use them, but to regulate
+		them.�</p>
+
+		<p>He did not convert the delegation by this one interview,
+		but he did by cultivating these men and others
+		of their kind separately. He ate luncheons and dinners
+		with them at the Traders’ Club, played billiards
+		with them, smoked and talked with them; and the burden
+		of his talk was Chalmers. When he finally got
+		ready for his campaign the business men were with
+		him unanimously, at least outwardly. Inwardly, there
+		were reservations, for the matter of special privileges
+		was one to be very gravely considered; and special
+		privileges, at a price not entirely prohibitive, was the
+		bulwark of Stone’s régime.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page334" title="334"> </a>“But the Stone régime,� Bobby advised them,
+		coming brutally to the point and telling them what he
+		knew of their own affairs and Stone’s, “is about to
+		come to an end. The handwriting is on the wall, and
+		you might just as well climb into the band wagon,
+		for at last I have the public on my side.�</p>
+
+		<p>At last he had. For a solid year he had been trying
+		to understand the peculiar apathy of the public,
+		and he did not understand it yet. They seemed to
+		like Stone and to look upon his wholesale corruption
+		as a joke; but by constant hammering, by showing
+		the unredeemable cussedness of Stone and his crowd,
+		he had produced some impression—an impression that,
+		alas! was of the surface only—until the investigating
+		committee began its sessions. When it became understood,
+		however, that certain of the thieves might actually
+		be sent to the penitentiary, then who so loud in
+		their denunciation as the public? Why, Stone had
+		robbed them right and left; why, Stone was an enemy
+		to mankind; why, Stone and all his friends were monsters
+		whom it were a good and a holy thing to skewer
+		and flay and cast into everlasting brimstone!</p>
+
+		<p>Facts were uncovered that set the entire city in turmoil.
+		More than fifty men who had never been born
+		had been carried upon the city and county pay-rolls,
+		and half of their salaries went directly into Stone’s
+		pocket, the other half going to the men who conducted
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page335" title="335"> </a>this paying enterprise. Contracts for city paving
+		and other improvements were let to favored bidders
+		at an enormous figure, and Stone personally had one-fourth
+		of the huge profits on “scamped� work, another
+		fourth going to those who arranged the details
+		and did the collecting. Innumerable instances of
+		this sort were brought out; but the biggest scandal
+		of all, in that it involved men who should have been
+		unassailable, was that of the banks. The relentless
+		probe brought out the fact that all city and county
+		funds had been distributed among four banks, the
+		deposits yielding no revenue whatever to either commonwealth.
+		These funds, however, had paid privately
+		two per cent. interest, and this interest was
+		paid in cash, in sealed envelopes, to the city and
+		county auditors and treasurers, who took the envelopes
+		unbroken to Stone for distribution. The amounts
+		thus diverted from the proper channels totaled to an
+		enormous figure, and, as this money was the most direct
+		and approachable, Chalmers, who had the interesting
+		rôle of inquisitor, set out to get it. The officials
+		who had been longest at the crib, grown incautious
+		were now men of property, and by the use of
+		red-hot pincers Chalmers was able to restore nearly
+		sixty thousand dollars of stolen money, with the possibility
+		of more in sight.</p>
+
+		<p>It was upon the heels of this that Chalmers’ candidacy
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page336" title="336"> </a>for mayor was announced, and the manner in
+		which the Stone machine dropped to pieces was laughable.
+		Chalmers, and the entire slate so carefully
+		prepared by Bobby in conjunction with the shrewd
+		old fox, Cal Lewis, won by a majority so overwhelming
+		as to be almost unanimous. Immediately upon
+		Chalmers’ election heads began to drop, and the first
+		to go was Cooley, chief of police, in whom, four years
+		later, Bobby recognized the driver of his ice wagon.
+		Coincident with the election came well-founded rumors
+		of grand jury indictments. Two of Stone’s closest
+		and busiest lieutenants, who were most in danger of
+		being presented with nice new suits of striped clothing,
+		quietly converted their entire property into
+		cash and then just as quietly slipped away to Honduras.</p>
+
+		<p>Late one afternoon, as Bobby sat alone in his room
+		in the almost deserted <cite>Bulletin</cite> building, so worried
+		over his business affairs that he had no time for elation
+		over his political and personal triumphs, the door
+		opened and Stone stood before him. The pouches
+		under Stone’s eyes were heavier and darker, his cheeks
+		drooped flabbily and he seemed to have fallen away
+		inside his clothes, but upon his face there sat the same
+		stern impassiveness. Bobby instantly rose, having
+		good cause to want to be well planted upon his feet
+		with this man near him. Stone carefully closed the
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page337" title="337"> </a>door behind him and advanced to the other side of
+		Bobby’s desk.</p>
+
+		<p>“Well, you win,� he said huskily.</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby drew a long breath.</p>
+
+		<p>“It has cost me a lot of money, Mr. Stone. It has
+		left me almost flat broke—but I got you.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I give you credit,� admitted Stone. “I didn’t
+		think anybody could do it, least of all a kid; but you
+		got me and you got me good. It’s been a hard fight
+		for all of us, I guess. I’m a little run down,� and he
+		hesitated curiously; “my doctor says I got to take an
+		ocean trip.� He suddenly blazed out: “Damn it,
+		you might as well be told! I’m running away!�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby found himself silent. For two years he had
+		planned and hoped for this moment of victory. Now
+		that the exultant moment had come he found himself
+		feeling strangely sorry for this big man, in spite
+		of his unutterable rascality.</p>
+
+		<p>“I ain’t coming back,� Stone went on after a pause,
+		“and there’s something I want to ask you to do for
+		me.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I should be glad to do it, Mr. Stone, if it is anything
+		I can allow myself to do.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Aw, cut it!� growled Stone. “Look here. I got
+		a list of some poor mutts I been looking out for, and
+		I’ve just set aside a wad to keep it going. I want you
+		to look after ’em and see that the money gets spread
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page338" title="338"> </a>around right. I know you’re square. I don’t know
+		anybody else to give it to.�</p>
+
+		<p>To Bobby he handed a list of some fifty names and
+		addresses, with monthly amounts set down opposite
+		them. They were widows and orphans and helpless
+		creatures of all sorts and conditions, blind and deaf
+		and crippled, whom Stone, in the great passion that
+		every man has for some one to love and revere him,
+		and in the secret tenderness inseparable from all big
+		natures, had made his pensioners.</p>
+
+		<p>“There ain’t a soul on earth knows about these but
+		me, and every one of ’em is wise to it that if they ever
+		blat a word about it the pap’s cut off. I don’t want a
+		thing, not even a hint, printed about this—see? I
+		ain’t afraid that you’ll use it in the paper after me
+		asking you not to, so I don’t ask you for any
+		promise.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I’ll do it with pleasure,� offered Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“Well, I guess that’s about all,� said Stone, and
+		turned to go.</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby came from behind his desk.</p>
+
+		<p>“After all, Stone,� he said, with some hesitation,
+		“I’m sorry to lose an enemy so worth while. I wish
+		you good luck wherever you are going,� and he held
+		out his hand.</p>
+
+		<p>Stone looked at the proffered hand and shook his
+		head.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page339" title="339"> </a>“I’d rather smash your face,� he growled, and
+		passed out of the door.</p>
+
+		<p>It was the last that Bobby ever saw of him, and all
+		that the <cite>Bulletin</cite> carried about his flight was the
+		“fact,� not at all too prominently displayed for the
+		man’s importance as a public figure, that Stone’s
+		health was in jeopardy and that he was about to take
+		an ocean voyage upon the advice of his physician;
+		and on that day Stone’s picture disappeared from the
+		place it had occupied upon the front page of the
+		<cite>Bulletin</cite>.</p>
+
+		<p>It was a victory complete and final, but it was not
+		without its sting, for on that same day Bobby faced
+		an empty exchequer. It was Johnson who brought
+		him the sad but not at all unexpected tidings, at a
+		moment when Chalmers and Agnes happened to be in
+		the office. Seeing them, Johnson hesitated at the
+		door.</p>
+
+		<p>“What is it, Johnson?� asked Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“Oh, nothing much,� said Mr. Johnson with a
+		pained expression. “I’ll come back again.�</p>
+
+		<p>He had a sheet of paper with him and Bobby held
+		out his hand for it. Still hesitating, old Johnson
+		brought it forward and laid it down on Bobby’s desk.</p>
+
+		<p>“You know you told me, sir, to bring this to you.�</p>
+
+		<p>Had the others not been present he would have
+		added the reminder that he had been instructed to
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page340" title="340"> </a>bring this statement a week in advance of the time
+		when Bobby should no longer be able to meet his payroll.
+		Bobby looked up from the statement without
+		any thought of reserve before these three.</p>
+
+		<p>“Well, it’s come. I’m broke.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Not so much a calamity in this instance as it has
+		been in others,� said Agnes sagely. “Fortunately,
+		your trustee is right here, and your trustee’s lawyer,
+		who has two hundred and fifty thousand dollars still
+		to your account.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby listened in frowning silence, and old Johnson,
+		who had prepared himself before he came upstairs
+		for such a contingency, quietly laid upon
+		Bobby’s desk one of the familiar gray envelopes and
+		withdrew. It was inscribed:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="envelope">
+			<p>To My Son Robert, Upon the Turning Over to Him
+				of His Sixth and Last Experimental Fund</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<blockquote class="letter">
+			<p>“If a man fails six times he’d better be pensioned
+			and left to live a life of pleasant ease; for everybody
+			has a right to be happy, and not all can gain happiness
+			through their own efforts. So, if you fail this
+			last time, don’t worry, my boy, but take measures to
+			cut your garment according to the income from a
+			million and a half dollars, invested so safely that it
+			can yield you but two per cent. If the fault of your
+			ill success lies with anybody it lies with me, and I
+			<a class="pagenum" id="page341" title="341"> </a>blame myself bitterly for it many times as I write
+			this letter.</p>
+
+			<p>“Remember, first, last and always, that I want you
+			to be happy.�</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p>Bobby passed the letter to Agnes and the envelope
+		to Chalmers.</p>
+
+		<p>“This is a little premature,� he said, smiling at
+		both of them, “for I’m not applying for the sixth
+		portion.�</p>
+
+		<p>Agnes looked up at him in surprise.</p>
+
+		<p>“Not applying for it?�</p>
+
+		<p>“No,� he declared, “I don’t want it. I understand
+		there is a provision that I can not use two of these
+		portions in the same business.�</p>
+
+		<p>Both Chalmers and Agnes nodded.</p>
+
+		<p>“I don’t want money for any other business than
+		the <cite>Bulletin</cite>,� declared Bobby, “and if my father has
+		it fixed so that he won’t help me as I want to be helped,
+		I don’t want it at all.�</p>
+
+		<p>“There is another provision about which you perhaps
+		don’t know,� Chalmers informed him; “if you
+		refuse this money it reverts to the main fund.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby studied this over thoughtfully.</p>
+
+		<p>“Let it revert,� said he. “I’ll sink or swim right
+		here.�</p>
+
+		<p>The next day he went to his bank and tried to
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page342" title="342"> </a>borrow money. They liked Bobby very much indeed
+		over at the bank. He was a vigorous young man, a
+		young man of affairs, a young man who had won a
+		great public victory, a young man whom it was generally
+		admitted had done the city an incalculable
+		amount of good; but they could not accept Bobby nor
+		the <cite>Bulletin</cite> as a business proposition. Had they
+		not seen the original fund dwindle and dwindle for
+		two years until now there was nothing left? Wouldn’t
+		another fund dwindle likewise? It is no part of a
+		bank’s desire to foreclose upon securities. They are
+		quite well satisfied with just the plain interest. Moreover,
+		the <cite>Bulletin</cite> wasn’t such heavy security, anyhow.</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby tried another bank with like results, and
+		also some of his firm business friends at the Traders’
+		Club. In the midst of his dilemma President De Graff
+		of the First National came to him.</p>
+
+		<p>“I understand you have been trying to borrow some
+		money, Burnit?�</p>
+
+		<p>It sounded to Bobby as if De Graff had come to
+		gloat over him, since he had been instrumental in
+		dragging De Graff and the First National through
+		the mire.</p>
+
+		<p>“Yes, sir, I have,� he nevertheless answered
+		steadily.</p>
+
+		<p>“Why didn’t you come to us?� demanded De Graff.</p>
+
+		<p>“To you?� said Bobby, amazed. “I never thought
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page343" title="343"> </a>of you in that connection at all, De Graff, after all
+		that has happened.�</p>
+
+		<p>De Graff shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+		<p>“That was like pulling a tooth. It hurt and one
+		dreaded it, but it was so much better when it was out.
+		Until you jumped into the fight Stone had me under
+		his thumb. The minute the exposure came he had no
+		further hold on me. It is the only questionable thing
+		I ever did in my life, and I’m glad it was exposed. I
+		admire you for it, even though it will hurt me in a
+		business way for a long time to come. But about
+		this money now. How much do you need at the present
+		time?�</p>
+
+		<p>“I’d like an account of about twenty-five thousand.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I can let you have it at once,� said De Graff, “and
+		as much more as you need, up to a certain reasonable
+		point that I think will be amply sufficient.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Is this Stone’s money?� asked Bobby with sudden
+		suspicion.</p>
+
+		<p>De Graff smiled.</p>
+
+		<p>“No,� said he, “it is my own. I have faith in you,
+		Burnit, and faith in the <cite>Bulletin</cite>. Suppose you step
+		over to the First National with me right away.�</p>
+
+	</div>
+	<div id="chapter_27" class="chapter"><a class="pagenum" id="page344" title="344"> </a>
+		<h2 class="chapter_title"><span class="chapter_number">CHAPTER XXVII</span><br />
+			AUNT CONSTANCE ELLISTON LOSES ALL HER PATIENCE
+			WITH A CERTAIN PROSAIC COURTSHIP</h2>
+
+		<p><span class="first_word">That</span> night, with a grave new responsibility
+		upon him and a grave new elation, sturdier
+		and stronger than he had ever been in his
+		life, and more his own master, Bobby went out to see
+		Agnes.</p>
+
+		<p>“Agnes, when my father made you my trustee,�
+		he said, “he laid upon you the obligation that you
+		were not to marry me until I had proved myself either
+		a success or a failure, didn’t he?�</p>
+
+		<p>“He did,� assented Agnes demurely.</p>
+
+		<p>“But you are no longer my trustee. The last
+		money over which you had nominal control has reverted
+		to the main fund, which is in the hands of Mr.
+		Barrister; so that releases you.�</p>
+
+		<p>Agnes laughed softly and shook her head.</p>
+
+		<p>“The obligation wasn’t part of the trusteeship,�
+		she reminded him.</p>
+
+		<p>“But if I choose to construe it that way,� he persisted,
+		“and declare the obligation null and void, how
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page345" title="345"> </a>soon could you get ready to be married to the political
+		boss of this town and one of its leading business men?
+		Agnes,� he went on, suddenly quite serious, “I can
+		not do without you any longer. I have waited long
+		enough. I need you and you must come to me.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I’ll come if you insist,� she said simply, and laid
+		both her hands in his. “But, Bobby, let’s think about
+		this a minute. Let’s think what it means. I have
+		been thinking of it many, many days, and really and
+		truly I don’t like to give up, because of its bearing
+		upon our future strength. Yesterday I drove down
+		Grand Street and looked up at that Trimmer and
+		Company sign, and so long as that is there, Bobby,
+		I could not feel right about our deserting the colors,
+		as it were; that is, unless you have definitely given up
+		the fight.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Given up!� repeated Bobby quickly. “Why, I
+		have just begun. I’ve been to school all this time,
+		Agnes, and to a hard school, but now I’m sure I have
+		learned my lesson. I have won a fight or two; I have
+		had the taste of blood; I’m going after more; I’m
+		going to win.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I’m sure that you will,� she repeated. “Think
+		how much better satisfied we will be after you have
+		done so.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Yes, but think, too, of the time it will take,� he
+		protested. “First of all I must earn money; that is,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page346" title="346"> </a>I must make the <cite>Bulletin</cite> pay. I can do that. It is
+		on the edge of earning its way right now, but I owe
+		twenty-five thousand dollars. It is going to take a
+		long, long time for me to win this battle, and in it
+		I need you.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I am always right here, Bobby,� she reminded him.
+		“I have never failed you when you needed me, have I?
+		But maybe it won’t take so long. You say you are
+		going to make the <cite>Bulletin</cite> pay. If you do that
+		counts for a business success, enough to release you
+		on that side. But really, Bobby, how difficult a task
+		would it be to get back control of your father’s
+		store?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Hopeless, just now,� said he.</p>
+
+		<p>“How much money would it take?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Well, not so very much in comparison with the
+		business itself,� he told her. “I own two hundred and
+		sixty thousand dollars’ worth of stock, Trimmer owns
+		two hundred and forty thousand, while sixty thousand
+		more are scattered among his relatives and dependents.
+		That stock is not for sale, that is the
+		trouble; but if I could buy twenty-one thousand dollars
+		of it I could do what I liked with the entire
+		concern.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Then Bobby, let’s not think of anything else but
+		how to get that stock. Let’s insist on having that for
+		our wedding present.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page347" title="347"> </a>Bobby regarded her gravely for a long time.</p>
+
+		<p>“Agnes, you’re a brick!� he finally concluded.
+		“You’re right, as you have always been. We’ll wait.
+		But you don’t know, oh, you don’t know how hard
+		that is for me!�</p>
+
+		<p>“It is not the easiest thing in the world for me,�
+		she gently reminded him.</p>
+
+		<p>From the time that she had laid her hands in his
+		he had held them, and now he had gathered them to
+		him, pressing them upon his breast. Suddenly, overcome
+		by his great longing for her, he clasped her in
+		his arms and held her, and pressed his lips to hers.
+		For a moment she yielded to that embrace and closed
+		her eyes, and then she gently drew away from him.</p>
+
+		<p>“We mustn’t indulge in that sort of thing very
+		much,� she reminded him, “or we’re likely to lose all
+		our good resolutions.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Good resolutions,� declared Bobby, “are a
+		nuisance.�</p>
+
+		<p>She smiled and shook her head.</p>
+
+		<p>“Look at the people who haven’t any,� she reminded
+		him.</p>
+
+		<p>It was perhaps half an hour later when an idea
+		which brought with it a smile came to her.</p>
+
+		<p>“We’ve definitely resolved now to wait until you
+		have either accomplished what you set out to do, or
+		completely failed, haven’t we?�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page348" title="348"> </a>“Yes,� he assented soberly.</p>
+
+		<p>“Then I’m going to open one of the letters your
+		father left for us. I have been dying with curiosity
+		to know what is in it,� and hurrying up to her secretary
+		she brought down one of the inevitable gray
+		envelopes, addressed:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="envelope">
+			<p>To My Children Upon the Occasion of Their Deciding
+				to Marry Before the Limit of My
+				Prohibition</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<blockquote class="letter">
+			<p>“What I can not for the life of me understand is
+			why the devil you didn’t do it long ago!�</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p>Bobby was so thoroughly awake to the underlying
+		principle of Agnes’ contention that even this letter
+		did nothing to change his viewpoint.</p>
+
+		<p>“For it isn’t him, it is us, or rather it is me, who is
+		to be considered,� he declared. “But it does seem to
+		me, Agnes, as if for once we had got the better
+		of the governor.�</p>
+
+		<p>They were still laughing over the unexpectedness
+		of the letter when Aunt Constance came in, and they
+		showed it to her.</p>
+
+		<p>“Good!� she exclaimed, dwelling longer upon the
+		inscription than upon the letter itself. “I think
+		you’re quite sensible, and I’ll arrange the finest wedding
+		for Agnes that has ever occurred in the Elliston
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page349" title="349"> </a>family. You must give me at least a couple of
+		months, though. When is it to come off? Soon,
+		I suppose?�</p>
+
+		<p>Carefully and patiently they explained the stand
+		they had taken. At first she thought they were
+		joking, and it took considerable reiteration on their
+		part for her to understand that they were not.</p>
+
+		<p>“I declare I have no patience with you!� she
+		avowed. “Of all the humdrum, prosaic people I ever
+		saw, you are the very worst! There is no romance
+		in you. You’re as cool about it as if marriage were
+		a commercial partnership. Oh, Dan!� and she called
+		her husband from the library. “Now what do you
+		think of this?� she demanded, and explained the
+		ridiculous attitude of the young people.</p>
+
+		<p>“Great!� decided Uncle Dan. “Allow me to congratulate
+		you,� and he shook hands heartily with
+		both Agnes and Bobby, whereat Aunt Constance denounced
+		him as being a sordid soul of their own
+		stripe and went to bed in a huff. She got up again,
+		however, when she heard Agnes retire to her own
+		room for the night, and came in to wrestle with that
+		young lady in spirit. She found Agnes, however,
+		obdurate in her content, and ended by becoming an
+		enthusiastic supporter of the idea. “Although I did
+		have my heart so set on a fine wedding,� she plaintively
+		concluded. “I have been planning it for ages.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page350" title="350"> </a>“Just keep on planning, auntie,� replied Agnes.
+		“No doubt you will acquire some brilliant new ideas
+		before the time comes.�</p>
+
+		<p>So this utterly placid courtship went on in its old
+		tranquil way, with Bobby a constant two and three
+		nights a week visitor to the Elliston home, and with
+		the two young people discussing business more frequently
+		than anything else; for Bobby had learned
+		to come to Agnes for counsel in everything. Just
+		now his chief burden of conversation was the letting
+		of the new waterworks contract, which, with public
+		sentiment back of him, he had fought off until after
+		the Stone administration had ended. Hamilton Ferris,
+		an old polo antagonist of his, represented one of
+		the competing firms as its president, and Bobby had
+		been most anxious that he should be the successful
+		bidder, as was Agnes; for Bobby had brought Ferris
+		to dinner at the Ellistons and to call a couple of
+		times during his stay in the city, and all of the Ellistons
+		liked him tremendously. Bobby was quite crestfallen
+		when the opening of the bids proved Ferris
+		to be the second lowest man.</p>
+
+		<p>“I’ve tried hard enough for it,� declared Ferris
+		during a final dinner at the Ellistons that night.
+		“There isn’t much doing this year, and I figured
+		closer than anybody in my employ would dared to
+		have done. In view of my estimate I can not for the
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page351" title="351"> </a>life of me see how your local company overbid us
+		all by over a million dollars.�</p>
+
+		<p>“It is curious,� admitted Bobby, still much puzzled.</p>
+
+		<p>“It’s rather unsportsmanlike in me to whine,� resumed
+		Ferris, “but I am bound to believe that there
+		is a colored gentleman in the woodpile somewhere.�</p>
+
+		<p>“That would be no novelty,� returned Bobby.
+		“Ever since I bought the <cite>Bulletin</cite> I have been gunning
+		for Ethiopians amid the fuel and always found
+		them. The Middle West Construction Company,
+		however, is a new load of kindling to me. I never
+		heard of it until it was announced this morning as
+		the lowest bidder.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Nobody ever heard of it,� asserted Ferris. “It
+		was no doubt organized for the sole purpose of bidding
+		on this job. Probably when you delve into the
+		matter you will discover the fine Italian hand of your
+		political boss.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Hardly,� chuckled Uncle Dan, indulging in his
+		recent propensity to brag on Bobby. “Our local
+		boss was Sam Stone, and Bobby has just succeeded
+		in running him and two of his expert wire workers
+		out of the country.�</p>
+
+		<p>“If anybody here is the political boss it is
+		Bobby,� observed Agnes, laughing.</p>
+
+		<p>“I’m sorry to have to suspect him,� laughed Ferris.
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page352" title="352"> </a>“Well, there is no use crying over spilled milk;
+		but I had hoped to bring Mrs. Ferris out for a good
+		long visit.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Give your wife my regards, Mr. Ferris, and tell
+		her she must come anyhow,� insisted Mrs. Elliston.
+		“Since I have heard that you married the daughter
+		of my old schoolmate, I have been wanting the Keystone
+		Construction Company to have a big contract
+		here more than you have, I think.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Sounds very nice, Constance,� said her husband
+		dryly, “but I doubt if any woman ever wanted to
+		see the daughter of her old schoolmate as badly as
+		any man ever wanted to make a million dollars.
+		Bobby, I’ll make you a small bet. I’ll bet your new
+		construction company is composed of the shattered
+		fragments of the old Stone crowd. I’ll even bet that
+		Silas Trimmer is in it.�</p>
+
+		<p>“If he is,� suddenly declared Agnes, “I’m going
+		to go into the detective business,� whereat Uncle Dan
+		enjoyed himself hugely. Her vindictiveness whenever
+		the name of Silas Trimmer was mentioned had
+		become highly amusing to him, in spite of the fact
+		that he admired her for it.</p>
+
+		<p>“Go right ahead,� said Bobby approvingly. “If
+		you find anything that will enable me to give that
+		gentleman a financial backset I’ll see that you get a
+		handsome reward. In the meantime I’m going to find
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page353" title="353"> </a>out something about the Middle West Construction
+		Company myself.�</p>
+
+		<p>Accordingly he asked his managing editor about
+		that concern the first thing in the morning.</p>
+
+		<p>Ben Jolter lit his old pipe, folded his bare arms
+		and patted them alternately in speculative enjoyment.</p>
+
+		<p>“I have something like two pages of information
+		about them, if we could use it,� he announced. “I
+		have been getting reports from the entire scouting
+		brigade ever since the contract was let yesterday,
+		and you may now prepare for a shock. The largest
+		stock-holders of the concern are Silas Trimmer and
+		Frank Sharpe, and the minor stock-holders, almost to
+		a man, consist of those who had their little crack at
+		the public crib under your old, time-tried and true
+		friend, Sam Stone.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I admit that I am properly shocked,� responded
+		Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“It hinges together beautifully,� Jolter went on.
+		“The whole waterworks project was a Stone scheme,
+		and Stone people—even though Stone himself is
+		wiped out—secure the contract. The last expiring
+		act of the Stone administration was to employ Ed
+		Scales as chief engineer until the completion of the
+		waterworks, which may occupy eight or ten years,
+		and the contract with Scales is binding on the city
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page354" title="354"> </a>unless he can be impeached for cause. Scales was
+		city engineer under the previous reform spasm, but
+		Stone probably found him good material and kept
+		him on. The waterworks plans were prepared under
+		his supervision and he got them ready for bidding.
+		Now what’s the answer?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Easy,� returned Bobby. “The city loses.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Right,� agreed Jolter; “but how? I don’t see
+		that we can do anything. Scales, having prepared
+		the plans, is the logical man to see that they are carried
+		out, and he is perfectly competent. His record
+		is clean, so that he owns no property, nor does any of
+		his family—although that may be because he never
+		had a chance. The Middle West Construction Company,
+		though just incorporated, is financially sound,
+		thoroughly bonded, and, moreover, has put into the
+		hands of the city ample guarantee for its twenty per
+		cent. forfeit as required by the terms of the contract.
+		There isn’t a thing that the <cite>Bulletin</cite> can do except to
+		boost local enterprise with a bit of reservation, then
+		lay low and wait for developments.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I dislike to do it,� objected Bobby. “It hurts me
+		to think of mentioning Stone or Trimmer in any
+		complimentary way whatsoever.�</p>
+
+		<p>Jolter laughed. “You’re a fine and consistent
+		enemy,� he said.</p>
+
+		<p>“I guess I came by it honestly,� smiled Bobby, and
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page355" title="355"> </a>from a drawer in his desk took one of the gray John
+		Burnit letters.</p>
+
+		<p>“‘Always forgive your enemies,’� read Jolter
+		aloud; “‘that is, after you are good and even with
+		them.’�</p>
+
+		<p>“Here goes for them, then,� said Jolter, passing
+		back the letter with an approving chuckle. “We’ll
+		let them go right ahead, and in the meantime the
+		<cite>Bulletin</cite> will do a lot of real nifty old sleuthing.�</p>
+
+		<p>But the <cite>Bulletin’s</cite> sleuthing brought nothing
+		wrong to light, and work upon the big waterworks
+		contract was begun with a rush.</p>
+
+		<p>In the meantime Agnes, true to her threat, was
+		doing some investigating on her own account. She
+		renewed her girlhood acquaintance with Trimmer’s
+		daughter, who was now Mrs. Clarence Smythe, and
+		with others of the Trimmer connection, and she saw
+		these women folk frequently for the sole purpose of
+		gathering up any scraps of information that might
+		drop. The best she could gather, however, was that
+		Clarence Smythe and Silas Trimmer were no longer
+		upon very friendly terms; that Mrs. Smythe had
+		quarreled with her father about Clarence; also that
+		Clarence’s Trimmer and Company stock was in Mrs.
+		Smythe’s name. These scraps of information, slight
+		as they were, she religiously brought to Bobby.
+		When the new waterworks began Agnes saved all the
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page356" title="356"> </a>newspaper clippings relating to that tremendous undertaking,
+		and she frequently drove out there of
+		evenings after the workmen had all gone home; with
+		just what purpose she could not say, but she felt
+		impelled, as she half-sheepishly confessed to her Uncle
+		Dan, to “keep an eye on the job.� She kept up her
+		absurd surveillance in spite of all Uncle Dan’s ridicule,
+		and one evening she came home in a state of
+		quivering excitement. She called up Bobby at once.</p>
+
+		<p>“Bobby,� she wanted to know, “has the city decided
+		to cut down expenses on the waterworks, or
+		have the plans been changed for any reason?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Not that the public knows about,� replied Bobby.
+		“Why?�</p>
+
+		<p>“The pumping station is not so big as the newspapers
+		said it was to be. It is over thirty feet
+		shorter and over twenty feet narrower.�</p>
+
+		<p>“How do you know?� demanded Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“I took Wilkins out there with me to-night and
+		had him measure it for me with a yard-stick while the
+		watchman had gone for his supper,� replied Agnes
+		triumphantly.</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby stopped to laugh.</p>
+
+		<p>“Impossible,� said he. “You have measured it
+		wrong or misunderstood it in some way or other.�</p>
+
+		<p>“You go out and measure it for yourself,� insisted
+		Agnes.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page357" title="357"> </a>Partly to humor her and partly because his interest
+		had been aroused, Bobby went out the next night and
+		measured the pumping station, the excavation for
+		which was already completed, and to his astonishment
+		found that Agnes’ measurements were correct. He
+		immediately wrote to Ferris about it, told him the
+		present dimensions and asked him upon what basis he
+		had figured. In place of replying Ferris came on.
+		Arriving in the city on Saturday, on Sunday he and
+		Bobby went out to the site, and Ferris examined the
+		new waterworks with a deliberation which well-nigh
+		got him into serious trouble with the watchman.</p>
+
+		<p>“Well, young man, your fair city is stung,� declared
+		Ferris. “The trenches are not so deep as specified
+		by two feet, and from their width I can tell that
+		the foundation walls are to be at least six inches
+		thinner. I bid on the best grade of Portland cement
+		for that job. It was spelled with a <em>B</em>, however, in my
+		copy of the specification, and I asked your man
+		Scales about it. ‘Oh,’ said he, ‘that’s a misprint in the
+		typewriting,’ and he changed the <em>B</em> to <em>P</em> with a lead
+		pencil. Under that shed are about a thousand barrels
+		of <em>Bortland</em> cement. I never heard of that brand, but
+		I can tell cement when I see it, and this stuff will
+		have no more adhesive power than plain mud. Bedford
+		stone was specified. They have several car-loads
+		of stone dumped down here which is not Bedford
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page358" title="358"> </a>stone at all. I could tell a piece of Bedford in the
+		dark. This is an inferior rock which will discolor in
+		six months and will disintegrate in five years.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby thought the thing over quietly for some
+		minutes.</p>
+
+		<p>“About the dimensions of the building, Ferris, you
+		might possibly be mistaken, might you not?� asked
+		Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“Impossible,� returned Ferris. “I have not figured
+		on many jobs for years, but our chief estimator had
+		been sent down to Cuba when this thing came up and
+		I did the work myself, so I have a very vivid memory
+		of it and can not possibly have it confused with any
+		other bid. Moreover, we have all those things on
+		record in our office and I looked it up before I came
+		away. The dimensions of the power house and pumping
+		station were to be one hundred and ninety by
+		one hundred and sixty feet. The present dimensions
+		are one hundred and fifty-eight by one hundred and
+		thirty-three.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby was thoughtfully silent for a while.</p>
+
+		<p>“Do you remember who else bid on the contract?�
+		he inquired presently.</p>
+
+		<p>“Every one of them,� smiled Ferris. “I can give
+		you their addresses and the names of the people to
+		wire to if that is what you want. We meet them on
+		every big job.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page359" title="359"> </a>“Do you mind wiring yourself?� asked Bobby.
+		“They would be more apt to give you confidential
+		information.�</p>
+
+		<p>“With pleasure,� agreed Ferris, and wrote the
+		telegrams.</p>
+
+		<p>On the following morning Bobby received answers
+		at his office to all but one of his telegrams, and the
+		information was unanimous that the original plans
+		had called for a building one hundred and ninety by
+		one hundred and sixty feet.</p>
+
+		<p>“Now I begin to understand,� said Ferris. “This
+		was the first set of important plans I ever saw in
+		which the dimensions were not marked, but they were
+		most accurately drawn to scale, one-fourth inch to the
+		foot. They are probably using the same drawings
+		with an altered scale, although it would be an absurdly
+		clumsy trick. If that is the case it is easy to
+		see how the Middle West Construction Company
+		could under-bid us by more than a million dollars
+		and still make more money than we figured on.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby reached for the telephone.</p>
+
+		<p>“Get me the mayor’s office,� he called to the girl
+		at his private telephone exchange. “Will you ‘stick
+		around’ to see the fuss?� he inquired with grim
+		pleasure, as he hung up the receiver.</p>
+
+		<p>Ferris grinned as he noted the light of battle
+		dawning in Bobby’s eyes.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page360" title="360"> </a>“I don’t know,� he replied. “It depends on the
+		size and duration of the fuss.�</p>
+
+		<p>“If you don’t stay I’ll have you subpœnaed. I
+		may have to, anyhow. As for the size of the fuss,
+		I can promise you a bully one if what you surmise
+		is correct.�</p>
+
+		<p>His telephone bell rang and Bobby turned to it
+		quickly.</p>
+
+		<p>“Hello, Chalmers!� he began, then laughed. “Beg
+		pardon, Agnes; I thought it was the mayor’s office;�
+		he apologized, then listened intently. There were a
+		few eager queries, and when Bobby hung up the telephone
+		receiver it was with great satisfaction. “I
+		haven’t seen as much fun in sight since I began my
+		fight on Stone,� he declared. “Miss Elliston, who
+		has developed a marvelous new capacity for finding
+		out other men’s business secrets through their women
+		folk, has just telephoned me the results of her last
+		night’s detective work. It seems that Silas Trimmer,
+		one of the heavy backers of the Middle West Construction
+		Company, has just negotiated a loan upon
+		his stock in the mercantile establishment of Trimmer
+		and Company, my share of which was known as the
+		John Burnit Store until Trimmer beat me out of
+		control. I understand that Trimmer has mortgaged
+		everything to the hilt to go into this waterworks deal.�</p>
+
+		<p>The bell rang again. This time it was Chalmers.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page361" title="361"> </a>“Say, Chalmers,� said Bobby, “I want you to get
+		me some sort of a legal document that will allow me
+		to take possession of and examine all the books,
+		papers and drawings of the city engineer’s department,
+		including the waterworks engineer’s office….
+		Yes, you can, Chalmers,� he insisted, against
+		an obvious protest. “There is some legal machinery
+		you can put in motion to get it, and I want it right
+		away. Moreover, I want you to secure me somebody
+		to serve the writ and to keep it quiet.�</p>
+
+		<p>Then he explained briefly what had been partly
+		discovered and partly surmised. Next Bobby sent
+		for Jolter and laid the facts before him, to the great
+		joy of that aggressive gentleman. Then he called
+		up Biff Bates, and made an appointment with him to
+		meet him at Jimmy Platt’s office in half an hour. He
+		would have telephoned Platt, but the engineer had
+		no telephone.</p>
+	</div>
+	<div id="chapter_28" class="chapter"><a class="pagenum" id="page362" title="362"> </a>
+		<h2 class="chapter_title"><span class="chapter_number">CHAPTER XXVIII</span><br />
+			BIFF RENEWS A PLEASANT ACQUAINTANCE AND BOBBY INAUGURATES A TRAGEDY</h2>
+
+
+		<p><span class="first_word">“Is Mr. Platt</span> in?�</p>
+
+		<p>Biff stood hesitantly in the door when he
+		found the place occupied only by a brown-haired
+		girl, who was engaged in the quiet, unprofessional
+		occupation of embroidering a shirtwaist
+		pattern.</p>
+
+		<p>The girl looked up with a smile at the young
+		man’s awkwardness, and felt impelled to put him at
+		his ease.</p>
+
+		<p>“He’s not in just now, but I expect him within
+		ten or fifteen minutes at the outside. Won’t you sit
+		down, Mr. Bates?�</p>
+
+		<p>He looked at her much mystified at this calling of
+		his name, but he mumbled his thanks for the chair
+		which she put forward for him, and, sitting with his
+		hat upon his knees, contemplated her furtively.</p>
+
+		<p>“I guess you don’t remember me,� she said in frank
+		enjoyment of his mystification, “but I remember you
+		perfectly. I used to see you quite often out at Westmarsh
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page363" title="363"> </a>when Mr. Burnit was trying to redeem that
+		persistent swamp. I am Mr. Platt’s sister.�</p>
+
+		<p>“No!� exclaimed Biff in amazement. “You can’t
+		be the kid that used to ride on the excavating cars,
+		and go home with yellow clay on your dresses every
+		day.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I’m the kid,� said she with a musical laugh; “and
+		I’m afraid I haven’t quite outgrown my hoydenish
+		tendencies even yet.�</p>
+
+		<p>Biff had no comment to make. He was lost in
+		wonder over that eternal mystery—the transformation
+		which occurs when a girl passes from fourteen to
+		eighteen.</p>
+
+		<p>“Don’t you remember?� she gaily went on. “You
+		gave me a boxing lesson out there one afternoon and
+		promised to give me more of them, but you never
+		did.�</p>
+
+		<p>Biff cleared a sudden huskiness from his throat.</p>
+
+		<p>“I’d be tickled black in the face to make good any
+		day,� he urged earnestly, and then hastily corrected
+		the offer to: “That is, I mean I’ll be very glad to—to
+		finish the job.�</p>
+
+		<div class="illo" id="illo-4">
+			<a href="images/illo-4.jpg"><img src="images/illo-4-sm.jpg" width="662" height="430" alt="A seated man and woman chat." /></a>
+			<p class="caption">I’d be tickled black in the face to make good any day</p>
+		</div>
+
+		<p>Immediately he turned violently red.</p>
+
+		<p>“I don’t seem to care as much for the accomplishment
+		as I did then,� observed the girl with a smile,
+		“but I do wish I could learn to swing my nice Indian
+		clubs without cracking the back of my head.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page364" title="364"> </a>“I got a medal for club swinging,� said Biff diffidently.
+		“I’ll teach you any time you like. It’s easy.
+		Come right over to the gym on Tuesday and Friday
+		forenoons. Those are ladies’ mornings, and I’ve got
+		nothing but real classy people at that.�</p>
+
+		<p>The entrance of Mr. Platt interrupted Biff just
+		as he was beginning to feel at ease, and threw that
+		young gentleman, who always appropriated and absorbed
+		other people’s troubles, into much concern;
+		for Mr. Platt was hollow-eyed and sunken-cheeked
+		from worry. His coat was very shiny, and his hat
+		was shabby. The dusty and neglected drawing on
+		his crude drawing-table told the story all too well.
+		The engineering business, so far as Mr. Platt was
+		concerned, seemed to be a total failure. Nevertheless,
+		he greeted Mr. Bates warmly, and inquired after
+		Mr. Burnit.</p>
+
+		<p>“He’s always fine,� said Biff. “He had me come
+		up here to meet him.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I should scarcely think he would care to come
+		here after the unfortunate outcome of the work I did
+		for him,� said Mr. Platt.</p>
+
+		<p>“You mean on old Applerod’s Subtraction?�</p>
+
+		<p>“You couldn’t hardly call it the Applerod Addition,
+		could you?� responded Jimmy with a smile. “That
+		was a most unlucky transaction for me as well as
+		for Mr. Burnit.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page365" title="365"> </a>Biff looked about the room comprehendingly.</p>
+
+		<p>“I guess it put you on the hummer, all right,�
+		said he. “It don’t look as if you done anything
+		since.�</p>
+
+		<p>“But very little,� confessed Mr. Platt. “My failure
+		on that job hurt my reputation almost fatally.�</p>
+
+		<p>Biff gravely sought within himself for words of
+		consolation, one of his fleeting ideas being to engage
+		Mr. Platt on the spot to survey the site of Bates’
+		Athletic Hall, although there was not the slightest
+		possible need for such a survey. In the midst of his
+		sympathetic gloom came in Mr. Ferris and Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“Jimmy, how would you like to be chief construction
+		engineer of the new waterworks?� asked Bobby,
+		with scant waste of time, after he had introduced
+		Ferris.</p>
+
+		<p>Mr. Platt gasped and paled.</p>
+
+		<p>“I think I could be urged, from a sense of public
+		duty, to give up my highly lucrative private practice,�
+		he said with a pitiful attempt at levity, though
+		his voice was husky, and his tightly clenched hand,
+		where the white knuckles rested upon his drawing-table,
+		trembled.</p>
+
+		<p>“Don’t build up too much hope on it, Jimmy;
+		but if what we surmise is correct you will have a
+		chance at it,� and he briefly explained. “We’re going
+		right out there,� concluded Bobby, “and I want you
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page366" title="366"> </a>to go along to help investigate. We have to find some
+		incriminating evidence, and you’d be more likely to
+		know how and where to look for it than any of us.�</p>
+
+		<p>It is needless to say that Jimmy Platt took his hat
+		with alacrity. Before he went out, with new hope
+		in his heart, he turned and shook hands ecstatically
+		with his sister. Still holding Jimmy’s hand she
+		turned to Bobby impulsively:</p>
+
+		<p>“I do hope, Mr. Burnit, that this turns out right
+		for Jimmy.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby turned to her abruptly and with a trace of a
+		frown. It was a rather poorly trained office employee,
+		he thought, who would intrude herself into
+		conversation that it was her duty to forget, but Biff
+		Bates caught that look and stepped into the breach.</p>
+
+		<p>“This is Nellie, Bobby—that is, it used to be Nellie,�
+		he stated with a quick correction, and blushed violently.</p>
+
+		<p>“It is Nellie still,� laughed that young lady to
+		Bobby, and the puzzled look upon his face was swiftly
+		driven away by a smile, as he suddenly recognized in
+		her traces of the long-legged girl who had been always
+		present at the Applerod Addition, who had ridden in
+		his automobile, and had confided to him most volubly,
+		upon innumerable occasions, that her brother Jimmy
+		was about the smartest man who ever sighted through
+		a transit.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page367" title="367"> </a>In the hastily constructed frame office out at the
+		waterworks site, Ed Scales, pale and emaciated and
+		with black rings under his eyes, looked up nervously
+		as Bobby’s little army, reënforced from four to six by
+		the addition of a “plain clothes man� and Dillingham,
+		the <cite>Bulletin’s</cite> star reporter, invaded the place. Before
+		a word was spoken, Feeney, the plain clothes man,
+		presented Scales with a writ, which the latter attempted
+		to read with unseeing eyes, his fingers trembling.</p>
+
+		<p>“What does this mean?�</p>
+
+		<p>“That I have come to take possession,� said Bobby,
+		“with power to make an examination of every scrap of
+		paper in the place. Frankly, Scales, we expect to find
+		something crooked about the waterworks contract. If
+		we do you know the result. If we do not, the interruption
+		will be only temporary, and you will have
+		very pretty grounds for action; for I am taking a
+		long shot, and if I don’t find what I am after I have
+		put myself and the mayor into a bad scrape.�</p>
+
+		<p>Scales thrice opened his mouth to speak, and thrice
+		there came no sound from his lips. Then he laid a
+		bunch of keys upon his desk, shoving them toward
+		Feeney, and rose. He half-staggered into the large
+		coat room behind him. He had scarcely more than
+		disappeared when there was the startling roar of a
+		shot, and the body of Scales, with a round hole in the
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page368" title="368"> </a>temple, toppled, face downward, out of the door. It
+		was Scales’ tragic confession of guilt. They sprang
+		instantly to him, but nothing could be done for him.
+		He was dead when they reached him.</p>
+
+		<p>“Poor devil,� said Ferris brokenly. “It is probably
+		the first crooked thing he ever did in his life,
+		and he hadn’t nerve enough to go through with it.
+		I feel like a murderer for my share in the matter.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby, too, had turned sick; his senses swam and
+		he felt numb and cold. He was aroused by a calm,
+		dispassionate voice at the telephone. It was Dillingham,
+		sending to the <cite>Bulletin</cite> a carefully lurid account
+		of the tragedy, and of the probable causes leading
+		up to it.</p>
+
+		<p>“We’ll have an extra on the street in five minutes,�
+		he told Bobby with satisfaction as he rose. “That
+		means that the <cite>Chronicle</cite> men will come out in a
+		swarm, but it will take them a half-hour to get here.
+		We have that much time, then, to dig up the evidence
+		we are after, and if we hustle we can have a second
+		extra out before the <cite>Chronicle</cite> can get a line. It’s
+		the biggest beat in years. Come on, boys, let’s get
+		busy,� and he took up the keys that Scales had left
+		on the desk.</p>
+
+		<p>Dillingham had no sooner left the telephone than
+		Feeney took up the receiver and called for a number.
+		The reporter turned upon him like a flash,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page369" title="369"> </a>recognizing that call as the number of the coroner’s
+		office. Dillingham suddenly caught himself before
+		he had spoken, and looked hastily about the room.
+		In the corner near the floor was a little box with the
+		familiar bells upon it, and binding screws that held
+		the wires. Quickly Dillingham slipped over to that
+		corner just as Feeney was saying:</p>
+
+		<p>“Hello! Coroner’s office, this is Feeney. Is that
+		you, Jack?… Well——�</p>
+
+		<p>At that instant Dillingham loosened a binding
+		screw and slipped off the loop of the wire.</p>
+
+		<p>“Hello, coroner!� repeated Feeney. “I say, Jack!
+		Hello! Hello! Hello, there! <em>Hello! Hello!</em>� Then
+		Feeney pounded the mouthpiece, jerked the receiver
+		hook up and down, yelled at exchange, and worked
+		himself into a vast fever.</p>
+
+		<p>“What’s the matter with this thing, anyhow, Dill?�
+		he finally demanded.</p>
+
+		<p>“Exchange probably went to sleep on you,� said
+		Dillingham.</p>
+
+		<p>Easily he was now opening one by one the immense
+		flat drawers of a drawing-case, and with much
+		interest delving into the huge drawings that it contained.</p>
+
+		<p>“Come here, Mr. Platt,� Dillingham went on.
+		“You cast your eagle eye over these drawings while
+		I do a little job of interviewing,� and he walked over
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page370" title="370"> </a>to the employees of the office, who, since they had
+		been roughly warned by Feeney not to go near “that
+		body,� had huddled, scared and limp, in the far corner
+		of the room.</p>
+
+		<p>Perspiring and angry, Feeney tried for five solid
+		minutes to obtain some response from the dead telephone,
+		then he gave it up.</p>
+
+		<p>“I’ve got to go out and hunt up another ’phone,�
+		he declared. “Biff, I’ll appoint you my deputy.
+		Don’t let anybody touch the corpse till the coroner
+		comes.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I’ll go with you,� said Bobby hastily, very glad
+		to leave the room, and both he and Mr. Ferris accompanied
+		Feeney. No sooner was Feeney out of the
+		place than Dillingham reconnected the telephone and
+		went back to his investigations. He was thoroughly
+		satisfied, after a few questions, that the present employees
+		knew nothing whatever, and Platt reported
+		to him that every general drawing he could find was
+		marked three-tenths inch to the foot, none being
+		marked one-fourth.</p>
+
+		<p>“That doesn’t matter so much,� mused Dillingham.
+		“It will be easy enough to prove that these are the
+		same drawings that were provided the contestants,
+		and six firms will swear that they were marked one-fourth
+		of an inch to the foot. What we have to do
+		is to prove that the drawings the Middle West Company
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page371" title="371"> </a>used as the basis of their bid were marked one-fourth
+		inch to the foot.�</p>
+
+		<p>The telephone bell rang violently while Dillingham
+		was puzzling over this matter, and one of the employees
+		started to answer it.</p>
+
+		<p>“No, you don’t!� shouted Dillingham. “You fellows
+		are dispossessed.�</p>
+
+		<p>He took down the receiver.</p>
+
+		<p>“Waterworks engineer’s office?� came a brisk voice
+		through the telephone.</p>
+
+		<p>“Yes,� said Dillingham.</p>
+
+		<p>“This is the <cite>Chronicle</cite>. The <cite>Bulletin</cite> has an extra——�</p>
+
+		<p>Dillingham waited to hear no more. He hung up
+		the receiver with a grin, and it was music in his ears
+		to hear those bells impatiently jangling for the next
+		ten minutes. It seemed to quicken his intelligence, for
+		presently he slapped his hand upon his leg and
+		jumped toward the group of employees in the corner.</p>
+
+		<p>“Say!� he demanded. “Who figured on this job
+		for the Middle West Company?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Dan Rubble, I suppose,� answered a lanky draftsman,
+		who, still wearing his apron, had slipped his
+		coat on over his oversleeves and retained his eye-shade
+		under his straw hat. “At least, he seemed to
+		know all about the plans. He’s the boss contractor.
+		There he is now.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page372" title="372"> </a>Looking out of the window Dillingham saw a
+		brawny, red-haired giant running from the tool-house,
+		carrying a cylindrical tin case about five feet
+		long. He pulled off the cap of this as he came and
+		began to drag from the inside of the case a thick
+		roll of blue-prints. He was hurrying toward a big
+		asphalt caldron underneath which blazed a hot wood
+		fire.</p>
+
+		<p>“Come on, Biff,� yelled Dillingham, and hurried
+		out of the door, closely followed by Bates.</p>
+
+		<p>They both ran with all their might toward the
+		caldron, but before they could reach the spot Rubble
+		had shoved the entire roll into the fire. Biff wasted
+		no precious moments, but, glaring Mr. Rubble in the
+		eye as he ran, doubled his fist with the evident intention
+		of damaging that large gentleman’s countenance
+		with it. He suddenly ducked his round head as he
+		approached, however, and plunged it into the middle
+		of Mr. Rubble’s appetite; whereupon Mr. Rubble
+		grunted heavily, and sat down quite uncomfortably
+		near to the caldron. Biff, though it scorched his
+		hands, dragged the blazing roll of blue-prints from
+		the flames and, seizing a near-by pail of water, started
+		for the drawings, just as big Dan regained his feet
+		and made a rush for him.</p>
+
+		<p>Dillingham, slight and no fighter but full of sand,
+		jumped crosswise into that mêlée, and with a flying
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page373" title="373"> </a>leap literally hung himself about Rubble’s neck. Big
+		Dan, roaring like a bull at this unexpected and most
+		unprofessional mode of warfare, placed his two hands
+		upon Dillingham’s hips and tried to force him away;
+		failing in this, he ran straight forward with all this
+		living clog hanging to him, and planted a terrific kick
+		upon Biff’s ribs, just as Biff had dashed the pail of
+		water from end to end of the blazing roll of drawings.
+		He poised for another kick, but Biff had dropped the
+		pail by this time, and as the foot swung forward he
+		grabbed it. Rubble, losing his balance, pitched forward,
+		landing squarely upon the top of the unhappy
+		Dillingham, who signified his retirement from the
+		game with an astonishingly large “Woof!� to come
+		from so small a body; moreover, he released his arms;
+		but Rubble, freed from the weight on his chest, found
+		another one on his back. Biff felt quite competent
+		to manage him, but by this time half a dozen men
+		came running from different directions, and as there
+		were a hundred or more of them on the job, all beholden
+		for their daily bread and butter to Mr. Rubble,
+		things looked bad for Biff and Dillingham.</p>
+
+		<p>“Back up there, you mutts, or I’ll make peek-a-boo
+		patterns out of the lot of you!� howled a penetrating
+		voice, and Mr. Feeney, heading the relief
+		party, which consisted only of Bobby and Mr. Ferris,
+		whipped from each hip pocket a huge blue-steel revolver,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page374" title="374"> </a>at the same time brushing back his coat to
+		display his badge.</p>
+
+		<p>Those men might have fought Mr. Feeney’s guns,
+		but they had no mind to fight that badge, and they
+		held back while Bobby and Mr. Ferris helped to calm
+		Mr. Rubble by the simple expedient of sitting on
+		him.</p>
+
+		<p>Three days later Bobby induced Messrs. Sharpe,
+		Trimmer and all of their associates, without any difficulty
+		whatever, to meet with him in the office of the
+		mayor.</p>
+
+		<p>“Gentlemen of the Middle West Construction Company,�
+		said Bobby; “I am sorry to say that you are
+		not telling the truth when you claim that you figured
+		<em>in good faith</em> on this absurd and almost unknown
+		three-tenths-inch scale, when all the others figured
+		on the same drawings at one-fourth inch. The rescue
+		of these prints, covered with Rubble’s marginal figures,
+		does not leave you a leg to stand on,� and Bobby
+		tapped his knuckles upon the charred-edged blueprints
+		that lay unrolled on the desk before him.
+		Fortunately the three inside prints were left fairly
+		intact, and these were plainly marked one-fourth inch
+		to the foot. “Moreover, rolled up inside the blueprints
+		was even better evidence,� went on Bobby;
+		“evidence that Mr. Trimmer has perhaps forgotten.
+		Nothing has been said about it until now, and nothing
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page375" title="375"> </a>has been published since we saved them from the
+		fire.�</p>
+
+		<p>From the drawer of his desk he drew several sheets
+		of white paper. They were letter-heads of Trimmer
+		and Company and were covered with Rubble’s figures.</p>
+
+		<p>“Here’s a note from Mr. Trimmer to Mr. Rubble,
+		requesting him to prepare a statement showing the
+		difference in cost ‘<em>between three-tenths and one-fourth</em>.’
+		He does not say three-tenths or one-fourth
+		what, but that is quite enough, taken in conjunction
+		with these summaries on another sheet of paper.
+		They are set down in two columns, one headed three-tenths
+		and the other one-fourth. I have had Mr.
+		Platt go over these figures, and he finds that the first
+		number in one column exactly corresponds to the
+		number of yards of excavating in this job when
+		figured on the scale of three-tenths inch to the foot.
+		The first number in the next column exactly corresponds
+		to the excavating when figured at the one-fourth-inch
+		scale. Every item will compare in the
+		same manner: concrete, masonry, face-brick, and all.
+		Now, if you chaps want to take this clumsy and almost
+		laughable attempt at a steal into the courts I’m
+		perfectly willing; but I should advise you not to do
+		so.�</p>
+
+		<p>Mr. Sharpe cleared his throat. He, the first one
+		to declare that the Middle West would “go into court
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page376" title="376"> </a>and stand upon its rights,� was now the first one to
+		recant.</p>
+
+		<p>“I don’t suppose it’s worth while to contest the
+		matter,� he admitted. “We have no show with your
+		administration, I see. We lose the contract and will
+		step down and out quite peaceably; although there
+		ought to be some arrangement by which we might
+		get credit for the amount of work already done.�</p>
+
+		<p>“No,� declared Chalmers, with quite a reproving
+		smile, “you may just keep on using the available
+		part of it; for the point is that <em>you don’t lose the
+		contract</em>! You keep the contract, and you will build
+		the power-house upon the original scale of one-fourth
+		inch to the foot. Also you will carry out the rest of
+		the work on the same basis as figured by other contractors.
+		I want to remind you that you are well
+		bonded, well financed, and that the city holds a guarantee
+		of twenty per cent. of the contract price as a
+		forfeit for the due and proper completion of this job.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Why, it means bankruptcy!� shrieked Silas
+		Trimmer, the deeply-graven circle about his mouth
+		now being but the pallid and piteous caricature of
+		his old-time sinister smile.</p>
+
+		<p>“That is precisely what I intend,� retorted Bobby
+		with a snap of his jaws. “I have long, long scores
+		to settle with both of you gentlemen.�</p>
+
+		<p>“But you haven’t against the other members of
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page377" title="377"> </a>this company,� protested Sharpe. “Our other stockholders
+		are entirely innocent parties.�</p>
+
+		<p>“They have my sincere sympathy for being caught
+		in such dubious company,� replied Bobby with a
+		contemptuous smile. “I happen to have a roster of
+		your stock-holders, and every man of them has been
+		mixed up in crooked deals in combination with Stone
+		or Stone enterprises; so whatever they lose on this
+		contract will be merely by way of restitution to the
+		city.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Look here, Mr. Burnit,� said Sharpe, dropping
+		his tone of remonstrance for one intended to be
+		wheedling; “I know there are a number of financial
+		matters between us that might have a tendency to
+		make you vindictive. Now why can’t we just get
+		together nicely on all of these things and compromise?�</p>
+
+		<p>Chalmers rapped his knuckles sharply upon his
+		desk.</p>
+
+		<p>“Kindly remember where you are,� he warned.</p>
+
+		<p>“When I get around to settling day there will be
+		no such thing as a compromise,� declared Bobby
+		with repressed anger. “I’ll settle all those other matters
+		in my own way and at my own time.�</p>
+
+		<p>“One thing more, gentlemen,� said Chalmers, as
+		the chopfallen committee of the Middle West Construction
+		Company rose to depart; “I wish to remind
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page378" title="378"> </a>you that there is a forfeit clause in your contract
+		for delay, so I should advise you to resume
+		operations at once. Mr. Platt succeeds the unfortunate
+		Mr. Scales as constructing engineer, and he
+		will see that the plans and specifications of the entire
+		contract are carried out to the letter.�</p>
+
+		<p>Platt, who had said nothing, walked away with
+		Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“You were speaking about following the plans
+		exactly, Mr. Burnit,� he said when they were alone
+		upon the street. “I find on an examination of the
+		subsoil that there will be a few minor changes required.
+		The runway, for instance, which goes down
+		to the river northward from the power-house for the
+		purpose of unloading coal barges, would be much
+		better placed on the south side, away from the intake.
+		There is practically no difference in expense, except
+		that in running to the southward the riprap work
+		will need to be carried about three feet deeper and
+		with concreted walls, in place of being thrown loosely
+		in the trenches as originally planned.�</p>
+
+		<p>“All those things are up to you, Jimmy,� said
+		Bobby indifferently. “You must use your own judgment.
+		Any changes of the sort that you deem necessary
+		just bring before the city council, and I am
+		quite sure that you can secure permission to make
+		them.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page379" title="379"> </a>“Very well,� said Platt, and he left Bobby at the
+		corner with a curious smile.</p>
+
+		<p>He was a different looking Jimmy Platt from the
+		one Bobby had found in his office a week before. He
+		was clean-shaven now, and his clothing was quite
+		prosperous looking. Bobby, surmising the condition
+		of affairs, had delicately insisted on making Platt
+		a loan, to be repaid from his salary at a conveniently
+		distant period, and the world looked very bright indeed
+		to him.</p>
+
+		<p>The next day work on the new waterworks was
+		resumed. In bitter consultation the Middle West
+		Construction Company had discovered that they
+		would lose less by fulfilling their contract than by
+		forfeiting their twenty per cent., and they dispiritedly
+		turned in again, kept constantly whipped up to the
+		mark by Platt and by the knowledge that every day’s
+		non-completion of the work meant a heavy additional
+		forfeit, which they had counted on being able to
+		evade so long as the complaisant Mr. Scales was in
+		charge.</p>
+	</div>
+	<div id="chapter_29" class="chapter"><a class="pagenum" id="page380" title="380"> </a>
+		<h2 class="chapter_title"><span class="chapter_number">CHAPTER XXIX</span><br />
+			JIMMY PLATT ENJOYS THE HAPPIEST DAY OF HIS LIFE</h2>
+
+		<p><span class="first_word">The</span> straightening out of the waterworks
+		matter left Bobby free to turn his attention
+		to the local gas and electric situation. The
+		<cite>Bulletin</cite>, since Bobby had defeated his political enemies,
+		had been put upon a paying basis and was
+		rapidly earning its way out of the debt that he had
+		been compelled to incur for it; but the Brightlight
+		Electric Company was a thorn in his side. Its only
+		business now was the street illumination of twelve
+		blocks, under a municipal contract which lost him
+		money every month, and it had been a terrific task to
+		keep it going.</p>
+
+		<p>The Consolidated Illuminating and Power Company,
+		however, Bobby discovered by careful inquiry,
+		was in even worse financial straits than the Brightlight.
+		To its thirty millions of stock, mostly water,
+		twenty more millions of water had been added, making
+		a total organization of fifty million dollars; and
+		the twenty million dollars’ stock had been sold to the
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page381" title="381"> </a>public for ten million dollars, each purchaser of one
+		share of preferred being given one share of common.
+		As the preferred was to draw five per cent., this meant
+		that two and one-half million dollars a year must be
+		paid out in dividends. The salary roll of the company
+		was enormous, and the number of non-working
+		officers who drew extravagant stipends would have
+		swamped any company. Comparing the two concerns,
+		Bobby felt that in the Brightlight he had
+		vastly the better property of the two, in that there
+		was no water in it at its present, half-million-dollar
+		capitalization.</p>
+
+		<p>It was while pondering these matters that Bobby,
+		dropping in at the Idlers’ Club one dull night, found
+		no one there but Silas Trimmer’s son-in-law, the
+		vapid and dissolute Clarence Smythe, which was a
+		trifle worse than finding the place entirely deserted.
+		To-night Clarence was in possession of what was
+		known at the Idlers’ as “one of Smythe’s soggy buns,�
+		and despite countless snubs in the past he seized upon
+		Bobby as a receptacle for his woes.</p>
+
+		<p>“I’m going to leave this town for good, Burnit!�
+		he declared without any preliminaries, having waited
+		so long to convey this startling and important information
+		that salutations were entirely forgotten.</p>
+
+		<p>“For good! For whose good?� inquired Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“Mine,� responded Clarence. “This town’s gone
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page382" title="382"> </a>to the bow-wows. It’s in the hands of a lot of pikers.
+		There’s no chance to make big money any more.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Yes, I know,� said Bobby dryly; “I had something
+		to do with that, myself.�</p>
+
+		<p>“It was a fine lot of muck-raking you did,� charged
+		Clarence. “Well, I’ll give you another item for your
+		paper. I have resigned from the Consolidated.�</p>
+
+		<p>“It was cruel of you.�</p>
+
+		<p>“It was time,� said Clarence, ignoring the flippancy.
+		“Something’s going to drop over there.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby smiled.</p>
+
+		<p>“It’s always dropping,� he agreed.</p>
+
+		<p>“This is the big drop,� the other went on, with a
+		wine-laden man’s pride in the fact of possessing valuable
+		secrets. “They’re going to make a million-dollar
+		bond issue.�</p>
+
+		<p>“What for?� inquired Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“They need the money,� chuckled Mr. Smythe.
+		“Those city bonds, you know.�</p>
+
+		<p>“What bonds?� demanded Bobby eagerly, but trying
+		to speak nonchalantly.</p>
+
+		<p>Mr. Smythe suddenly realized the solemn gravity
+		of his folly. Once more he was talking too much.
+		Once more! It was a thing to weep over. “I’m a
+		fool,� he confessed in awe-stricken tones; “a rotten
+		fool, Burnit. I’m ashamed to look anybody in the
+		face. I’m ashamed——�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page383" title="383"> </a>“It’s highly commendable of you, I’m sure,�
+		Bobby agreed, and took his hasty leave before Clarence
+		should begin to sob.</p>
+
+		<p>Immediately he called up Chalmers at his home.</p>
+
+		<p>“Chalmers,� he demanded, “why must the Consolidated
+		Illuminating and Power Company purchase
+		city bonds?�</p>
+
+		<p>Chalmers laughed.</p>
+
+		<p>“Originally so Sam Stone could lend money to
+		the Consumers’ Electric. It is a part of their franchise,
+		which is renewable at their option in ten-year
+		periods, and which became a part of the Consolidated’s
+		property when the combine was effected. To
+		insure ‘faithful performance of contract,’ for which
+		clause every crooked municipality has a particular
+		affection, they were to purchase a million dollars’
+		worth of city bonds. Each year one hundred thousand
+		dollars’ worth were retired. In the tenth year,
+		in renewing their franchise for the next ten years,
+		they were compelled to renew also their million dollars
+		of city bonds. These bonds they then used as collateral.
+		Stone carried all that he could, at enormous
+		usury, I understand, and let some of his banker
+		friends in on the rest; and I suppose the banks paid
+		him a rake-off. The ten-year period is up this fall,
+		and their bonds are naturally retired; but, of course,
+		they will renew.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page384" title="384"> </a>“I’m not so sure about that,� said Bobby. “Look
+		up everything connected with it in the morning, and
+		I’ll see you at noon.�</p>
+
+		<p>When they met the next day at noon, however, before
+		Bobby could talk about the business in hand,
+		Chalmers, with a suppressed smile, handed him a
+		folded slip of paper.</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby examined that legal document—a dissolution
+		of the injunction which had tied up a hundred
+		and fifty thousand dollars in his bank for more than
+		two years—with a sigh of relief.</p>
+
+		<p>“It seems,� said Chalmers dryly, “that at the time
+		you laid yourself liable to Madam Villenauve’s
+		breach-of-promise suit she had an undivorced husband
+		living, Monsieur Villenauve complacently hiding
+		himself in France and waiting for his share of the
+		money. Let this be a lesson to you, young man.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby hotly resented that grin.</p>
+
+		<p>“I’ll swear to you, Chalmers,� he asserted, “I never
+		so much as thought of the woman except as a nuisance.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I apologize, old man,� said Chalmers. “But at
+		least this will teach you not to back any more grand
+		opera companies.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I prefer to talk about the electric situation,� said
+		Bobby severely. “What have you found out about
+		it?�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page385" title="385"> </a>“That the Ebony Jewel Coal Company, a former
+		Stone enterprise, has threatened suit against the Consolidated
+		for their bill. The Consolidated is in a
+		pinch and must raise money, not only to buy that
+		allotment of the new waterworks bonds, but to meet
+		the Ebony’s and other pressing accounts. It must
+		also float this bond issue, for it is likely to fall behind
+		even on its salary list.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Fine!� said Bobby. “I can see a lot of good
+		citizens in this town holding stock in a bankrupt
+		illuminating concern. Just watch this thing, will
+		you, Chalmers? About this nice, lucky hundred and
+		fifty thousand, we may count it as spent.�</p>
+
+		<p>“What in?� asked Chalmers, smiling. “Do you
+		think you can trust yourself with all that money?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Hush,� said Bobby. “Don’t breathe it aloud.
+		I’m going to buy up all the Brightlight Electric
+		stock I can find. It’s too bad, Chalmers,� he added
+		with a grin, “that as mayor of the city you could not,
+		with propriety, hold stock in this company,� and although
+		Chalmers tried to call him back Bobby did
+		not wait. He was too busy, he said.</p>
+
+		<p>His business was to meet Agnes and Mrs. Elliston
+		for luncheon down-town, and during the meal he happened
+		to remark that Clarence Smythe had determined
+		to shake the dust of the city from his feet.</p>
+
+		<p>“I thought so,� declared Agnes. “Aunt Constance,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page386" title="386"> </a>I’m afraid you’ll have to finish your shopping
+		without me. I must call upon Mrs. Smythe.�</p>
+
+		<p>Mrs. Elliston frowned her disapproval, but she
+		knew better than to protest. Before Agnes called
+		upon Mrs. Smythe, however, she dropped in at the
+		manufacturing concern of D. A. Elliston and Company.</p>
+
+		<p>“Uncle Dan, how much money of mine have you
+		in charge just now?� she demanded to know.</p>
+
+		<p>“Cash? About five or six thousand.�</p>
+
+		<p>“And how much more could you raise on my property?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Right away? About fifteen, on bonds and such
+		securities. This is no time to sacrifice real estate.�</p>
+
+		<p>“It isn’t enough,� said Agnes, frowning, and was
+		silent for a time. “You’ll just have to loan me about
+		ten thousand more.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Oh, will I?� he retorted. “What for?�</p>
+
+		<p>“I want to make an investment.�</p>
+
+		<p>“So I judged,� he dryly responded. “Well,
+		young lady, as your steward I reckon I’ll have to
+		know something more about this investment before
+		I turn over any money.�</p>
+
+		<p>With sparkling eyes and blushes that would come
+		in spite of her, she told him what she intended to
+		do. When she had concluded, Dan Elliston slapped
+		his knees in huge joy.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page387" title="387"> </a>“You shall have all the money you want,� he declared.</p>
+
+		<p>Upon that same afternoon Bobby started to buy up,
+		here and there, nearly the entire stock of the Brightlight,
+		purchasing it at an absurdly low price. Then
+		he went to De Graff, to Dan Elliston, and to others
+		to whose discretion he could trust. His own plans
+		were well under way when the Consolidated Illuminating
+		and Power Company announced, with a great
+		flourish of trumpets, its new bond issue. The <cite>Bulletin</cite>
+		made no comment upon this. It merely published the
+		news fact briefly and concisely—an unexpected attitude,
+		which brought surprise, then wonder, then suspicion
+		to the office of the <cite>Chronicle</cite>. The <cite>Chronicle</cite>
+		had been a Stone organ during the heydey of Stone’s
+		prosperity; the <cite>Bulletin</cite> had fought the Consolidated
+		tooth and toe-nail; the already criminally overcapitalized
+		Consolidated was about to float a new bond issue;
+		the <cite>Bulletin</cite> did not fight this issue; <em lang="la" xml:lang="la">ergo</em>, the <cite>Bulletin</cite>
+		must have something to gain by the issue.</p>
+
+		<p>The <cite>Chronicle</cite> waited three days, then began to
+		fight the bond issue itself, which was precisely the effect
+		for which Bobby had planned. Grown astute,
+		Bobby realized that if the bond issue failed the Consolidated
+		would go bankrupt at once instead of a year
+		or so later. The newspaper, however, which would
+		force that bankruptcy would, by that act, be the apparent
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page388" title="388"> </a>means of losing a vast amount of money to
+		the poor investors of the town, and Bobby left that
+		ungrateful task to the <cite>Chronicle</cite>. He even went so far
+		as to defend the Consolidated in a mild sort of manner,
+		a proceeding which fanned the <cite>Chronicle</cite> into fresh
+		fury.</p>
+
+		<p>For three months desperate attempts were made by
+		the Consolidated to make the new bonds attractive to
+		the public, but less than one hundred thousand dollars
+		was subscribed. Bobby was tabulating the known results
+		of this subscription with much satisfaction one
+		morning when Ferris walked into his office.</p>
+
+		<p>“I hope you didn’t come into town to dig up another
+		scandal, old man,� said Bobby, greeting his
+		contractor-friend with keen pleasure.</p>
+
+		<p>“No,� said Ferris; “came in to give you a bit of
+		news. The Great Eastern and Western Railroad
+		wants to locate its shop here, and is building by private
+		bid. I have secured the contract, subject to certain
+		alterations of price for distance of hauling and
+		difficulty of excavation; but the thing is liable to fall
+		through for lack of a location. They can’t get the
+		piece of property they are after, and there is only
+		one other one large enough and near enough to the
+		city. The chief engineer and I are going out to look
+		at it again to-day. Come with us. If we decide that
+		the property will do, and if we can secure it, you may
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page389" title="389"> </a>have an exclusive news-item that would be very pretty,
+		I should judge.� And Ferris smiled at some secret
+		joke.</p>
+
+		<p>“I’ll go with pleasure,� said Bobby, “and not by
+		any means just for the news. When do you want to
+		go?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Oh, right away, I guess. I’ll telephone to Shepherd
+		and have him order a rig.�</p>
+
+		<p>“What’s the use?� demanded Bobby, much interested.
+		“My car’s right within call. I’ll have it brought
+		up.�</p>
+
+		<p>Shepherd, the chief engineer of the G. E. and W.,
+		when they picked him up at the hotel, proved to be
+		an entire human being with red whiskers and not a
+		care in the world. Bobby was enjoying a lot of preliminary
+		persiflage when Shepherd incidentally mentioned
+		their destination.</p>
+
+		<p>“It is known as Westmarsh,� he observed. “I suppose
+		you know where it is.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby, who had already started the machine and
+		had placed his hand on the steering wheel, gave a jerk
+		so violent that he almost sent the machine diagonally
+		across the street, and Ferris laughed aloud. His little
+		joke was no longer a secret.</p>
+
+		<p>“Westmarsh!� Bobby repeated. “Why, I own that
+		undrainable swamp.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Swamp?� exclaimed Shepherd. “It’s as dry as a
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page390" title="390"> </a>bone. I looked it over last night and am going out
+		to-day to study the possible approaches to it.�</p>
+
+		<p>“But you say it is dry!� protested Bobby, unable
+		to believe it.</p>
+
+		<p>“Dry as powder,� asserted Shepherd. “There has
+		been an immense amount of water out there, but it
+		has been well taken care of by the splendid drainage
+		system that has been put in.�</p>
+
+		<p>“It cost a lot of money to put in that drainage system,�
+		commented Bobby; “but we found it impracticable
+		to drain an entire river.�</p>
+
+		<p>It was Shepherd’s turn to be puzzled, a process in
+		which he stopped to laugh.</p>
+
+		<p>“This is the first time I ever heard an owner belittle
+		his own property,� he declared. “I suppose that
+		next you’ll only accept half the price we offer.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby kept up his part of the conversation but
+		feebly as they whirled out to the site of the old Applerod
+		Addition. He was lost in speculation upon what
+		could possibly have happened to that unfortunate
+		swamp area. When they arrived, however, he was surprised
+		to find that Shepherd had been correct. The
+		ground, though sunken in places and black with the
+		residue of one-time stagnant water, was firm enough
+		to walk upon, and after many tests he even ran the
+		machine across and across it. Moreover, grass and
+		weeds, forcing their way here and there, were already
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page391" title="391"> </a>beginning to hide and redeem the ugly earthen surface.</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby surveyed the miracle in amazement. It was
+		the first time he had seen the place in a year. Even in
+		his trips to the waterworks site, which was just north,
+		beyond the hill, he had chosen the longer and less solid
+		river road rather than to come past this spot of
+		humiliating memories.</p>
+
+		<p>“I can’t understand it,� he said again and again to
+		the two men. “Why, Mr. Shepherd, I spent thousands
+		of dollars in filling this swamp and draining it, with
+		the idea of making a city subdivision here. Silas
+		Trimmer, the man from whom I bought the place,
+		imagined it to be fed by underground springs, but he
+		let me spend a fortune to attract people out to see my
+		new building lots so that he could, without cost, sell
+		his own. That is his addition up there on the hills,
+		and I’m glad to say he has recently mortgaged it for
+		all that it will carry.�</p>
+
+		<p>“How about the springs?� asked Shepherd with a
+		frown. “Did you find them? You must have stopped
+		them. Are they liable to break out again?�</p>
+
+		<p>“That’s the worst of it,� replied Bobby, still groping.
+		“It wasn’t springs at all. It was a peculiar geological
+		formation, some disarranged strata leading
+		beneath the hill from the river and emptying into the
+		bottom of this pond. All through the year it seeped
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page392" title="392"> </a>in faster than our extensive drainings could carry it
+		away, and in the spring and fall, when the river was
+		high, it poured in. I don’t see what could have happened.
+		Suppose we run over and see the engineer who
+		worked on this with me. He is now in charge of the
+		new waterworks.�</p>
+
+		<p>In five minutes they were over there. Jimmy Platt,
+		out in his shirt-sleeves under a broad-brimmed straw
+		hat, greeted them most cordially, but when Bobby
+		explained to him the miracle that had happened to the
+		old Applerod Addition, Platt laughed until the tears
+		came into his eyes; and even after he stopped laughing
+		there were traces of them there.</p>
+
+		<p>“Come down here and I’ll show you,� said he.</p>
+
+		<p>Leading south from the pumping station, diagonally
+		down the steep bank to the river, had been built
+		a splendid road, flanked on both sides by very solid,
+		substantial-looking retaining walls.</p>
+
+		<p>“You see this wall?� asked Jimmy, pointing to the
+		inside one. “It runs twenty feet below low-water level,
+		and is solidly cemented. You remember when I got
+		permission to move this road from the north side to
+		the south side of the pumping station? I did that
+		after an examination of the subsoil. This wall cuts
+		off the natural siphon that fed the water to your Applerod
+		Addition. I have been going past there in huge
+		joy twice a day, watching that swamp dry up.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page393" title="393"> </a>“In other words,� said Bobby, “you have been doing
+		a little private grafting on my account. How
+		many additional dollars did that extra-deep wall
+		cost?�</p>
+
+		<p>“I’m not going to tell you,� asserted Jimmy
+		stoutly. “It isn’t very much, but whatever it is the
+		city good and plenty owes you for saving it over a
+		million on this job. But if I’d had to pay for it myself
+		I would have done it to correct the mistake I
+		made when I started to drain that swamp for you. I
+		guess this is about the most satisfactory minute of
+		my life,� and he looked it.</p>
+
+		<p>“A fine piece of work,� agreed Shepherd, casting
+		a swift eye over the immense and busy waterworks site,
+		and then glancing at the hill across which lay Bobby’s
+		property. “You’re lucky to have had this chance,
+		Mr. Platt,� and he shook hands cordially with Jimmy.
+		“I’m perfectly satisfied, Mr. Burnit. Do you want to
+		sell that property?�</p>
+
+		<p>“If I can get out at a profit,� replied Bobby.
+		“Otherwise I’ll regrade the thing and split it up into
+		building lots as I originally intended.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Let’s go back down to the hotel and talk ‘turkey,’�
+		offered Shepherd briskly. “What do you think of the
+		place, Ferris? Will it do?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Fine!� said Ferris. “The property lies so low
+		that we won’t have to cart away a single load of our
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page394" title="394"> </a>excavation. If we can only get a right-of-way through
+		that natural approach to the northeast—�</p>
+
+		<p>“I think I can guarantee a right-of-way,� interrupted
+		Bobby, smiling, with his mind upon the city
+		council which had been created by his own efforts.</p>
+
+		<p>“All right,� said Shepherd. “We’ll talk price until
+		I have browbeaten you as low as you will go. Then I’ll
+		prepare a plat of the place and send it on to headquarters.
+		You’ll have an answer from them in three
+		days.�</p>
+
+		<p>As they whirred away Bobby’s eyes happened to
+		rest upon a young man and a young woman rowing
+		idly down-stream in a skiff, and he smiled as he recognized
+		Biff Bates and Nellie Platt.</p>
+
+		<p>On the day Bobby got the money for his Westmarsh
+		property old Applerod came up from the office
+		of the Brightlight Electric Company, where he held
+		a lazy, sleepy afternoon job as “manager,� and with
+		an ingratiating smile handed Bobby a check for five
+		thousand dollars.</p>
+
+		<p>“What’s this for?� asked Bobby, puzzled.</p>
+
+		<p>“I have decided to give you back the money and
+		take up again my approximate one-fifth share in the
+		Applerod Addition,� announced that gentleman complacently.</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby was entirely too much surprised at this to be
+		amused.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page395" title="395"> </a>“You’re just a trifle too late, Mr. Applerod,� said
+		he. “Had you come to me two weeks ago, when I
+		thought the land was worthless, out of common decency
+		I would not have let you buy in again. Since
+		then, however, I have sold the tract at a profit of forty
+		thousand dollars.�</p>
+
+		<p>“You have?� exclaimed Applerod. “I heard you
+		were going to do something of the kind. I’m entitled
+		to one-fifth of that profit, Mr. Burnit—eight thousand
+		dollars.�</p>
+
+		<p>“You’re entitled to a good, swift poke in the neck!�
+		exclaimed the voice of wizened old Johnson, who stood
+		in the doorway, and who, since his friendship with Biff
+		Bates, had absorbed some of that gentleman’s vigorous
+		vernacular. “Applerod, I’ll give you just one minute
+		to get out of this office. If you don’t I’ll throw you
+		downstairs!�</p>
+
+		<p>“Mr. Johnson,� said Applerod with great dignity,
+		“this office does not belong to you. I have as much
+		right here—�</p>
+
+		<p>Mr. Johnson, taking a trot around Bobby’s desk so
+		as to get Mr. Applerod between him and the door,
+		made a threatening demonstration toward the rear,
+		and Applerod, suddenly deserting his dignity, rushed
+		out. Bobby straightened his face as Johnson, still
+		blazing, came in from watching Applerod’s ignominious
+		retreat.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page396" title="396"> </a>“Well, Johnson,� said he, ignoring the incident as
+		closed, “what can I do for you to-day?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Nothing!� snapped Johnson. “I have forgotten
+		what I came for!� and going out he slammed the door
+		behind him.</p>
+
+		<p>In the course of an hour Bobby was through with
+		his morning allotment of mail and his daily consultation
+		with Jolter, and then he called Johnson to his
+		office.</p>
+
+		<p>“Johnson,� said he, “I want you to do me a favor.
+		There is one block of Brightlight stock that I have
+		not yet bought up. It is in the hands of J. W. Williams,
+		one of the old Stone crowd, who ought to be
+		wanting money by this time. He holds one hundred
+		shares, which you should be able to buy by now at
+		fifty dollars a share. I want you to buy this stock in
+		your own name, and I want to loan you five thousand
+		dollars to do it with. I merely want voting power; so
+		after you get it you may hold it if you like and still
+		owe me the five thousand dollars, or I’ll take it off
+		your hands at any time you are tired of the obligation.
+		You’d better go to Barrister and have him buy the
+		stock for you.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Yes, sir,� said Johnson.</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby immediately went to De Graff.</p>
+
+		<p>“I came to subscribe for two hundred and fifty
+		thousand dollars’ worth of additional stock in the
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page397" title="397"> </a>New Brightlight. I have just deposited two hundred
+		and eighty-five thousand dollars in your bank.�</p>
+
+		<p>“You’re becoming an expert,� said De Graff with
+		a quizzical smile. “With the million dollars’ valuation
+		at which we are to buy in the present Brightlight,
+		the two hundred and fifty thousand subscribed for
+		by Dan Elliston, and the ten thousand held by Miss
+		Elliston, this new subscription about gives you control
+		of the New Brightlight, don’t it?�</p>
+
+		<p>“That’s what I want,� Bobby exulted. “You don’t
+		object, do you?�</p>
+
+		<p>“Not on my own account,� De Graff assured him;
+		“but you’d better have Barrister buy this in for you
+		until we are organized. Then you can take it over.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I guess you’re right,� agreed Bobby. “I’ll send
+		Barrister right over, and I think I shall make him
+		take up the remaining ten thousand on his own account.
+		A week from to-night is the council meeting at
+		which the Consolidated must make good to renew their
+		franchise, and we don’t want any hitch in getting our
+		final incorporation papers by that time. The members
+		of the Consolidated are singing swan songs in seven
+		simultaneous keys at this very moment.�</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby’s description of the condition of the Consolidated
+		was scarcely exaggerated. It was a trying
+		and a hopeless period for them. The bond issue had
+		failed miserably. It had not needed the <cite>Chronicle</cite> to
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page398" title="398"> </a>remind the public of what a shaky proposition the
+		Consolidated was, for Bobby had thoroughly exposed
+		the corporation during the <cite>Bulletin’s</cite> campaign
+		against Sam Stone. Bond-floating companies from
+		other cities were brought in, and after an examination
+		of the books threw up their hands in horror at
+		the crudest muddle they had ever found in any investigation
+		of municipal affairs.</p>
+
+		<p>On the night of the council meeting, Sharpe and
+		Trimmer and Williams, representing the Consolidated,
+		were compelled to come before the council and
+		confess their inability to take up the bonds required
+		to renew their franchise; but they begged that this
+		clause, since it was an entirely unnecessary one and
+		was not enjoined upon gas or electric companies in
+		other cities, be not enforced. Council, however, was
+		obdurate, and the committee thereupon begged for a
+		further extension of time in which to raise the necessary
+		amount of money. Council still was obdurate,
+		and by that obduracy the franchise of the Consumers’
+		Electric Company, said franchise being controlled by
+		the Consolidated Illuminating and Power Company,
+		became null and void.</p>
+
+		<p>Thereupon Bobby Burnit, President De Graff and
+		Dan Elliston, representing the New Brightlight Electric
+		Company, recently organized for three million
+		dollars, came forward and prayed for a franchise for
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page399" title="399"> </a>the electric lighting of the entire city, agreeing to
+		take over the poles and wiring of the Consolidated at
+		a fair valuation; and council was not at all obdurate,
+		which was scarcely strange when one reflected that
+		every member of that municipal body had been selected
+		and put in place through the direct instrumentality
+		of Bobby Burnit. It was practical politics, true
+		enough, but Bobby had no qualms whatever about it.</p>
+
+		<p>“It may be quite true that I have not been actuated
+		by any highly noble motives in this,� he confessed to
+		a hot charge by Williams, “but so long as in municipal
+		affairs I am not actuated by any ignoble motives I am
+		doing pretty fairly in this town.�</p>
+
+		<p>There was just the bare trace of brutality in Bobby
+		as he said this, and he suddenly recognized it in himself
+		with dismay. What pity Bobby might have felt
+		for these bankrupt men, however, was swept away in
+		a gust of renewed aggressiveness when Trimmer,
+		arousing himself from the ashen age which seemed all
+		at once to be creeping over him, said, with a return
+		of that old circular smile which had so often before
+		aggravated Bobby:</p>
+
+		<p>“I am afraid I’ll have to draw out of my other ventures
+		and retire on my salary as president and manager
+		of Trimmer and Company.�</p>
+
+		<p>Vengefulness was in Bobby’s eyes as he followed
+		Trimmer’s sprawling figure, so much like a bloated
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page400" title="400"> </a>spider’s in its bigness of circumference and its attenuation
+		of limbs, that suddenly he shuddered and
+		turned away as when one finds oneself about to step
+		upon a toad.</p>
+	</div>
+	<div id="chapter_30" class="chapter"><a class="pagenum" id="page401" title="401"> </a>
+		<h2 class="chapter_title"><span class="chapter_number">CHAPTER XXX</span><br />
+		IN WHICH, BEING THE LAST CHAPTER, EVERYTHING
+		TURNS OUT RIGHT, AND EVERYBODY GETS
+		MARRIED</h2>
+
+		<p><span class="first_word">At</span> the offices of the New Brightlight Electric
+		Company there was universal rejoicing.
+		Johnson was removed from the <cite>Bulletin</cite> to
+		take charge of the new organization until it should be
+		completed, and Bobby himself, for a few days, was
+		compelled to spend most of his time there. During the
+		first week after the granting of the franchise Bobby
+		called Johnson to him.</p>
+
+		<p>“Mr. Johnson,� said he quite severely, “you have
+		been so careful and so faithful in all other things that
+		I dislike to remind you of an overlooked duty.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I am sorry, sir,� said Johnson. “What is it?�</p>
+
+		<p>“You have neglected to make out a note for that
+		five-thousand-dollar loan. Kindly draw it up now,
+		payable in ten years, with interest at four per cent.
+		<em>after</em> the date of maturity.�</p>
+
+		<p>“But, sir,� stammered Johnson, “the stock is worth
+		par now.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page402" title="402"> </a>“Would you like to keep it?�</p>
+
+		<p>“I’d be a fool to say I wouldn’t, sir. But the stock
+		is not only worth par,—it was worth that in the old
+		Brightlight; and I received an exchange of two for
+		one in the New Brightlight, which is also worth par
+		this morning; so I hold twenty thousand dollars’
+		worth of stock.�</p>
+
+		<p>“It cost me five thousand,� insisted Bobby, “and
+		we’ll settle at that figure.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I don’t know how to thank you, sir,� trembled
+		Johnson, but he stiffened immediately as Applerod intruded
+		himself into the room with a bundle of papers
+		which he laid upon the desk.</p>
+
+		<p>“I beg your pardon, Mr. Burnit,� began Applerod,
+		“but I have five thousand dollars I’d like to invest in
+		the New Brightlight Company if you could manage
+		it for me.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I’m sorry, Applerod,� said Bobby, “but there isn’t
+		a share for sale. It was subscribed to the full capitalization
+		before the incorporation papers were issued.�</p>
+
+		<p>Applerod was about to leave the room in deep dejection
+		when Johnson, with a sudden happy inspiration,
+		called him back.</p>
+
+		<p>“I think I know where you can buy five thousand,�
+		said Johnson; “but you will have to hurry to get it.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Where?� asked Applerod eagerly, while Bobby
+		went to the window to conceal his broad smiles.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page403" title="403"> </a>“Just put on your hat and go right over to Barrister,�
+		directed Johnson; “and take a blank check
+		with you. I’ll telephone him, to save time for you.
+		The stock is worth par, and that lonesome fifty shares
+		will be snapped up before you know it.�</p>
+
+		<p>“You will excuse me till I go up-town, Mr. Burnit?�
+		inquired Applerod, and bustled out eagerly.</p>
+
+		<p>He had no sooner left the building than Johnson
+		grabbed Bobby’s telephone and called up Barrister.</p>
+
+		<p>“This is Johnson,� he said to the old attorney. “I
+		have just sent Applerod over to you to buy fifty shares
+		of New Brightlight at par. Take his check and hold it
+		for delivery of the stock. I’ll have it over to you
+		within an hour, or as soon as I can have the transfer
+		made. It is my stock, but I don’t want him to know
+		it.�</p>
+
+		<p>Hanging up the receiver old Johnson sat in the
+		chair by Bobby’s desk and his thin shoulders heaved
+		with laughter.</p>
+
+		<p>“Applerod will be plumb crazy when he finds that
+		out,� he said. “To think that I have fifteen thousand
+		dollars’ worth of this good stock that didn’t cost me
+		a cent, all paid for with Applerod’s own five thousand
+		dollars!�</p>
+
+		<p>Johnson laughed so hard that finally he was compelled
+		to lay his head on the desk in front of him,
+		with his lean old fingers over his eyes.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page404" title="404"> </a>“Thanks to you, Robert; thanks to you,� he added
+		after a little silence.</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby, turning from the window, saw the thin
+		shoulders still heaving. There was a glint of moisture
+		on the lean hands that had toiled for so many years in
+		the Burnit service, and as Bobby passed he placed his
+		hand on old Johnson’s bowed head for just an instant,
+		then went out, leaving Johnson alone.</p>
+
+		<p>It was Applerod who, returning triumphantly with
+		Barrister’s promise of the precious block of New
+		Brightlight for delivery in the afternoon, brought
+		Bobby a copy of his own paper containing so much
+		startling news that the front page consisted only of a
+		hysteria of head-lines. Sudden proceedings in bankruptcy
+		had been filed against the Consolidated Illuminating
+		and Power Company. These proceedings had
+		revealed the fact that Frank L. Sharpe, supposed to
+		have left the city on business for the company, had in
+		reality disappeared with the entire cash balance of the
+		Consolidated. This disappearance had immediately
+		thrust the Middle West Construction Company into
+		bankruptcy. By Stone’s own acts the Stone enterprises
+		had crumpled and fallen, and all his adherents
+		were ruined.</p>
+
+		<p>Out of the chaos that the startling facts he was
+		able to glean created in Bobby’s mind there came a
+		thought of Ferris, and he immediately telephoned him,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page405" title="405"> </a>out at the site of the new G. E. and W. shops, where
+		ground was already being broken, that he would be
+		out that way.</p>
+
+		<p>Half an hour later he took Ferris into his machine
+		and they whirled over to the waterworks site, where
+		the work had stopped as abruptly as if that scene of
+		animation had suddenly been stricken of a plague and
+		died. On the way Bobby explained to Ferris what had
+		happened.</p>
+
+		<p>“You were the lowest legitimate bidder on the job,
+		I believe,� he concluded.</p>
+
+		<p>“Yes, outside of the local company.�</p>
+
+		<p>“If I were you I’d get busy with Jimmy Platt on
+		an estimate of the work already done,� suggested
+		Bobby. “I think it very likely that the city council
+		will offer the Keystone Construction Company the contract
+		at its former figure, with the proper deductions
+		for present progress. We will make up the difference
+		between their bid and yours, and whatever loss there
+		is in taking up the work will come out of the forfeit
+		put up by the Middle West Company.�</p>
+
+		<p>Jimmy Platt ran out to meet them like a lost soul.
+		The waterworks project had become his pet. He lived
+		with it and dreamed of it, and that there was a prospect
+		of resuming work, and under such skilful supervision
+		as that of Ferris, delighted him. While Jimmy
+		and Mr. Ferris went into the office to prepare a basis
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page406" title="406"> </a>of estimating, Bobby stayed behind to examine the
+		carbureter of his machine, which had been acting suspiciously
+		on the way out, and while he was engaged
+		in this task a voice that he knew quite well saluted
+		him with:</p>
+
+		<p>“Fine work, old pal! I guess you put all your
+		lemons into the squeezer and got the juice, eh?�</p>
+
+		<p>Biff had a copy of the <cite>Bulletin</cite> in his hand, which
+		was sufficient explanation of his congratulations.</p>
+
+		<p>“Things do seem to be turning out pretty lucky
+		for me, Biff,� Bobby confessed, and then, looking at
+		Mr. Bates, he immediately apologized. “I beg pardon
+		for calling you Biff,� said he. “I should have said
+		Mr. Bates.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Cut it!� growled Biff, looking himself over with
+		some complacency nevertheless.</p>
+
+		<p>From his nice new derby, which replaced the slouch
+		cap he had always preferred, to his neat and uncomfortably-pointed
+		gun-metal leathers which had supplanted
+		the broad-toed tans, Mr. Bates was an epitome
+		of neatly-pressed grooming. White cuffs edged
+		the sleeves of his gray business suit, and—wonder of
+		wonders!—he wore a white shirt with a white collar,
+		in which there was tied a neat bow of—last wonder
+		of all—modest gray!</p>
+
+		<p>“I suppose that costume is due to distinctly feminine
+		influence, eh, Biff?�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page407" title="407"> </a>“Guilty as Cassie Chadwick!� replied Biff with a
+		sheepish grin. “She’s tryin’ to civilize me.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Who is?� demanded Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>“Oh, <em>she</em> is. You know who I mean. Why, she’s
+		even taught me to cut out slang. Say, Bobby, I didn’t
+		know how much like a rough-neck I used to talk. I
+		never opened my yawp but what I spilled a line of
+		fricasseed gab so twisted and frazzled and shredded
+		you could use it to stuff sofa-cushions; but now I’ve
+		handed that string of talk the screw number. No more
+		slang for your Uncle Biff.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I’m glad you have quit it,� approved Bobby soberly.
+		“I suppose the next thing I’ll hear will be the
+		wedding bells.�</p>
+
+		<p>“No!� Biff denied in a tone so pained and shocked
+		that Bobby looked up in surprise to see his face gone
+		pale. “Don’t talk about that, Bobby. Why, I wouldn’t
+		dare even think of it myself. I—I never think about
+		it. Me? with a mitt like a picnic ham? Did you ever
+		see her hand, Bobby? And her eyes and her hair and
+		all? Why, Bobby, if I’d ever catch myself daring to
+		think about marrying that girl I’d take myself by
+		the Adam’s apple and give myself the damnedest
+		choking that ever turned a mutt’s map purple.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I’m sorry, after all, that you are through with
+		slang, Biff,� said Bobby, “because if you were still
+		using it you might have expressed that idea so much
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page408" title="408"> </a>more picturesquely;� but Biff did not hear him, for
+		from the office came Nellie Platt with a sun-hat in her
+		hand.</p>
+
+		<p>“Right on time,� she said gaily to Biff, and, with
+		a pleasant word for Bobby, went down with Mr. Bates
+		to the river bank, where lay the neat little skiff that
+		Jimmy had bought for her.</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby and Ferris and Platt, standing up near the
+		filters, later on, were startled by a scream from the
+		river, and, turning, they saw the skiff, in mid-stream,
+		struck by a passing steamer and splintered as if it
+		were made of pasteboard. Nellie had been rowing.
+		Biff had called her attention to the approaching
+		steamer, across the path of which they were passing.
+		There had been plenty of time to row out of the way of
+		it, but Nellie in grasping her oar for a quick turn had
+		lost it. Fortunately the engines had been stopped immediately
+		when the pilot had seen that they must
+		strike, so that there was no appreciable underdrag.
+		Biff’s head had been grazed slightly, enough to daze
+		him for an instant, but he held himself up mechanically.
+		Nellie, clogged by her skirts, could not swim,
+		and as Biff got his bearings he saw her close by him
+		going down for the second time. Two men sprang
+		from the lower deck of the steamer, but Biff reached
+		her first, and, his senses instantly clearing as he
+		caught her, he struck out for the shore.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page409" title="409"> </a>The three men on shore immediately ran down the
+		bank, and sprang into the water to help Biff out with
+		his burden. He was pale, but strangely cool and collected.</p>
+
+		<p>“Don’t go at it that way!� he called to them savagely,
+		knowing neither friend nor foe in this emergency.
+		“Get her loosened up someway, can’t you?�</p>
+
+		<p>Without waiting on them, Biff ripped a knife from
+		his pocket, opened it and slit through waist and skirt-band
+		and whatever else intervened, to her corset, which
+		he opened with big fingers, the sudden deftness of
+		which was marvelous. Directing them with crisp,
+		sharp commands, he guided them through the first
+		steps toward resuscitation, and then began the slow,
+		careful pumping of the arms that should force breath
+		back into the closed lungs.</p>
+
+		<p>For twenty minutes, each of which seemed interminable,
+		Jimmy and Biff worked, one on either side
+		of her, Biff’s face set, cold, expressionless, until at last
+		there was a flutter of the eyelids, a cry of distress as
+		the lungs took up their interrupted function, then the
+		sharp, hissing sound of the intake and outgo of natural,
+		though labored, breath; then Nellie Platt opened
+		her big, brown eyes and gazed up into the gray ones
+		of Biff Bates. She faintly smiled; then Biff did a
+		thing that he had never done before in his mature life.
+		He suddenly broke down and cried aloud, sobbing in
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page410" title="410"> </a>great sobs that shook him from head to foot and that
+		hurt him, as they tore from his throat, as the first
+		breath of new life had hurt Nellie Platt; and, seeing
+		and understanding, she raised up one weak arm and
+		slipped it about his neck.</p>
+
+		<p>It was about a week after this occurrence when
+		Silas Trimmer, coming back from lunch to attend the
+		annual stock-holders’ meeting of Trimmer and Company,
+		stopped on the sidewalk to inspect, with some
+		curiosity, a strange, boxlike-looking structure which
+		leaned face downward upon the edge of the curbing.
+		It was three feet wide and full sixty feet long. He
+		stooped and tried to tilt it up, but it was too heavy
+		for his enfeebled frame, and with another curious
+		glance at it he went into the store.</p>
+
+		<p>The meeting was set for half-past two. It was now
+		scarcely two, and yet, when he opened the door of his
+		private office, which had been set apart for that day’s
+		meeting, he was surprised at the number of people he
+		found in the room. A quick recognition of them
+		mystified him the more. They were Bobby Burnit
+		and Agnes, Johnson, Applerod and Chalmers.</p>
+
+		<p>“I came a little early, Mr. Trimmer,� said Bobby,
+		in a polite conversational tone, “to have these three
+		hundred shares transferred upon the books of Trimmer
+		and Company, before the stock-holders’ meeting
+		convenes.�</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page411" title="411"> </a>“What shares are they?� inquired Silas in a voice
+		grown strangely shrill and metallic.</p>
+
+		<p>“The stock that was previously controlled by your
+		son-in-law, Mr. Clarence Smythe. Miss Elliston
+		bought them last week from your daughter, with the
+		full consent of your son-in-law.�</p>
+
+		<p>“The dog!� Trimmer managed to gasp, and his
+		fingers clutched convulsively.</p>
+
+		<p>“Possibly,� admitted Bobby dryly. “At any rate
+		he has had to leave town, and I do not think you will
+		be bothered with him any more. In the meantime,
+		Mr. Trimmer, I’d like to call your attention to a few
+		very interesting figures. When you urged me, four
+		years ago, to consolidate the John Burnit and Trimmer
+		and Company Stores, my father’s business was appraised
+		at two hundred and sixty thousand dollars and
+		yours at two hundred and forty. On your suggestion
+		we took in sixty thousand dollars of additional capital.
+		I did not know as much at that time as I do now, and
+		I let you sell this stock where you could control it,
+		virtually giving you three thousand shares to my two
+		thousand six hundred. You froze me out, elected your
+		own board, made yourself manager at an enormous
+		salary, and voted your son-in-law another one so ridiculous
+		that it was put out of all possibility for my
+		stock ever to yield any dividends. All right, Mr.
+		Trimmer. With the purchase of this three hundred
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page412" title="412"> </a>shares I now control two thousand nine hundred shares
+		and you two thousand seven hundred. I presume I
+		don’t need to tell you what is going to happen in today’s
+		meeting.�</p>
+
+		<p>To this Silas returned no answer.</p>
+
+		<p>“I am an old man,� he muttered to himself as one
+		suddenly stricken. “I am an old, old man.�</p>
+
+		<p>“I am going to oust you,� continued Bobby, “and
+		to oust all your relatives from their fat positions; and
+		I am going to elect myself to everything worth while.
+		I have brought Mr. Johnson with me to inspect your
+		books, and Mr. Chalmers to take charge of certain
+		legal matters connected with the concern immediately
+		after the close of to-day’s meeting. I am going to restore
+		Applerod to his position here from which you so
+		unceremoniously discharged him, and make Johnson
+		general manager of this and all my affairs. I understand
+		that your stock in this concern is mortgaged,
+		and that you will be utterly unable to redeem it. I
+		intend to buy it and practically own the entire company
+		myself. Are there any questions you would like
+		to ask, Mr. Trimmer?�</p>
+
+		<p>There was none. Silas, crushed and dazed and
+		pitiable, only moaned that he was an old man; that he
+		was an old, old man.</p>
+
+		<p>Bobby felt the gentle pressure of Agnes’ hand upon
+		his arm. There was a moment of silence.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page413" title="413"> </a>Trimmer looked around at them piteously. Once
+		more Bobby felt that touch upon his sleeve. Understanding,
+		he went over to Silas and took him gently
+		by the arm.</p>
+
+		<p>“Come over here to the window with me a minute,�
+		said he, “and we will have a little business talk.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Business! Oh, yes; business!� said Silas, brightening
+		up at the mention of the word.</p>
+
+		<p>He rose nervously and allowed Bobby to lead him,
+		bent and almost palsied, over to the window, where
+		they could look out on the busy street below, and the
+		roofs of the tall buildings, and the blue sky beyond
+		where it smiled down upon the river. It was only a
+		fleeting glance that Silas Trimmer cast at the familiar
+		scene outside, and almost immediately he turned to
+		Bobby, clutching his coat sleeve eagerly. “You—you
+		said something about business,� he half-whispered,
+		and over his face there came a shadow of that old,
+		shrewd look.</p>
+
+		<p>“Why, yes,� replied Bobby uncomfortably. “I
+		think we can find a place for you, Mr. Trimmer. You
+		have kept this concern up splendidly, no matter how
+		much beset you were outside, and—and I think Johnson
+		will engage you, if you care for it, to look after
+		certain details of buying and such matters as that.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Oh, yes, the buying,� agreed Silas, nodding his
+		head. “I always was a good buyer—and a good seller,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page414" title="414"> </a>too!� and he chuckled. “About what do you say, now,
+		that my services would be worth?� and with the prospect
+		of bartering more of his old self came back.</p>
+
+		<p>“We’ll make that satisfactory, I can assure you,�
+		said Bobby. “Your salary will be a very liberal one,
+		I am certain, and it will begin from to-day. First,
+		however, you must have a good rest—a vacation with
+		pay, understand—and it will make you strong again.
+		You are a little run down.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Yes,� agreed Silas, nodding his head as the animation
+		faded out of his eyes. “I’m getting old. I think,
+		Mr. Burnit, if you don’t mind I’ll go into the little
+		room there and lie on the couch for a few minutes.�</p>
+
+		<p>“That is a good idea,� said Bobby. “You should
+		be rested for the meeting.�</p>
+
+		<p>“Oh, yes,� repeated Silas, nodding his head sagely;
+		“the meeting.�</p>
+
+		<p>They were uncomfortably silent when Bobby had
+		returned from the little room adjoining. The shadow
+		of tragedy lay upon them all, and it was out of this
+		shadow that Bobby spoke his determination.</p>
+
+		<p>“I am going to get out of business,� he declared.
+		“It is a hard, hard game. I can win at it, but—well,
+		I’d rather go back, if I only could, to my unsophistication
+		of four years ago. I don’t like business. Of
+		course, I’ll keep this place for tradition’s sake, and
+		because it would please my father—no, I mean it <em>will</em>
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page415" title="415"> </a>please him—but I’m going to sell the <cite>Bulletin</cite>. I have
+		an offer for it at an excellent profit. I’m going to
+		intrust the management of the electric plant to my
+		good friend Biff, here, with Chalmers and Johnson as
+		starboard and larboard bulwarks, until the stock is
+		quoted at a high enough rating to be a profitable sale;
+		then I’m going to turn it into money, and add it to the
+		original fund. I think I shall be busy enough just
+		looking after and enjoying my new partnership,� and
+		he smiled down at Agnes, who smiled back at him with
+		a trusting admiration that needed no words to express.</p>
+
+		<p>“Beg your pardon, sir,� said old Johnson, “but I
+		have a letter here for you,� and from his inside pocket
+		he drew one of the familiar steel-gray envelopes, which
+		he handed to Bobby.</p>
+
+		<p>It was addressed:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="envelope">
+			<p>To My Son Bobby, Upon His Regaining His Father’s
+				Business</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p>The message inside was so brief that one who had
+		not known well old John Burnit would never have
+		known the full, full heart out of which he penned it:</p>
+
+		<blockquote class="letter">
+			<p>“I knew you’d do it, dear boy. Whatever mystery I
+			find in the great hereafter I shall be satisfied—for I
+			knew you’d do it.�</p>
+		</blockquote>
+
+		<p>That was all.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page416" title="416"> </a>“Johnson,� said Bobby, crumpling up the letter in
+		his hand, and speaking briskly to beat back his emotion,
+		“we will move our offices to the same old quarters,
+		and we will move back, for my use, my father’s old
+		desk with my father’s portrait hanging above it, just
+		as they were when Silas Trimmer ordered them removed.�</p>
+
+		<p>Two of the stock-holders came in at this moment,
+		and Agnes went down into the store to find Biff Bates
+		and Nellie Platt, for there was much shopping to do.
+		Agnes had taken pretty Nellie under her chaperonage,
+		and every day now the girls were busy with preparations
+		for certain events in which each was highly interested.</p>
+
+		<p>Up in the office there was a meeting that was a
+		shock to all the stock-holders but one, and after it was
+		over Bobby joined the shoppers. When the four of
+		them had clambered into Bobby’s automobile and were
+		rolling away, Bobby stopped his machine.</p>
+
+		<p>“Look,� he said in calm triumph, and pointed upward,
+		his hand clasping a smaller hand which was to
+		rest contentedly in his through life.</p>
+
+		<p>Over the Grand Street front of the building from
+		which they had emerged, workmen were just raising
+		a huge electric sign, and it bore the legend:</p>
+
+		<p class="store_sign">THE JOHN BURNIT’S SON STORES</p>
+	</div>
+	<div id="advertisements">
+		<h2><a class="disguise pagenum" id="page417" title="417"> </a>Popular Copyright Books</h2>
+
+		<p>AT MODERATE PRICES</p>
+
+		<p>Any of the following titles can be bought of your
+		bookseller at the price you paid for this volume</p>
+
+		<ul>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Alternative, The.</span> By George Barr McCutcheon.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Angel of Forgiveness, The.</span> By Rosa N. Carey.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Angel of Pain, The.</span> By E. F. Benson.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Annals of Ann, The.</span> By Kate Trimble Sharber.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Battle Ground, The.</span> By Ellen Glasgow.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Beau Brocade.</span> By Baroness Orczy.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Beechy.</span> By Bettina Von Hutten.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Bella Donna.</span> By Robert Hichens.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Betrayal, The.</span> By E. Phillips Oppenheim.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Bill Toppers, The.</span> By Andre Castaigne.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Butterfly Man, The.</span> By George Barr McCutcheon.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Cab No. 44.</span> By R. F. Foster.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Calling of Dan Matthews, The.</span> By Harold Bell Wright</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Cape Cod Stories.</span> By Joseph C. Lincoln.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Challoners, The.</span> By E. F. Benson.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">City of Six, The.</span> By C. L. Canfield.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Conspirators, The.</span>  By Robert W. Chambers.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Dan Merrithew.</span> By Lawrence Perry.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Day of the Dog, The.</span> By George Barr McCutcheon.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Depot Master, The.</span> By Joseph C. Lincoln.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Derelicts.</span> By William J. Locke.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Diamonds Cut Paste.</span> By Agnes &amp; Egerton Castle.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Early Bird, The.</span> By George Randolph Chester.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Eleventh Hour, The.</span> By David Potter.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Elizabeth in Rugen.</span> By the author of Elizabeth and Her German Garden.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Flying Mercury, The.</span> By Eleanor M. Ingram.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Gentleman, The.</span> By Alfred Ollivant.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Girl Who Won, The.</span> By Beth Ellis.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Going Some.</span> By Rex Beach.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Hidden Water.</span> By Dane Coolidge.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Honor of the Big Snows, The.</span> By James Oliver Curwood.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Hopalong Cassidy.</span> By Clarence E. Mulford.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">House of the Whispering Pines, The.</span> By Anna Katherine Green.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Imprudence of Prue, The.</span> By Sophie Fisher.</li>
+			<li><a class="disguise pagenum" id="page418" title="418"> </a><span class="ad_book">In the Service of the Princess.</span> By Henry C. Rowland.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Island of Regeneration, The.</span> By Cyrus Townsend Brady.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Lady of Big Shanty, The.</span> By Berkeley F. Smith.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Lady Merton, Colonist.</span> By Mrs. Humphrey Ward.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Lord Loveland Discovers America.</span> By C. N. &amp; A. M. Williamson.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Love the Judge.</span> By Wymond Carey.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Man Outside, The.</span> By Wyndham Martyn.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Marriage of Theodora, The.</span> By Molly Elliott Seawell.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">My Brother’s Keeper.</span> By Charles Tenny Jackson.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">My Lady of the South.</span> By Randall Parrish.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Paternoster Ruby, The.</span> By Charles Edmonds Walk.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Politician, The.</span> By Edith Huntington Mason.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Pool of Flame, The.</span> By Louis Joseph Vance.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Poppy.</span> By Cynthia Stockley.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Redemption of Kenneth Galt, The.</span> By Will N. Harben.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary, The.</span> By Anna Warner.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Road to Providence, The.</span> By Maria Thompson Davies.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Romance of a Plain Man, The.</span> By Ellen Glasgow.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Running Fight, The.</span> By Wm. Hamilton Osborne.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Septimus.</span> By William J. Locke.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Silver Horde, The.</span> By Rex Beach.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Spirit Trail, The.</span> By Kate &amp; Virgil D. Boyles.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Stanton Wins.</span> By Eleanor M. Ingram.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Stolen Singer, The.</span> By Martha Bellinger.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Three Brothers, The.</span> By Eden Phillpotts.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Thurston of Orchard Valley.</span> By Harold Bindloss.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Title Market, The.</span> By Emily Post.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Vigilante Girl, A.</span> By Jerome Hart.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Village of Vagabonds, A.</span> By F. Berkeley Smith.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Wanted—A Chaperon.</span> By Paul Leicester Ford.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Wanted: A Matchmaker.</span> By Paul Leicester Ford.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Watchers of the Plains, The.</span> By Ridgwell Cullum.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">White Sister, The.</span> By Marion Crawford.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Window at the White Cat, The.</span> By Mary Roberts Rhinehart.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Woman in Question, The.</span> By John Reed Scott.</li>
+			<li><a class="disguise pagenum" id="page419" title="419"> </a><span class="ad_book">Anna the Adventuress.</span> By E. Phillips Oppenheim.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Ann Boyd.</span> By Will N. Harben.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">At The Moorings.</span> By Rosa N. Carey.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">By Right of Purchase.</span> By Harold Bindloss.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Carlton Case, The.</span> By Ellery H. Clark.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Chase of the Golden Plate.</span> By Jacques Futrelle.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Cash Intrigue, The.</span> By George Randolph Chester.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Delafield Affair, The.</span> By Florence Finch Kelly.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Dominant Dollar, The.</span> By Will Lillibridge.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Elusive Pimpernel, The.</span> By Baroness Orczy.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Ganton &amp; Co.</span> By Arthur J. Eddy.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Gilbert Neal.</span> By Will N. Harben.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Girl and the Bill, The.</span> By Bannister Merwin.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Girl from His Town, The.</span> By Marie Van Vorst.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Glass House, The.</span> By Florence Morse Kingsley.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Highway of Fate, The.</span> By Rosa N. Carey.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Homesteaders, The.</span> By Kate and Virgil D. Boyles.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Husbands of Edith, The.</span> George Barr McCutcheon.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Inez.</span> (Illustrated Ed.) By Augusta J. Evans.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Into the Primitive.</span> By Robert Ames Bennet.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Jack Spurlock, Prodigal.</span> By Horace Lorimer.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Jude the Obscure.</span> By Thomas Hardy.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">King Spruce.</span> By Holman Day.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Kingsmead.</span> By Bettina Von Hutten.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Ladder of Swords, A.</span> By Gilbert Parker.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Lorimer of the Northwest.</span> By Harold Bindloss.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Lorraine.</span> By Robert W. Chambers.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Loves of Miss Anne, The.</span> By S. R. Crockett.</li>
+			<li><a class="disguise pagenum" id="page420" title="420"> </a><span class="ad_book">Marcaria.</span> By Augusta J. Evans.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Mam’ Linda.</span> By Will N. Harben.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Maids of Paradise, The.</span> By Robert W. Chambers.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Man in the Corner, The.</span> By Baroness Orczy.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Marriage A La Mode.</span> By Mrs. Humphry Ward.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Master Mummer, The.</span> By E. Phillips Oppenheim.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Much Ado About Peter.</span> By Jean Webster.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Old, Old Story, The.</span> By Rosa N. Carey.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Pardners.</span> By Rex Beach.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Patience of John Moreland, The.</span> By Mary Dillon.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Paul Anthony, Christian.</span> By Hiram W. Hays.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Prince of Sinners, A.</span> By E. Phillips Oppenheim.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Prodigious Hickey, The.</span> By Owen Johnson.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Red Mouse, The.</span> By William Hamilton Osborne.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Refugees, The.</span> By A. Conan Doyle.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Round the Corner in Gay Street.</span> Grace S. Richmond.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Rue: With a Difference.</span> By Rosa N. Carey.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Set in Silver.</span> By C. N. and A. M. Williamson.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">St. Elmo.</span> By Augusta J. Evans.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Silver Blade, The.</span> By Charles E. Walk.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Spirit in Prison, A.</span> By Robert Hichens.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Strawberry Handkerchief, The.</span> By Amelia E. Barr.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Tess of the D’Urbervilles.</span> By Thomas Hardy.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Uncle William.</span> By Jennette Lee.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Way of a Man, The.</span> By Emerson Hough.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Whirl, The.</span> By Foxcroft Davis.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">With Juliet in England.</span> By Grace S. Richmond.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Yellow Circle, The.</span> By Charles E. Walk.</li>
+		</ul>
+
+		<p><a class="disguise pagenum" id="page421" title="421"> </a>Any of the following: titles can be bought of your
+		bookseller at 50 cents per volume.</p>
+
+		<ul>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">The Shepherd of the Hills.</span> By Harold Bell Wright.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Jane Cable.</span> By George Barr McCutcheon.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Abner Daniel.</span> By Will N. Harben.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">The Far Horizon.</span> By Lucas Malet.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">The Halo.</span> By Bettina von Hutten.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Jerry Junior.</span> By Jean Webster.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">The Powers and Maxine.</span> By C. N. and A. M. Williamson.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">The Balance of Power.</span> By Arthur Goodrich.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Adventures of Captain Kettle.</span> By Cutcliffe Hyne.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Adventures of Gerard.</span> By A. Conan Doyle.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.</span> By A. Conan Doyle.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Arms and the Woman.</span> By Harold MacGrath.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Artemus Ward’s Works</span> (extra illustrated).</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">At the Mercy of Tiberius.</span> By Augusta Evans Wilson.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Awakening of Helena Richie.</span> By Margaret Deland.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Battle Ground, The.</span> By Ellen Glasgow.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Belle of Bowling Green, The.</span> By Amelia E. Barr.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Ben Blair.</span> By Will Lillibridge.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Best Man, The.</span> By Harold MacGrath.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Beth Norvell.</span> By Randall Parrish.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Bob Hampton of Placer.</span> By Randall Parrish.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Bob, Son of Battle.</span> By Alfred Ollivant.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Brass Bowl, The.</span> By Louis Joseph Vance.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Brethren, The.</span> By H. Rider Haggard.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Broken Lance, The.</span> By Herbert Quick.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">By Wit of Women.</span> By Arthur W. Marchmont.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Call of the Blood, The.</span> By Robert Hitchens.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Cap’n Eri.</span> By Joseph C. Lincoln.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Cardigan.</span> By Robert W. Chambers.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Car of Destiny, The.</span> By C. N. and A. M. Williamson.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Casting Away of Mrs. Leeks and Mrs. Aleshine.</span> By Frank R. Stockton.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Cecilia’s Lovers.</span> By Amelia E. Barr.</li>
+			<li><a class="disguise pagenum" id="page422" title="422"> </a><span class="ad_book">Circle, The.</span> By Katherine Cecil Thurston (author of “The Masquerader,� “The Gambler�).</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Colonial Free Lance, A.</span> By Chauncey C. Hotchkiss.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Conquest of Canaan, The.</span> By Booth Tarkington.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Courier of Fortune, A.</span> By Arthur W. Marchmont.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Darrow Enigma, The.</span> By Melvin Severy.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Deliverance, The.</span> By Ellen Glasgow.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Divine Fire, The.</span> By May Sinclair.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Empire Builders.</span> By Francis Lynde.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Exploits of Brigadier Gerard.</span> By A. Conan Doyle.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Fighting Chance, The.</span> By Robert W. Chambers.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">For a Maiden Brave.</span> By Chauncey C. Hotchkiss.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Fugitive Blacksmith, The.</span> By Chas. D. Stewart.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">God’s Good Man.</span> By Marie Corelli.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Heart’s Highway, The.</span> By Mary E. Wilkins.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Holladay Case, The.</span> By Burton Egbert Stevenson.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Hurricane Island.</span> By H. B. Marriott Watson.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">In Defiance of the King.</span> By Chauncey C. Hotchkiss.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Indifference of Juliet, The.</span> By Grace S. Richmond.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Infelice.</span> By Augusta Evans Wilson.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Lady Betty Across the Water.</span> By C. N. and A. M. Williamson.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Lady of the Mount, The.</span> By Frederic S. Isham.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Lane That Had No Turning, The.</span> By Gilbert Parker.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Langford of the Three Bars.</span> By Kate and Virgil D. Boyles.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Last Trail, The.</span> By Zane Grey.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Leavenworth Case, The.</span> By Anna Katharine Green.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Lilac Sunbonnet, The.</span> By S. R. Crockett.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Lin McLean.</span> By Owen Wister.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Long Night, The.</span> By Stanley J. Weyman.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Maid at Arms, The.</span> By Robert W. Chambers.</li>
+			<li><a class="disguise pagenum" id="page423" title="423"> </a><span class="ad_book">Man from Red Keg, The.</span> By Eugene Thwing.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Marthon Mystery, The.</span> By Burton Egbert Stevenson.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.</span> By A. Conan Doyle.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Millionaire Baby, The.</span> By Anna Katharine Green.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Missourian, The.</span> By Eugene P. Lyle, Jr.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Mr. Barnes, American.</span> By A. C. Gunter.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Mr. Pratt.</span> By Joseph C. Lincoln.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">My Friend the Chauffeur.</span> By C. N. and A. M. Williamson.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">My Lady of the North.</span> By Randall Parrish.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Mystery of June 13th.</span> By Melvin L. Severy.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Mystery Tales.</span> By Edgar Allan Poe.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Nancy Stair.</span> By Elinor Macartney Lane.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Order No. 11.</span> By Caroline Abbot Stanley.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Pam.</span> By Bettina von Hutten.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Pam Decides.</span> By Bettina von Hutten.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Partners of the Tide.</span> By Joseph C. Lincoln.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Phra the Phoenician.</span> By Edwin Lester Arnold.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">President, The.</span> By Alfred Henry Lewis.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Princess Passes, The.</span> By C. N. and A. M. Williamson.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Princess Virginia, The.</span> By C. N. and A. M. Williamson.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Prisoners.</span> By Mary Cholmondeley.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Private War, The.</span> By Louis Joseph Vance.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Prodigal Son, The.</span> By Hall Caine.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Quickening, The.</span> By Francis Lynde.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Richard the Brazen.</span> By Cyrus T. Brady and Edw. Peple.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Rose of the World.</span> By Agnes and Egerton Castle.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Running Water.</span> By A. E. W. Mason.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Sarita the Carlist.</span> By Arthur W. Marchmont.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Seats of the Mighty, The.</span> By Gilbert Parker.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Sir Nigel.</span> By A. Conan Doyle.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Sir Richard Calmady.</span> By Lucas Malet.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Speckled Bird, A.</span> By Augusta Evans Wilson.</li>
+			<li><a class="disguise pagenum" id="page424" title="424"> </a><span class="ad_book">Spirit of the Border, The.</span> By Zane Grey.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Spoilers, The.</span> By Rex Beach.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Squire Phin.</span> By Holman F. Day.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Stooping Lady, The.</span>  By Maurice Hewlett.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Subjection of Isabel Carnaby.</span> By Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Sunset Trail, The.</span> By Alfred Henry Lewis.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Sword of the Old Frontier, A.</span> By Randall Parrish.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Tales of Sherlock Holmes.</span> By A. Conan Doyle.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">That Printer of Udell’s.</span> By Harold Bell Wright.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Throwback, The.</span> By Alfred Henry Lewis.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Trail of the Sword, The.</span> By Gilbert Parker.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Treasure of Heaven, The.</span> By Marie Corelli.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Two Vanrevels, The.</span> By Booth Tarkington.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Up From Slavery.</span> By Booker T. Washington.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Vashti.</span> By Augusta Evans Wilson.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Viper of Milan, The</span> (original edition). By Marjorie Bowen.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Voice of the People, The.</span> By Ellen Glasgow.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Wheel of Life, The.</span> By Ellen Glasgow.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">When Wilderness Was King.</span> By Randall Parrish.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Where the Trail Divides.</span> By Will Lillibridge.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Woman in Grey, A.</span> By Mrs. C. N. Williamson.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Woman in the Alcove, The.</span> By Anna Katharine Green.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Younger Set, The.</span> By Robert W. Chambers.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">The Weavers.</span> By Gilbert Parker.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">The Little Brown Jug at Kildare.</span> By Meredith Nicholson.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">The Prisoners of Chance.</span> By Randall Parrish.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">My Lady of Cleve.</span> By Percy J. Hartley.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Loaded Dice.</span> By Ellery H. Clark.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Get Rich Quick Wallingford.</span> By George Randolph Chester.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">The Orphan.</span> By Clarence Mulford.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">A Gentleman of France.</span> By Stanley J. Weyman.</li>
+			<li><a class="disguise pagenum" id="page425" title="425"> </a><span class="ad_book">Purple Parasol, The.</span> By George Barr McCutcheon.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Princess Dehra, The.</span> By John Reed Scott.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Making of Bobby Burnit, The.</span> By George Randolph Chester.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Last Voyage of the Donna Isabel, The.</span> By Randall Parrish.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Bronze Bell, The.</span> By Louis Joseph Vance.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Pole Baker.</span> By Will N. Harben.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Four Million, The.</span> By O. Henry.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Idols.</span> By William J. Locke.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Wayfarers, The.</span> By Mary Stewart Cutting.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Held for Orders.</span> By Frank H. Spearman.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Story of the Outlaw, The.</span> By Emerson Hough.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Mistress of Brae Farm, The.</span> By Rosa N. Carey.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Explorer, The.</span> By William Somerset Maugham.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Abbess of Vlaye, The.</span> By Stanley Weyman.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Alton of Somasco.</span> By Harold Bindloss.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Ancient Law, The.</span> By Ellen Glasgow.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Barrier, The.</span> By Rex Beach.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Bar 20.</span> By Clarence E. Mulford.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Beloved Vagabond, The.</span> By William J. Locke.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Beulah.</span> (Illustrated Edition.) By Augusta J. Evans.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Chaperon, The.</span> By C. N. and A. M. Williamson.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Colonel Greatheart.</span> By H. C. Bailey.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Dissolving Circle, The.</span> By Will Lillibridge.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Elusive Isabel.</span> By Jacques Futrelle.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">Fair Moon of Bath, The.</span> By Elizabeth Ellis.</li>
+			<li><span class="ad_book">54-40 or Fight.</span> By Emerson Hough.</li>
+		</ul>
+	</div>
+
+	<div id="the_end">&nbsp;</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
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+</body>
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+Project Gutenberg's The Making of Bobby Burnit, by George Randolph Chester
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Making of Bobby Burnit
+       Being a Record of the Adventures of a Live American Young Man
+
+Author: George Randolph Chester
+
+Illustrator: James Montgomery Flagg
+             F. R. Gruger
+
+Release Date: August 30, 2008 [EBook #26485]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAKING OF BOBBY BURNIT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Mark C. Orton, Linda McKeown, Barbara Tozier
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+THE MAKING OF BOBBY BURNIT
+
+
+
+[Illustration: I'm in for some of the severest drubbings of my life]
+
+
+
+
+                      THE MAKING OF BOBBY BURNIT
+
+    Being a Record of the Adventures of a Live American Young Man
+
+
+                     _By GEORGE RANDOLPH CHESTER_
+
+
+                              AUTHOR OF
+
+       "Get Rich Quick Wallingford," "The Cash Intrigue," Etc.
+
+
+                       WITH FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+              BY JAMES MONTGOMERY FLAGG AND F. R. GRUGER
+
+
+                         _A. L. BURT COMPANY_
+                        _Publishers New York_
+
+
+
+
+                            COPYRIGHT 1908
+
+                    THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
+
+                            COPYRIGHT 1909
+
+                      THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
+
+                                 JUNE
+
+
+
+
+
+                              DEDICATION
+
+                   To the Handicapped Sons of Able
+                     Fathers, and the Handicapped
+                        Fathers of Able Sons,
+                          with Sympathy for
+                             each, and a
+                              Smile for
+                                 both
+
+
+
+
+THE MAKING OF BOBBY BURNIT
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+BOBBY MAKES SOME IMPORTANT PREPARATIONS FOR A COMMERCIAL LIFE
+
+
+"I am profoundly convinced that my son is a fool," read the will of
+old John Burnit. "I am, however, also convinced that I allowed him to
+become so by too much absorption in my own affairs and too little in
+his, and, therefore, his being a fool is hereditary; consequently, I
+feel it my duty, first, to give him a fair trial at making his own
+way, and second, to place the balance of my fortune in such trust that
+he can not starve. The trusteeship is already created and the details
+are nobody's present business. My son Robert will take over the John
+Burnit Store and personally conduct it, as his only resource, without
+further question as to what else I may have left behind me. This is my
+last will and testament."
+
+That is how cheerful Bobby Burnit, with no thought heretofore above
+healthy amusements and Agnes Elliston, suddenly became a business man,
+after having been raised to become the idle heir to about three
+million. Of course, having no kith nor kin in all this wide world, he
+went immediately to consult Agnes. It is quite likely that if he had
+been supplied with dozens of uncles and aunts he would have gone first
+to Agnes anyhow, having a mighty regard for her keen judgment, even
+though her clear gaze rested now and then all too critically upon
+himself. Just as he came whirling up the avenue he saw Nick Allstyne's
+white car, several blocks ahead of him, stop at her door, and a figure
+which he knew must be Nick jump out and trip up the steps. Almost
+immediately the figure came down again, much more slowly, and climbed
+into the car, which whizzed away.
+
+"Not at home," grumbled Bobby.
+
+It was like him, however, that he should continue straight to the
+quaint old house of the Ellistons and proffer his own card, for,
+though his aims could seldom be called really worth while, he
+invariably finished the thing he set out to do. It seemed to be a sort
+of disease. He could not help it. To his surprise, the Cerberus who
+guarded the Elliston door received him with a smile and a bow, and
+observed:
+
+"Miss Elliston says you are to walk right on up to the Turkish alcove,
+sir."
+
+While Wilkins took his hat and coat Bobby paused for a moment
+figuratively to hug himself. At home to no one else! Expecting him!
+
+"I'll ask her again," said Bobby to himself with determination, and
+stalked on up to the second floor hall, upon which opened a delightful
+cozy corner where Aunt Constance Elliston permitted the more
+"family-like" male callers to smoke and loll and be at mannish ease.
+
+As he reached the landing the door of the library below opened, and in
+it appeared Agnes and an unusually well-set-up young man--a new one,
+who wore a silky mustache and most fastidious tailoring. The two were
+talking and laughing gaily as the door opened, but as Agnes glanced up
+and saw Bobby she suddenly stopped laughing, and he almost thought
+that he overheard her say something in an aside to her companion. The
+impression was but fleeting, however, for she immediately nodded
+brightly. Bobby bowed rather stiffly in return, and continued his
+ascent of the stairs with a less sprightly footstep. Crestfallen, and
+conscious that Agnes had again closed the door of the library without
+either herself or the strange visitor having emerged into the hall, he
+strode into the Turkish alcove and let himself drop upon a divan with
+a thump. He extracted a cigar from his cigar-case, carefully cut off
+the tip and as carefully restored the cigar to its place. Then he
+clasped his interlocked fingers around his knee, and for the next ten
+minutes strove, like a gentleman, not to listen.
+
+When Agnes came up presently she made no mention whatever of her
+caller, and, of course, Bobby had no excuse upon which to hang
+impertinent questions, though the sharp barbs of them were darting
+through and through him. Such fuming as he felt, however, was
+instantly allayed by the warm and thoroughly honest clasp she gave him
+when she shook hands with him. It was one of the twenty-two million
+things he liked about her that she did not shake hands like two ounces
+of cold fish, as did some of the girls he knew. She was dressed in a
+half-formal house-gown, and the one curl of her waving brown hair that
+would persistently straggle down upon her forehead was in its
+accustomed place. He had always been obsessed with a nearly
+irresistible impulse to put his finger through that curl.
+
+"I have come around to consult you about a little business matter,
+Agnes," he found himself beginning with sudden breathlessness, his
+perturbation forgotten in the overwhelming charm of her. "The
+governor's will has just been read to me, and he's plunged me into a
+ripping mess. His whole fortune is in the hands of a trusteeship,
+whatever that is, and I'm not even to know the trustees. All I get is
+just the business, and I'm to carry the John Burnit Store on from its
+present blue-ribbon standing to still more dazzling heights, I
+suppose. Well, I'd like to do it. The governor deserves it. But, you
+see, I'm so beastly thick-headed. Now, Agnes, you have perfectly
+stunning judgment and all that, so if you would just----" and he came
+to an abrupt and painful pause.
+
+"Have you brought along the contract?" she asked demurely. "Honestly,
+Bobby, you're the most original person in the world. The first time, I
+was to marry you because you were so awkward, and the next time
+because your father thought so much of me, and another time because
+you wanted us to tour Norway and not have a whole bothersome crowd
+along; then you were tired living in a big, lonely house with just you
+and your father and the servants; now, it's an advantageous business
+arrangement. What share of the profits am I to receive?"
+
+Bobby's face had turned red, but he stuck manfully to his guns.
+
+"All of them," he blurted. "You know that none of those is the real
+reason," he as suddenly protested. "It is only that when I come to
+tell you the actual reason I rather choke up and can't."
+
+"You're a mighty nice boy, Bobby," she confessed. "Now sit down and
+behave, and tell me just what you have decided to do."
+
+"Well," said he, accepting his defeat with great philosophy, since he
+had no reason to regard it as final, "of course, my decision is made
+for me. I'm to take hold of the business. I don't know anything about
+it, but I don't see why it shouldn't go straight on as it always has."
+
+"Possibly," she admitted thoughtfully; "but I imagine your father
+expected you to have rather a difficult time of it. Perhaps he wants
+you to, so that a defeat or two will sting you into having a little
+more serious purpose in life than you have at present. I'd like,
+myself, to see you handle, with credit to him and to you, the splendid
+establishment he built up."
+
+"If I do," Bobby wanted to know, "will you marry me?"
+
+"That makes eleven times. I'm not saying, Bobby, but you never can
+tell."
+
+"That settles it. I'm going to be a business man. Let me use your
+'phone a minute." It was one of the many advantages of the
+delightfully informal Turkish alcove that it contained a telephone,
+and in two minutes Bobby had his tailors. "Make me two or three
+business suits," he ordered. "Regular business suits, I mean, for real
+business wear--you know the sort of thing--and get them done as
+quickly as you can, please. There!" said he as he hung up the
+receiver. "I shall begin to-morrow morning. I'll go down early and
+take hold of the John Burnit Store in earnest."
+
+"You've made a splendid start," commented Agnes, smiling. "Now tell me
+about the polo tournament," and she sat back to enjoy his enthusiasm
+over something about which he was entirely posted.
+
+He was good to look at, was Bobby, with his clean-cut figure and his
+clean-cut face and his clean, blue eyes and clean complexion, and she
+delighted in nothing more than just to sit and watch him when he was
+at ease; he was so restful, so certain to be always telling the truth,
+to be always taking a charitably good-humored view of life, to turn on
+wholesome topics and wholesome points of view; but after he had gone
+she smiled and sighed and shook her head.
+
+"Poor Bobby," she mused. "There won't be a shred left of his tender
+little fleece by the time he gets through."
+
+One more monitor Bobby went to see that afternoon, and this was Biff
+Bates. It required no sending in of cards to enter the presence of
+this celebrity. One simply stepped out of the elevator and used one's
+latch-key. It was so much more convenient. Entering a big, barnlike
+room he found Mr. Bates, clad only in trunks and canvas shoes,
+wreaking dire punishment upon a punching-bag merely by way of
+amusement; and Mr. Bates, with every symptom of joy illuminating his
+rather horizontal features--wide brows, wide cheek-bone, wide nose,
+wide mouth, wide chin, wide jaw--stopped to shake hands most
+enthusiastically with his caller without removing his padded glove.
+
+"What's the good news, old pal?" he asked huskily.
+
+He was half a head shorter than Bobby and four inches broader across
+the shoulders, and his neck spread out over all the top of his torso;
+but there was something in the clear gaze of the eyes which made the
+two gentlemen look quite alike as they shook hands, vastly different
+as they were.
+
+"Bad news for you, I'm afraid," announced Bobby. "That little
+partnership idea of the big gymnasium will have to be called off for a
+while."
+
+Mr. Bates took a contemplative punch or two at the still quivering
+bag.
+
+"It was a fake, anyway," he commented, putting his arm around the top
+of the punching-bag and leaning against it comfortably; "just like
+this place. You went into partnership with me on this joint--that is,
+you put up the coin and run in a lot of your friends on me to be
+trained up--squarest lot of sports I ever saw, too. You fill the place
+with business and allow me a weekly envelope that makes me tilt my
+chin till I have to wear my lid down over my eyes to keep it from
+falling off the back of my head, and when there's profits to split up
+you shoves mine into my mitt and puts yours into improvements. You put
+in the new shower baths and new bars and traps, and the last thing,
+that swimming-tank back there. I'm glad the big game's off. I'm so
+contented now I'm getting over-weight, and you'd bilk me again. But
+what's the matter? Did the bookies get you?"
+
+"No; I'll tell you all about it," and Bobby carefully explained the
+terms of his father's will and what they meant.
+
+Mr. Bates listened carefully, and when the explanation was finished he
+thought for a long time.
+
+"Well, Bobby," said he, "here's where you get it. They'll shred you
+clean. You're too square for that game. Your old man was a fine old
+sport and _he_ played it on the level, but, say, he could see a marked
+card clear across a room. They'll double-cross you, though, to a
+fare-ye-well."
+
+The opinion seemed to be unanimous.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+PINK CARNATIONS APPEAR IN THE OFFICE OF THE JOHN BURNIT STORE
+
+
+Bobby gave his man orders to wake him up early next morning, say not
+later than eight, and prided himself very much upon his energy when,
+at ten-thirty, he descended from his machine in front of the old and
+honored establishment of John Burnit, and, leaving instructions for
+his chauffeur to call for him at twelve, made his way down the long
+aisles of white-piled counters and into the dusty little office where
+old Johnson, thin as a rail and with a face like whittled chalk,
+humped over his desk exactly as he had sat for the past thirty-five
+years.
+
+"Good-morning, Johnson," observed Bobby with an affable nod. "I've
+come to take over the business."
+
+He said it in the same untroubled tone he had always used in asking
+for his weekly check, and Johnson looked up with a wry smile.
+Applerod, on the contrary, was beaming with hearty admiration. He was
+as florid as Johnson was colorless, and the two had rubbed elbows and
+dispositions in that same room almost since the house of Burnit had
+been founded.
+
+"Very well, sir," grudged Johnson, and immediately laid upon the
+time-blackened desk which had been old John Burnit's, a closely
+typewritten statement of some twenty pages. On top of this he placed a
+plain gray envelope addressed:
+
+    _To My Son Robert,
+    Upon the Occasion of His Taking Over the Business_
+
+Upon this envelope Bobby kept his eyes in mild speculation, while he
+leisurely laid aside his cane and removed his gloves and coat and hat;
+next he sat down in his father's jerky old swivel chair and lit a
+cigarette; then he opened the letter. He read:
+
+    "Every business needs a pessimist and an optimist, with ample
+    opportunities to quarrel. Johnson is a jackass, but honest. He
+    is a pessimist and has a pea-green liver. Listen to him and
+    the business will die painlessly, by inches. Applerod is also
+    a jackass, and I presume him to be honest; but I never tested
+    it. He suffers from too much health, and the surplus goes into
+    optimism. Listen to him and the business will die in horrible
+    agony, quickly. But keep both of them. Let them fight things
+    out until they come almost to an understanding, then take the
+    middle course."
+
+That was all. Bobby turned squarely to survey the frowning Johnson and
+the still beaming Applerod, and with a flash of clarity he saw his
+father's wisdom. He had always admired John Burnit, aside from the
+fact that the sturdy pioneer had been his father, had admired him much
+as one admires the work of a master magician--without any hope of
+emulation. As he read the note he could seem to see the old gentleman
+standing there with his hands behind him, ready to stretch on tiptoe
+and drop to his heels with a thump as he reached a climax, his
+spectacles shoved up on his forehead, his strong, wrinkled face stern
+from the cheek-bones down, but twinkling from that line upward, the
+twinkle, which had its seat about the shrewd eyes, suddenly
+terminating in a sharp, whimsical, little up-pointed curl in the very
+middle of his forehead. To corroborate his warm memory Bobby opened
+the front of his watch-case, where the same face looked him squarely
+in the eyes. Naturally, then, he opened the other lid, where Agnes
+Elliston's face smiled up at him. Suddenly he shut both lids with a
+snap and turned, with much distaste but with a great show of energy,
+to the heavy statement which had all this time confronted him. The
+first page he read over laboriously, the second one he skimmed
+through, the third and fourth he leafed over; and then he skipped to
+the last sheet, where was set down a concise statement of the net
+assets and liabilities.
+
+"According to this," observed Bobby with great show of wisdom, "I take
+over the business in a very flourishing condition."
+
+"Well," grudgingly admitted Mr. Johnson, "it might be worse."
+
+"It could hardly be better," interposed Applerod--"that is, without
+the extensions and improvements that I think your father would have
+come in time to make. Of course, at his age he was naturally a bit
+conservative."
+
+"Mr. Applerod and myself have never agreed upon that point," wheezed
+Johnson sharply. "For my part I considered your father--well, scarcely
+reckless, but, say, sufficiently daring! Daring is about the word."
+
+Bobby grinned cheerfully.
+
+"He let the business go rather by its own weight, didn't he?"
+
+Both gentlemen shook their heads, instantly and most emphatically.
+
+"He certainly must have," insisted Bobby. "As I recollect it, he only
+worked up here, of late years, from about eleven fifty-five to twelve
+every other Thursday."
+
+"Oftener than that," solemnly corrected the literal Mr. Johnson. "He
+was here from eleven until twelve-thirty every day."
+
+"What did he do?"
+
+It was Applerod who, with keen appreciation, hastened to advise him
+upon this point.
+
+"Said 'yes' twice and 'no' twelve times. Then, at the very last
+minute, when we thought that he was through, he usually landed on a
+proposition that hadn't been put up to him at all, and put it clear
+out of the business."
+
+"Looks like good finessing to me," said Bobby complacently. "I think I
+shall play it that way."
+
+"It wouldn't do, sir," Mr. Johnson replied in a tone of keen pain.
+"You must understand that when your father started this business it
+was originally a little fourteen-foot-front place, one story high. He
+got down here at six o'clock every morning and swept out. As he got
+along a little further he found that he could trust somebody else with
+that job--_but he always knew how to sweep_. It took him a lifetime to
+simmer down his business to just 'yes' and 'no.'"
+
+"I see," mused Bobby; "and I'm expected to take that man's place! How
+would you go about it?"
+
+"I would suggest, without meaning any impertinence whatever, sir,"
+insinuated Mr. Johnson, "that if you were to start clerking----"
+
+"Or sweeping out at six o'clock in the morning?" calmly interrupted
+Bobby. "I don't like to stay up so late. No, Johnson, about the only
+thing I'm going to do to show my respect for the traditions of the
+house is to leave this desk just as it is, and hang an oil portrait of
+my father over it. And, by the way, isn't there some little side room
+where I can have my office? I'm going into this thing very earnestly."
+
+Mr. Johnson and Mr. Applerod exchanged glances.
+
+"The door just to the right there," said Mr. Johnson, "leads to a room
+which is at present filled with old files of the credit department. No
+doubt those could be moved somewhere else."
+
+Bobby walked into that room and gaged its possibilities. It was a
+little small, to be sure, but it would do for the present.
+
+"Just have that cleared out and a 'phone put in. I'll get right down
+to business this afternoon and see about the fittings for it." Then he
+looked at his watch once more. "By George!" he exclaimed, "I almost
+forgot that I was to see Nick Allstyne at the Idlers' Club about that
+polo match. Just have one of your boys stand out at the curb along
+about twelve, will you, and tell my chauffeur to report at the club."
+
+Johnson eyed the closed door over his spectacles.
+
+"He'll be having blue suits and brass buttons on us two next," he
+snorted.
+
+"He don't mean it at all that way," protested Applerod. "For my part,
+I think he's a fine young fellow."
+
+"I'll give you to understand, sir," retorted Johnson, violently
+resenting this imputed defection, "that he is the son of his father,
+and for that, if for nothing else, would have my entire allegiance."
+
+Bobby, meanwhile, feeling very democratic and very much a man of
+affairs, took a street-car to the Idlers', and strode through the
+classic portals of that club with gravity upon his brow. Flaxen-haired
+Nick Allstyne, standing by the registry desk, turned to dark Payne
+Winthrop with a nod.
+
+"You win," he admitted. "I'll have to charge it up to you, Bobby. I
+just lost a quart of the special to Payne that since you'd become
+immersed in the cares of business you'd not be here."
+
+Bobby was almost austere in his reception of this slight.
+
+"Don't you know," he demanded, "that there is nobody who keeps even
+his social engagements like a business man?"
+
+"That's what I gambled on," returned Payne confidentially, "but I
+wasn't sure just how much of a business man you'd become. Nick, don't
+you already seem to see a crease in Bobby's brow?"
+
+"No, that's his regular polo crease," objected lanky Stanley Rogers,
+joining them, and the four of them fell upon polo as one man. Their
+especially anxious part in the tournament was to be a grinding match
+against Willie Ashler's crack team, and the point of worry was that so
+many of their fellows were out of town. They badly needed one more
+good player.
+
+"I have it," declared Bobby finally. It was he who usually decided
+things in this easy-going, athletic crowd. "We'll make Jack Starlett
+play, but the only way to get him is to go over to Washington after
+him. Payne, you're to go along. You always keep a full set of regalia
+here at the club, I know. Here, boy!" he called to a passing page.
+"Find out for us the next two trains to Washington."
+
+"Yes, sir," said the boy with a grin, and was off like a shot. They
+had a strict rule against tipping in the Idlers', but if he happened
+to meet Bobby outside, say at the edge of the curb where his car was
+standing, there was no rule against his receiving something there.
+Besides, he liked Bobby, anyhow. They all did. He was back in a
+moment.
+
+"One at two-ten and one at four-twenty, sir."
+
+"The two-ten sounds about right," announced Bobby. "Now, Billy,
+telephone to my apartments to have my Gladstone and my dress-suit togs
+brought down to that train. Then, by the way, telephone Leatherby and
+Pluscher to send up to my place of business and have Mr. Johnson show
+their man my new office. Have him take measurements of it and fit it
+up at once, complete. They know the kind of things I like. Really,
+fellows," he continued, turning to the others, after he had patiently
+repeated and explained his instructions to the foggy but willing
+Billy, "I'm in serious earnest about this thing. Up to me, you know,
+to do credit to the governor, if I can."
+
+"Bobby, the Boy Bargain Baron," observed Nick. "Well, I guess you can
+do it. All you need to do is to take hold, and I'll back you at any
+odds."
+
+"We'll all put a bet on you," encouraged Stanley Rogers. "More, we'll
+help. We'll all get married and send our wives around to open accounts
+with you."
+
+In spite of the serious business intentions, the luncheon which
+followed was the last the city saw of Bobby Burnit for three days. Be
+it said to his credit that he had accomplished his purpose when he
+returned. He had brought reluctant Jack Starlett back with him, and
+together they walked into the John Burnit Store.
+
+"New office fitted up yet, Johnson?" asked Bobby pleasantly.
+
+"Yes, sir," replied Johnson sourly. "Just a moment, Mr. Burnit," and
+from an index cabinet back of him he procured an oblong gray envelope
+which he handed to Bobby. It was inscribed:
+
+    _To My Son,
+    Upon the Fitting-Out of New Offices_
+
+With a half-embarrassed smile, Bobby regarded that letter thoughtfully
+and carried it into the luxurious new office. He opened it and read
+it, and, still with that queer smile, passed it over to Starlett. This
+was old John Burnit's message:
+
+    "I have seen a business work up to success, and afterward add
+    velvet rugs and dainty flowers on the desk, but I never saw a
+    successful business start that way."
+
+Bobby looked around him with a grin. There _was_ a velvet rug on the
+floor. There were no flowers upon the mahogany desk, but there _was_ a
+vase to receive them. For just one moment he was nonplussed; then he
+opened the door leading to the dingy apartment occupied by Messrs.
+Johnson and Applerod.
+
+"Mr. Johnson," said he, "will you kindly send out and get two dozen
+pink carnations for my room?"
+
+Quiet, big Jack Starlett, having loaded and lit and taken the first
+long puff, removed his pipe from his lips.
+
+"Bully!" said he.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+OLD JOHN BURNIT'S ANCIENT ENEMY POINTS OUT THE WAY TO GRANDEUR
+
+
+Mr. Johnson had no hair in the very center of his head, but, when he
+was more than usually vexed, he ran his fingers through what was left
+upon both sides of the center and impatiently pushed it up toward a
+common point. His hair was in that identical condition when he knocked
+at the door of Bobby's office and poked in his head to announce Mr.
+Silas Trimmer.
+
+"Trimmer," mused Bobby. "Oh, yes; he is the John Burnit Store's chief
+competitor; concern backs up against ours, fronting on Market Street.
+Show him in, Johnson."
+
+Jack Starlett, who had dropped in to loaf a bit, rose to go.
+
+"Sit down," insisted Bobby. "I'm conducting this thing all open and
+aboveboard. You know, I think I shall like business."
+
+"They tell me it's the greatest game out," commented Starlett, and
+just then Mr. Trimmer entered.
+
+He was a little, wiry man as to legs and arms, but fearfully rotund as
+to paunch, and he had a yellow leather face and black eyes which,
+though gleaming like beads, seemed to have a muddy cast. Bobby rose to
+greet him with a cordiality in no degree abashed by this appearance.
+
+"And what can we do for you, Mr. Trimmer?" he asked after the usual
+inanities of greeting had been exchanged.
+
+"Take lunch with me," invited Mr. Trimmer, endeavoring to beam, his
+heavy, down-drooping gray mustache remaining immovable in front of the
+deeply-chiseled smile that started far above the corners of his nose
+and curved around a display of yellow teeth. "I have just learned that
+you have taken over the business, and I wish as quickly as possible to
+form with the son the same cordial relations which for years I enjoyed
+with the father."
+
+Bobby looked him contemplatively in the eye, but had no experience
+upon which to base a picture of his father and Mr. Trimmer enjoying
+perpetually cordial relations with a knife down each boot leg.
+
+"Very sorry, Mr. Trimmer, but I am engaged for lunch."
+
+"Dinner, then--at the Traders' Club," insisted Mr. Trimmer, who never
+for any one moment had remained entirely still, either his foot or his
+hand moving, or some portion of his body twitching almost incessantly.
+
+Inwardly Bobby frowned, for, so far, he had found no points about his
+caller to arouse his personal enthusiasm; and yet it suddenly occurred
+to him that here was doubtless business, and that it ought to have
+attention. His father, under similar circumstances, would find out
+what the man was after. He cast a hesitating glance at his friend.
+
+"Don't mind me, Bobby," said Starlett briskly. "You know I shall be
+compelled to take dinner with the folks to-night."
+
+"At about what time, Mr. Trimmer?" Bobby asked.
+
+"Oh, suit yourself. Any time," responded that gentleman eagerly. "Say
+half-past six."
+
+"The Traders'," mused Bobby. "I think the governor put me up there
+four or five years ago."
+
+"I seconded you," the other informed him; "and I had the pleasure of
+voting for you just the other day, on the vacancy made by your father.
+You're a full-fledged member now."
+
+"Fine!" said Bobby. "Business suit or----"
+
+"Anything you like." With again that circular smile behind his
+immovable mustache, Mr. Trimmer backed out of the room, and Bobby,
+dropping into a chair, turned perplexed eyes upon his friend.
+
+"What do you suppose he wants?" he inquired.
+
+"Your eye-teeth," returned Jack bluntly. "He looks like a mucker to
+me."
+
+"Oh, I don't know," returned Bobby, a trifle uneasily. "You see, Jack,
+he isn't exactly our sort, and maybe we can't get just the right angle
+in judging him. He's been nailed down to business all his life, you
+know, and a fellow in that line don't have a chance, as I take it, to
+cultivate all the little--well, say artificial graces."
+
+"Your father wasn't like him. He was as near a thoroughbred as I ever
+saw, Bobby, and he was nailed down, as you put it, all _his_ life."
+
+"Oh, you couldn't expect them all to be like the governor," responded
+Bobby instantly, shocked at the idea. "But this chap may be no end of
+a good sort in his style. No doubt at all he merely came over in a
+friendly way to bid me a sort of welcome into the fraternity of
+business men," and Bobby felt quite a little thrill of pride in that
+novel idea. "By George! Wait a minute," he exclaimed as still another
+brilliant thought struck him, and going into the other room he said to
+Johnson: "Please give me the letter addressed: 'To My Son Robert, Upon
+the Occasion of Mr. Trimmer's First Call.'"
+
+For the first time in days a grin irradiated Johnson's face.
+
+"Nothing here, sir," he replied.
+
+"Let me go through that file."
+
+"Strictly against orders, sir," said Johnson.
+
+"Indeed," responded Bobby quizzically; "I don't like to press the bet,
+Johnson, but really I'd like to know who has the say here."
+
+"You have, sir, over everything except my private affairs; and that
+letter file is my private property and its contents my private
+trusteeship."
+
+"I can still take my castor oil like a little man, if I have to,"
+Bobby resignedly observed. "I remember that when I was a kiddy the
+governor once undertook to teach me mathematics, and he never would
+let me see the answers. More than ever it looks like it was up to
+Bobby," and whistling cheerfully he walked back into his private
+office.
+
+Johnson turned to Applerod with a snarl.
+
+"Mr. Applerod," said he, "you know that I almost never swear. I am now
+about to do so. Darn it! It's a shame that Trimmer calls here again on
+that old scheme about which he deviled this house for years, and we
+forbidden to give Mr. Robert a word of advice unless he asks for it."
+
+"Why is it a shame?" demanded Applerod. "I always have thought that
+Trimmer's plan was a great one."
+
+So, all unprepared, Bobby went forth that evening, to become
+acquainted with the great plan.
+
+At the restless Traders' Club, where the precise corridors and columns
+and walls and ceilings of white marble were indicative of great
+formality, men with creases in their brows wore their derbies on the
+backs of their heads and ceaselessly talked shop. Mr. Trimmer, more
+creased of brow than any of them, was drifting from group to group
+with his eyes turned anxiously toward the door until Bobby came in.
+Mr. Trimmer was most effusively glad to see the son of his old friend
+once again, and lost no time in seating him at a most secluded table,
+where, by the time the oysters came on, he was deep in a catalogue of
+the virtues of John Burnit; and Bobby, with a very real and a very
+deep affection for his father which seldom found expression in words,
+grew restive. One thing held him, aside from his obligations as a
+guest. He was convinced now that his host's kindness was in truth a
+mere graceful act of welcome, due largely to his father's standing,
+and the idea flattered him very much. He strove to look as
+businesslike as possible, and thought again and again upon his father;
+of how he had sat day after day in this stately dining-hall, honored
+and venerated among these men who were striving still for the ideal
+that he had attained. It was a good thought, and made for pride of the
+right sort. With the entree Mr. Trimmer ordered his favorite vintage
+champagne, and, as it boiled up like molten amber in the glasses, so
+sturdily that the center of the surface kept constantly a full quarter
+of an inch above the sides, he waited anxiously for Bobby to sample
+it. Even Bobby, long since disillusioned of such things and grown
+abstemious from healthy choice, after a critical taste sipped slowly
+again and again.
+
+"That's ripping good wine," he acknowledged.
+
+"There's only a little over two hundred bottles of it left in the
+world," Mr. Trimmer assured him, and then he waited for that first
+glass to exert its warming glow. He was a good waiter, was Silas
+Trimmer, and keenly sensitive to personal influences. He knew that
+Bobby had not been in entire harmony with him at any period of the
+evening, but after the roast came on--a most careful roast, indeed,
+prepared under a certain formula upon which Mr. Trimmer had
+painstakingly insisted--he saw that he had really found his way for a
+moment to Bobby's heart through the channel provided by Nature for
+attacks upon masculine sympathy, and at that moment he leaned forward
+with his circular smile, and observed:
+
+"By the way, Mr. Burnit, I suppose your father often discussed with
+you the great plan we evolved for the Burnit-Trimmer Arcade?"
+
+Bobby almost blushed at the confession he must make.
+
+"I'm sorry to say that he didn't," he owned. "I never took the
+interest in such things that I ought, and so I missed a lot of
+confidences I'd like to have had now."
+
+"Too bad," sympathized Mr. Trimmer, now quite sure of his ground,
+since he had found that Bobby was not posted. "It was a splendid plan
+we had. You know, your building and mine are precisely the same width
+and precisely in a line with each other, back to back, with only the
+alley separating us, the Trimmer establishment fronting on Market
+Street and the Burnit building on Grand. The alley is fully five feet
+below our two floor lines, and we could, I am quite sure, get
+permission to bridge it at a clearance of not to exceed twelve feet.
+By raising the rear departments of your store and of mine a foot or
+so, and then building a flight of broad, easy steps up and down, we
+could almost conceal the presence of this bridge from the inside, and
+make one immense establishment running straight through from Grand to
+Market Streets. The floors above the first, of course, would bridge
+over absolutely level, and the combined stores would comprise by far
+the largest establishment in the city. Of course, the advantage of it
+from an advertising standpoint alone would be well worth while."
+
+Bobby could instantly see the almost interminable length of store area
+thus presented, and it appealed to his sense of big things at once.
+
+"What did father say about this?" he asked.
+
+"Thought it a brilliant idea," glibly returned Mr. Trimmer. "In fact,
+I think it was he who first suggested such a possibility, seeing very
+clearly the increased trade and the increased profits that would
+accrue from such an extension, which would, in fact, be simply the
+doubling of our already big stores without additional capitalization.
+We worked out two or three plans for the consolidation, but in the
+later years your father was very slow about making actual extensions
+or alterations in his merchandising business, preferring to expend his
+energies on his successful outside enterprises. I feel sure, however,
+that he would have come to it in time, for the development is so
+logical, so much in keeping with the business methods of the times."
+
+Here again was insidious flattery, the insinuation that Bobby must be
+thoroughly aware of "the business methods of the times."
+
+"Of course, the idea is new to me," said Bobby, assuming as best he
+could the air of business reserve which seemed appropriate to the
+occasion; "but I should say, in a general way, that I should not care
+to give up the identity of the John Burnit Store."
+
+"That is a fine and a proper spirit," agreed Mr. Trimmer, with great
+enthusiasm. "I like to see it in a young man, but I've no doubt that
+we can arrange that little matter. Of course, we would have to
+incorporate, say, as the Burnit-Trimmer Mercantile Corporation, but
+while having that name on the front of both buildings, it might not be
+a bad idea, for business as well as sentimental reasons, to keep the
+old signs at the tops of both, just as they now are. Those are little
+details to discuss later; but as the stock of the new company, based
+upon the present invoice values of our respective concerns, would be
+practically all in your hands and mine, this would be a very amicable
+and easily arranged matter. I tell you, Mr. Burnit, this is a
+tremendous plan, attractive to the public and immensely profitable to
+us, and I do not know of anything you could do that would so well as
+this show you to be a worthy successor to John Burnit; for, of course,
+it would scarcely be a credit to you to carry on your father's
+business without change or advance."
+
+It was the best and the most crafty argument Mr. Trimmer had used, and
+Bobby carried away from the Traders' Club a glowing impression of this
+point. His father had built up this big business by his own unaided
+efforts. Should Bobby leave that legacy just where he had found it, or
+should he carry it on to still greater heights? The answer was
+obvious.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+AGNES EMPHATICALLY DECIDES THAT SHE DOES NOT LIKE A CERTAIN PERSON
+
+
+At the theater that evening, Bobby, to his vexation, found Agnes
+Elliston walking in the promenade foyer with the well-set-up stranger.
+He passed her with a nod and slipped moodily into the rear of the
+Elliston box, where Aunt Constance, perennially young, was
+entertaining Nick Allstyne and Jack Starlett, and keeping them at a
+keen wit's edge, too. Bobby gave them the most perfunctory of
+greetings, and, sitting back by himself, sullenly moped. He grumbled
+to himself that he had a headache; the play was a humdrum affair;
+Trimmer was a bore; the proposed consolidation had suddenly lost its
+prismatic coloring; the Traders' Club was crude; Starlett and Allstyne
+were utterly frivolous. All this because Agnes was out in the foyer
+with a very likely-looking young man.
+
+She did not return until the end of that act, and found Bobby ready to
+go, pleading early morning business.
+
+"Is it important?" she asked.
+
+"Who's the chap with the silky mustache?" he suddenly demanded, unable
+to forbear any longer. "He's a new one."
+
+The eyes of Agnes gleamed mischievously.
+
+"Bobby, I'm astonished at your manners," she chided him. "Now tell me
+what you've been doing with yourself."
+
+"Trying to grow up into John Burnit's truly son," he told her with
+some trace of pompous pride, being ready in advance to accept his
+rebuke meekly, as he always had to do, and being quite ready to cover
+up his grievous error with a change of topic. "I had no idea that
+business could so grip a fellow. But what I'd like to find out just
+now is who is my trustee? It must have been somebody with horse sense,
+or the governor would not have appointed whoever it was. I'm not going
+to ask anything I'm forbidden to know, but I want some advice. Now,
+how shall I learn who it is?"
+
+"Well," replied Agnes thoughtfully, "about the only plan I can suggest
+is that you ask your father's legal and business advisers."
+
+He positively beamed down at her.
+
+"You're the dandy girl, all right," he said admiringly. "Now, if you
+would only----"
+
+"Bobby," she interrupted him, "do you know that we are standing up
+here in a box, with something like a thousand people, possibly, turned
+in our direction?"
+
+He suddenly realized that they were alone, the others having filed out
+into the promenade, and, placing a chair for her in the extreme rear
+corner of the box, where he could fence her off, sat down beside her.
+He began to describe to her the plan of Silas Trimmer, and as he went
+on his enthusiasm mounted. The thing had caught his fancy. If he could
+only increase the profits of the John Burnit Store in the very first
+year, it would be a big feather in his cap. It would be precisely what
+his father would have desired! Agnes listened attentively all through
+the fourth act to his glowing conception of what the reorganized John
+Burnit Company would be like. He was perfectly contented now. His
+headache was gone; such occasional glimpses as he caught of the play
+were delightful; Mr. Trimmer was a genius; the Traders' Club a
+fascinating introduction to a new life; Starlett and Allstyne a joyous
+relief to him after the sordid cares of business. In a word, Agnes was
+with him.
+
+"Do you think your father would accept this proposition?" she asked
+him after he was all through.
+
+"I think he would at my age," decided Bobby promptly.
+
+"That is, if he had been brought up as you have," she laughed. "I
+think I should study a long time over it, Bobby, before I made any
+such important and sweeping change as this must necessarily be."
+
+"Oh, yes," he agreed with an assumption of deep conservatism; "of
+course I'll think it over well, and I'll take good, sound advice on
+it."
+
+"I have never seen Mr. Trimmer," mused Agnes. "I seldom go into his
+store, for there always seems to me something shoddy about the whole
+place; but to-morrow I think I shall make it a point to secure a
+glimpse of him."
+
+Bobby was delighted. Agnes had always been interested in whatever
+interested him, but never so absorbedly so as now, it seemed. He
+almost forgot the stranger in his pleasure. He forgot him still more
+when, dismissing his chauffeur, he seated Agnes in the front of the
+car beside him, with Starlett and Allstyne and Aunt Constance in the
+tonneau, and went whirling through the streets and up the avenue. It
+was but a brief trip, not over a half-hour, and they had scarcely a
+chance to exchange a word; but just to be up front there alone with
+her meant a whole lot to Bobby.
+
+Afterward he took the other fellows down to the gymnasium, where Biff
+Bates drew him to one side.
+
+"Look here, old pal!" said Bates. "I saw you real chummy with T. W.
+Tight-Wad Trimmer to-night."
+
+"Yes?" admitted Bobby interrogatively.
+
+"Well, you know I don't go around with my hammer out, but I want to
+put you wise to this mut. He's in with a lot of political graft, for
+one thing, and he's a sure thing guy for another. He likes to take a
+flyer at the bangtails a few times a season, and last summer he
+welshed on Joe Poog's book; claimed Joe misunderstood his fingers for
+two thousand in place of two hundred."
+
+"Well, maybe there was a mistake," said Bobby, loath to believe such a
+monstrous charge against any one whom he knew.
+
+"Mistake nawthin'," insisted Biff. "Joe Poog don't take finger bets
+for hundreds, and Trimmer never did bet that way. He's a born welsher,
+anyhow. He looks the part, and I just want to tell you, Bobby, that if
+you go to the mat with this crab you'll get up with the marks of his
+pinchers on your windpipe; that's all."
+
+Early the next morning--that is, at about ten o'clock--Bobby bounced
+energetically into the office of Barrister and Coke, where old Mr.
+Barrister, who had been his father's lawyer for a great many years,
+received him with all the unbending grace of an ebony cane.
+
+"I have come to find out who were the trustees appointed by my father,
+Mr. Barrister," began Bobby, with a cheerful air of expecting to be
+informed at once, "not that I wish to inquire about the estate, but
+that I need some advice on entirely different matters."
+
+"I shall be glad to serve you with any legal advice that you may
+need," offered Mr. Barrister, patting his finger-tips gently together.
+
+"Are you the trustee?"
+
+"No, sir"--this with a dusty smile.
+
+"Who is, then?"
+
+"The only information which I am at liberty to give you upon that
+point," said Mr. Barrister drily, "is that contained in your father's
+will. Would you care to examine a copy of that document again?"
+
+"No, thanks," declined Bobby politely. "It's too truthful for
+comfort."
+
+From there he went straight to his own place of business, where he
+asked the same question of Johnson. In reply, Mr. Johnson produced,
+from his own personal and private index-file, an oblong gray envelope
+addressed:
+
+    _To My Son Robert,
+    Upon His Inquiring About the Trusteeship of My Estate_
+
+Opening this in the privacy of his own office, Bobby read:
+
+    "As stated in my will, it is none of your present business."
+
+"Up to Bobby again," the son commented aloud. "Well, Governor," and
+his shoulders straightened while his eyes snapped, "if you can stand
+it, I can. Hereafter I shall take my own advice, and if I lose I shall
+know how to find the chap who's to blame."
+
+He had an opportunity to "go it alone" that very morning, when Johnson
+and Applerod came in to him together with a problem. Was or was not
+that Chicago branch to be opened? The elder Mr. Burnit had considered
+it most gravely, but had left the matter undecided. Mr. Applerod was
+very keenly in favor of it, Mr. Johnson as earnestly against it, and
+in his office they argued the matter with such heat that Bobby,
+accepting a typed statement of the figures in the case, virtually
+turned them out.
+
+"When must you have a decision?" he demanded.
+
+"To-morrow. We must wire either our acceptance or rejection of the
+lease."
+
+"Very well," said Bobby, quite elated that he was carrying the thing
+off with an air and a tone so crisp; "just leave it to me, will you?"
+
+He waded through the statement uncomprehendingly. Here was a problem
+which was covered and still not covered by his father's observations
+anent Johnson and Applerod. It was a matter for wrangling, obviously
+enough, but there was no difference to split. It was a case of
+deciding either yes or no. For the balance of the time until Jack
+Starlett called for him at twelve-thirty, he puzzled earnestly and
+soberly over the thing, and next morning the problem still weighed
+upon him when he turned in at the office. He could see as he passed
+through the outer room that both Johnson and Applerod were furtively
+eying him, but he walked past them whistling. When he had closed his
+own door behind him he drew again that mass of data toward him and
+struggled against the chin-high tide. Suddenly he shoved the papers
+aside, and, taking a half-dollar from his pocket, flipped it on the
+floor. Eagerly he leaned over to look at it. Tails! With a sigh of
+relief he put the coin back in his pocket and lit a cigarette. About
+half an hour later the committee of two came solemnly in to see him.
+
+"Have you decided to open the Chicago branch, sir?" asked Johnson.
+
+"Not this year," said Bobby coolly, and handed back the data. "I wish,
+Mr. Johnson, you would appoint a page to be in constant attendance
+upon this room."
+
+Back at their own desks Johnson gloated in calm triumph.
+
+"It may be quite possible that Mr. Robert may turn out to be a
+duplicate of his father," he opined.
+
+"I don't know," confessed Applerod, crestfallen. "I had thought that
+he would be more willing to take a sporting chance."
+
+Mr. Johnson snorted. Mr. Applerod, who had never bet two dollars on
+any proposition in his life, considered himself very much of a
+sporting disposition.
+
+Savagely in love with his new assertiveness Bobby called on Agnes that
+evening.
+
+"I saw Mr. Trimmer to-day," she told him. "I don't like him."
+
+"I didn't want you to," he replied with a grin. "You like too many
+people now."
+
+"But I'm serious, Bobby," she protested, unconsciously clinging to his
+hand as they sat down upon the divan. "I wouldn't enter into any
+business arrangements with him. I don't know just what there is about
+him that repels me, but--well, I don't _like_ him!"
+
+"Can't say I've fallen in love with him myself," he replied. "But,
+Agnes, if a fellow only did business with the men his nearest
+women-folks liked, there wouldn't be much business done."
+
+"There wouldn't be so many losses," she retorted.
+
+"Bound to have the last word, of course," he answered, taking refuge
+in that old and quite false slur against women in general; for a man
+suffers from his spleen if he can not put the quietus on every
+argument. "But, honestly, I don't fear Mr. Trimmer. I've been
+inquiring into this stock company business. We are each to have stock
+in the new company, if we form one, in exact proportion to the
+invoices of our respective establishments. Well, the Trimmer concern
+can't possibly invoice as much as we shall, and I'll have the majority
+of stock, which is the same as holding all the trumps. I had Mr.
+Barrister explain all that to me. With the majority of stock you can
+have everything your own way, and the other chap can't even protest.
+Seems sort of a shame, too."
+
+"I don't like him," declared Agnes.
+
+The ensuing week Bobby spent mostly on the polo match, though he
+called religiously at the office every morning, coming down a few
+minutes earlier each day. It was an uneasy week, too, as well as a
+busy one, for twice during its progress he saw Agnes driving with the
+unknown; and the fact that in both instances a handsome young lady was
+with them did not seem to mend matters much. He was astonished to find
+that losing the great polo match did not distress him at all. A year
+before it would have broken his heart, but the multiplicity of new
+interests had changed him entirely. As a matter of fact, he had been
+long ripe for the change, though he had not known it. As he had
+matured, the blood of his heredity had begun to clamor for its
+expression; that was all.
+
+At the beginning of the next week Mr. Trimmer came in to see him
+again, with a roll of drawings under his arm. The drawings displayed
+the proposed new bridge in elevation and in cross section. They showed
+the total stretch of altered store-rooms from street to street, and
+cleverly-drawn perspectives made graphically real that splendid
+length. They were accompanied by an estimate of the cost, and also by
+a permit from the city to build the bridge. With these were the
+preliminary papers for the organization of the new company, and Bobby,
+by this time intensely interested and convinced that his interest was
+business acumen, went over each detail with contracted brow and with
+kindling enthusiasm.
+
+It was ten o'clock of that morning when Silas Trimmer had found Bobby
+at his desk; by eleven Mr. Johnson and Mr. Applerod, in the outer
+office, were quite unable to work; by twelve they were snarling at
+each other; at twelve-thirty Johnson ventured to poke his head in at
+the door, framing some trivial excuse as he did so, but found the two
+merchants with their heads bent closely over the advantages of the
+great combined stores. At a quarter-past one, returning from a hasty
+lunch, Johnson tiptoed to the door again. He still heard an insistent,
+high-pitched voice inside. Mr. Trimmer was doing all the talking. He
+had explained and explained until his tongue was dry, and Bobby, with
+a full sense of the importance of his decision, was trying to clear
+away the fog that had grown up in his brain. Mr. Trimmer was pressing
+him for a decision. Bobby suddenly slipped his hand in his pocket,
+and, unseen, secured a half-dollar, which he shook in his hand under
+the table. Opening his palm he furtively looked at the coin. Heads!
+
+"Get your papers ready, Mr. Trimmer," he announced, as one finally
+satisfied by good and sufficient argument, "we'll form the
+organization as soon as you like."
+
+No sooner had he come to this decision than he felt a strange sense of
+elation. He had actually consummated a big business deal! He had made
+a positive step in the direction of carrying the John Burnit Store
+beyond the fame it had possessed at the time his father had turned it
+over to him! Since he had stiffened his back, he did not condescend to
+take Johnson and Applerod into his confidence, though those two
+gentlemen were quivering to receive it, but he did order Johnson to
+allow Mr. Trimmer's representatives to go over the John Burnit books
+and to verify their latest invoice, together with the purchases and
+sales since the date of that stock-taking. To Mr. Applerod he assigned
+the task of making a like examination of the Trimmer establishment,
+and each day felt more like a really-truly business man. He affected
+the Traders' Club now, formed an entirely new set of acquaintances,
+and learned to go about the stately rooms of that magnificent business
+annex with his hat on the back of his head and creases in his brow.
+
+Even before the final papers were completed, a huge gang of workmen,
+consisting of as many artisans as could be crowded on the job without
+standing on one another's feet, began to construct the elaborate
+bridge which was to connect the two stores, and Mr. Trimmer's
+publicity department was already securing column after column of space
+in the local papers, some of it paid matter and some gratis, wherein
+it appeared that the son of old John Burnit had proved himself to be a
+live, progressive young man--a worthy heir of so enterprising a
+father.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+WHEREIN BOBBY ATTENDS A STOCK-HOLDERS' MEETING AND CUTS A WISDOM-TOOTH
+
+
+Within a very few days was completed the complicated legal machinery
+which threw the John Burnit Store and Trimmer and Company into the
+hands of "The Burnit-Trimmer Merchandise Corporation" as a holding and
+operating concern. The John Burnit Store went into that consolidation
+at an invoice value of two hundred and sixty thousand dollars, Trimmer
+and Company at two hundred and forty thousand; and Bobby was duly
+pleased. He had the majority of stock! On the later suggestion of Mr.
+Trimmer, however, sixty thousand dollars of additional capital was
+taken into the concern.
+
+"The alterations, expansions, new departments and publicity will
+compel the command of about that much money," Mr. Trimmer patiently
+explained; "and while we could appropriate that amount from our
+respective concerns, we ought not to weaken our capital, particularly
+as financial affairs throughout the country are so unsettled. This is
+not a brisk commercial year, nor can it be."
+
+"Yes," admitted Bobby, "I've heard something of all this hard-times
+talk. I know Nick Allstyne sold his French racer, and Nick's supposed
+to be worth no end of money."
+
+"Exactly," agreed Mr. Trimmer dryly. "This sixty thousand dollars'
+worth of stock, Mr. Burnit, I am quite sure that I can place with
+immediate purchasers, and if you will leave the matter to me I can
+have it all represented in our next meeting without any bother at all
+to you."
+
+"Very kind of you, I am sure," agreed Bobby, thankful that this
+trifling detail was not to bore him.
+
+And so it was that the Burnit-Trimmer Merchandise Corporation was
+incorporated at five hundred and sixty thousand dollars. It was
+considerably later when Bobby realized the significance of the fact
+that the subscribers to the additional capitalization consisted of Mr.
+Trimmer's son, his son-in-law, his head bookkeeper, his confidential
+secretary and his cousin, all of whom had also been minor
+stock-holders in the concern of Trimmer and Company.
+
+It was upon the day preceding the first stock-holders' meeting of the
+reorganized company that Bobby, quite proud of the fact that he had
+acted independently of them, made the formal announcement to Johnson
+and Applerod that the great consolidation had been effected.
+
+"Beginning with to-morrow morning, Mr. Johnson," said he to that
+worthy, "the John Burnit Store will be merged into the Burnit-Trimmer
+Merchandise Corporation, and Mr. Trimmer will doubtless send his
+secretary to confer with you about an adjustment of the clerical
+work."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Mr. Johnson dismally, and rose to open the filing
+case behind him. With his hand in the case he paused and turned a most
+woebegone countenance to the junior Burnit. "We shall be very
+regretful, Mr. Applerod and myself, to lose our positions, sir," he
+stated. "We have grown up with the business from boyhood."
+
+"Nonsense!" exploded Applerod. "We would be regretful if that were to
+occur, but there is nothing of the sort possible. Why, Mr. Burnit, I
+think this consolidation is the greatest thing that ever happened.
+I've been in favor of it for years; and as for its losing me my
+position--Pooh!" and he snapped his fingers.
+
+"Applerod is quite right, Mr. Johnson," said Bobby severely. "Nothing
+of the sort is contemplated. Yourself and Mr. Applerod are to remain
+with me as long as fair treatment and liberal pay and personal
+attachment can induce you to do so."
+
+"Thank you, sir," said Mr. Johnson dryly, but he shook his head, and
+from the file produced one of the familiar gray envelopes.
+
+Bobby eyed it askance as it came toward him, and winced as he saw the
+inscription. He was beginning to dread these missives. They seemed to
+follow him about, to menace him, to give him a constant feeling of
+guilt. Nevertheless, he took this one quite calmly and walked into his
+own room. It was addressed:
+
+    _To My Son,
+    Upon the Occasion of His Completing a Consolidation
+      with Silas Trimmer_
+
+and it read:
+
+    "When a man devils you for years to enter a business deal with
+    him, you may rest assured that man has more to gain by it than
+    you have. Aside from his wormwood business jealousy of me,
+    Silas Trimmer has wanted this Grand Street entrance to his
+    store for more than the third of a century; now he has it.
+    He'll have your store next."
+
+"Look here, Governor," protested Bobby aloud, to his lively
+remembrance of his father as he might have stood in that very room, "I
+call this rather rubbing it in. It's a bit unsportsmanlike. It's
+almost like laying a trap for a chap who doesn't know the game," and,
+rankling with a sense of injustice, he went out to Johnson.
+
+"I say, Johnson," he complained, "it's rather my fault for being too
+stubborn to ask about it, but if you knew that Mr. Trimmer was trying
+to work a game on me that was dangerous to the business, why didn't
+you volunteer to explain it to me; to forewarn me and give me a chance
+for judgment with all the pros and cons in front of me?"
+
+"From the bottom of my heart, Mr. Burnit," said Johnson with feeling,
+"I should like to have done it; but it was forbidden."
+
+He already had lying before him another of the gray envelopes, and
+this he solemnly handed over. It was addressed:
+
+    _To My Son,
+    Upon His Complaining that Johnson Gave Him No Warning
+      Concerning Silas Trimmer_
+
+The message it contained was:
+
+    "It takes hard chiseling to make a man, but if the material is
+    the right grain the tool-marks won't show. If I had wanted you
+    merely to make money, I would have left the business entirely
+    in the hands of Johnson and Applerod. But there is no use to
+    put off pulling a tooth. It only hurts worse in the end."
+
+When Bobby left the office he felt like walking in the middle of the
+street to avoid alley corners, since he was unable to divine from what
+direction the next brick might come. He had taken the business to
+heart more than he had imagined that he would, and the very fact of
+his father's having foreseen that he would succumb to this
+consolidation made him give grave heed to the implied suggestion that
+he would be a heavy loser by it. He had an engagement with Allstyne
+and Starlett at the Idlers' that afternoon, but they found him most
+preoccupied, and openly voted him a bore. He called on Agnes Elliston,
+but learned that she was out driving, and he savagely assured himself
+that he knew who was handling the reins. He dined at the Traders',
+and, for the first time since he had begun to frequent that place, the
+creases in his brow were real.
+
+Later in the evening he dropped around to see Biff Bates. In the very
+center of the gymnasium he found that gentleman engaged in giving a
+preliminary boxing lesson to a spider-like new pupil, who was none
+other than Silas Trimmer. Responding to Biff's cheerful grin and Mr.
+Trimmer's sheepish one with what politeness he could muster, Bobby
+glumly went home.
+
+On the next morning occurred the first stock-holders' meeting of the
+Burnit-Trimmer Merchandise Corporation, which Bobby attended with some
+feeling of importance, for, with his twenty-six hundred shares, he was
+the largest individual stock-holder present. That was what had
+reassured him overnight: the magic "majority of stock!" Mr. Trimmer
+only had twenty-four hundred, and Bobby could swing things as he
+pleased. His father, omniscient as he was, must certainly have failed
+to foresee this fact. In his simplicity of such matters and his
+general unsuspiciousness, Bobby had not calculated that if the
+additional six hundred shares were to vote solidly with Mr. Trimmer
+against him, his twenty-six hundred shares would be confronted by
+three thousand, and so rendered paltry.
+
+Mr. Trimmer was delighted to see young Mr. Burnit. This was a great
+occasion indeed, both for the John Burnit Store and for Trimmer and
+Company, and, in the opinion of Mr. Trimmer, his circular smile very
+much in evidence, John Burnit himself would have been proud to see
+this day! Mr. Smythe, Mr. Trimmer's son-in-law, also thought it a
+great day; Mr. Weldon, Mr. Trimmer's head bookkeeper, thought it a
+great day; Mr. Harvey, Mr. Trimmer's confidential secretary, and Mr.
+U. G. Trimmer, Mr. Silas Trimmer's cousin, shared this pleasant
+impression.
+
+In the beginning the organization was without form or void, as all
+such organizations are, but Mr. Trimmer, having an extremely clear
+idea of what was to be accomplished, proposed that Mr. Burnit accept
+the chair _pro tem._--where he would be out of the way. The unanimous
+support which this motion received was quite gratifying to the
+feelings of Mr. Burnit, proving at once that his fears had been not
+only groundless but ungenerous, and, in accepting the chair, he made
+them what he considered a very neat little speech indeed, striving the
+while to escape that circular smile with its diameter of yellow teeth
+and its intersecting crescent of stiff mustache; for he disliked
+meanly to imagine that smile to have a sarcastic turn to-day. At the
+suggestion of Mr. Trimmer, Mr. Weldon accepted the post of secretary
+_pro tem._ Mr. Trimmer then, with a nicely bound black book in his
+hand, rose to propose the adoption of the stock constitution and
+by-laws which were neatly printed in the opening pages of this
+minute-book, and in the articles of which he had made some trifling
+amendments. Mr. Weldon, by request, read these most carefully and
+conscientiously, making quite plain that the entire working management
+of the consolidated stores was to be under the direct charge of a
+general manager and an assistant general manager, who were to be
+appointed and have their salaries fixed by the board of directors, as
+was meet and proper. Gravely the stock-holders voted upon the adoption
+of the constitution and by-laws, and, with a feeling of pride, as the
+secretary called his name, Bobby cast his first vote in the following
+conventional form:
+
+"Aye--twenty-six hundred shares."
+
+Mr. Trimmer followed, voting twenty-four hundred shares; then Mr.
+Smythe, three hundred; Mr. Weldon, fifty; Mr. Harvey, fifty; Mr. U. G.
+Trimmer, fifty; Mr. Thomas Trimmer, whose proxy was held by his
+father, one hundred and fifty; making in all a total of fifty-six
+hundred shares unanimously cast in favor of the motion; and Bobby,
+after having roundly announced the result, felt that he was conducting
+himself with vast parliamentary credit and lit a cigarette with much
+satisfaction.
+
+Mr. Trimmer, twirling his thumbs, displayed no surprise, nor even
+gratification, when Mr. Smythe almost immediately put him in
+nomination for president. Mr. Weldon promptly seconded that
+nomination. Mr. Harvey moved that the nominations for the presidency
+be closed. Mr. U. G. Trimmer seconded that motion, which was carried
+unanimously; and with no ado whatever Mr. Silas Trimmer was made
+president of the Burnit-Trimmer Merchandise Corporation, Mr. Burnit
+having most courteously cast twenty-six hundred votes for him; for was
+not Mr. Trimmer entitled to this honor by right of seniority? In
+similar manner Mr. Burnit, quite pleased, and not realizing that the
+vice-president of a corporation has a much less active and influential
+position than the night watchman, was elected to the second highest
+office, while Mr. Weldon was made secretary and Mr. Smythe treasurer.
+Mr. Harvey, Mr. U. G. Trimmer and Mr. Thomas Trimmer were, as a matter
+of course, elected members of the board of directors, the four
+officers already elected constituting the remaining members of the
+board. There seemed but very little business remaining for the
+stock-holders to do, so they adjourned; then, the members of the board
+being all present and having waived in writing all formal
+notification, the directors went into immediate session, with Mr.
+Trimmer in the chair and Mr. Weldon in charge of the bright and
+shining new book of minutes.
+
+The first move of that body, after opening the meeting in due form,
+was made by Mr. Harvey, who proposed that Mr. Silas Trimmer be
+constituted general manager of the consolidated stores at a salary of
+fifty thousand dollars per year, a motion which was immediately
+seconded by Mr. U. G. Trimmer.
+
+Bobby was instantly upon his feet. Even with his total lack of
+experience in such matters there was something about this that struck
+him as overdrawn, and he protested that fancy salaries should have no
+place in the reorganized business until experience had proved that the
+business would stand it. He was very much in earnest about it, and
+wanted the subject discussed thoroughly before any such rash step was
+taken. The balance of the discussion consisted in one word from Mr.
+Smythe, echoed by all his fellow-members.
+
+"Question!" said that gentleman.
+
+"You have all heard the question," said Mr. Trimmer calmly. "Those in
+favor will please signify by saying 'Aye.'"
+
+"Aye!" voted four members of the board as with one scarcely interested
+voice.
+
+"No!" cried Bobby angrily, and sprang to his feet, his anger confused,
+moreover, by the shock of finding unsuspected wolves tearing at his
+vitals. "Gentlemen, I protest against this action! I----"
+
+Mr. Trimmer pounded on the table with his pencil in lieu of a gavel.
+
+"The motion is carried. Any other business?"
+
+It seemed that there was. Mr. Harvey proposed that Mr. Smythe be made
+assistant general manager at a salary of twenty-five thousand dollars
+per year. Again the farce of a ballot and the farce of a protest was
+enacted. Where now was the voting power of Bobby's twenty-six hundred
+shares? In the directors' meeting they voted as individuals, and they
+were six against one. Rather indifferently, as if the thing did not
+amount to much, Mr. Smythe proposed that the selection of a firm name
+for advertising and publicity purposes be left to the manager, and
+though Bobby voted no as to this proposition on general principles, it
+seemed of minor importance, in his then bewildered state of mind.
+After all, the thing which grieved him most just then was to find that
+people _could_ do these things!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+CONSISTING ENTIRELY OF A RAPID SUCCESSION OF MOST PAINFUL SHOCKS
+
+
+He was still dazed with what had happened, when, the next morning, he
+turned into the office and found Johnson and Applerod packing-up their
+personal effects. Workmen were removing letter-files and taking desks
+out of the door.
+
+"What's the matter?" he asked, surveying the unwonted confusion in
+perplexity.
+
+"The entire office force of the now defunct John Burnit Store has been
+dismissed, that's all!" blurted Applerod, now the aggrieved one. "You
+sold us out, lock, stock and barrel!"
+
+"Impossible!" gasped Bobby.
+
+Mr. Johnson glumly showed him curt letters of dismissal from Trimmer.
+
+"Where's mine, I wonder?" inquired Bobby, trying to take his terrific
+defeat with sportsmanlike nonchalance.
+
+"I don't suppose there is any for you, sir, inasmuch as you never had
+a recognized position to lose," replied Johnson, not unkindly. "Did
+the board of directors elect you to any salaried office?"
+
+"Why, so they didn't!" exclaimed Bobby, and for the first time
+realized that no place had been made for him. He had taken it as a
+matter of course that he was to be a part of the consolidation, and
+the omission of any definite provision for him had passed unnoticed.
+
+The door leading to his own private office banged open, and two men
+appeared, shoving through it the big mahogany desk turned edgewise.
+
+"What are they doing?" Bobby asked sharply.
+
+"Moving out all the furniture," snapped Applerod with bitter relish.
+"All the office work, I understand, is to be done in the other
+building, and this space is to be thrown into a special cut-glass
+department. I suppose the new desk is for Mr. Trimmer."
+
+Furious, choking, Bobby left the office and strode back through the
+store. The first floor passageway was already completed between the
+two buildings, and a steady stream of customers was going over the
+bridge from the old Burnit store into the old Trimmer store. There
+were very few coming in the other direction. He had never been in Mr.
+Trimmer's offices, but he found his way there with no difficulty, and
+Mr. Trimmer came out of his private room to receive him with all the
+suavity possible. In fact, he had been saving up suavity all morning
+for this very encounter.
+
+"Well, what can we do for you this morning, Mr. Burnit?" he wanted to
+know, and Bobby, though accustomed to repression as he was, had a
+sudden impulse to drive his fist straight through that false circular
+smile.
+
+"I want to know what provision has been made for me in this new
+adjustment," he demanded.
+
+"Why, Mr. Burnit," expostulated Mr. Trimmer in much apparent surprise,
+"you have two hundred and sixty thousand dollars' worth of stock in
+what should be the best paying mercantile venture in this city; you
+are vice-president, and a member of the board of directors!"
+
+"I have no part, then, in the active management?" Bobby wanted to
+know.
+
+"It would be superfluous, Mr. Burnit. One of the chief advantages of
+such a consolidation is the economy that comes from condensing the
+office and managing forces. I regretted very much indeed to dismiss
+Mr. Johnson and Mr. Applerod, but they are very valuable men and
+should have no difficulty in placing themselves advantageously. In
+fact, I shall be glad to aid them in securing new positions."
+
+"The thing is an outrage!" exclaimed Bobby with passion.
+
+"My dear Mr. Burnit, it is business," said Mr. Trimmer coldly, and,
+turning, went deliberately into his own room, leaving Bobby standing
+in the middle of the floor.
+
+Bobby sprang to that door and threw it open, and Trimmer, who had been
+secretly trembling all through the interview, turned to him with a
+quick pallor overspreading his face, a pallor which Bobby saw and
+despised and ignored, and which turned his first mad impulse.
+
+"I'd like to ask one favor of you, Mr. Trimmer," said he. "In moving
+the furniture out of the John Burnit offices I should be very glad,
+indeed, if you would order my father's desk removed to my house. It is
+an old desk and can not possibly be of much use. You may charge its
+value to my account, please."
+
+"Nonsense!" said Mr. Trimmer. "I'll have it sent out with pleasure. Is
+there anything else?"
+
+"Nothing whatever at present," said Bobby, trembling with the task of
+holding himself steady, and walked out, unable to analyze the bitter
+emotions that surged within him.
+
+On the sidewalk, standing beside his automobile, he found Johnson and
+Applerod waiting for him, and the moment he saw Johnson, cumbered with
+the big index-file that he carried beneath his arm, he knew why.
+
+"Give me the letter, Johnson," he said with a wry smile, and Johnson,
+answering it with another equally as grim, handed him a gray envelope.
+
+Applerod, who had been the first to upbraid him, was now the first to
+recover his spirits.
+
+"Never mind, Mr. Burnit," said he; "businesses and even fortunes have
+been lost before and have been regained. There are still ways to make
+money."
+
+Bobby did not answer him. He was opening the letter, preparing to
+stand its contents in much the same spirit that he had often gone to
+his father to accept a reprimand which he knew he could not in dignity
+evade. But there was no reprimand. He read:
+
+    "There's no use in telling a young man what to do when he has
+    been gouged. If he's made of the right stuff he'll know, and
+    if he isn't, no amount of telling will put the right stuff in
+    him. I have faith in you. Bobby, or I'd never have let you in
+    for this goring.
+
+    "In the meantime, as there will be no dividends on your stock
+    for ten years to come, what with 'improvements, expenses and
+    salaries,' and as you will need to continue your education by
+    embarking in some other line of business before being ripe
+    enough to accomplish what I am sure you will want to do, you
+    may now see your trustee, the only thoroughly sensible person
+    I know who is sincerely devoted to your interests. Her name is
+    Agnes Elliston."
+
+"What is the matter?" asked Johnson in sudden concern, and Applerod
+grabbed him by the arm.
+
+"Oh, nothing much," said Bobby; "a little groggy, that's all. The
+governor just handed me one under the belt. By the way, boys"--and
+they scarcely noted that he no longer said "gentlemen"--"if you have
+nothing better in view I want you to consider yourselves still in my
+employ. I'm going into business again, at once. If you will call at my
+house tomorrow forenoon I'll talk with you about it," and anxious to
+be rid of them he told his driver "Idlers'," and jumped into his
+automobile.
+
+Agnes! That surely was giving him a solar-plexus blow! Why, what did
+the governor mean? It was putting him very much in a kindergarten
+position with the girl before whom he wanted to make a better
+impression than before anybody else in all the world.
+
+It took him a long time to readjust himself to this cataclysm.
+
+After all, though, was not his father right in this, as he had been in
+everything else? Humbly Bobby was ready to confess that Agnes had more
+brains and good common sense than anybody, and was altogether about
+the most loyal and dependable person in all the world, with the single
+and sole exception of allowing that splendid looking and unknown chap
+to hang around her so. They were in the congested down-town district
+now, and as they came to a dead stop at a crossing, Bobby, though
+immersed in thought, became aware of a short, thick-set man, who,
+standing at the very edge of the car, was apparently trying to stare
+him out of countenance.
+
+"Why, hello, Biff!" exclaimed Bobby. "Which way?"
+
+"Just waiting for a South Side trolley," explained Biff. "Going over
+to see Kid Mills about that lightweight go we're planning."
+
+"Jump in," said Bobby, glad of any change in his altogether indefinite
+program. "I'll take you over."
+
+On the way he detailed to his athletic friend what had been done to
+him in the way of business.
+
+"I know'd it," said Biff excitedly. "I know'd it from the start.
+That's why I got old Trimmer to join my class. Made him a special
+price of next to nothing, and got Doc Willets to go around and tell
+him he was in Dutch for want of training. Just wait."
+
+"For what?" asked Bobby, smiling.
+
+"Till the next time he comes up," declared Biff vengefully. "Say, do
+you know I put that shrimp's hour a-purpose just when there wouldn't
+be a soul up there; and the next time I get him in front of me I'm
+going to let a few slip that'll jar him from the cellar to the attic;
+and the next time anybody sees him he'll be nothing but splints and
+court-plaster."
+
+"Biff," said Bobby severely, "you'll do nothing of the kind. You'll
+leave one Silas Trimmer to me. Merely bruising his body won't get back
+my father's business. Let him alone."
+
+"But look here, Bobby----"
+
+"No; I say let him alone," insisted Bobby.
+
+"All right," said Biff sullenly; "but if you think there's a trick you
+can turn to double cross this Trimmer you've got another think coming.
+He's sunk his fangs in the business he's been after all his life, and
+now you couldn't pry it away from him with a jimmy. You know what I
+told you about him."
+
+"I know," said Bobby wearily. "But honestly, Biff, did you ever see me
+go into a game where I was a loser in the end?"
+
+"Not till this one," confessed Biff.
+
+"And this isn't the end," retorted Bobby.
+
+He knew that when he made such a confident assertion that he had
+nothing upon which to base it; that he was talking vaguely and at
+random; but he also knew the intense desire that had arisen in him to
+reverse conditions upon the man who had waited until the father died
+to wrest that father's pride from the son; and in some way he felt
+coming strength. In Biff's present frame of conviction Bobby was
+pleased enough to drop him in front of Kid Mills' obscure abode, and
+turn with a sudden hungry impulse in the direction of Agnes. At the
+Ellistons', when the chauffeur was about to slow up, Bobby in a panic
+told him to drive straight on. In the course of half an hour he came
+back again, and this time pride alone--fear of what his chauffeur
+might think--determined him to stop. With much trepidation he went up
+to the door. Agnes was just preparing to go out, and she came down to
+him in the front parlor.
+
+"This is only a business call," he confessed with as much appearance
+of gaiety as he could summon under the circumstance. "I've come around
+to see my trustee."
+
+"So soon?" she said, with quick sympathy in her voice. "I'm _so_
+sorry, Bobby! But I suppose, after all, the sooner it happened the
+better. Tell me all about it. What was the cause of it?"
+
+"You wouldn't marry me," charged Bobby. "If you had this never would
+have happened."
+
+She shook her head and smiled, but she laid her hand upon his arm and
+drew closer to him.
+
+"I'm afraid it would, Bobby. You might have asked my advice, but I
+expect you wouldn't have taken it."
+
+"I guess you're right about that," admitted Bobby; "but if you'd only
+married me---- Honest, Agnes, when are you going to?"
+
+"I shall not commit myself," she replied, smiling up at him rather
+wistfully.
+
+"There's somebody else," declared Bobby, instantly assured by this
+evasiveness that the unknown had something to do with the matter.
+
+"If there were, it would be my affair entirely, wouldn't it?" she
+wanted to know, still smiling.
+
+"No!" he declared emphatically. "It would be my affair. But really I
+want to know. Will you, if I get my father's business back?"
+
+"I'll not promise," she said. "Why, Bobby, the way you put it, you
+would be binding me _not_ to marry you in case you _didn't_ get it
+back!" and she laughed at him. "But let's talk business now. I was
+just starting out upon your affairs, the securing of some bonds for
+which the lawyer I have employed has been negotiating, so you may take
+me up there and he will arrange to get you the two hundred and fifty
+thousand dollars you are to have. It's for a new start, without
+restrictions except that you are to engage in business with it. That's
+all the instructions I have."
+
+[Illustration: Will you if I get my father's business back?]
+
+"Thanks," said Bobby, with a gulp. "Honestly, Agnes, it's a shame.
+It's a low-down trick the governor played to put me in this helplessly
+belittled position with you."
+
+"Why, how strange," she replied quietly. "I look upon it as a most
+graceful and agreeable position for myself."
+
+"Oh!" he exclaimed blankly, as it occurred to him just how
+uncomfortable the situation must be to her, and he reproached himself
+with selfishness in not having thought of this phase of the matter
+before. "That's a fact," he admitted. "I say, Agnes, I'll say no more
+about that end of it if you don't; and, after all, I'm glad, too. It
+gives me a legitimate excuse to see you much oftener."
+
+"Gracious, no!" she protested. "You fill up every spare moment that I
+have now; but so long as you are here on business this time, let's
+attend to business. You may take me up to see Mr. Chalmers. By the
+way, I want you to meet him, anyhow. You have seen him, I believe,
+once or twice. He was here one day when you called, and he was walking
+with me in the lobby of the theater when you came in to join us one
+evening."
+
+"Y-e-s," drawled Bobby, as if he were placing the man with difficulty.
+
+"The Chalmers' are charming people," she went on. "His wife is
+perfectly fascinating. We used to go to school together. They have
+only been married three months, and when they came here to go into
+business I was very glad to throw such of your father's estate as I am
+to handle into his hands. Whenever they are ready I want to engineer
+them into our set, but they live very quietly now. I know you'll like
+them."
+
+"Oh, I'm sure I will," agreed Bobby heartily, and his face was
+positively radiant, as, for some unaccountable reason, he clutched her
+hand. She lifted it up beneath his arm, around which, for one ecstatic
+moment, she clasped her other hand, and together they went out into
+the hall, Bobby, simply driveling in his supreme happiness, allowing
+her to lead him wheresoever she listed. Still in the joy of knowing
+that his one dreaded rival was removed in so pleasant a fashion, he
+handed her into the automobile and they started out to see Mr.
+Chalmers. Their way led down Grand Street, past the John Burnit Store,
+and with all that had happened still rankling sorely in his mind,
+Bobby looked up and gave a gasp. Workmen were taking down the plain,
+dignified old sign of the John Burnit Store from the top of the
+building, and in its place they were raising up a glittering new one,
+ordered by Silas Trimmer on the very day Bobby had agreed to go into
+the consolidation; and it read:
+
+                        "TRIMMER AND COMPANY"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+PINK-CHEEKED APPLEROD RUSHES TO THE RESCUE WITH A GOLDEN SCHEME
+
+
+Agnes had been surprised into an exclamation of dismay by that new
+sign, but she checked it abruptly as she saw Bobby's face. She could
+divine, but she could not fully know, how that had hurt him; how the
+pain of it had sunk into his soul; how the humiliation of it had
+tingled in every fiber of him. For an instant his breath had stopped,
+his heart had swelled as if it would burst, a great lump had come in
+his throat, a sob almost tore its way through his clenched teeth. He
+caught his breath sharply, his jaws set and his nostrils dilated, then
+the color came slowly back to his cheeks. Agnes, though longing to do
+so, had feared to lay her hand even upon his sleeve in sympathy lest
+she might unman him, but now she saw that she need not have feared. It
+had not weakened him, this blow; it had strengthened him.
+
+"That's brutal," he said steadily, though the steadiness was purely a
+matter of will. "We must change that sign before we do anything else."
+
+"Of course," she answered simply.
+
+Involuntarily she stretched out her small gloved hand, and with it
+touched his own. Looking back once more for a fleeting glimpse at the
+ascending symbol of his defeat, he gripped her hand so hard that she
+almost cried out with the pain of it; but she did not wince. When he
+suddenly remembered, with a frightened apology, and laid her hand upon
+her lap and patted it, her fingers seemed as if they had been
+compressed into a numb mass, and she separated them slowly and with
+difficulty. Afterward she remembered that as a dear hurt, after all,
+for in it she shared his pain.
+
+While they were still stunned and silent under Silas Trimmer's parting
+blow, the machine drew up at the curb in front of the building in
+which Chalmers had his office. Chalmers, Bobby found, was a most
+agreeable fellow, to whom he took an instant liking. It was strange
+what different qualities the man seemed to possess than when Bobby had
+first seen him in the company of Agnes. Their business there was very
+brief. Chalmers held for Bobby, subject to Agnes' order as trustee,
+the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in instantly
+convertible securities, and when they left, Bobby had a check for that
+amount comfortably tucked in his pocket.
+
+There was another brief visit to the office of old Mr. Barrister,
+where Agnes, again as Bobby's trustee, exhibited the papers Chalmers
+had made out for her, showing that the funds previously left in her
+charge had been duly paid over to Bobby as per the provisions of the
+will, and thereupon filed her order for a similar amount. Barrister
+received them with an "I told you so" air which amounted almost to
+satisfaction. He was quite used to seeing the sons of rich men
+hastening to become poor men, and he had so evidently classed Bobby as
+one of the regular sort, that Bobby took quite justifiable umbrage and
+decided that if he had any legal business whatever he would put it
+into the hands of Chalmers.
+
+He spent the rest of the day with Agnes and took dinner at the
+Ellistons', where jolly Aunt Constance and shrewd Uncle Dan, in
+genuine sympathy, desisted so palpably from their usual joking about
+his "business career," that Bobby was more ill at ease than if they
+had said all the grimly humorous things which popped into their minds.
+For that reason he went home rather early, and tumbled into bed
+resolving upon the new future he was to face to-morrow.
+
+At least, he consoled himself with a sigh, he was now a man of
+experience. He had learned something of the world. He was not further
+to be hoodwinked. His last confused vision was of Silas Trimmer on his
+knees begging for mercy, and the next thing he knew was that some one
+was reminding him, with annoying insistency, of the early call he had
+left.
+
+The world looked brighter that morning, and he was quite hopeful when,
+in the dim old study, seated at his father's desk and with the
+portrait of stern old John Burnit frowning and yet shrewdly twinkling
+down upon him, he received Johnson, dry and sour looking as if he
+expected ill news, and Applerod, bright and radiant as if Fortune's
+purse were just about to open to him.
+
+"Well, boys," said Bobby cheerily, "we're going to stick right
+together. We're going to start into a new business as soon as we can
+find one that suits us, and your employment begins from this minute.
+We're beginning with a capital of two hundred and fifty thousand
+dollars," and rather pompously he spread the check upon the desk. His
+pompousness faded in something under fifteen seconds, for it was in
+about that length of time that he caught sight of a plain gray
+envelope then in the process of emerging from Johnson's pocket. He
+accepted it with something of reluctance, but opened it nevertheless;
+and this was the message of the late John Burnit:
+
+    _To my Son Upon the Occasion of his Being Intrusted
+      With Real Money_
+
+    "In most cases the difference between spending money and
+    investing it is wholly a matter of speed. Not one man in ten
+    knows when and where and how to put a dollar properly to work;
+    so the only financial education I expect you to get out of an
+    attempt to go into business is a painful lesson in
+    subtraction."
+
+"This letter, Johnson, is only a delicate intimation from the governor
+that I'll make another blooming ass of myself with this," commented
+Bobby, tapping his finger on the check, and placing the letter face
+downward beside it, where he eyed it askance.
+
+"A quarter of a million!" observed Applerod, rolling out the amount
+with relish. "A great deal can be done with two hundred and fifty
+thousand dollars, you know."
+
+"That's just the point," observed Bobby with a frown of perplexity,
+directed alternately to the faithful gentlemen who for upward of
+thirty years had been his father's right and left bowers. "What am I
+to do with it? Johnson, what would you do with two hundred and fifty
+thousand dollars?"
+
+"Lose it," confessed stooped and bloodless Johnson. "I never made a
+dollar out of a dollar in my life."
+
+"What would you do with it, Applerod?"
+
+Mr. Applerod, scarcely able to contain himself, had been eagerly
+awaiting that question.
+
+"Purchase, improve and market the Westmarsh Addition," he said
+promptly, expanding fully two inches across his already rotund chest.
+
+"What?" snorted Johnson, and cast upon his workmate a look of
+withering scorn. "Are you still dreaming about the possibilities of
+that old swamp?"
+
+"To be sure it is a swamp," admitted Mr. Applerod with some heat. "Do
+you suppose you could buy one hundred and twenty acres of directly
+accessible land, almost at the very edge of the crowded city limits,
+at two hundred dollars an acre if it wasn't swamp land?" he demanded.
+"Why, Mr. Burnit, it is the opportunity of a lifetime!"
+
+"How much capital would be needed?" asked Bobby, gravely assuming the
+callous, inquisitorial manner of the ideal business man.
+
+"Well, I've managed to buy up twenty acres out of my savings, and
+there are still one hundred acres to be purchased, which will take
+twenty thousand dollars. But this is the small part of it. Drainage,
+filling and grading is to be done, streets and sidewalks ought to be
+put down, a gift club-house, which would serve at first as an office,
+would be a good thing to build, and the thing would have to be most
+thoroughly advertised. I've figured on it for years, and it would
+require, all told, about a two-hundred-thousand investment."
+
+"And what would be the return?" asked Bobby without blinking at these
+big figures, and proud of his attitude, which, while conservative, was
+still one of openness to conviction.
+
+"Figure it out for yourself," Mr. Applerod invited him with much
+enthusiasm. "We get ten building lots to the acre, turning one hundred
+and twenty acres into one thousand two hundred lots. Improved sites at
+any point surrounding this tract can not be bought for less than
+twenty-five dollars per front foot. Corner lots and those in the best
+locations would bring much more, but taking the average price at only
+six hundred dollars per lot, we would have, as a total return for the
+investment, seven hundred and twenty thousand dollars!"
+
+"In how long?" Bobby inquired, not allowing himself to become in the
+slightest degree excited.
+
+"One year," announced the optimistic Mr. Applerod with conviction.
+
+Mr. Johnson, his lips glued tightly together in one firm, thin,
+straight line across his face, was glaring steadfastly at the corner
+of the ceiling, permitting no expression whatever to flicker in his
+eyes; noting which, Bobby turned to him with a point-blank question:
+
+"What do you think of this opportunity, Mr. Johnson?" he asked.
+
+Mr. Johnson glared quickly at Mr. Applerod.
+
+"Tell him," defied that gentleman.
+
+"I think nothing whatever of it!" snapped Mr. Johnson.
+
+"What is your chief ground of objection?" Bobby wanted to know.
+
+Again Mr. Johnson glared quickly at Mr. Applerod.
+
+"Tell him," insisted that gentleman with an outward wave of both
+hands, expressive of his intense desire to have every secret of his
+own soul and of everybody's else laid bare.
+
+"I will," said Johnson. "Your father, a dozen times in my own hearing,
+refused to have anything to do with the scheme."
+
+Bobby turned accusing eyes upon Applerod, who, though red of face, was
+still strong of assertion.
+
+"Mr. Burnit never declined on any other grounds than that he already
+had too many irons in the fire," he declared. "Tell him that, too,
+Johnson!"
+
+"It was only his polite way of putting it," retorted Mr. Johnson.
+
+"John Burnit was noted for his polite way of putting his business
+conclusions," snapped Applerod in return, whereat Bobby smiled with
+gleeful reminiscence, and Mr. Johnson smiled grimly, albeit
+reluctantly, and Mr. Applerod smiled triumphantly.
+
+"I can see the governor doing it," laughed Bobby, and dismissed the
+matter. "Mr. Johnson, as a start in business we may as well turn this
+study into a temporary office. Take this check down to the Commercial
+Bank, please, and open an account. You already have power of attorney
+for my signature. Procure a small set of books and open them. Make out
+for me against this account at the Commercial a check for ten
+thousand. Mr. Applerod, kindly reduce your swamp proposition to paper
+and let me have it by to-morrow. I'll not promise that I will do
+anything with it, but it would be only fair to examine it."
+
+With these crisp remarks, upon the decisiveness of which Bobby prided
+himself very much, he left the two to open business for him under the
+supervision of the portrait of stern but humor-given old John Burnit.
+
+"Applerod," said Johnson indignantly, his lean frame almost quivering,
+"it is a wonder to me that you can look up at that picture and reflect
+that you are trying to drag John Burnit's son into this fool scheme."
+
+"Johnson," said Mr. Applerod, puffing out his cheeks indignantly, "you
+were given the first chance to advise Mr. Robert what he should do
+with his money, and you failed to do so. This is a magnificent
+business opportunity, and I should consider myself very remiss in my
+duty to John Burnit's son if I failed to urge it upon him."
+
+Mr. Johnson picked up the letter that Bobby, evidently not caring
+whether they read it or not, had left behind him. He ran through it
+with a grim smile and handed it over to Applerod as his best retort.
+
+At the home of Agnes Elliston Bobby's car stopped almost as a matter
+of habit, and though the hour was a most informal one he walked up the
+steps as confidently as if he intended opening the door with a
+latch-key; for since Agnes was become his trustee, Bobby had awakened,
+overnight, to the fact that he had a proprietary interest in her which
+could not be denied.
+
+Agnes came down to meet him in a most ravishing morning robe of pale
+green, a confection so stunning in conjunction with her gold-brown
+eyes and waving brown hair and round white throat that Bobby was
+forced to audible comment upon it.
+
+"Cracking!" said he. "I suppose that if I hadn't had nerve enough to
+pop in here unexpectedly before noon I wouldn't have seen that gown
+for ages."
+
+It was Aunt Constance, the irrepressible, who, leaning over the stair
+railing, sank the iron deep into his soul.
+
+"It was bought at Trimmer and Company's, Grand Street side, Bobby,"
+she informed him, and with this Parthian shot she went back through
+the up-stairs hall, laughing.
+
+"Ouch!" said Bobby. "That was snowballing a cripple," and he was
+really most woebegone about it.
+
+"Never mind, Bobby, you have still plenty of chance to win," comforted
+Agnes, who, though laughing, had sympathetic inkling of that sore spot
+which had been touched. He seemed so forlorn, in spite of his big,
+good-natured self, that she moved closer to him and unconsciously put
+her hand upon his arm. It was too much for him in view of the way she
+looked, and, suddenly emboldened, he did a thing the mere thought of
+which, under premeditation, would have scared him into a frapped
+perspiration. He placed his hands upon her shoulders, and, drawing her
+toward him, bent swiftly down to kiss her. For a fleeting instant she
+drew back, and then Bobby had the surprise of his life, for her warm
+lips met his quite willingly, and with a frank pressure almost equal
+to his own. She sprang back from him at once with sparkling eyes, but
+he had no mind to follow up his advantage, for he was dazed. It had
+left him breathless, amazed, incredulous. He stood for a full minute,
+his face gone white with the overwhelming wonder of this thing that
+had happened to him, and then the blunt directness which was part of
+his inheritance from his father returned to him.
+
+"Well, anyhow, we're to be engaged at last," he said.
+
+"No," she rebuked him, with a sudden flash of mischief; "that was
+perfectly wicked, and you mustn't do it again."
+
+"But I will," he said, advancing with heightened color.
+
+"You mustn't," she said firmly, and although she did not recede
+farther from him he stopped. "You mustn't make it hard for us, Bobby,"
+she warned him. "I'm under promise, too; and that's all I can tell you
+now."
+
+"The governor again," groaned Bobby. "I suppose that I'm not to talk
+to you about marrying, nor you to listen, until I have proved my right
+and ability to take care of you and your fortune and mine. Is that
+it?"
+
+She smiled inscrutably.
+
+"What brings you at this unearthly hour?" she asked by way of evasion.
+"Some business pretext, I'll be bound."
+
+"Of course it is," he assured her. "This morning you are strictly in
+the role of my trustee. I want you to look at some property."
+
+"But I have an appointment with my dressmaker."
+
+"The dressmaker must wait."
+
+"What a warning!" she laughed. "If you would order a mere--a mere
+acquaintance around so peremptorily, what would you do if you were
+married?"
+
+"I'd be the boss," announced Bobby with calm confidence.
+
+"Indeed?" she mocked, and started into the library. "You'd ask
+permission first, wouldn't you?"
+
+"Where are you going?" he queried in return, and grinned.
+
+"To telephone my dressmaker," she admitted, smiling, and realizing,
+too, that it was not all banter.
+
+"I told you to, remember," asserted Bobby, with a strange new sense of
+masterfulness which would not down.
+
+When she came down again, dressed for the trip, he was still in that
+dazed elation, and it lasted through their brisk ride to the far
+outskirts of the city, where, at the side of a watery marsh that
+extended for nearly a mile along the roadway, he halted.
+
+"This is it," waving his hand across the dismal waste.
+
+"It!" she repeated. "What?"
+
+"The property that it was suggested I buy."
+
+"No wonder your father thought it necessary to appoint a trustee," was
+her first comment. "Why, Bobby, what on earth could you do with it?
+It's too large for a frog farm and too small for a summer resort," and
+once more she turned incredulous eyes upon the "property."
+
+Dark, oily water covered the entire expanse, and through it emerged,
+here and there, clumps of dank vegetation, from the nature and
+dispersement of which one could judge that the water varied from one
+to three feet in depth. Higher ground surrounded it on all sides, and
+the urgent needs of suburban growth had scattered a few small, cheap
+cottages, here and there, upon the hills.
+
+"It doesn't seem very attractive until you consider those houses,"
+Bobby confessed. "You must remember that the city hasn't room to grow,
+and must take note that it is trying to spread in this direction.
+Wouldn't a fellow be doing a rather public-spirited thing, and one in
+which he might take quite a bit of satisfaction, if he drained that
+swamp, filled it, laid out streets and turned the whole stretch into a
+cluster of homes in place of a breeding-place for fevers?"
+
+"You talk just like a civic improvement society," she said, laughing.
+
+"We did have a chap lecturing on that down at the club a few nights
+ago," he admitted, "and maybe I have picked up a bit of the talk. But
+wouldn't it be a good thing, anyhow?"
+
+"Oh, I quite approve of it, now that I see your plan," she agreed;
+"but could it be made to pay?"
+
+"Well," he returned with a grave assumption of that businesslike air
+he had recently been trying to copy down at the Traders' Club, "there
+are one hundred and twenty acres in the tract. I can buy it for two
+hundred dollars an acre, and sell each acre, in building lots, for
+full six hundred. It seems to me that this is enough margin to carry
+out the needed improvements and make the marketing of it worth while.
+What do you think of it?"
+
+They both gazed out over that desolate expanse and tried to picture it
+dotted with comfortable cottages, set down in grassy lawns that
+bordered on white, clean streets, and the idea of the transformation
+was an attractive one.
+
+"It looks to me like a perfectly splendid idea," Agnes admitted. "I
+wonder what your father would have thought of it."
+
+"Well," confessed Bobby a trifle reluctantly, "this very proposition
+was presented to him several times, I believe, but he always declined
+to go into it."
+
+"Then," decided Agnes, so quickly and emphatically that it startled
+him, "don't touch it!"
+
+"Oh, but you see," he reminded her, "the governor couldn't go into
+everything that was offered him, and to this plan he never urged any
+objection but that he had too many irons in the fire."
+
+"I wouldn't touch it," declared Agnes, and that was her final word in
+the matter, despite all his arguments. If John Burnit had declined to
+go into it, no matter for what reason, the plan was not worth
+considering.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+BOBBY SUCCEEDS IN SNAPPING A BARGAIN FROM UNDER SILAS TRIMMER'S NOSE
+
+
+Still undecided, but carrying seriously the thought that he must
+overlook no opportunity if he was to prove himself the successful man
+that his father had so ardently wished him to become, Bobby dropped
+into the Idlers' Club for lunch, where Nick Allstyne and Payne
+Winthrop hailed him as one returned from the dead.
+
+"Just the chap," declared Nick. "Stan Rogers has written me that I'm
+to scrape the regular crowd together and come up to his new Canadian
+lodge for a hunt. Stag affair, you know. Real sport and no pink-coat
+pretense."
+
+"Sorry, Nick," said Bobby, pluming himself a trifle upon his
+steadfastness to duty, "but I know what Stan's stag affairs are like.
+It would mean two weeks at least, and I could not spare that much time
+from the city."
+
+"Business again!" groaned Payne in mock dismay. "This grasping greed
+for gain is blighting the most promising young men of our avaricious
+country. Why, it's positively shameful, Bobby, when your father must
+have left you over three million."
+
+"Two hundred and fifty thousand, so far as I'm allowed to inquire just
+now," corrected Bobby; "and I'm ordered to go into business with that
+and prove that I'm not such a blithering idiot that I can't be trusted
+with the rest of it, whatever there is."
+
+"But I thought you'd had your trial by fire and pulled out of it,"
+interposed Nick. "I heard that you had sold your interests or
+something, and when I saw a new sign over the store I knew that it was
+true. Sensible thing, I call it."
+
+"Sensible!" winced Bobby. "You're allowing me a mighty pleasant way
+out of it, but the fact of the matter is that I lost in such a
+stinging way I'm bound to get back into the game and do nothing else
+until I win," and he explained how Silas Trimmer had performed upon
+him a neat and delicate operation in commercial surgery.
+
+They were properly sympathetic; not that they cared much about
+business, but if Bobby had entered any game whatsoever in which he had
+been soundly beaten, they could quite understand his desire to stay in
+that game until he could show points on the right side.
+
+"Nevertheless," Nick urged, "you ought to take a little breathing
+spell in between."
+
+All through lunch, and through the game of billiards which followed,
+they strove to make him see the error of his ways, but Bobby was
+obdurate, and at last they gave him up as a bad job, with the grave
+prediction that later he would find himself nothing more nor less than
+a beast of burden. When he left them Bobby was surprised at himself.
+For a time he had feared that in his declaration of such close
+attention to business he might be posing; but he found that to miss a
+stag hunting party, which heretofore had been one of his keenest
+delights, weighed upon him not at all; found actually that he would
+far rather stay in the city to engage in the game of finance which was
+unfolding before him! He came upon this surprising discovery while he
+was on his way across to a side street, where, on the fourth floor of
+a store and warehouse building, he let himself in at a wide door with
+a latch-key and entered the gymnasium of Biff Bates. That gentleman,
+in trunks, sweater and sandals, was padding all alone around and
+around the edge of the hall at a steady jog, which, after twenty solid
+minutes, had left no effect whatever upon his respiration.
+
+"Getting fat as a butcher again," he announced as he trotted steadily
+around to Bobby, suddenly stopping short with an expansive grin across
+his wide face and a handshake that it took an athlete to withstand.
+"Got to cut it down or it'll put me on the blink. What's the best
+thing you know, chum?"
+
+"How does this hit you?" asked Bobby, taking from his pocket the check
+Johnson had given him that morning.
+
+Mr. Bates looked at it with his hands behind him.
+
+"Pleased to make your acquaintance," he said to the slip of paper,
+nodding profoundly.
+
+"Oh, everybody's friendly to these," said Bobby, indorsing the check.
+"It is for the new gymnasium," he explained. "Now, partner, turn loose
+and monopolize the physical training business of this city."
+
+"Partner!" scorned Mr. Bates. "Look here, old pal, there's only one
+way I'll take this big ticket, and that is that you'll drag down your
+split of the profits."
+
+"But don't I on this place?" protested Bobby.
+
+"Nit!" retorted Mr. Bates with infinite scorn. "You put them right
+back into the business, but that don't go any more. If we start this
+big joint it's got to be partners right, see? Or else take back this
+wealthy handwriting. I don't guess I want it, anyhow. From past
+performances you need all the money in the world, and ten thousand
+simoleons will put a crimp in any wad."
+
+"No," laughed Bobby; "you're saving it for me when you take it. I've
+just read a very nice note, left for me by the governor, that I'll be
+a fool and lose anyhow."
+
+Mr. Bates grinned.
+
+"You will, all right, all right, if you're going into business," he
+admitted, and stuffed the check in the upturned cuff of his sweater.
+"After these profit-and-loss artists get your goat on all the starts
+your old man left you, maybe I'll have to put up the eats and sleeps
+for you anyhow; huh?" and Mr. Bates laughed with keen enjoyment of
+this delicately expressed idea. "How are you going to divorce yourself
+from the rest of it, Bobby?"
+
+"I'm not quite sure," said Bobby. "You know that big stretch of swamp
+land, out on the Millberg Road?"
+
+"Where Paddy Dolan fell in and died from drinkin' too much water? Sure
+I do."
+
+"Well, it has been suggested to me that I buy it, drain it, fill it,
+put in paved streets, cut it up into building lots and sell it."
+
+"And build it full of these pale yellow shacks that the honest working
+slob buys with seventeen years of his wages, and then loses the
+shack?" Biff incredulously wanted to know.
+
+"You guessed wrong, Biff," laughed Bobby. "Just selling the lots will
+be enough for me. What do you think of it?"
+
+"I don't know," said Mr. Bates thoughtfully. "I know they frame up
+such stunts and boost 'em strong in the papers, and if any of these
+real-estate sharps is working just for their healths they've been
+stung from all I've seen of 'em. But the main point is, who's the guy
+that's tryin' to lead you to it?"
+
+"Oh, that part's all right," replied Bobby with perfect assurance.
+"The man who wants me to finance this, and who has already bought some
+of the land, was one of my father's right-hand men for nearly thirty
+years."
+
+"Then that's all right," agreed Mr. Bates. "But say!" he suddenly
+exclaimed as a new thought struck him; "it's a wonder this right-mitt
+mut of your father's didn't make the old man fall for it long ago, if
+it's such a hot muffin."
+
+"He did try it," confessed Bobby with hesitation for the second time
+that day; "but the governor always complained that he had too many
+other irons in the fire."
+
+"He did, _did_ he?" Mr. Bates wanted to know, fixing accusing eyes on
+Bobby. "Then don't be the fall guy for any other touting. Your old man
+knew this business dope from Sheepshead Bay to Oakland. You take it
+from me that this tip ain't the one best bet."
+
+Bobby left the gymnasium with a certain degree of dissatisfaction, not
+only with Mr. Applerod's scheme but with the fact that wherever he
+went his father's business wisdom was thrown into his teeth. That
+evening, drawn to the atmosphere into which events had plunged him, he
+dined at the Traders' Club. As he passed one of the tables Silas
+Trimmer leered up at him with the circular smile, which, bisected by a
+row of yellow teeth and hooded with a bristle of stubby mustache, had
+now come to aggravate him almost past endurance. To-night it made him
+approach his dinner with vexation, and, failing to find the man he had
+sought, he finished hastily. As he went out, Silas Trimmer, though
+looking straight in his direction, did not seem to be at all aware of
+Bobby's approach. He was deep in a business discussion with his
+priggish son-in-law.
+
+"It's a great opportunity," he was loudly insisting. "If I can secure
+that land I'll drain and improve it and cut it up into building lots.
+This city is ripe for a suburban boom."
+
+That settled it with Bobby. No matter what arguments there might be to
+the contrary, if Silas Trimmer had his eye on that piece of property,
+Bobby wanted it.
+
+Applerod, though eagerness brought him early, had no sooner entered
+the study next morning than Bobby, who was already dressed for
+business and who had his machine standing outside the door, met him
+briskly.
+
+"Keep your hat on, Applerod," he ordered. "We'll go right around and
+buy the rest of that property at once."
+
+"I thought those figures I left last night would convince you," beamed
+Mr. Applerod.
+
+There is no describing the delight and pride with which that
+highly-gratified gentleman followed the energetic young Mr. Burnit to
+the curb, nor the dignity with which, a few minutes later, he led the
+way into the office of one Thorne, real-estate dealer.
+
+"Mr. Thorne, Mr. Robert Burnit," said Mr. Applerod, hastening straight
+to business. "Mr. Burnit has come around to close the deal for that
+Westmarsh property."
+
+Mr. Thorne was suavity itself as he shook hands with Mr. Burnit, but
+the most aching regret was in his tone as he spoke.
+
+"I'm very sorry indeed, Mr. Burnit," he stated; "but that property,
+which, by the way, seems very much in demand, passed out of my hands
+yesterday afternoon."
+
+"To whom?" Mr. Applerod excitedly wanted to know. "I think you might
+have let us have time to turn around, Thorne. I spoke about it to you
+yesterday morning, you know, and said that I felt quite hopeful Mr.
+Burnit would buy it."
+
+"I know," said Mr. Thorne, politely but coldly; "and I told you at the
+time we talked about it that I never hold anything in the face of a
+bona fide offer."
+
+"But who has it?" Bobby insisted, more eager now to get it, since it
+had slipped away from him, than ever before.
+
+"The larger portion of it, the ninety-two acres adjoining Mr.
+Applerod's twenty," Mr. Thorne advised him, "was taken up by Miles,
+Eddy and Company. The north eight acres are owned by Mr. Silas
+Trimmer, and I am quite positive, from what Mr. Trimmer told me, not
+two hours later, that this parcel is not for sale."
+
+Bobby's heart sank. Eight acres of that land had already been gobbled
+up by Silas Trimmer, and, no doubt, that astute and energetic business
+gentleman was now after the balance.
+
+"Where is the office of Miles, Eddy and Company?" Bobby asked, with a
+crispness that pleased him tremendously as he used it.
+
+"Twenty-six Plum Street," Mr. Thorne advised him.
+
+"Thanks," said Bobby, and whirled out of the door, followed by the
+disconsolate Applerod.
+
+At the office of Miles, Eddy and Company better luck awaited them.
+
+Yes, that firm had secured possession of the Westmarsh ninety-two
+acres. Yes, the property was listed for sale, having been bought
+strictly for speculative purposes. And its figure? The price was now
+three hundred dollars per acre.
+
+"I'll take it," said Bobby.
+
+There was positive triumph in his voice as he announced this decision.
+He would show Silas Trimmer that he was awake at last, that he was not
+to be beaten in every deal.
+
+"Twenty-seven thousand six hundred dollars," said Bobby, figuring the
+amount on a pad he picked up from Mr. Eddy's desk. "Very well. Allow
+me to use your telephone a moment. Mr. Chalmers," directed Bobby when
+he had his new lawyer on the wire, "kindly get into communication with
+Miles, Eddy and Company and look up the title on ninety-two acres of
+Westmarsh property which they have for sale. If the title is clear the
+price is to be three hundred dollars per acre, for which amount you
+will have a check, payable to your order, within half an hour."
+
+Then to Johnson--biting his pen-handle in Bobby's study and wondering
+where his principal and Applerod could be at this hour--he telephoned
+to deliver a check in the amount of twenty-seven thousand six hundred
+dollars to Mr. Chalmers. Never, since he had been plunged into
+"business," had Bobby been so elated with himself as when he walked
+from the office of Miles, Eddy and Company; and, to keep up the good
+work, as soon as he reached the hall he turned to Applerod with a
+crisp, ringing voice, which was the product of that elation.
+
+"Now for an engineer," he said.
+
+"Already as good as secured," Mr. Applerod announced, triumphant that
+every necessity had been anticipated. "Jimmy Platt, son of an old
+neighbor of mine. Fine, smart boy, and knows all about the Westmarsh
+proposition. Bless you, I figured on this with him every vacation
+during his schooling!"
+
+An hour later, Bobby, Mr. Applerod and the secretly jubilant Jimmy
+Platt had sped out Westmarsh way, and were inspecting the hundred and
+twelve acres of swamp which the new firm of Burnit and Applerod held
+between them.
+
+"It's a fine job," said the young engineer, coveting anew the
+tremendous task as he bent upon it an admiring professional eye. "This
+time next year you won't recognize the place. It's a noble thing, Mr.
+Burnit, to turn an utterly useless stretch of swamp like this into
+habitable land. Have you secured the entire tract?"
+
+"Unfortunately, no," Bobby confessed with a frown. "The extreme north
+eight acres are owned by another party."
+
+"And when you drain your property," mused Jimmy, smiling, "you will
+drain his."
+
+"Not if I can help it," declared Bobby emphatically.
+
+"You must come to some arrangement before you begin," warned the
+engineer with the severe professional authority common to the quite
+young. Already, however, he was trying to grow regulation engineer's
+whiskers; also he immediately planned to get married upon the proceeds
+of this big job, which, after years of chimerical dreaming, had become
+too real, almost, to be believed. "Perhaps you could get the owner to
+stand his proportionate share of the expense of drainage."
+
+Bobby smiled at the suggestion but made no other answer. He knew Silas
+Trimmer, or thought that he did, and the idea of Silas bearing a
+portion of a huge expense like this, when he could not be forced to
+shoulder it, struck him as distinctly humorous.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+AGNES DELIVERS BOBBY A NOTE FROM OLD JOHN BURNIT--IN A GRAY ENVELOPE
+
+
+That night, at the Traders' Club, Bobby was surprised when Mr. Trimmer
+walked over to his table and dropped his pudgy trunk and his lean
+limbs into a chair beside him. His yellow countenance was creased with
+ingratiating wrinkles, and the smile behind his immovable mustache
+became of perfectly flawless circumference as his muddy black eyes
+peered at Bobby through thick spectacles. It seemed to Bobby that
+there was malice in the wrinkles about those eyes, but the address of
+Mr. Trimmer was most conciliatory.
+
+"I have a fuss to pick with you, young man," he said with clumsy
+joviality. "You beat me upon the purchase of that Westmarsh property.
+Very shrewd, indeed, Mr. Burnit; very like your father. I suppose that
+now, if I wanted to buy it from you, I'd have to pay you a pretty
+advance." And he rubbed his hands as if to invite the opening of
+negotiations.
+
+"It is not for sale," said Bobby, stiffening; "but I might consider a
+proposition to buy your eight acres." He offered this suggestion with
+reluctance, for he had no mind to enter transactions of any sort with
+Silas Trimmer. Still, he recalled to himself with a sudden yielding to
+duty, business is business, and his father would probably have waved
+all personal considerations aside at such a point.
+
+"Mine _is_ for sale," offered Silas, a trifle too eagerly, Bobby
+thought.
+
+"How much?" he asked.
+
+"A thousand dollars an acre."
+
+"I won't pay it," declared Bobby.
+
+"Well," replied Mr. Trimmer with a deepening of that circular smile
+which Bobby now felt sure was maliciously sarcastic, "by the time it
+is drained it will be worth that to any purchaser."
+
+"Suppose we drain it," suggested Bobby, holding both his temper and
+his business object remarkably well in hand. "Will you stand your
+share of the cost?"
+
+"It strikes me as an entirely unnecessary expense at present," said
+Silas and smiled again.
+
+"Then it won't be drained," snapped Bobby.
+
+Later in the evening he caught Silas laughing at him, his shoulders
+heaving and every yellow fang protruding. The next morning, keeping
+earlier hours than ever before in his life, Bobby was waiting outside
+Jimmy Platt's door when that gentleman started to work.
+
+"The first thing you do," he directed, still with a memory of that
+aggravating laugh, "I want you to build a cement wall straight across
+the north end of my Westmarsh property."
+
+Mr. Platt smiled and shook his head.
+
+"Evidently you can not buy that north eight acres, and don't intend to
+drain it," he commented, stroking sagely the sparse beginning of those
+slow professional whiskers. "It's your affair, of course, Mr. Burnit,
+but I am quite sure that spite work in engineering can not be made to
+pay."
+
+"Nevertheless," insisted Bobby, "we'll build that wall."
+
+The previous afternoon Jimmy Platt had made a scale drawing of the
+property from city surveys, and now the two went over it carefully,
+discussing it in various phases for fully an hour, proving estimates
+of cost and general feasibility. At the conclusion of that time Bobby,
+well pleased with his own practical manner of looking into things,
+telephoned to Johnson and asked for Applerod. Mr. Applerod had not yet
+arrived.
+
+"Very well," said Bobby, "when he comes have him step out and secure
+suitable offices for us," and this detail despatched he went out with
+his engineer to make a circuit of the property and study its drainage
+possibilities.
+
+From profiles that Platt had made they found the swamp at its upper
+point to be much lower than the level of the river, which ran beyond
+low hills nearly a mile away; but the river made a detour, including a
+considerable fall, coming back again to within a scant half-mile of
+the southern end of the tract, where it was much lower than the marsh.
+Between marsh and river at the south was an immense hill, too steep
+and rugged for any practical purpose, and this they scaled.
+
+The west end of the city lay before them crowding close to the river
+bank, and already its tentacles had crept around and over the hills
+and on past Westmarsh tract. Young Platt looked from river to swamp,
+his eyes glowing over the possibilities that lay before them.
+
+"Mr. Burnit," he announced, after a gravity of thought which he strove
+his best to make take the place of experience, "you ought to be able
+to buy this hill very cheaply. Just through here we'll construct our
+drainage channel, and with the excavation fill your marsh. It is one
+of the neatest opportunities I have ever seen, and I want to
+congratulate you upon your shrewdness in having picked out such a
+splendid investment."
+
+This, Bobby felt, was praise from Caesar, and he was correspondingly
+elated.
+
+He did not return to the study until in the afternoon. He found
+Johnson livid with abhorrence of Applerod's gaudy metamorphosis. That
+gentleman wore a black frock-coat, a flowered gray waistcoat,
+pin-striped light trousers, shining new shoes, sported a gold-headed
+cane, and on the table was the glistening new silk hat which had
+reposed upon his snow-white curls. His pink face was beaming as he
+rose to greet his partner.
+
+"Mr. Burnit," said he, shaking hands with almost trembling gravity and
+importance, "this day is the apex of my life, and I'm happy to have
+the son of my old and revered employer as my partner."
+
+"I hope that it may prove fortunate for both of us," replied Bobby,
+repressing his smile at the acquisition of the "make-up" which
+Applerod had for years aspired to wear legitimately.
+
+Johnson, humped over the desk that had once been Bobby's father's,
+snorted and looked up at the stern portrait of old John Burnit; then
+he drew from the index-file which he had already placed upon the back
+of that desk a gray-tinted envelope which he handed to Bobby with a
+silence that was more eloquent than words. It was inscribed:
+
+    _To my Son if he is Fool Enough to Take up With Applerod's
+      Swamp Scheme_
+
+Rather impatiently Bobby tore it open, and on the inside he found:
+
+    "When shrewd men persist in passing up an apparently cinch
+    proposition, don't even try to find out what's the matter with
+    it. In this six-cylinder age no really good opportunity runs
+    loose for twenty-four hours."
+
+"If the governor had only arranged to leave me his advice beforehand
+instead of afterward," Bobby complained to Agnes Elliston that
+evening, "it might have a chance at me."
+
+"The blow has fallen," said Agnes with mock seriousness; "but you must
+remember that you brought it on yourself. You have complained to _me_
+of your father's carefully-laid plans for your course in progressive
+bankruptcy, and he left in my keeping a letter for you covering that
+very point."
+
+"_Not_ in a gray envelope, I hope," groaned Bobby.
+
+"_In_ a gray envelope," she replied firmly, going across to her own
+desk in the library.
+
+"I had feared," said Bobby dismally, "that sooner or later I should
+find he had left letters for me in your charge as well as in
+Johnson's, but I had hoped, if that were the case, that at least they
+would be in pink envelopes."
+
+She brought to him one of the familiar-looking missives, and Bobby, as
+he took it, looked speculatively at the big fireplace, in which, as it
+was early fall, comfortable-looking real logs were crackling.
+
+"Don't do it, Bobby," she warned him smiling. "Let's have the fun
+together," and she sat beside him on the couch, snuggling close.
+
+The envelope was addressed:
+
+    _To My Son Upon his Complaining that His Father's Advice
+      Comes too Late!_
+
+He opened it, and together they read:
+
+    "No boy will believe green apples hurt him until he gets the
+    stomach-ache. Knowing you to be truly my son, I am sure that
+    if I gave you advice beforehand you would not believe it. This
+    way you will."
+
+Bobby smiled grimly.
+
+"I remember one painful incident of about the time I put on
+knickerbockers," he mused. "Father told me to keep away from a
+rat-trap that he had bought. Of course I caught my hand in it three
+minutes afterward. It hurt and I howled, but he only looked at me
+coldly until at last I asked him to help. He let the thing squeeze
+while he asked if a rat-trap hurt. I admitted that it did. Would I
+believe him next time? I acknowledged that I would, and he opened the
+trap. That was all there was to it except the raw place on my hand;
+but that night he came to my room after I had gone to bed, and lay
+beside me and cuddled me in his arms until I went to sleep."
+
+"Bobby," said Agnes seriously, "not one of these letters but proves
+his aching love for you."
+
+"I know it," admitted Bobby with again that grim smile. "Which only
+goes to prove another thing, that I'm in for some of the severest
+drubbings of my life. I wonder where the clubs are hidden."
+
+He found one of them late that same night at the Idlers'. Clarence
+Smythe, Silas Trimmer's son-in-law, drifted in toward the wee small
+hours in an unusual condition of hilarity. He had a Vandyke, had Mr.
+Smythe, and was one who cherished a mad passion for clothes; also, as
+an utterly impossible "climber," he was as cordially hated as Bobby
+was liked at the Idlers', where he had crept in "while the window was
+open," as Nick Allstyne expressed it. Ordinarily he was most prim and
+pretty of manner, but to-night he was on vinously familiar terms with
+all the world, and, crowding himself upon Bobby's quiet whist crowd,
+slapped Bobby joyously on the shoulder.
+
+"Generous lad, Bobby!" he thickly informed Allstyne and Winthrop and
+Starlett. "If you chaps have any property you've wanted to unload for
+half a lifetime, here's the free-handed plunger to buy it."
+
+"How's that?" Bobby wanted to know, guessing instantly at the
+humiliating truth.
+
+"That Westmarsh swamp belonged to Trimmer," laughed Mr. Smythe, so
+bubbling with the hugeness of the joke that he could not keep his
+secret; "and when Thorne, after pumping your puffy man, told my clever
+father-in-law you wanted it, he promptly bought it from himself in the
+name of Miles, Eddy and Company and put up the price to three hundred
+an acre. Besides taking the property off his shoulders you've given
+him nearly a ten-thousand-dollar advance for it. Fine business!"
+
+"Great!" agreed blunt Jack Starlett. "Almost as good a joke as
+refusing to pay a poker debt because it isn't legal."
+
+Bobby smiled his thanks for the shot, but inside he was sick. The game
+they were playing was a parting set-to, for the three others were
+leaving in the morning for Stanley's hunt, but Bobby was glad when it
+was over. In the big, lonely house he sat in the study for an hour
+before he went to bed, looking abstractedly up at the picture of old
+John Burnit and worrying over this new development. It cut him to the
+quick, not so much that he had been made a fool of by "clever"
+real-estate men, had been led, imbecile-like, to pay an extra hundred
+dollars per acre for that swamp land, but that the advantage had gone
+to Silas Trimmer.
+
+Moreover, why had Silas put a prohibitive valuation upon that north
+eight acres? Why did he want to keep it? It must be because Silas
+really expected that his tract would be drained free of charge, and
+that he would thus have the triumph of selling it for an approximate
+six thousand dollars an acre in the form of building lots. In the face
+of such a conclusion, the thought of the cement wall that he had
+ordered built was a great satisfaction.
+
+It was a remarkably open winter that followed, and outdoor operations
+could thereby go on uninterrupted. In the office, the pompous
+Applerod, in his frock-coat and silk hat, ground Johnson's soul to
+gall dust; for he had taken to saying "_Mr._ Johnson" most formally,
+and issuing directions with maddening politeness and consideration. An
+arrangement had been effected with Applerod, whereby that gentleman,
+for having suggested the golden opportunity, was to reap the entire
+benefit of the improvement on his own twenty acres, Bobby financing
+the whole deal and charging Applerod's share of it against his
+account. Applerod stood thereby to gain about seventy-six thousand
+dollars over and above the price he had paid for his twenty acres;
+and, moreover, _Bobby had decided to call the improved tract the
+Applerod Addition_! When that name began to appear in print, coupled
+with flaming advertisements of Applerod's devising, there was grave
+danger of the rosy-cheeked old gentleman's losing every button from
+every fancy vest in his possession.
+
+In the meantime, thoroughly in love with the vast enterprise which he
+had projected, Bobby spent his time outdoors, fascinated, unable to
+find any peace elsewhere than upon his Titanic labor. His evenings he
+spent in such social affairs as he could not avoid; with Agnes
+Elliston; with Biff Bates; in an occasional game of billiards at the
+Idlers'; but his days, from early morning until the evening whistle,
+he spent amid the clang of pick and shovel, the rattling of the trams,
+the creaking of the crane. It was an absorbing thing to see that
+enormous groove cut down through the big hill, and to watch the growth
+of the great mounds which grew up out of the marsh. The ditch that
+should drain off all this murky water was, of course, the first thing
+to be achieved, and, from the base of the hill through which it was to
+be cut, the engineer ran a tram bridge straight across the swamp to
+the new retaining wall; and from this, with the aid of a huge,
+long-armed crane which lifted cars bodily from the track, the soil was
+dumped on either side as it was removed from the cut. By the latter
+part of December the ditch had been completed and connected with the
+special sewer which, by permission of the city, had been built to
+carry the overflow to the river, and, the open weather still holding,
+the stagnant pool which had been a blot upon the landscape for untold
+ages began to flow sluggishly away, displaced by the earth from the
+disappearing hill.
+
+The city papers were teeming now with the vast energy and
+public-spirited enterprise of young Robert Burnit and Oliver P.
+Applerod, and there were many indications that the enterprise was to
+be a most successful one. Even before they were ready to receive them,
+applications were daily made for reservations in the new district, and
+individual home-seekers began to take Sunday trips out to where the
+big undertaking was in progress.
+
+"You sure have got 'em going, Bobby," confessed the finally-convinced
+Biff Bates after a visit of inspection. "Here's where you put the
+hornet on one Silas Tight-Wad Trimmer all right, all right. But the
+bones don't roll right that the side bet don't go for Johnson instead
+of Applegoat. He's a shine, for me. I think he's all to the canary
+color inside, but this man Johnson's some man if he only had a shell
+to put it in. Me for him!"
+
+The unexpressed friendship that had sprung up between the taciturn
+bookkeeper and the loquacious ex-pugilist was both a puzzle and a
+delight to Bobby, and it was one of his great joys to see them
+together, they not knowing why they liked such companionship, not
+having a single topic of conversation in common, but unconsciously
+enjoying that vague, sympathetic man-soul they found in each other.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+AGNES AND BOBBY DISCERN DIAMOND-STUDDED SPURS FOR THE LATTER
+
+
+About the first of February the filling and grading were finished and
+the construction of the streets began, and the middle of March saw the
+final disappearance of everything, except that dark, eight-acre spot
+of Silas Trimmer's, which might remind one of the tract once known as
+the Westmarsh. In its place lay a broad, yellow checker-board, formed
+by intersecting streets of asphalt edged with cement pavements, and in
+the center, at the crossing of broad Burnit and Applerod Avenues,
+there arose, over a spot where once frogs had croaked and mosquitoes
+clustered in crowds, a pretty club-house, which was later to be
+donated to the suburb; and a great satisfaction fell upon the soul of
+Bobby Burnit like a benediction.
+
+Also one Oliver P. Applerod added two full inches to his strut. He
+seldom came out to the scene of actual operations, for there was none
+there except workmen to see his frock-coat and silk hat; but
+occasionally, from a sense of duty inextricably mingled with
+self-assertiveness, he paid a visit of inspection, and upon one of
+these his eyes were confronted by a huge new board sign, visible for
+half a mile, that overlooked the Applerod Addition from the hills to
+the north. It bore but two words: "Trimmer's Addition." Applerod,
+holding his broadcloth tight about him to keep it from yellow
+contamination as a car rumbled by, looked and wiped his glasses and
+looked again, then, highly excited, he called Bobby to him.
+
+"Why didn't you tell me of this?" he demanded, pointing to the sign.
+
+Bobby, happy in sweater and high boots and liberal decorations of
+clay, only laughed.
+
+"The sign went up only yesterday," he stated.
+
+"But it is competition. Unfair competition! He is stealing our
+thunder," protested Applerod.
+
+"He has a perfect right to lay out a subdivision if he wants," said
+Bobby. "But don't worry, Applerod. I've been over there and the thing
+is a joke. The tract is one-fourth the size of ours, it is uphill and
+downhill, only a little grading is being done, streets are cut through
+but not paved, and a few cheap board sidewalks are being put down.
+He's had to pay a lot more for his land than we have, and can not sell
+his lots any cheaper."
+
+"There's no telling what Silas Trimmer will do," said Applerod,
+shaking his head.
+
+"Nonsense," said Bobby; "there is no chance that people will pass by
+our lots and buy one of his."
+
+Applerod walked away unconvinced. Had it been any one else than Silas
+Trimmer who had set up this opposition he would not have minded so
+much, but Applerod had come to have a mighty fear of John Burnit's
+ancient enemy, and presently he came back to Bobby more panic-stricken
+than ever.
+
+"I'm going to sell my interest in the Applerod Addition the minute I
+find a buyer," he declared, "and I'd advise you to do the same."
+
+"Don't be foolish," counseled Bobby, frowning. "You _can't_ lose."
+
+"But man!" quavered Applerod. "I have four thousand dollars of my own
+cash, all I've been able to scrape together in a lifetime, tied up in
+this thing, and I _mustn't_ lose!"
+
+Bobby regarded his father's old confidential clerk more in sorrow than
+in anger. He was not used to dealing with men of any age so utterly
+lacking in gameness.
+
+"Four thousand," he repeated, then he looked across his big
+checker-board. "I'll give you ten thousand for it right now."
+
+"What!" objected Applerod, aghast. "Why, Burnit, the work is nearly
+done and I have already in sight seventy-six thousand dollars of clear
+profit over my investment."
+
+Bobby did not remind Applerod that his four thousand dollars
+represented only a trifling part of the investment required to yield
+this seventy-six thousand dollars' profit. Yet, after all, there was
+no flaw in Applerod's commercial reasoning.
+
+"I didn't expect you to accept it," replied Bobby. "If you were
+determined to get out, however, you've had an offer of six thousand
+profit, with no risk."
+
+"I'd be crazy," declared Applerod. "I can get a better price than
+that."
+
+Bobby was thoughtful for an hour after Applerod had left him; then he
+hurried into the club-house and telephoned to Chalmers. This was in
+the forenoon. In the afternoon Applerod was served with an injunction
+based upon an indivisibility of interest, restraining him from
+disposing of his share; and in his anger he let it slip out that he
+had already been trying to open negotiations with Trimmer!
+
+"Honestly, it hurts!" said Bobby wearily, telling of the incident to
+Agnes that night. "I didn't know there were so many unsportsmanlike
+people."
+
+"I think that is precisely what your father wanted you to find out,"
+she observed.
+
+"I don't want to know it," protested Bobby. "I'd stay much happier to
+believe that everybody in the world was of the right sort."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"No, Bobby," she said gently; "you have to know that there is the
+other kind, in order properly to appreciate truth and honor and
+loyalty."
+
+"I could almost believe I was in a Sunday-school class," grinned
+Bobby. "No wonder it's snowing."
+
+Agnes looked out of the window with a cry of delight. Those floating
+flakes were the very first snow of the season; but they were by no
+means the last. The winter, delayed, but apparently all the more
+violent for that very reason, burst suddenly upon the city, stopping
+the finishing touches on both suburban additions. Came rain and sleet
+and snow, and rain and sleet and snow again, then biting cold that
+sank deep into the ground and sealed it as if with a crust of iron.
+March, that had come in like a lamb, went out like a lion, and the
+lion raged through April and into May. Then, as suddenly as it had
+come, the belated winter passed away and the warm sun beat down upon
+the snow-clad hills and swept them clean. It penetrated into the
+valleys and turned them into rivulets, thousands of which poured into
+the river and swelled its banks brimming full. The streets of the
+Applerod Addition were quickly washed with their own white covering
+and dried, and immediately with this break-up began the great
+advertising campaign. The papers flamed with full-page and half-page
+announcements of the wonderful home-making opportunity; circulars were
+mailed to possible home-buyers by the hundred thousand; every
+street-car told of the bargain on striking cards; immense electric
+signs blazoned the project by night; sixteen-sheet posters were spread
+upon all the bill-boards, and every device known to expert advertising
+was requisitioned. Not one soul within the city or within a radius of
+fifty miles but had kept constantly before him the duty he owed to
+himself to purchase a lot in the marvelous Applerod Addition; and now
+indeed Oliver P. Applerod, reassured once more, began to reap the
+fruit of his life's ambitions as prospective buyers thronged to look
+at his frock-coat and silk hat.
+
+June the first was set for the date of the "grand opening," and though
+it was not to be a month of roses, still the earth looked bright and
+gay as the time approached, and Bobby Burnit took Agnes out to view
+his coming triumph. This was upon a bright day toward the end of May,
+when those yellow squares were tempered to a golden green by the
+tender young grass that had been sown at the completion of the
+grading. She had made frequent visits with him through the winter, and
+now she gloried with him.
+
+"It looks fine, Bobby," she confessed with glowing eyes. "Fine! It
+really seems as if you had won your spurs."
+
+"Diamond-studded ones!" he exulted. "Why, Agnes, the office is
+besieged with requests for allotments. In spite of the fact that we
+have over eleven hundred lots for sale at an average price of six
+hundred dollars, we're not going to have enough to go around. The
+receipts will be fully seven hundred thousand dollars, and our
+complete disbursements, by the time we have sold out, will not amount
+to over two hundred and twenty-five thousand. Of course, I don't
+know--I haven't asked, and you wouldn't tell me if I did--just by what
+promises you are bound, but when I close up this deal you're going to
+marry me! That's flat!"
+
+"You mustn't be too sure of anything in this world, Bobby," she warned
+him, but she turned upon him a smile that made her words but idle
+breath.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+BOBBY DISCOVERS AN ENEMY GREATER THAN SILAS TRIMMER
+
+
+One circumstance only had occurred to give Bobby any anxiety. With the
+beginning of the thaw the water in Silas Trimmer's eight acres had
+begun slowly to rise, and he saw with some dismay that by far the
+larger part of the great natural basin from which the surface water
+had been supplied to this swamp sloped from the northern end. Not
+having that expanse of one hundred and twenty acres to spread over, it
+might overflow, and in considerable trepidation he sought Jimmy Platt.
+That happy young gentleman only smiled.
+
+"I calculated upon that," he informed Bobby, "and built your retaining
+wall two feet higher than the normal spring level for that very
+reason. It will carry all the water than can shed down from those
+hills."
+
+Relieved, Bobby went ahead with the preparations for turning the
+Applerod Addition into money, and though he saw the water creeping up
+steadily against the other side of his wall, he displayed no anxiety
+until it had reached within three or four inches of the top. Then he
+took Platt out with him to have a look at it.
+
+"Don't you think you ought to get busy?" he inquired. "Hadn't we
+better add another foot to this wall?"
+
+"Not necessary," said Jimmy, shaking his head positively. "This has
+been an unusual spring, but the wet weather is all over now, and you
+can see by the water-mark where the level has gone down a half inch
+since morning. All the moisture that has been trickling down here
+during the past week has been from the thawing out of the frozen
+hillsides, but those slopes are almost dust dry now."
+
+"Suppose it should rain again?" insisted Bobby, still worried.
+
+"It couldn't rain hard enough to fill up these four inches," declared
+Platt with decision. "Look here, Mr. Burnit, I'd worry myself if there
+was any cause whatever. Do you suppose I'd want anything to happen to
+my biggest and best job so close to my wedding-day?"
+
+"So you've set the time," said Bobby, with eager pleasure. He had met
+Platt's "best girl" and her mother out at the Addition, and liked her,
+as he did earnest young Platt.
+
+"June the first," replied Jimmy exultantly. "The date of your
+opening--in the evening."
+
+"Don't forget to send me an invitation."
+
+"Will you come?" said Platt. He had wanted to ask Bobby before, but
+had not been quite sure that he ought.
+
+"Come!" replied Bobby. "Indeed I shall--unless I happen to have a
+wedding of my own on that date."
+
+Bobby went away satisfied once more, and quite willing to give up the
+additional foot of wall. The work would entail considerable cost, and
+expense now was much more of an item than it had been a few months
+previously. Already he had spent upon this project over two hundred
+and ten thousand dollars; ten thousand he had given to Biff Bates; ten
+thousand he had used personally, so there was but an insignificant
+portion left of his two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Their
+"grand opening" would eat up another tidy little sum, for it was to be
+an expensive affair. The liberal advertising that had already appeared
+was augmented as the great day approached, a brass band had been
+engaged, a magnificent lunch, sufficient to feed an army, had been
+arranged for, and every available 'bus and carry-all and picnic wagon
+in the city had been secured to transport all comers, free of charge,
+from the end of the car line to the new Addition. The price of
+vehicles was high, however, for Silas Trimmer had already engaged
+quite a number of them to run between the Applerod Addition and his
+own. During the week preceding June first, there had appeared, in the
+local papers, advertisements of about one-fourth the size that Bobby
+was using, calling attention to the opening of the Trimmer Addition,
+which was to be upon the same date.
+
+On the evening of May twenty-ninth, Bobby found Silas pacing the top
+of the retaining wall which held in his swamp, and waited for the
+spider-like figure to come across and join him.
+
+"Too bad you didn't come in with me, or sell me your property at a
+reasonable figure," said Bobby affably, willing, in spite of his
+recent bitter experience, to meet his competitor upon the same
+friendly grounds that he would a crack polo antagonist on the eve of
+contest. "It's a shame that this could not all have been improved at
+one time."
+
+"I'd just as lief have my part of it the way it is," said Silas. "It's
+no good now, but it's as good as yours," and he climbed into his buggy
+and drove away laughing, leaving Bobby strangely dissatisfied and
+doubtful over that strange remark.
+
+While he was still trying to unravel it, he noted that the water in
+Silas' pond, which but a day or so previously had been down to fully
+nine inches from the top, was now climbing rapidly upward again; and
+there had been no rain for more than two weeks! The thing was
+inexplicable. He was still puzzling over this as he drove down the
+road and turned in at broad Burnit Avenue toward the club-house. The
+asphalt and the pavements were bone dry and as clean as a ball-room
+floor, and it seemed to him that the young grass was growing greener
+and higher here than anywhere.
+
+Suddenly he ordered his chauffeur to stop the machine. He had just
+passed a lot where, amid the tufts of green, his eye had caught the
+glint of water. Running back to it he saw that the center of that lot
+was covered by a small pool scarcely half an inch deep, through which
+the grass was growing dankly. This, too, was queer, for the hot sun
+and strong breeze of the past few days should have dried up every
+vestige of moisture. He walked along the sidewalk, studying each of
+the lots in turn. Here and there he discovered other small pools, and
+every lot bore the appearance of having just been freshly and too
+liberally watered. He stepped from the pavement upon the earth, and to
+his surprise his foot sank into it to the depth of an inch or more.
+For a while he was deeply worried, but presently it flashed upon him
+that all this soil had been dumped into the marsh, displacing the
+water, and that in this process it had naturally become soaked through
+and through. Of course it would take a long time to dry out and it
+would be all the better for its moisture. The rate at which grass was
+growing was proof enough of that.
+
+On the next day, kept busy by the preparations for the big opening,
+Bobby did not get out to the Applerod Addition until evening again. As
+he neared it he met Silas Trimmer coming back in his buck-board, that
+false circle around his mouth very much in evidence.
+
+"You ought to have had your opening yesterday. I'd have been tempted
+to buy a lot myself then," shouted Silas as he passed, and Bobby was
+sure that the tone was a mocking one.
+
+Consumed with anxiety, he hurried on to see how Silas' swamp stood.
+Aghast, he found the level of the water a full inch higher than any
+point that it had ever before reached. Connecting this condition
+vaguely with that other phenomenon that he had noted, he whirled his
+runabout and ran back into Burnit Avenue. In twenty-four hours a
+remarkable change had been wrought. There were pools everywhere. The
+lot where he had first noticed it was now entirely covered with water,
+with barely the tips of the grass showing through. Frightened, he
+drove over the entire Addition, up one street and down another. In
+many places the lots were flooded. One entire block had become no more
+nor less than a pond. At other points the water, carrying with it the
+yellow soil, was flowing over his beautiful clean sidewalks and
+spreading its stain upon his immaculate streets. The darkness alone
+drove him from that inspection, and then it occurred to him to send
+once more for Jimmy Platt. At the first suburban telephone station he
+tried for nearly an hour to locate his man, but in vain. Later he
+tried it from his club, but could not reach him. That night was a
+sleepless one, and the next morning's daybreak found him speeding out
+the roadway to the Applerod Addition.
+
+Early as he was, however, he found young Platt there ahead of him and
+in despair. He had good cause. The whole north end of the Applerod
+Addition had turned black, and over the top of Bobby's now grimy
+cement wall poured a broad, dark sheet of the murky swamp-water which
+had stained it. The pond of Silas Trimmer had overflowed in spite of
+all Platt's confident figuring that it could not, and in spite of the
+fact that dry weather had prevailed for two solid weeks. That was the
+inexplicable part. Clear weather, and still the entire suburb was
+becoming practically submerged! With solid, dry soil surrounding it,
+wherever the eye could reach it had become but a morass of mud! Mud
+was smeared upon every path and every roadway, and Bobby's automobile
+slipped and slid in the oily, yellow liquid that lay sluggishly in
+every gutter and blotched every rod of his clean asphalt.
+
+Young Platt's face blanched as he saw Bobby.
+
+"I've made a miserable botch of it," he confessed, torn with an agony
+of regret at his failure; "and I can't see yet what I overlooked. I'd
+no right to tackle a man's job like this!"
+
+"You!" replied Bobby vehemently. "It was Trimmer who did this;
+somehow, someway he did it, and he flaunts it in our faces. Look
+there!" and he pointed to a huge signboard that had been erected
+overnight just opposite the entrance to Burnit Avenue. In huge, bold
+letters, surmounted by a giant hand that pointed the way, it told
+prospective investors to buy property in the high and dry Trimmer
+Addition, the words "High and Dry" being twice as large as any other
+lettering upon the board.
+
+"It is surely a lot of nerve," admitted Platt, "but it is rank
+nonsense to say that the man had anything to do with this catastrophe.
+It would have been impossible. Let's look this thing over. Drive past
+the club-house to the extreme west side."
+
+Once more they traversed the mud of Burnit Avenue, and upon the dry,
+sloping ground the young engineer, cursing his inexperience, alighted
+and walked along the edge of the property, seeking a solution to the
+mystery. Still perplexed, he ascended the rising ground and looked
+musingly across at the yet swollen and clay-red river. Suddenly an
+exclamation escaped his lips.
+
+"There's your enemy," he said to Bobby who had climbed up beside him,
+and pointed to the river. "The river bank, I am sure, must edge upon a
+tilted shale formation which dips just below this basin. Probably at
+all times some of the water from the river seeps down between two
+sand-separated layers of this formation to find its outlet in the
+marsh, and it is this water which, through a geological freak, has
+supplied that swamp for ages. In the spring, however, and in
+extraordinary flood times, it probably finds a higher and looser
+stratum, and rushes down here with all the force of a hydraulic
+stream. This spring it took it a long time to wet thoroughly all our
+made ground from the bottom upward. The frost, sinking deeper in this
+loose, wet soil than elsewhere, held it back, too, for a time, but as
+soon as this was thoroughly out of the ground the river overflow came
+up like a geyser.
+
+"Mr. Burnit, your Applerod Addition is ruined, and it can never be
+saved, unless by some extraordinary means. Nature picked out this
+spot, centuries and centuries ago, for a swamp, and she's going to
+have one here in spite of all that we can do. In five years this basin
+won't be a thing but black water and weeds, with only that club-house
+as a decaying monument to your enterprise."
+
+Bobby controlled himself with an effort. His face was drawn and white;
+but part of that was from the anxiety of the past two days, and he
+took the blow stiff and erect, as a good soldier stands up to be
+disciplined. His eye roved over the work in which he had taken such
+pride, and already he could see in fancy the dank weeds growing up,
+and the croaking frogs diving into the oily surface, and the clouds of
+mosquitoes hovering over it again. Over the top of his retaining wall
+still poured the foul water which was to leaven all this, and he gazed
+upon it with a sharp intake of the breath.
+
+"And to think that Silas Trimmer must have known all this, and led me
+to waste a fortune just so that he could reap the benefit of my
+advertising for his own vulture advantage!"
+
+That, at first, was the part which hurt more than the overthrow of his
+plans, more than the loss of his money, more than the failure of his
+fight to carry out his father's wishes for his success: that any one
+could play the game so unfairly, that there could be in all the world
+people so detestable, so unprincipled, so _unsportsmanlike_!
+
+Slowly the vanquished pair descended the hill to where the automobile
+stood upon the solid, level sward, but before they climbed in Bobby
+shook hands with his engineer.
+
+"Don't blame yourself too much, old man," he said. "It wasn't a
+condition that you could foresee, and I'm mighty sorry if it hurts
+your reputation."
+
+"It ought to!" exclaimed Platt with deep self-revilement. "I should
+have investigated. I should not have taken anything for granted. I
+ought to have enough money so that you could sue me for damages and
+recover all you lost."
+
+"It couldn't be done," said Bobby miserably. "I've lost so much more
+than money."
+
+He did not tell Platt of Agnes, but that was the one thought into
+which all his failure had finally resolved. Agnes! How much longer
+must he wait for her? They had just passed the club-house when a light
+buggy turned into Burnit Avenue, driven furiously by a white-haired
+man in a white vest and a high silk hat.
+
+"I accept your offer!" cried Applerod, as soon as he came within
+talking distance, his usually ruddy face now livid white.
+
+"My offer," repeated Bobby wonderingly.
+
+"Yes; your offer of ten thousand dollars for my share in the Applerod
+Addition."
+
+Bobby was forced to laugh. It had needed but this to make the bitter
+jest of fortune complete.
+
+"You refused that offer the day it was made, Applerod!" put in Platt
+indignantly. "I heard you. Anyhow, you dragged Mr. Burnit into this
+thing!"
+
+"He's not to blame for that," said Bobby. "But still, I don't think I
+care to buy any more of this property." And he smiled grimly at the
+absurdity of it all.
+
+"I'll sue you for it!" shrieked Applerod, frantic from thwarted
+self-interest. "You prevented me from selling out at a profit when I
+had a chance! You bound me hand and foot when I knew that if Silas
+Trimmer had anything to gain by it we would lose! He knew all the time
+that this swamp was fed by underground springs. He bragged about it to
+me this morning as I passed him on the road. He told me last night I'd
+better come out here this morning."
+
+"I see," said Bobby coldly, and he reached for his lever.
+
+"Then you won't hold good to your offer?" gasped the other.
+
+Pale before, he had turned ashen now, and Bobby looked at him with
+quick compunction. Applerod, always so chubbily youthful for a man of
+his years, was grown suddenly old. He seemed to have shrunk inside his
+clothes, his face to have turned flabby, his eyes to have dimmed.
+After all, he was an old man, and the little that he had scraped
+together represented all that he could hope to amass in a none too
+provident lifetime. This day made him a pauper and there was no chance
+for a fresh start. Bobby himself was young and strong, and, moreover,
+his resources were by no means exhausted.
+
+"I'll tell you what I'll do, Applerod," said he, after a moment of
+very sober thought. "Your property cost you in the neighborhood of
+four thousand. Interest since the time you first began to invest in it
+would bring it up to a little more than that. I'll give you five
+thousand."
+
+"I won't accept it.--Yes, I will! yes, I will!" he cried as Bobby
+impatiently reached again for his lever.
+
+"Very well," said Bobby, "wait a minute." And tearing a leaf from his
+memorandum-book he wrote a note to Johnson to see to the transfer of
+the property and deliver to Applerod a check for five thousand
+dollars.
+
+"That was more than generous; it was foolish," protested Jimmy Platt,
+as they whirled away.
+
+"No doubt," admitted Bobby dryly. "But, if I'm forced to be a fool, I
+might as well have a well-finished job of it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+AGNES DECIDES THAT SHE WILL WAIT
+
+
+Applerod, his poise nearly recovered, bounded into the office where
+Johnson sat stolidly working away, his sense of personal contentedness
+enhanced by the presence of Biff Bates, who sat idly upon the flat-top
+desk, dangling his legs and waiting for Bobby. Mr. Applerod paid no
+attention whatever to Mr. Bates, that gentleman being quite beneath
+his notice, but with vast importance he laid down in front of Mr.
+Johnson the note which Bobby had given him.
+
+"_Mr._ Johnson," he pompously directed, "you will please attend to
+this little matter as soon as possible."
+
+"Applerod," said Johnson, glancing at the note and looking up with
+sudden fire, "does this mean that you are no longer even partially my
+employer?"
+
+"That's it exactly."
+
+"Then you, Applerod, don't you dare call me _Mr._ Johnson again!" And
+he shook a bony fist at his old-time work-fellow.
+
+Biff Bates nearly fell off the desk, but with rare presence of mind
+restrained his glee.
+
+Mr. Applerod, smiling loftily, immediately wielded his bludgeon.
+
+"We should not quarrel over trifles," he stated commiseratingly. "We
+are once more companions in misfortune. There is no Applerod Addition.
+It is a swamp again."
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Johnson incredulously, but suspending his
+indignation for the instant.
+
+"This," said Applerod: "that the entire addition is a hundred-acre mud
+puddle this morning. You couldn't sell a lot in it to a blind man.
+Every cent that was invested in it is lost. The whole marsh was fed
+from underground springs that have come up through it and overflowed
+the place."
+
+"Trimmer again," said Biff Bates, and slid off the desk; then he
+looked at his watch with a curious speculative smile.
+
+"But if it is all lost," protested Johnson, looking again at the note
+and pausing in the making out of the check, "how do you come to get
+this?"
+
+"He owed it to me," asserted Applerod. "I wanted to sell out when I
+first found that we were competing with Silas Trimmer, and young
+Burnit kept me from it by an injunction. He offered me ten thousand
+dollars for my interest once, but this morning when I went to accept
+that offer he would only give me this five thousand. It's just five
+thousand dollars that he's robbed me of."
+
+"_Robbed!_" shrilled Johnson, jumping from his chair. "Applerod, you
+weigh a hundred and eighty pounds and I weigh a hundred and
+thirty-seven, but I can lick you the best day you ever lived; and by
+thunder and blazes! if you let fall another remark like that I'll
+knock your infernal head off!"
+
+Mr. Johnson had on no coat, but he felt the urgent need to remove
+something, so he tore off one false sleeve, wadded it up in a little
+ball and slammed it on the floor with great vigor, tore off the other
+one, wadded it up and slammed that down. Biff Bates, quivering with
+joy, rang loudly upon a porcelain electric-light shade with his pencil
+and called: "Time!"
+
+There was no employment for a referee, however, for Mr. Applerod, with
+astonishing agility, sprang to the door and held it half open, ready
+for a hurried exit in case of any other demonstration. It was shocking
+to think that he might be drawn into an undignified altercation--and
+with a mere clerk! Also, it might be dangerous.
+
+"Nothing doing, chum," said Biff Bates disgustedly to his friend
+Johnson. "This bunch of mush-ripe bananas ain't even a quitter. He's a
+never-beginner. But you'll do fine, old scout. Come along with me. I
+got a treat for you."
+
+Mr. Johnson, breathing scorn that alternately dented and inflated his
+nostrils, slowly donned his coat and hat without removing his eyes
+from Applerod, who, as the two approached the door, edged uncertainly
+away from it.
+
+"I've got to go out, anyhow," said Johnson, addressing his remarks
+exclusively to Mr. Bates, but his glare exclusively to Mr. Applerod.
+"I'm going to put this check into the hands of Mr. Chalmers, so Mr.
+Robert don't get cheated by any yellow-livered _snake in the grass_!"
+And he spit out those last violent words with a sudden vehemence which
+made Mr. Applerod drop his shiny hat.
+
+When Bobby came into the office a few minutes later he found Applerod,
+his hat upon his lap, waiting in one of the customers' chairs with
+stiff solemnity.
+
+"Why aren't you at your desk, Applerod?" asked Bobby sharply. "You
+have an immense amount of unopened mail, and some of it may contain
+checks which will have to be sent back."
+
+"Mr. Burnit," said Mr. Applerod, rising with great dignity and
+throwing back his shoulders, "I consider myself no longer in your
+employ. I have resigned."
+
+Bobby looked at him thoughtfully and weighed rapidly in his mind a
+great many things. He remembered that his father had once said of the
+two men: "Johnson has a pea-green liver and is a pessimist, but he is
+honest. Applerod suffers from too much health and is an optimist, and
+I presume him to be honest, but I never tested it." Yet his father had
+seen fit to keep Applerod in his intimate employ all these years,
+recognizing in him material of value. Moreover, he had advised Bobby
+to keep both men, and Bobby, to-day more than ever, placed great faith
+in the wisdom of his father.
+
+"Mr. Applerod," said he, "I dislike to be harsh with you, but if you
+don't put up your hat and get at that bundle of mail I shall be
+compelled to consider discharging you. Where's Johnson?"
+
+"He went out with Mr. Bates, sir."
+
+When Bobby left, Applerod was industriously sorting the mail on his
+desk, preparing to open it.
+
+Bobby let himself into the big new gymnasium and walked back through
+the deserted hall to the small room that was used for individual
+training. As he neared the door he could hear the sound of loud voices
+and the shuffling of feet, and heard the commanding voice of Biff
+Bates shout "Break!"
+
+The door was locked, but through the slide window at the side a
+strange tableau met his eyes. Stooped and lean Johnson, as chalk-white
+of face as ever, had paunchy and thin-legged Silas Trimmer by the
+collar, and over Biff Bates' intervening body was trying to rain blows
+into the center of the circular smile, now flattened to an oval of
+distress.
+
+"Break, Johnson, break!" begged Biff. "Don't put him out till you feed
+him all he's got coming." Thereupon he succeeded in extracting Mr.
+Trimmer from the grasp of Mr. Johnson and forced the former back upon
+a chair, where he began to fan him with a towel in most approved
+fashion.
+
+"Let me out of this!" gasped Mr. Trimmer. "I'll have you arrested for
+assault and conspiracy."
+
+"They'll only pinch a corpse, for the cops'll find me tickled to death
+when they get here," responded Mr. Bates gaily. "Now you're all right.
+Get up!"
+
+"Let me out of this, I say!" commanded Mr. Trimmer frantically. "I'll
+run you into the penitentiary! I'll break you up in business! I'll
+hire thugs to break every bone in your body!"
+
+"Is that all?" inquired Biff complacently, and grabbed him as he
+started to run around the room in a wild hunt for an outlet. "Stand up
+here and put up a fight or I'll punch you myself. I've been aching to
+do it for a year. That's why I got Doc Willets to dope it out to you
+that you was dyin' for training, and why I kept shifting your hour to
+when there was nobody here. Go to him, chum!"
+
+Then ensued the strangest sparring match that the grinning and
+stealthily silent Bobby had ever seen. Johnson, with a true "tiger
+crouch" which he could not have avoided if he had wished, began
+dancing around and around the spherical body of Mr. Trimmer, without
+science and without precaution, keeping his two arms going like
+windmills, and occasionally landing a light blow upon some portion of
+Mr. Trimmer's unresisting anatomy; but finally a whirl so vigorous
+that it sent Johnson spinning upon his own heel, landed squarely
+beneath the jaw of Silas. That gentleman, with a puffed eye and a
+bleeding lip and two teeth gone, rose from his feet with the impact of
+the blow, and landed with a grunt in a huge basket of soiled
+bath-towels.
+
+"Johnson," called the laughter-shaken voice of Bobby through the
+window, "I'm ashamed of you!"
+
+Mr. Johnson looked up happily from his task of wiping away a little
+trickle of blood from his already swollen nose.
+
+"Did you see me do it?" he demanded, thrilling with pride. "Mr.
+Burnit, I--I never had so much fun in my life. Never, never! By the
+way, sir," and even upon that triumphant moment his duty obtruded, "I
+have a letter for you that I brought away from the office," and
+through the window he handed one of the inevitable gray envelopes. It
+was inscribed:
+
+    _To My Son, Upon the Failure of Applerod's Swamp Scheme_
+
+"In the midst of pleasure we are in pain," murmured Bobby, and tore
+open the letter. In it he read:
+
+    "My Dear Boy:
+
+    "A man must not only examine a business proposition from all
+    sides, but must also turn it over and look well at the bottom.
+    I never knew what was the matter with that swamp scheme,
+    except Applerod, but I didn't want to know any more. You did.
+
+    "Well, you don't need wisdom. I've put one-half your fortune
+    where it will yield you a living income. Try to cut at least
+    one eye-tooth with the other half. Your trustee is instructed
+    to give you another start.
+
+                                             "YOUR LOVING FATHER."
+
+His trustee! Once more he must face her with failure; go to her
+beaten, and accept through her hands the means to gain himself another
+buffeting. He had not the heart to see her now, but he was not turned
+altogether coward, for leaving the scene of the late conflict
+abruptly, all its humor spoiled for him, he telephoned her what had
+happened and that he would be out in the evening.
+
+"No, you must come now. I want you," she gently insisted, and when he
+had come to her she went directly to him and put both her hands upon
+his shoulders.
+
+"It wasn't fair, Bobby; it wasn't fair!" she cried. "None of it is
+fair, and your father had no right to bind me down with promises when
+you need me so. I'm willing to break them all. Bobby, I'll marry you
+to-morrow if you say so."
+
+He drew a long, trembling breath, and then he put his hands gently
+upon both her cheeks and kissed her on the forehead.
+
+"Let's don't," he said simply. "I have my own blood up now, and I want
+to take this other chance. I want to play the game out to the end.
+You'll wait, won't you?"
+
+She looked up at him through moist eyes. He was so big and so strong
+and so good, and already through the past year of earnest purpose
+there had come firm, new lines upon his face, lines that meant
+something in the ultimate building of character; and she recognized
+that perhaps stern old John Burnit had been right after all.
+
+"Indeed, I can wait," she whispered. "Proudly, Bobby."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+IN WHICH A CHARMING GENTLEMAN OFFERS AN INVESTMENT WITHOUT A FLAW
+
+
+It was pretty, in the succeeding days, to see Agnes poring over
+advertisements and writing down long lists of suggested enterprises
+for investigation, enterprises which proved in every case to be in the
+midst of an already too thickly contested field, or to be hampered by
+monopoly, or subject to some other vital drawback. There seemed to be
+a strange dearth of safe and suitable commercial ventures, a fact over
+which Bobby and Agnes together puzzled almost nightly. There was to be
+no false start this time; no stumbling in the middle of the race; no
+third failure. The third time was to be the charm. And yet too much
+time must not be wasted. They both began to feel rather worried about
+this.
+
+Of course, there was a letter, in the familiar gray envelope. It had
+been handed to Bobby by Johnson upon the day the second check for two
+hundred and fifty thousand had been paid over by Chalmers upon Agnes'
+order, and it read:
+
+    _To My Son Robert,
+    Upon His Third Attempt to Make Money_
+
+    "The man who has never failed has been either too lucky or too
+    timid to have much tried and tested worth. The man who always
+    fails is too useless to talk about. As you've failed twice
+    you're neither too lucky nor too timid. It remains to be seen
+    if you are too useless.
+
+    "Remember that money isn't the only audible thing in this
+    world; but it makes more noise than anything else. A vast
+    number of people call money vulgar; but, if you'll notice,
+    this opinion is chiefly held by those who haven't been able to
+    secure any of it.
+
+    "I wouldn't have you sacrifice any decent principle to get it,
+    because that is not necessary; but go get money of your own,
+    and see what a difference there is between dollars. A dollar
+    you've made is as different from a dollar that's given to you
+    as your children are from other people's."
+
+"If only the governor had pointed out some good business for me to go
+into," complained Bobby as he read this letter over with Agnes.
+
+She shook her head soberly. She realized, more than he possibly could,
+as yet, just where Bobby's weaknesses lay. She had worried over them
+not a little, of late, and she was just as anxious as old John Burnit
+had been to have him correct those defects; and she, like Bobby's
+father, was only thankful that they were not defects of manliness, of
+courage or of moral or mental fiber. They were only defects of
+training, for which the elder Burnit, as he had himself confessed, was
+responsible.
+
+"That isn't what he wanted at all, Bobby," she protested. "The very
+fact of your two past failures shows just how right he was in making
+you find out things for yourself. The chief trouble, I am afraid, is
+that you have been too ready to furnish the money and let others spend
+it for you."
+
+"I know," said Bobby. "I have been too willing to take everybody's
+word, I guess; but I have always been able to do that in my crowd, and
+it is rather a dash to me to find that in business you can not do it.
+However, I have reformed."
+
+He said this so self-confidently that Agnes laughed.
+
+"Yes," she admitted, "you are convinced that Silas Trimmer is a thief
+and a rascal, and you would not take his word for anything. You are
+convinced that Applerod's judgment is useless and that your own does
+not amount to much, but I still believe that the next plausible
+looking and plausible talking man who comes to you can engage you in
+any business that seems fair on the surface."
+
+"I deserve what you say," he confessed, but somewhat piqued,
+nevertheless. "However, I don't think you are giving me credit for
+having learned any lesson at all. Why, only to-day you ought to have
+heard me turning down a proposition to finance a new and improved
+washing-machine. Sounded very good and feasible, too. The man was a
+good talker and thoroughly earnest and honest, I am sure. I really did
+want to help the fellow start his business, but somehow or other I
+could not seem to like the idea of washing-machines; such a sudsy sort
+of business."
+
+Agnes laughed the sort of a laugh that always made him want to catch
+hold of her, but if he had any intentions in that respect they were
+interfered with just now by Uncle Dan, who strolled into the parlor in
+his dressing-jacket and with a cigar tilted in the corner of his
+mouth.
+
+"How's the Commercial Board of Strategy coming on?" he inquired as he
+offered Bobby a cigar.
+
+"Fine!" declared Bobby; "except that it can not think of a stratagem."
+
+"I think you are very selfish not to help us out, Uncle Dan," declared
+Agnes. "With all your experience you ought to be able to suggest
+something for Bobby to go into that would be a nice business and
+perfectly safe and make him lots of money without requiring too much
+experience to start with."
+
+"Young lady," said Uncle Dan severely, "if I knew a business of that
+kind I'd sell some of the stock of my factory and go into it myself;
+but I don't. The fact is, there are no business snaps lying around
+loose. You have to make one, and that takes not just money, but work
+and brains."
+
+"I'm perfectly willing to work," declared Bobby.
+
+"And you don't mean to say that he hasn't brains!" objected Agnes.
+
+"No-o-o," admitted Uncle Dan. "I am quite sure that Bobby has brains,
+but they have not been quite--a--a--well, say solidified, yet. You're
+not allowed to smoke in this parlor, Bobby. Mrs. Elliston wants a
+quiet home game of whist; sent me to bring you up."
+
+Secretly, old Dan Elliston was himself puzzling a great deal over a
+career for Bobby, but up to the moment had not found anything that he
+thought safe to propose. Not having a good idea he was averse to
+discussing any project whatsoever, and so, each time that he was
+consulted upon the subject, he was as evasive as this about it, and
+Bobby each morning dragged perplexedly into the handsome offices of
+the defunct Applerod Addition, where Applerod and Johnson were still
+working a solid eight hours a day to straighten out the affairs of
+that unfortunate venture.
+
+Those offices were the dullest quarters Bobby knew, for they contained
+nothing but the dead ashes of bygone money; but one morning business
+picked up with a jerk. He found a mine investment agent awaiting him
+when he arrived, and before he was through with this clever
+conversationalist a man was in to get him to buy a racing stable.
+Affairs grew still more brisk as the morning wore on. Within the next
+two hours he had politely but firmly declined to buy a partnership in
+a string of bucket shops, to refinance a defunct irrigation company,
+to invest in a Florida plantation, to take a tip on copper, and to
+back an automobile factory which was to enter business upon some
+designs of a new engine stolen by a discharged workman.
+
+"How did all these people find out that I have two hundred and fifty
+thousand dollars to invest?" impatiently demanded Bobby, after he had
+refused the allurements of a patent-medicine scheme, the last of that
+morning's lot.
+
+There followed a dense silence, in the midst of which old Johnson
+looked up from the book in which he was entering a long, long list of
+items on the wrong side of the profit and loss account, and jerked his
+lean thumb angrily in the direction of Applerod.
+
+"Ask him," he said.
+
+Chubby-faced old Applerod, excessively meek of spirit to-day, suffered
+a moment of embarrassment under the accusing eyes of young Burnit.
+
+"The newspapers, sir," he admitted, twisting uncomfortably in his
+swivel chair. "The reporters were here yesterday afternoon with the
+idea that since you haven't announced any future plans, the failure of
+our real estate scheme--_my_ real estate scheme," he corrected in
+response to a snort and a glare from Johnson--"had left you penniless.
+Of course I wasn't going to let them go away with that impression, so
+I told them that you had another two hundred and fifty thousand
+dollars to invest, with probably more to follow, if necessary."
+
+"And of course," groaned Bobby, "it is all in print, with ingenious
+trimmings."
+
+From a drawer in his desk Johnson quietly drew copies of the morning
+papers, each one folded carefully to an article in which, under wide
+variations of embarrassing head-lines, the facts of Bobby's latest
+frittering of his father's good money were once more facetiously, even
+gleefully, set forth and embellished, with added humorous speculations
+as to how he would probably cremate his new fund. Bobby was about to
+turn into his own room to absorb his humiliation in secret when
+Applerod hesitantly stopped him.
+
+"Another thing, sir," he said. "Mr. Frank L. Sharpe called up early
+this morning to know when he would find you in, and I took the liberty
+of telling him that you would very likely be here at ten o'clock."
+
+Bobby frowned slightly at the mention of that name. He knew of Sharpe
+vaguely as a man whose private life had been so scandalous that
+society had ceased to shudder at his name--it simply refused to hear
+it; a man who had even secured advancement by obligingly divorcing his
+first wife so that the notorious Sam Stone could marry her.
+
+"What did he want?" he asked none too graciously.
+
+"I don't know, sir," said Applerod; "but he telephoned me again just
+as you were getting rid of this last caller. I told him that you were
+here and he said that he would be right over."
+
+Bobby made no reply to this, but went thoughtfully into his room and
+closed the door after him. In less than five minutes the door opened,
+and Mr. Applerod, his voice fairly oily with obsequiousness, announced
+Mr. Frank L. Sharpe! Why, here is a man whose name was in the papers
+every morning, noon and night! Mr. Sharpe had taken a trip to New York
+on behalf of the Gas Company; Mr. Sharpe had returned from his trip to
+New York on behalf of the Gas Company; Mr. Sharpe had entertained at
+the Hotel Spender; Mr. Sharpe had made a speech; Mr. Sharpe had been
+interviewed; Mr. Sharpe had been indisposed for half a day!
+
+Quite prepossessing of appearance was Mr. Sharpe; a tall, rather
+slight gentleman, whose features no one ever analyzed because the eyes
+of the observer stopped, fascinated, at his mustache. That wonderful
+adornment was wonderfully luxuriant, gray and curly, pretty to an
+extreme, and kept most fastidiously trimmed, and it lifted when he
+smiled to display a most engaging row of white, even teeth. Centered
+upon this magnificent combination the gaze never roved to the animal
+nose, to the lobeless ears, to the watery blue eyes half obscured by
+the lower lids. He was immaculately, though a shade too youthfully,
+dressed in a gray frock suit, with pearl-gray spats upon his shoes,
+and he was most charmed to see young Mr. Burnit.
+
+"You have a very neat little suite of offices here, Mr. Burnit," he
+commented, seating himself gracefully and depositing his gray hat, his
+gray cane and his gray gloves carefully to one side of him upon
+Bobby's desk.
+
+"I'm afraid they are a little too nice for practical purposes," Bobby
+confessed. "I have found that business isn't a parlor game."
+
+"Precisely what I came to see you about," said Mr. Sharpe. "I
+understand you have been a trifle unfortunate, but that is because you
+did not go into the regular channels. An established and paying
+corporation is the only worth-while proposition, and if you have not
+yet settled upon an investment I would like to suggest that you become
+interested in our local Brightlight Electric Company."
+
+"I thought there was no gas or electric stock for sale," said Bobby
+slowly, clinging still to a vague impression that he had gained five
+or six years before.
+
+"Not to the public," replied Mr. Sharpe, smiling, "and there would not
+have been privately except for the necessity of a reorganization. The
+Brightlight needs more capital for expansion, and I have too many
+other interests, even aside from the Consumers' Electric Light and
+Power and the United Gas and Fuel Companies, to spare the money
+myself--and the Brightlight is too good to let the general public in
+on." He smiled again, quite meaningly this time. "This is quite
+confidential, of course," he added.
+
+Bobby bowed his acknowledgment of the confidence which had been
+reposed in him, and generously began at once to reconstruct his
+impressions of the impossible Mr. Sharpe. You couldn't believe all you
+heard, you know.
+
+"The Brightlight," went on Mr. Sharpe, "is at present capitalized
+for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and is a good
+ten-per-cent.-dividend-paying stock at the present moment; but its
+business is not growing, and I propose to take in sufficient capital
+to raise the Brightlight to a half-million-dollar corporation, clear
+off its indebtedness and project certain extensions. I understand that
+you have the necessary amount, and here is the proposition I offer
+you. Brightlight stock is now quoted at a hundred and seventy-two. We
+will double its present capitalization, and you may take up the extra
+two hundred and fifty thousand dollars' worth of its stock at par, or
+about three-fifths of its actual value. That is a bargain to be
+snapped at, Mr. Burnit."
+
+Did Bobby Burnit snap at this proposition? He did not. Bobby had
+learned caution through his two bitter failures, and of caution is
+born wisdom.
+
+"Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars' worth of stock in a
+five-hundred-thousand-dollar corporation won't do for me," he declared
+with a firmness that was pleasant to his own ears. "I don't care to go
+into any proposition in which I have not the controlling interest."
+
+Mr. Sharpe, remembering the details of Bobby's Trimmer and Company
+experiment, hastily turned his imminent smile of amusement into a
+merely engaging one.
+
+"I don't blame you, Mr. Burnit," said he; "but to show you that I am
+more willing to trust you than you are to trust me, if you care to go
+into this thing I'll agree to sell you from one to ten shares of my
+individual stock--at its present market value, of course."
+
+"That's very good of you," agreed Bobby, suddenly ashamed of his
+ungenerous stand in the face of this sportsmanlike attitude. "But
+really I've had cause for timidity."
+
+"Caution is not cowardice," said Mr. Sharpe in a tone which conveyed a
+world of friendly approbation. "This matter must be taken up very
+soon, however, and I can not allow you more than a week to
+investigate. I'd be pleased to receive your legal and business
+advisers at any time you may nominate, and to give them any advantage
+you may wish."
+
+"I'll investigate it at least, and I thank you for giving me the
+opportunity," said Bobby, really very contrite that he had been doing
+Sharpe such a mental injustice all these years. "By the way," he
+suddenly added, "has Silas Trimmer anything whatever to do with this
+proposition?"
+
+Mr. Sharpe smiled.
+
+"Mr. Trimmer does not own one share of stock in the Brightlight
+Electric Company, nor will he own it," he answered.
+
+"In that case," said Bobby, "I am satisfied to consider your offer
+without fear of heart-disease."
+
+The departing caller met an incoming one in the outer office, and
+Agnes, sweeping into Bobby's room, breathlessly gasped:
+
+"That was Frank Sharpe!"
+
+"The same," admitted Bobby, smiling down at her and taking both her
+hands.
+
+"I never saw him so closely," she declared. "Really, he's quite
+distinguished-looking."
+
+"As long as he avoids a close shave," supplemented Bobby. "But what
+brings you into the--the busy marts of trade so early in the morning?"
+
+"My trusteeship," she answered him loftily, producing some documents
+from her hand-bag. "And I'm in a hurry. Sign them papers."
+
+"Them there papers," he kindly corrected, and seating himself at his
+desk he examined the minor transfers perfunctorily and signed them.
+
+"I'm afraid I'm a failure as a trustee," she told him. "I ought to
+have had more power. I ought to have been authorized to keep you out
+of bad company. How came Mr. Sharpe to call on you, for instance?"
+
+"To make my fortune," he gravely assured her. "Mr. Sharpe wants me to
+go into the Brightlight Electric Company with him."
+
+"I can imagine your courteous adroitness in putting the man back in
+his place," she laughed. "How preposterous! Why, he's utterly
+impossible!"
+
+"Ye-e-es?" questioned Bobby. "But you know, Agnes, this isn't a
+pink-tea affair. It's business, which is at the other end of the
+world."
+
+"You're not honestly defending him, Bobby?" she protested
+incredulously. "Why, I do believe you are considering the man
+seriously!"
+
+"Why not?" he persisted, arguing against his own convictions as much
+as against hers. "We want me to make some money, don't we? To make a
+success that will let me marry you?"
+
+"I'm not to say so, remember," she reminded him.
+
+"Father put no lock on my tongue, though," he reminded her in turn;
+"so I'll just lay down the dictum that as soon as I succeed in any one
+business deal I'm going to marry you, and I don't care whether the
+commodity I handle is electricity or potatoes."
+
+"But Frank L. Sharpe!" she exclaimed, with shocked remembrance of
+certain whispered stories she had heard.
+
+"Really, I don't see where he enters into it," persisted Bobby. "The
+Brightlight Electric Company is a stock corporation, in which Mr.
+Sharpe happens to own some shares; that is all."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"I can't seem to like it," she told him, and rose to go.
+
+The door opened, and Johnson, with much solemnity, though in his eyes
+there lurked a twinkle, brought in a card which, with much stiff
+ceremony, he handed to Bobby.
+
+"Professor Henry H. Bates," read Bobby in some perplexity, then
+suddenly his brow cleared and he laughed uproariously. "Come right in,
+Biff," he called.
+
+In response to this invitation there entered upon Agnes' vision a
+short, chunky, broad-shouldered young man in a checked green suit and
+red tie, who, finding himself suddenly confronted by a dazzlingly
+beautiful young lady, froze instantly into speechless awkwardness.
+
+"This is my friend and partner, Mr. Biff--Mr. Henry H. Bates--Miss
+Elliston," introduced Bobby, smiling.
+
+Agnes held out her hand, which suddenly seemed to dwindle in size as
+it was clasped by the huge palm of Mr. Bates.
+
+"I have heard so much of you from Mr. Burnit, and always nice things,"
+she said, smiling at him so frankly that Mr. Bates, though his face
+flushed red, instantly thawed.
+
+"Bobby's right there with the boost," commented Mr. Bates, and then,
+not being quite satisfied with that form of speech, he huskily
+corrected it to: "Burnit's always handing out those pleasant words."
+This form of expression seeming also to be somewhat lacking in polish,
+he relapsed into more redness, and wiped the strangely moist palms of
+his hands upon the sides of his coat.
+
+"He doesn't talk about any but pleasant people," Agnes assured him.
+
+After she had gone Mr. Bates looked dazedly at the door through which
+she had passed out, then turned to Bobby.
+
+"Carries a full line of that conversation," he commented, "but I like
+to fall for it. And say! I'll bet she's game all right; the kind that
+would stick to a guy when he was broke, in jail and had the smallpox.
+That's your steady, ain't it, Bobby?"
+
+Coming from any one else this query might have seemed a trifle blunt,
+but Bobby understood precisely how Mr. Bates meant it, and was
+gratified.
+
+"She's the real girl," he admitted.
+
+"I'm for her," stoutly asserted Mr. Bates, as he extracted a huge wad
+of crumpled bills from his trousers pocket. "Any old time she wants
+anybody strangled or stabbed and you ain't handy, she can call on your
+friend Biff. Here's your split of last month's pickings at the gym.
+One hundred and eighty-one large, juicy simoleons; count 'em, one
+hundred and eighty-one!" And he threw the money on the desk.
+
+"Everything paid?" asked Bobby.
+
+"Here's the receipts," and from inside his vest Mr. Bates produced
+them. "Ground rent, light, heat, payroll, advertising, my own little
+old weekly envelope and everything; and I got one-eighty-one in my
+other kick for my share."
+
+"Very well," said Bobby; "you just put this money of mine into a fund
+to buy further equipments when we need them."
+
+"Nit and nix; also no!" declared Mr. Bates emphatically. "This time
+the bet goes as she lays. You take a real money drag-down from now
+on."
+
+"Mr. Johnson," called Bobby through the open door, "please take charge
+of this one hundred and eighty-one dollars, and open a separate
+account for my investment in the Bates Athletic Hall. It might be,
+Biff," he continued, turning to Mr. Bates, "that yours would turn out
+to be the only safe business venture I ever made."
+
+"It ain't no millionaire stunt, but it sure does pay a steady divvy,"
+Mr. Bates assured him. "I see a man outside scraping the real-estate
+sign off the door. Is he going to paint a new one?"
+
+"I don't know," said Bobby, frowning. "I shall, of course, get into
+something very shortly, but I've not settled on anything as yet. The
+best thing that has turned up so far is an interest in the Brightlight
+Electric Company offered me to-day by Frank L. Sharpe."
+
+"What!" shrieked Biff in a high falsetto, and slapped himself smartly
+on the wrist. "Has he been here? I thought it seemed kind of close.
+Give me a cigarette till I fumigate."
+
+"What's the matter with the Brightlight Electric Company?" demanded
+Bobby.
+
+"Nothing. It's a cinch so far as I know. But Sharpe! Why, say, Bobby,
+all the words I'd want to use to tell you about him have been left out
+of the dictionary so they could send it through the mails."
+
+Bobby frowned. The certain method to have him make allowances for a
+man was to attack that man. When he arrived at the Idlers' Club at
+noon, however, he was given another opportunity for Christian charity.
+Nick Allstyne and Payne Winthrop and Stanley Rogers were discussing
+something with great indignation when he joined them, and Nick drew
+him over to the bulletin board, where was displayed the application of
+Frank L. Sharpe, proposed by Clarence Smythe, Silas Trimmer's
+son-in-law, and seconded by another undesirable who had twice been
+posted for non-payment of dues.
+
+"There is only one thing about this that commends itself to me, and
+that is the immaculate and colossal nerve of the proceeding," declared
+Nick indignantly. "The next thing you know somebody will propose Sam
+Stone."
+
+At this they all laughed. The Idlers' Club was the one institution
+that stood in no awe of the notorious "boss" of the city and of the
+state; a man who had never held an office, but who, until the past two
+years, had controlled all offices; whose methods were openly
+dishonest; who held underground control of every public utility and a
+score of private enterprises. The idea of Stone as an applicant for
+membership in the Idlers' Club was a good joke, but the actual
+application of Sharpe was too serious for jesting. Nevertheless, all
+this turmoil over the mere name of the man worked a strange reaction
+in Bobby Burnit.
+
+"After all, business is business," he declared to himself, "and I
+don't see where Sharpe's personality figures in this Brightlight
+Electric deal, especially since I am to have control."
+
+Accordingly he directed Chalmers and Johnson to make a thorough
+investigation of that corporation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+BOBBY ENTERS A BUSINESS ALLIANCE, A SOCIAL ENTANGLEMENT AND A QUARREL
+WITH AGNES
+
+
+The report of Mr. Johnson and Mr. Chalmers upon the Brightlight
+Electric Company was a complicated affair, but, upon the whole, highly
+favorable. It was an old establishment, the first electric company
+that had been formed in the city, and it held, besides some minor
+concessions, an ancient franchise for the exclusive supply of twelve
+of the richest down-town blocks, this franchise, made by a generous
+board of city fathers, still having twenty years to run. The concern's
+equipment was old and much of it needed renewal, but its financial
+affairs were in good shape, except for a mortgage of a hundred
+thousand dollars held by one J. W. Williams.
+
+"About this mortgage," Mr. Chalmers advised Mr. Burnit; "its time
+limit expires within two months, and I have no doubt that is why
+Sharpe wants to put additional capital into the concern. Moreover,
+Williams is notoriously reputed a lieutenant of Sam Stone's, and it is
+quite probable that Stone is the real holder of the mortgage."
+
+"I don't see where it makes much difference, so long as the mortgage
+has to be paid, whether it is paid to Stone or to somebody else," said
+Bobby reflectively.
+
+"I don't see any difference myself," agreed Chalmers, "except that I
+am suspicious of that whole crowd, since Sharpe is only a figurehead
+for Stone. I find that Sharpe is credited with holding two hundred
+thousand dollars' worth of the present stock. The majority of the
+Consumers Company and a good share of the United are also in his name.
+Just how all these facts have a bearing upon each other I can not at
+present state, but in view of the twenty years' franchise, and of the
+fact that you will hold undisputed control, I do not see but that you
+have a splendid investment here. The contract for the city lighting of
+those twelve blocks is ironclad, and the franchise for exclusive
+private lighting and power is exclusive so long as 'reasonably
+satisfactory service' is maintained. As this has been undisputed for
+thirty years I don't think you need have much fear upon that score,"
+and Chalmers smiled.
+
+In the afternoon of that same day Sharpe called up.
+
+"What dinner engagement have you for to-night?" he inquired.
+
+"None," replied Bobby, after a moment of hesitation.
+
+"Then I want you to dine with me at the Spender. Can you make it?"
+
+"I guess so," replied Bobby reluctantly, after another hesitant pause.
+"What time, say?"
+
+"About seven. Just inquire at the desk. I'll have a dining-room
+reserved."
+
+Bobby was very thoughtful as he arrayed himself for dinner, and he was
+still more thoughtful when, a boy ushering him into the cozy little
+private dining-room, he found the over-dazzling young Mrs. Sharpe with
+her husband. She greeted the handsome young Mr. Burnit most
+effusively, clasping his hand warmly and rolling up her large eyes at
+him while Mr. Sharpe looked on with smiling approval. Bobby
+experienced that strange conflict which most men have known, a feeling
+of revulsion at war with the undoubted lure of the women. She was one
+of those who deliberately make appeal through their femininity alone.
+
+"Such a pleasure to meet you," she said in the most silvery of voices.
+"I have heard so much of Mr. Burnit and his polo skill."
+
+"It's the best trick I do," confessed Bobby, laughing.
+
+"That's because Mr. Burnit hasn't found his proper forte as yet,"
+interposed Sharpe. "He was really cut out for the illuminating
+business." And he led the way to the table, upon which Bobby had
+already noted that five places were laid.
+
+"A couple of our friends might drop in," said the host in explanation;
+"they usually do."
+
+"If it's Sam and Billy we're not going to wait for them," said Mrs.
+Sharpe with a languishing glance at Bobby. "They're always ages and
+ages late, if they come at all. Frank, where are those cocktails? I'm
+running down."
+
+She took the drink with an avidity Bobby was not used to seeing among
+his own women friends, and almost immediately it heightened her
+vivacity. There could be no question that she was a fascinating woman.
+Again Bobby had that strange sense of revulsion, and again he was
+conscious that, in spite of her trace of a tendency to indecorum,
+there was a subtle appeal in her; one, however, that he shrank from
+analyzing. Her talk was mostly of the places she had been, with almost
+pathetic little mention now and then of unattainable people. Evidently
+she craved social position, in spite of the fact that she was for ever
+shut out from it.
+
+While they were upon the fish the door opened and two men came in.
+With a momentary frown Bobby recognized both; one of them the great
+Sam Stone, and the other William Garland, a rich young cigar
+manufacturer, quite prominent in public affairs. The latter he had
+met; the former he inspected quite curiously as he acknowledged the
+introduction.
+
+Stone gave one the idea that he was extremely heavy; not that he was
+so grossly stout, although he was large, but he seemed to convey an
+impression of tremendous weight. His features and his expression were
+heavy, his eyes were heavy-lidded, and he was taciturnity itself. He
+gave Bobby a quick scrutiny from head to foot, and in that instant had
+weighed him, measured him, catalogued and indexed him for future
+reference for ever. Stone's only spoken word had been a hoarse
+acknowledgment of his introduction, and as soon as the entree came on
+he attacked it with a voracious appetite, which, however, did not
+prevent him from weighing and absorbing in silence every word that was
+spoken in his hearing. Bobby found himself wondering how this
+unattractive man could have secured his tremendous following, in spite
+of the fact that Stone "never broke a promise and never went back on a
+friend," qualities which would go far toward establishing any man in
+the esteem of mankind.
+
+It was not until the appearance of the salad that any allusion was
+made to business, and then Garland, upon an impatient signal from
+Stone, turned to Bobby with the suavity of which he was thorough
+master.
+
+"Mr. Sharpe tells me that you consider taking a dip into the public
+utilities line," he suggested.
+
+Instantly three of them bent an attention upon Bobby so straight that
+it might have been palpable even to him, had not Stone suddenly
+lighted a match to attract their attention, and glared at them.
+
+"I have already decided," said Bobby frankly, seeing no reason for
+fencing. "My legal and business advisers tell me that it would be a
+good investment, and I am ready to take hold of the Brightlight
+Electric as soon as the formalities can be arranged."
+
+Stone grunted his approval, and immediately rose, looking at his
+watch.
+
+"Pleased to have met you, Mr. Burnit," he rumbled hoarsely, and took
+his coat and hat. "Sorry I can't stay. Promised to meet a man."
+
+"Coming back?" asked Garland.
+
+"Might," responded the other, and was gone.
+
+As soon as Stone had left, the trifle of strain that had been apparent
+prior to Bobby's very decided statement that he would go into the
+business, was lifted; and Mrs. Sharpe, pink of cheek and sparkling of
+eye and exhilarated by the wine to her utmost of purely physical
+attractiveness, moved when the coffee was served to a chair between
+Bobby and Garland, and, gifted with a purring charm, exerted herself
+to the utmost to please the new-comer. She puzzled Bobby. The woman
+was an entirely new type to him, and he could not fathom her.
+
+With the clearing of the table more champagne was brought, and Bobby
+began to have an uneasy dread of a "near-orgie," such as was
+associated in the minds of the knowing ones with this crowd. Sharpe,
+however, quickly removed this fear, for, pushing aside his own glass
+with a bare sip after it had been filled, he drew forth a pencil and
+produced some papers which he spread before Bobby.
+
+"I imagined that you would have a very favorable report on the
+Brightlight Electric," he said with a smile, "so I took the liberty of
+bringing along an outline of my plan for reorganization. If Mr.
+Garland and Mrs. Sharpe will excuse us for talking shop we might
+glance over them together."
+
+"You're selfish," pouted Mrs. Sharpe quite prettily, but,
+nevertheless, she turned her exclusive attention to Garland for the
+time being.
+
+With considerable interest Bobby plunged into the business at hand.
+Here was a well-established concern that had been doing business for
+three decades, which had been paying ten per cent. dividends for
+years, and which would doubtless continue to do so for many years to
+come. An opportunity to obtain control of it solved his problem of
+investment at once, and he strove to approach its intricacies with
+intelligence. He became vaguely aware, by and by, that just behind him
+Garland and Mrs. Sharpe were carrying on a most animated conversation
+in an undertone interspersed with much laughter, and once, with a
+start of annoyance, he overheard Garland telling a slightly _risque_
+story, at which Mrs. Sharpe laughed softly and with evident relish. He
+glanced around involuntarily. Garland had his arm across the back of
+her chair, and they were leaning toward each other in a close
+proximity which Bobby reflected with sudden savageness could not
+possibly occur if that were his wife; nor was he much softened by the
+later reflection that, in the first place, a woman of her type never
+could have been his wife, and that, in the second place, it was not
+the man who was to blame, nor the woman so much, as Sharpe himself.
+Indeed, Bobby somehow gained the impression that the others flouted
+and despised Sharpe and held him as a weakling.
+
+His glance was but a fleeting one, and he turned from them with a look
+which Sharpe, noting, misinterpreted.
+
+"I had hoped," he said, "to go into this thing very thoroughly, so
+that we could begin the reorganization at once, with the preliminaries
+completely understood; but if we are detaining you from any
+engagement, Mr. Burnit--"
+
+"Not at all, not at all," the highly-interested Bobby hastened to
+assure him. "I have no engagements whatever to-night, and my time is
+entirely at your disposal."
+
+"Then let's drop down to the theater," suddenly interposed Mrs.
+Sharpe. "You can talk your dust-dry business there just as well as
+here. Billy, telephone down to the Orpheum and see if they have a
+box."
+
+Bobby was far too unsuspecting to understand that he had been
+deliberately trapped. Though not of the ultra-exclusives, his social
+position was an excellent one and he had the entree everywhere. To be
+seen publicly with young Burnit was a step upward, as Mrs. Sharpe saw
+it, in that forbidding and painful social climb.
+
+Bobby started with dismay when Garland stepped to the telephone, but
+he was fairly caught, and he realized it in time to check the
+involuntary protest that rose to his lips. He had acknowledged that
+his time was free and at their disposal, and he regretted deeply that
+no good, handy lie came to his rescue.
+
+They arrived at the theater between acts, and with the full blaze of
+the auditorium upon them. Bobby's comfort was not at all heightened
+when Stone almost immediately followed them in. He had firmly made up
+his mind as they entered to obtain a place in the rear corner of the
+box, where he could not be seen; but he was not prepared for the
+generalship of Mrs. Sharpe, who so manoeuvered it as to force him to
+the very edge, between herself and Garland, and, as she turned to him
+with a laughing remark which, in pantomime, had all the confidential
+understanding of most cordial and intimate acquaintanceship, Bobby
+glanced apprehensively across at the other side of the proscenium-arch.
+There, in the opposite box, staring at him in shocked amazement, sat
+Agnes Elliston!
+
+"But Agnes," protested Bobby at the Elliston home next day, "I could
+not possibly help it."
+
+"No?" she inquired incredulously. "I don't imagine that any one
+strongly advised you to have anything to do with Mr. Sharpe--and it
+was through him that you met _her_. Perhaps it is just as well that it
+happened, however, because it has shown you just how you were about to
+become involved."
+
+Bobby swallowed quite painfully. His tongue was a little dry.
+
+"Well, the fact of the matter is," he admitted, reddening and
+stammering, "that I have already 'become involved,' if that's the way
+you choose to put it; for--for--I signed an agreement with Sharpe, and
+an application for increase of capitalization, this morning."
+
+"You don't mean it!" she gasped. "How could you?"
+
+"Why not?" he demanded. "Agnes, it seems quite impossible for you to
+divorce business and social affairs. I tell you they have absolutely
+nothing to do with each other. The opportunity Sharpe offered me is a
+splendid one. Chalmers and Johnson investigated it thoroughly, and
+both advise me that it is quite an unusually good chance."
+
+"You didn't seem to be able to divorce business and social affairs
+last night," she reminded him rather sharply, returning to the main
+point at issue and ignoring all else.
+
+There was the rub. She could not get out of her mind the picture of
+Mrs. Sharpe chatting gaily with him, smiling up at him and all but
+fawning upon him, in full view of any number of people who knew both
+Agnes and Bobby.
+
+"You have made a deliberate choice of your companions, Mr. Burnit,
+after being warned against them from more than one source," she told
+him, aflame with indignant jealousy, but speaking with the rigidity
+common in such quarrels, "and you may abide by your choice."
+
+"Agnes!" he protested. "You don't mean--"
+
+"I mean just this," she interrupted him coldly, "that I certainly can
+not afford to be seen in public, and don't particularly care to
+entertain in private, any one who permits himself to be seen in public
+with, or entertained in private by, the notorious Mrs. Frank L.
+Sharpe."
+
+They were both of them pale, both trembling, both stiffened by hurt
+and rebellious pride. Bobby gazed at her a moment in a panic, and saw
+no relenting in her eyes, in her pose, in her compressed lips. She was
+still thinking of the way Mrs. Sharpe had looked at him.
+
+"Very well," said he, quite calmly; "since our arrangements for this
+evening are off, I presume I may as well accept that invitation to
+dine at Sharpe's," and with this petty threat he left the house.
+
+At the Idlers' he was met by a succession of grins that were more
+aggravating because for the most part they were but scantily
+explained. Nick Allstyne, indeed, did take him into a corner, with a
+vast show of secrecy, requested him to have an ordinance passed,
+through his new and influential friends, turning Bedlow Park into a
+polo ground; while Payne Winthrop added insult to injury by shaking
+hands with him and most gravely congratulating him--but upon what he
+would not say. Bobby was half grinning and yet half angry when he left
+the club and went over for his usual half hour at the gymnasium.
+Professor Henry H. Bates was also grinning.
+
+"See you're butting in with the swell mob," observed Mr. Bates
+cheerfully. "Getting your name in the paper, ain't you, along with the
+fake heavyweights and the divorces?" and before Bobby's eyes he thrust
+a copy of the yellowest of the morning papers, wherein it was set
+forth that Mr. and Mrs. Frank L. Sharpe had entertained a notable box
+party at the Orpheum, the night before, consisting of Samuel Stone,
+William Garland and Robert Burnit, the latter of whom, it was rumored,
+was soon to be identified with the larger financial affairs of the
+city, having already contracted to purchase a controlling interest in
+the Brightlight Electric Company. The paper had more to say about the
+significance of Bobby's appearance in this company, as indicating the
+new political move which sought to ally the younger business element
+with the progressive party that had been so long in safe, sane and
+conservative control of municipal affairs, except for the temporary
+setback of the recent so-called "citizens' movement" hysteria. Bobby
+frowned more deeply as he read on, and Mr. Bates grinned more and more
+cheerfully.
+
+"Here's where it happens," he observed. "On the level, Bobby, did they
+hook you up on this electric deal?"
+
+"What's the matter with it?" demanded Bobby. "After thorough
+investigation by my own lawyer and my own bookkeeper, the Brightlight
+proves to have been a profitable enterprise for a great many years,
+and is in as good condition now as it ever was. Why shouldn't I go
+into it?"
+
+Biff winked.
+
+"Because it's no fun being the goat," he replied. "Say, tell me, did
+you ever earn a pull with this bunch?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Well, then, why should they hand you anything but the buzzer? If this
+is a good stunt don't you suppose they'd keep it at home? Don't you
+suppose that Stone could go out and get half the money in this town,
+if he wanted it, to put behind a deal that was worth ten per cent. a
+year and pickings? I don't care what your lawyer or what Johnson says
+about it, I know the men. This boy Garland is a good sport, all right,
+but he's for the easy-money crowd every time--and they're going to
+make the next mayor out of him. Our local Hicks would rather be robbed
+by a lot of friendly stick-up artists than have their money wasted by
+a lot of wooden-heads, and after this election the old Stone gang will
+have their feet right back in the trough; yes! This is the way I
+figure the dope. They've framed it up to dump the Brightlight
+Electric, and you're the fall guy. So wear pads in your derby, because
+the first thing you know the hammer's going to drop on your coco."
+
+"How do you find out so much, Biff?" returned Bobby, smiling.
+
+"By sleeping seven hours a day in place of twenty-four. If some of the
+marks I know would only cough up for a good, reliable alarm clock
+they'd be better off."
+
+"Meaning me, of course," said Bobby. "For that I'll have to manhandle
+you a little. Where's your gloves?"
+
+For fifteen minutes they punched away at each other with soft gloves
+as determinedly and as energetically as if they were deadly enemies,
+and then Bobby went back up to his own office. He found Applerod
+jubilant and Johnson glum. Already Applerod heard himself saying to
+his old neighbors: "As Frank L. Sharpe said to me this morning--," or:
+"I told Sharpe--," or: "Say! Sam Stone stopped at my desk
+yesterday--," and already he began to shine by this reflected glory.
+
+"I hear that you have decided to go into the Brightlight Electric," he
+observed.
+
+"Signed all the papers this morning," admitted Bobby.
+
+"Allow me to congratulate you, sir," said Applerod, but Johnson
+silently produced from an index case a plain, gray envelope, which he
+handed to Bobby.
+
+It was inscribed:
+
+    _To My Son Upon His Putting Good Money Into any
+      Public Service Corporation_
+
+and it read:
+
+    "When the manipulators of public service corporations tire of
+    skinning the dear public in bulk, they skin individual
+    specimens just to keep in practice. If you have been fool
+    enough to get into the crowd that invokes the aid of dirty
+    politics to help it hang people on street-car straps, just
+    write them out a check for whatever money you have left, and
+    tell your trustee you are broke again; because you are not and
+    never can be of their stripe, and if you are not of their
+    stripe they will pick your bones. Turn a canary loose in a
+    colony of street sparrows and watch what happens to it."
+
+Bobby folded up the letter grimly and went into his private room,
+where he thought long and soberly. That evening he went out to
+Sharpe's to dinner. As he was about to ring the bell, he stopped,
+confronted by a most unusual spectacle. Through the long plate-glass
+of the door he could see clearly back through the hall into the
+library, and there stood Mrs. Sharpe and William Garland in a tableau
+"that would have given Plato the pip," as Biff Bates might have
+expressed it had he known about Plato. At that moment Sharpe came
+silently down the stairs and turned, unobserved, toward the library.
+Seeing that his wife and Garland were so pleasantly engaged, he very
+considerately turned into the drawing-room instead, _and as he entered
+the drawing-room he lit a cigarette_! Bobby, vowing angrily that there
+could never be room in the Brightlight for both Sharpe and himself,
+did not ring the bell. Instead, he dropped in at the first public
+telephone and 'phoned his regrets.
+
+"By the way," he added, "how soon will you need me again?"
+
+"Not before a week, at least," Sharpe replied.
+
+"Very well, then," said Bobby; "I'll be back a week from to-day."
+
+Immediately upon his arrival down-town he telegraphed the joyous news
+to Jack Starlett, in Washington, to prepare for an old-fashioned
+loafing bee.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+A STRANGE CONNECTION DEVELOPS BETWEEN ELECTRICITY AND POLITICS
+
+
+Chalmers, during Bobby's absence, secured all the secret information
+that he could concerning the Brightlight Electric, but nothing to its
+detriment transpired in that investigation, and when he returned,
+Bobby, very sensibly as he thought, completed his investment. He paid
+his two hundred and fifty thousand dollars into the coffers of the
+company, and, at the first stock-holders' meeting, voting this stock
+and the ten shares he had bought from Sharpe at a hundred and
+seventy-two, he elected his own board of directors, consisting of
+Chalmers, Johnson, Applerod, Biff Bates and himself, giving one share
+of stock to each of the other four gentlemen so that they would be
+eligible. The remaining two members whom he allowed to be elected were
+Sharpe and J. W. Williams, and the board of directors promptly elected
+Bobby president and treasurer, Johnson secretary and Chalmers
+vice-president--a result which gave Bobby great satisfaction. Once he
+had been frozen out of a stock company; this time he had absolute
+control, and he found great pleasure in exercising it, though against
+Chalmers' protest. With swelling triumph he voted to himself, through
+his "dummy" directors, the salary of the former president--twelve
+thousand dollars a year--though he wondered a trifle that President
+Eastman submitted to his retirement with such equanimity, and after he
+walked away from that meeting he considered his business career as
+accomplished. He was settled for life if he wished to remain in the
+business, the salary added to the dividends on two hundred and sixty
+thousand dollars worth of stock bringing his own individual income up
+to a quite respectable figure. If there were no further revenue to be
+derived from the estate of John Burnit, he felt that he had a very
+fair prospect in life, indeed, and could, no doubt, make his way very
+nicely.
+
+He had been unfortunate enough to find Agnes Elliston "not at home"
+upon the two occasions when he had called since their disagreement
+upon the subject of the Sharpes, but now he called her up by telephone
+precisely as if nothing had happened, and explained to her how good
+his prospects were; good enough, in fact, he added, that he could look
+matrimony very squarely in the eye.
+
+"Allow me to congratulate you," said Agnes sweetly. "I presume I'll
+read presently about the divorce that precedes your marriage," and she
+hung up the receiver; all of which, had Bobby but paused to reflect
+upon it, was a very fair indication that all he had to do was to jump
+in his automobile and call on Aunt Constance Elliston, force his way
+upon the attention of Agnes and browbeat that young lady into an
+immediate marriage. He chose, on the contrary, to take the matter more
+gloomily, and Johnson, after worrying about him for three dismal days,
+consulted Biff Bates. But Biff, when the problem was propounded to
+him, only laughed.
+
+"His steady has lemoned him," declared Biff. "Any time a guy's making
+plenty of money and got good health and ain't married, and goes around
+with an all-day grouch, you can play it for a one to a hundred
+favorite that his entry's been scratched in the solitaire diamond
+stakes."
+
+"Uh-huh," responded the taciturn Johnson, and stalked back with grim
+purpose to the Electric Company's office, of which Bobby and Johnson
+and Applerod had taken immediate possession.
+
+The next morning Johnson handed to Bobby one of the familiar gray
+envelopes, inscribed:
+
+    _To My Son Upon the Occasion of His Having a Misunderstanding
+      with Agnes Elliston_
+
+He submitted the envelope with many qualms and misgivings, though
+without apology, but one glance at Bobby's face as that young
+gentleman read the inscription relieved him of all responsibility in
+the matter, for if ever a face showed guilt, that face was the face of
+Bobby Burnit. In the privacy of the president's office Bobby read the
+briefest note of the many that his forethoughted father had left
+behind him in Johnson's charge:
+
+    "You're a blithering idiot!"
+
+That was all. Somehow, that brief note seemed to lighten the gloom, to
+lift the weight, to remove some sort of a barrier, and he actually
+laughed. Immediately he called up the Ellistons. He received the
+information from the housekeeper that Agnes and Aunt Constance had
+gone to New York on an extended shopping trip, and thereby he lost his
+greatest and only opportunity to prove that he had at last been
+successful in business. That day, all the stock which Frank L. Sharpe
+had held began to come in for transfer, in small lots of from ten to
+twenty shares, and inside a week not a certificate stood in Sharpe's
+name. All the stock held by Williams also came in for transfer. Bobby
+went immediately to see Sharpe, and, very much concerned, inquired
+into the meaning of this. Mr. Sharpe was as pleasant as Christmas
+morning.
+
+"To tell you the truth, Mr. Burnit," said he, "there were several very
+good reasons. In the first place, I needed the money; in the second
+place, you were insistent upon control and abused it; in the third
+place, since the increased capitalization and change of management the
+quotations on Brightlight Electric dropped from one-seventy-two to
+one-sixty-five, and I got out before it could drop any lower. You will
+give me credit for selling the stock privately and in small lots where
+it could not break the price. However, Mr. Burnit, I don't see where
+the sale of my stock affects you in any way. You have the Brightlight
+Electric now in good condition, and all it needs to remain a good
+investment is proper management."
+
+"I'm afraid it needs more than that," retorted Bobby. "I'm afraid it
+needs to be in a position to make more money for other people than for
+myself;" through which remark it may be seen that, though perhaps a
+trifle slow, Bobby was learning.
+
+Another lesson awaited him. On the following morning every paper in
+the city blazed with the disquieting information that the Consumers'
+Electric Light and Power Company and the United Illuminating and Fuel
+Company were to be consolidated! Out of the two old concerns a
+fifty-million-dollar corporation was to be formed, and a certain
+portion of the stock was to be sold in small lots, as low, even, as
+one share each, so that the public should be given a chance to
+participate in this unparalleled investment. Oh, it was to be a
+tremendous boon to the city!
+
+Bobby, much worried, went straight to Chalmers.
+
+"So far as I can see you have all the best of the bargain," Chalmers
+reassured him. "The Consumers', already four times watered and quoted
+at about seventy, is to be increased from two to five million before
+the consolidation, so that it can be taken in at ten million. The
+Union, already watered from one to nine million in its few brief
+years, takes on another hydraulic spurt and will be bought for twenty
+million. Of the thirty million dollars which is to be paid for the old
+corporation, nineteen million represents new water, the most of which
+will be distributed among Stone and his henchmen. The other twenty
+million will go to the dear public, who will probably be given one
+share of common as a bonus with each share of preferred, and pay ten
+million sweaty dollars for it. Do you think this new company expects
+to pay dividends? On their plants, worth at a high valuation, five
+million dollars, and their new capital of ten million, a profit must
+be earned for fifty million dollars' worth of stock, and it can not be
+done. Within a year I expect to see Consolidated Illuminating and
+Power Company stock quoted at around thirty. By that time, however,
+Stone and his crowd will have sold theirs, and will have cleaned up
+millions. Brightlight Electric was probably too small a factor to be
+considered in the consolidation. Did you pay off that mortgage? Then
+Stone has his hundred thousand dollars; the back salary list of
+Stone's henchmen has been paid up with your money; Sharpe and Williams
+have converted their stock and Stone's into cash at a fancy figure;
+Eastman is to be taken care of in the new company and they are
+satisfied. In my estimation you are well rid of the entire crowd,
+unless they have some neat little plan for squeezing you. But I'll
+tell you what I would do. I would go direct to Stone, and see what he
+has to say."
+
+Bobby smiled ironically at himself as he climbed the dingy stairs up
+which it was said that every man of affairs in the city must sooner or
+later toil to bend the knee, but he was astonished when he walked into
+the office of Stone to find it a narrow, bare little room, with the
+door wide open to the hall. There was an old, empty desk in it--for
+Stone never kept nor wrote letters--and four common kitchen chairs for
+waiting callers. At the desk near the one window sat Stone, and over
+him bent a shabby-looking man, whispering. Stone, grunting
+occasionally, looked out of the window while he listened, and when the
+man was through gave him a ten-dollar bill.
+
+"It's all right," Stone said gruffly. "I'll be in court myself at ten
+o'clock to-morrow morning, and you may tell Billy that I'll get him
+out of it."
+
+Another man, a flashily-dressed fellow, was ahead of Bobby, and he,
+too, now leaned over Stone and whispered.
+
+"Nothing doing," rumbled Stone.
+
+The man, from his gestures, protested earnestly.
+
+"Nix!" declared Stone loudly. "You threw me two years ago this fall,
+and you can't come back till you're on your uppers good and proper. I
+don't want to see you nor hear of you for another year, and you
+needn't send any one to me to fix it, because it can't be fixed. Now
+beat it. I'm busy!"
+
+The man, much crestfallen, "beat it." Bobby was thankful that there
+was no one else waiting when it was his turn to approach the Mogul.
+Stone shook hands cordially enough.
+
+"Mr. Stone," inquired Bobby, "how does it come that the Brightlight
+Electric Company was not offered a chance to come into this new
+consolidation?"
+
+"How should I know?" asked Stone in reply.
+
+"It is popularly supposed," suggested Bobby, smiling, "that you know a
+great deal about it."
+
+Mr. Stone ignored that supposition completely.
+
+"Mr. Burnit, how much political influence do you think you could
+swing?"
+
+"Frankly, I never thought of it," said Bobby surprised.
+
+"You belong to the Idlers' Club, you belong to the Traders' Club, to
+the Fish and Game, the Brassie, the Gourmet, and the Thespian Clubs.
+You are a member of the board of governors in three of these clubs,
+and are very popular in all of them. A man like you, if he would get
+wise, could swing a strong following."
+
+"Possibly," admitted Bobby dryly; "although I wouldn't enjoy it."
+
+"One-third of the members of the Traders' Club do not vote, more than
+half of the members of the Fish and Game and the Brassie do not vote,
+none of the members of the other clubs vote at all," went on Mr.
+Stone. "They ain't good citizens. If you're the man that can stir them
+up the right way you'd find it worth while."
+
+"But just now," evaded Bobby, "whom did you say I should see about
+this consolidation?"
+
+"Sharpe," snapped Stone. "Good day, Mr. Burnit." And Bobby walked away
+rather belittled in his own estimation.
+
+He had been offered an excellent chance to become one of Stone's
+political lieutenants, had been given an opportunity to step up to the
+pie counter, to enjoy the very material benefits of the Stone style of
+municipal government; and in exchange for this he had only to sell his
+fellows. He knew now that his visit to Sharpe would be fruitless, that
+before he could arrive at Sharpe's office that puppet would have had a
+telephone message from Stone; yet, his curiosity aroused, he saw the
+thing through. Mr. Sharpe, upon his visit, met Bobby as coldly as the
+January morning when the Christmas bills come in.
+
+"We don't really care for the Brightlight Electric in the combination
+at all," said Mr. Sharpe, "but if you wish to come in at a valuation
+of five hundred thousand I guess we can find a place for you."
+
+"Let me understand," said Bobby. "By a valuation of five hundred
+thousand dollars you mean that the Brightlight stock-holders can
+exchange each share of their stock for one share in the Consolidated?"
+
+"That's it, precisely," said Mr. Sharpe without a smile.
+
+"You're joking," objected Bobby. "My stock in the Brightlight is worth
+to-day one hundred and fifty dollars a share. My two hundred and sixty
+thousand dollars' worth of stock in the Consolidated would not be
+worth par, even, to-day. Why do you make this discrimination when you
+are giving the stock-holders of the Consumers' an exchange of five
+shares for one, and the stock-holders of the United an exchange of
+twenty shares for nine?"
+
+"We need both those companies," calmly explained Sharpe, "and we don't
+need the Brightlight."
+
+"Is that figure the best you will do?"
+
+"Under the circumstances, yes."
+
+"Very well then," said Bobby; "good day."
+
+"By the way, Mr. Burnit," Sharpe said to him with a return of the
+charming smile which had been conspicuously absent on this occasion,
+"we needn't consider the talk entirely closed as yet. It might be
+possible that we would be able, between now and the first of the next
+month, when the consolidation is to be completed, to make you a much
+more liberal offer to come in with us; to be one of us, in fact."
+
+Bobby sat down again.
+
+"How soon may I see you about it?" he asked.
+
+"I'll let you know when things are shaped up right. By the way, Mr.
+Burnit, you are a very young man yet, and just starting upon your
+career. Really you ought to look about you a bit and study what
+advantages you have in the way of personal influence and following."
+
+"I have never counted that I had a 'following.'"
+
+"I understand that you have a very strong one," insisted Sharpe. "What
+you ought to do is to see Mr. Stone."
+
+"I have been to see him," replied Bobby with a smile.
+
+"So I understand," said Sharpe dryly. "By the way, next Tuesday I am
+to be voted upon in the Idlers'. You are on the board of governors up
+there, I believe?"
+
+"Yes," said Bobby steadily.
+
+Sharpe studied him for a moment.
+
+"Well, come around and see me about this consolidation on Wednesday,"
+he suggested, "and in the meantime have another talk with Stone. By
+all means, go and see Stone."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Johnson," asked Bobby, later, "what would you do if a man should ask
+you to sell him your personal influence, your self-respect and your
+immortal soul?"
+
+"I'd ask his price," interposed Applerod with a grin.
+
+"You'd never get an offer," snapped Johnson to Applerod, "for you
+haven't any to sell. Why do you ask, Mr. Burnit?"
+
+Bobby regarded Johnson thoughtfully for a moment.
+
+"I know how to make the Brightlight Electric Company yield me two
+hundred per cent. dividends within a year or less," he stated.
+
+"Through Stone?" inquired Johnson.
+
+"Through Stone," admitted Bobby, smiling at Johnson's penetration.
+
+"I thought so. I guess your father has summed up, better than I could
+put it, all there is to be said upon that subject." And from his
+index-file he produced one of the familiar gray envelopes, inscribed:
+
+    _To My Son Robert Upon the Subject of Bribery_
+
+    "When a man sells his independence and the faith of his
+    friends he is bankrupt. Both the taker and the giver of a
+    bribe, even when it is called 'preferment,' are like dogs with
+    fleas; they yelp in their sleep; only the man gets callous
+    after a while and the dog doesn't. Whoever the fellow is
+    that's trying to buy your self-respect, go soak him in the
+    eye, and pay your fine."
+
+"For once I agree most heartily with the governor," said Bobby, and as
+a result he did not go to see Stone. Moreover, Frank L. Sharpe was
+blackballed at the Idlers' Club with cheerful unanimity, and Bobby
+figuratively squared his shoulders to receive the blow that he was
+convinced must certainly fall.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+AGNES APPEARS PUBLICLY WITH MRS. SHARPE AND BIFF BATES HAS A ONE-ROUND
+SCRAP
+
+
+That night, though rather preoccupied by the grave consequences that
+might ensue on this flat-footed defiance of Stone and his crowd, Bobby
+went to the theater with Jack Starlett and Jack's sister and mother.
+As they seated themselves he bowed gravely across the auditorium to
+Agnes and Aunt Constance Elliston, who, with Uncle Dan, were
+entertaining a young woman relative from Savannah. He did not know how
+the others accepted his greeting; he only saw Agnes, and she smiled
+quite placidly at him, which was far worse than if she had tilted her
+head. Through two dreary, interminable acts he sat looking at the
+stage, trying to talk small talk with the Starletts and remaining
+absolutely miserable; but shortly before the beginning of the last act
+he was able to take a quite new and gleeful interest in life, for the
+young woman from Savannah came fluttering into the Elliston box,
+bearing in tow the beautiful and vivacious Mrs. Frank L. Sharpe!
+
+Bobby turned his opera-glasses at once upon that box, and pressed Jack
+Starlett into service. Being thus attracted, the ladies of the
+Starlett box, mystified and unable to extract any explanation from the
+two gleeful men, were compelled, by force of circumstances and
+curiosity, also to opera-glass and lorgnette the sufferers.
+
+Like the general into which he was developing, Bobby managed to meet
+Agnes face to face in the foyer after the show. Tears of mortification
+were in her eyes, but still she was laughing when he strode up to her
+and with masterful authority drew her arm beneath his own.
+
+"Your carriage is too small for four," Bobby calmly told Mr. Elliston,
+and, excusing himself from the Starletts, deliberately conducted Agnes
+to a hansom. As they got well under way he observed:
+
+"You will notice that I make no question of being seen in public
+with--"
+
+"Bobby!" she protested. "Violet did not know. The Sharpes visited in
+Savannah. His connections down there are quite respectable, and no
+doubt Mrs. Sharpe, who is really clever, held herself very
+circumspectly."
+
+"Fine!" said Bobby. "You will notice that I am quite willing to listen
+to _you_. Explain some more."
+
+"Bobby!" she protested again, and then suddenly she bent forward and
+pressed her handkerchief to her eyes.
+
+Bobby was astounded. She was actually crying! In a moment he had her
+in his arms, was pressing her head upon his shoulder, was saying
+soothing things to her with perfectly idiotic volubility. For an
+infinitesimally brief space Agnes yielded to that embrace, and then
+suddenly she straightened up in dismay.
+
+"Good gracious, Bobby!" she exclaimed. "This hansom is all glass!"
+
+He looked out upon the brilliantly lighted street with a reflex of her
+own consternation, but quickly found consolation.
+
+"Well, after all," he reflected philosophically, "I don't believe
+anybody who saw me would blame me."
+
+"You're a perfectly incorrigible Bobby," she laughed. "The only check
+possible to put upon you is to hold you rigidly to business. How are
+you coming out with the Brightlight Electric Company? I have been
+dying to ask you about it."
+
+"I have a telephone in my office," he reminded her.
+
+"I am completely ignoring that ungenerous suggestion," she replied.
+
+"It wasn't sportsmanlike," he penitently admitted. "Well, the
+Brightlight Electric is still making money, and Johnson has stopped
+leaks to the amount of at least twenty thousand dollars a year, which
+will permit us to keep up the ten per cent. dividends, even with our
+increased capitalization, and even without an increase of business."
+
+"Glorious!" she said with sparkling eyes.
+
+"Too good to be true," he assured her. "They'll take it away from me."
+
+"How is it possible?" she asked.
+
+"It isn't; but it will happen, nevertheless," he declared with
+conviction.
+
+He had already begun to spend his days and nights in apprehension of
+this, and as the weeks went on and nothing happened his apprehension
+grew rather than diminished.
+
+In the meantime, the Consolidated Illuminating and Power Company went
+pompously on. The great combine was formed, the fifty million dollars'
+worth of stock was opened for subscription, and the company gave a
+vastly expensive banquet in the convention hall of the Hotel Spender,
+at which a thousand of the city's foremost men were entertained, and
+where the cleverest after-dinner speakers to be obtained talked in
+relays until long after midnight. Those who came to eat the rich food
+and drink the rare wine and lend their countenances to the stupendous
+local enterprise, being shrewd business graduates who had cut their
+eye-teeth in their cradles, smiled and went home without any thought
+of investing; but the hard-working, economical chaps of the offices
+and shops, men who felt elated if, after five years of slavery, they
+could show ten hundred dollars of savings, glanced in awe over this
+magnificent list of names in the next day's papers. If the stock of
+the Consolidated Illuminating and Power Company was considered a good
+investment by these generals and captains and lieutenants of finance,
+who, of course, attended this Arabian Nights banquet as investors, it
+must certainly be a good investment for the corporals and privates.
+
+Immediately vivid results were shown. Immense electric signs,
+furnished at less than cost and some of them as big as the buildings
+upon the roofs of which they were erected, began to make
+constellations in the city sky; buildings in the principal down-town
+squares were studded, for little or nothing, with outside incandescent
+lights as thickly as wall space could be found for them, and the men
+whose only automobiles are street-cars awoke to the fact that their
+city was becoming intensely metropolitan; that it was blazing with the
+blaze of Paris and London and New York; that all this glittering
+advancement was due to the great new Consolidated Illuminating and
+Power Company, and more applications for stock were made!
+
+Every applicant was supplied, but the treasury stock of the company
+having been sold out, the scrip had to come from some place else, and
+it came through devious, secret ways from the holdings of such men as
+Stone and Garland and Sharpe.
+
+During the grand orgie of illumination the election came on; the price
+of gas and electricity went gloriously and recklessly down, and the
+men who were identified with the triumphantly successful new
+illuminating company were the leading figures in the campaign. The
+puerile "reform party," the blunders of whose incompetence had been
+ridiculous, was swept out of existence; Garland was elected mayor by
+the most overwhelming majority that had ever been known in the city,
+and with him was elected a council of the same political faith. Sam
+Stone, always in the background, always keeping his name out of the
+papers as much as possible, came once more to the throne, and owned
+the city and all its inhabitants and all its business enterprises and
+all its public utilities, body and soul.
+
+One night, shortly after the new officials went into power, there was
+no light in the twelve blocks over which the Brightlight Company had
+exclusive control, nor any light in the outside districts it supplied.
+This was the first time in years that the company, equipped with an
+emergency battery of dynamos which now proved out of order, had ever
+failed for an instant of proper service. Candles, kerosene lamps and
+old gas fixtures, the rusty cocks of which had not been turned in a
+decade, were put hastily in use, while the streets were black with a
+blackness particularly Stygian, contrasted with the brilliantly
+illuminated squares supplied by the Consolidated Company. All night
+long the mechanical force, attended by the worried but painfully
+helpless Bobby, pounded and tapped and worked in the grime, but it was
+not until broad daylight that they were able to discover the cause of
+trouble. For two nights the lights ran steadily. On the third night,
+at about seven-thirty, they turned to a dull, red glow, and slowly
+died out. This time it was wire trouble, and through the long night as
+large a force of men as could be mustered were tracing it. Not until
+noon of the next day was the leak found.
+
+It was a full week before that section of the city was for the third
+time in darkness, but when this occurred the business men of the
+district, who had been patient enough the first night and enduring
+enough the second, loosed their reins and became frantic.
+
+At this happy juncture the Consolidated Company threw an army of
+canvassers into those twelve monopolized blocks, and the canvassers
+did not need to be men who could talk, for arguments were not
+necessary. The old, worn-out equipment of the Brightlight Electric,
+and the fact that it was managed and controlled by men who knew
+nothing whatever of the business, its very president a young fellow
+who had probably never seen a dynamo until he took charge, were
+enough.
+
+Bobby, passing over Plum Street one morning, was surprised to see a
+large gang of men putting in new poles, and when he reached the office
+he asked Johnson about it. In two minutes he had definitely
+ascertained that no orders had been issued by the Brightlight Electric
+Company nor any one connected with it, and further inquiry revealed
+the fact that these poles were being put up by the Consolidated. He
+called up Chalmers at once.
+
+"I knew I'd hear from you," said Chalmers, "and I have already been at
+work on the thing. Of course, you saw what was in the papers."
+
+"No," confessed Bobby. "Only the sporting pages."
+
+"You should read news, local and general, every morning," scolded
+Chalmers. "The new city council, at their meeting last night, granted
+the Consolidated a franchise to put up poles and wires in this
+district for lighting."
+
+"But how could they?" expostulated Bobby. "Our contract with the city
+has several years to run yet, and guarantees us exclusive privilege to
+supply light, both to the city and to private individuals, in those
+twelve blocks."
+
+"That cleverly unobtrusive joker clause about 'reasonably satisfactory
+service,'" replied Chalmers angrily. "By the way, have you
+investigated the cause of those accidents very thoroughly? Whether
+there was anything malicious about them?"
+
+Bobby confessed that he had not thought of the possibility.
+
+"I think it would pay you to do so. I am delving into this thing as
+deeply as I can, and with your permission I am going to call your
+father's old attorney, Mr. Barrister, into consultation."
+
+"Go ahead, by all means," said Bobby, worried beyond measure.
+
+At five o'clock that evening Con Ripley came jauntily to the plant of
+the Brightlight Electric Company. Con was the engineer, and the world
+was a very good joke to him, although not such a joke that he ever
+overlooked his own interests. He spruced up considerably outside of
+working hours, did Con, and, although he was nearing forty, considered
+himself very much a ladies' man, also an accomplished athlete, and
+positively the last word in electrical knowledge. He was donning his
+working garments in very leisurely fashion when a short,
+broad-shouldered, thickset young man came back toward him from the
+office.
+
+"You're Con Ripley?" said the new-comer by way of introduction.
+
+"Maybe," agreed Con. "Who are you?"
+
+"I'm the Assistant Works," observed Professor Henry H. Bates.
+
+"Oh!" said Mr. Ripley in some wonder, looking from the soft cap of Mr.
+Bates to the broad, thick tan shoes of Mr. Bates, and then back up to
+the wide-set eyes. "I hadn't heard about it."
+
+"No?" responded Mr. Bates. "Well, I came in to tell you. I don't know
+enough about electricity to say whether you feed it with a spoon or
+from a bottle, but I'm here, just the same, to notice that the juice
+slips through the wires all right to-night, all right."
+
+"The hell you are!" exclaimed Mr. Ripley, taking sudden umbrage at
+both tone and words, and also at the physical attitude of Mr. Bates,
+which had grown somewhat threatening. "All right, Mr. Works," and Mr.
+Ripley began to step out of his overalls; "jump right in and push
+juice till you get black in the face, while I take a little vacation.
+I've been wanting a lay-off for a long time."
+
+"You'll lay on, Bo," dissented Mr. Bates. "Nix on the vacation. That's
+just the point. You're going to stick on the job, and I'm going to
+stick within four feet of you till old Jim-jams Jones shakes along to
+get his morning's morning; and it will be a sign of awful bad luck for
+you if the lights in this end of town flicker a single flick any time
+to-night."
+
+"Is that it?" Mr. Ripley wanted to know. "And if they should happen to
+flicker some what are you going to do about it?"
+
+"I don't know yet," said Biff. "I'll knock your block off first and
+think about it afterward!"
+
+Mr. Ripley hastily drew his overalls back on and slipped the straps
+over his shoulders with a snap.
+
+"You'll tell me when you're going to do it, won't you?" he asked
+banteringly, and, a full head taller than Mr. Bates, glared down at
+him a moment in contempt. Then he laughed. "I'll give you ten to one
+the lights will flicker," he offered to bet. "I wouldn't stop such a
+cunning chance for exercise for real money," and, whirling upon his
+heel, Mr. Ripley started upon his usual preliminary examination of
+dynamos and engines and boilers.
+
+Quite nonchalantly Mr. Bates, puffing at a particularly villainous
+stogie and with his hands resting idly in his pockets, swung after Mr.
+Ripley, keeping within almost precisely four feet of him. In the
+boiler-room, Ripley, finding Biff still at his heels, said to the
+fireman, with a jerk of his thumb over his shoulder:
+
+"Rocksey, be sure you keep a good head of steam on to-night if you're
+a friend of mine. This is Mr. Assistant Works back here, and he's come
+in to knock my block off if the lights flicker."
+
+"Rocksey," a lean man with gray beard-bristles like pins and with
+muscles in astounding lumps upon his grimy arms, surveyed Mr. Bates
+with a grin which meant volumes.
+
+"Ring a bell when it starts, will you, Con?" he requested.
+
+To this Biff paid not the slightest attention, gazing stolidly at the
+red fire where it shone through the holes of the furnace doors; but
+when Mr. Ripley moved away Biff moved also. Ripley introduced Biff in
+much the same terms to a tall man who was oiling the big,
+old-fashioned Corliss, and a sudden gleam came into the tall man's
+eyes as he recognized Mr. Bates, but he turned back to his oiling
+without smile or comment. Ripley eyed him sharply.
+
+"You'll hold the sponge and water-bottle for me, won't you, Daly?" he
+asked, with an evident attempt at jovial conciliation.
+
+Daly deliberately wiped the slender nose of his oil can and went on
+oiling.
+
+"What's the matter?" asked Ripley with a frown. "Got a grouch again?"
+
+"Yes, I have," admitted Daly without looking up, and shrugged his
+shoulders.
+
+"Then cut it out," said Ripley, "and look real unpeeved when somebody
+hands you tickets to the circus."
+
+From that moment Mr. Ripley seemed to take a keen delight in goading
+Mr. Bates. He took a sudden dash half-way down the length of the long
+room, as if going to the extreme other end of the plant, then suddenly
+whirled and retraced his steps to meet Biff coming after him; made an
+equally sudden dart for the mysterious switch-board, and seized a
+lever as if to throw it, but suddenly changed his mind, apparently,
+and went away, leaving Mr. Bates to infer that the throwing of that
+particular lever would leave them all in darkness; later, with Biff
+ready to spring upon him, he threw that switch to show that it had no
+important function to perform at all. To all these and many more
+ingenious tricks to humiliate him, Mr. Bates paid not the slightest
+attention, but, as calmly and as impassively as Fate, kept as nearly
+as he could to the four-foot distance he had promised.
+
+It was about ten o'clock when Biff, interested for a moment in the
+switch-board, suddenly missed Ripley, and looking about him hastily he
+saw the fireman standing in the door of the boiler-room grinning at
+him, while the other workmen--all of whom were of the old regime--were
+also enjoying his discomfort; but Daly, catching his eye, nodded
+significantly toward the side-door which led upon the street. It was
+an almost imperceptible nod, but it was enough for Biff, and he dashed
+out of that door. Half a block ahead of him he saw Ripley hurrying,
+and took after him with that light, cat-like run which is the height
+of effortless and noiseless speed. Ripley, looking back hastily,
+hurried into a saloon, and he had scarcely closed the door when Biff
+entered after him, in time to see his man standing at the telephone,
+receiver in hand. It was the work of but an instant to grab Ripley by
+the arm and jerk him away from the 'phone. Quickly recovering his
+balance, with a lunge of his whole body Ripley shot a swift fist at
+the man who had interfered with him, but Biff, without shifting his
+position, jerked his head to one side and the fist shot harmlessly by.
+Before another blow could be struck, or parried, the bartender, a
+brawny giant, had rushed between them.
+
+"Let us alone, Jeff," panted Ripley. "I've got all I can stand for
+from this rat."
+
+"Outside!" said Jeff with cold finality. "You can beat him to a pulp
+in the street, Con, but there'll be no scrimmage in this place without
+me having a hand in it."
+
+Ripley considered this ultimatum for a moment in silence, and then, to
+Biff's surprise, suddenly ran out of the door. It was a tight race to
+the plant, and there, with Biff not more than two arms' length behind
+him, Ripley jerked at a lever hitherto untouched, and instantly the
+place was plunged into complete darkness.
+
+"There!" screamed Ripley.
+
+A second later Biff had grappled him, and together they went to the
+floor. It was only a moment that the darkness lasted, however, for
+tall Tom Daly stood by the replaced switch, looking down at them in
+quiet joy. Immediately with the turning on of the light Biff scrambled
+to his feet like a cat and waited for Ripley to rise. It was Ripley
+who made the first lunge, which Biff dexterously ducked, and
+immediately after Biff's right arm shot out, catching his antagonist a
+glancing blow upon the side of the cheek; a blow which drew blood.
+Infuriated, again Ripley rushed, but was blocked, and for nearly a
+minute there was a swift exchange of light blows which did little
+damage; then Biff found his opening, and, swinging about the axis of
+his own spine, threw the entire force of his body behind his right
+arm, and the fist of that arm caught Ripley below the ear and dropped
+him like a beef, just as Bobby came running back from, the office.
+
+"What are you doing here, Biff? What's the matter?" demanded Bobby, as
+Ripley, dazed, struggled to his feet, and, though weaving, drew
+himself together for another onslaught.
+
+"Matter!" snarled Biff. "I landed on a frame-up, that's all. This
+afternoon I saw Sharpe and this Ripley together in a bum wine-room on
+River Street, swapping so much of that earnest conversation that the
+partitions bulged, and I dropped to the double-cross that's being
+handed out to you. I've been trying to telephone you ever since, but
+when I couldn't find you I came right down to run the plant. That's
+all."
+
+"You're all right, Biff," laughed Bobby, "but I guess we'll call this
+a one-round affair, and I'll take charge."
+
+"Don't stop 'em!" cried Daly savagely, turning to Bobby. "Hand it to
+him, Biff. He's a crook and an all-round sneak. He beat me out of this
+job by underhand means, and there ain't a man in the place that ain't
+tickled to death to see him get the beating that's coming to him.
+Paste him, Biff!"
+
+"Biff!" repeated Mr. Ripley, suddenly dropping his hands. "Biff who?"
+
+"Mr. Biff Bates, the well-known and justly celebrated ex-champion
+middleweight," announced Bobby with a grin. "Mr. Ripley--Mr. Bates."
+
+"Biff Bates!" repeated Con Ripley. "Why didn't some of you guys tell
+me this was Biff Bates? Mr. Bates, I'm glad to meet you." And with
+much respect he held forth his hand.
+
+"Go chase yourself," growled Mr. Bates, in infinite scorn.
+
+Ripley replied with a sudden volley of abuse, couched in the vilest of
+language, but to this Biff made no reply. He dropped his hands in his
+coat pockets, and, considering his work done, walked over to the wall
+and leaned against it, awaiting further developments.
+
+"Daly," asked Bobby sharply, breaking in upon Ripley's tirade, "are
+you competent to run this plant?"
+
+"Certainly, sir," replied Daly. "I should have had the job four years
+ago. I was promised it."
+
+"You may consider yourself in charge, then. Mr. Ripley, if you will
+walk up to the office I'll pay you off."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+BOBBY'S MONEY IS ELECTROCUTED AND JOHN BURNIT'S SON WAKES UP
+
+
+Bobby, jubilant, went to see Chalmers next day. The lawyer listened
+gravely, but shook his head.
+
+"I'm bound to tell you, Mr. Burnit, that you have no case. You must
+have more proof than this to bring a charge of conspiracy. Ripley had
+a perfect right to talk with Sharpe or to telephone to some one, and
+mere hot-headedness could explain his shutting off the lights. Your
+over-enthusiastic friend Bates has ruined whatever prospect you might
+have had. Your suspicions once aroused, you should have let your man
+do as he liked, but should have watched him and caught him in a trap
+of some sort. Now it is too late. Moreover, I have bad news for you.
+Your contract for city lighting is ironclad, and can not be broken,
+but I saw to-day a paper signed by an overwhelming majority of your
+private consumers that the service is not even 'reasonably
+satisfactory,' and that they wish the field open to competition. With
+this paper to back them, Stone's council granted the right to the
+Consolidated Company to erect poles, string wires and supply current.
+We can bring suit if you say so, but you will lose it."
+
+"Bring suit, then!" ordered Bobby vehemently. "Why, Chalmers, the
+contract for the city lighting alone would cost the Brightlight money
+every year. The profit has all been made from private consumers."
+
+"That's why you're losing it," said Chalmers dryly. "The whole project
+is very plain to me now. The Consumers and the United Companies never
+cared to enter that field, because their controlling stock-holders
+were also the Brightlight controlling stock-holders, and they could
+get more money through the Brightlight than they could through the
+other companies; and so they led the public to believe that there was
+no breaking the monopoly the Brightlight held upon their service. Now,
+however, they want to gain another stock-jobbing advertisement by
+driving you out of the field. They planned from the first to wreck you
+for just that purpose--to make Consolidated stock seem more desirable
+when the stock sales began to dwindle--and they are perfectly willing
+to furnish the consumers in your twelve blocks with current at their
+present ridiculously low rate, because, with them, any possible
+profits to be derived from the business are insignificant compared to
+the profits to be derived from the sale of their watered stock. The
+price of illumination and power, later, will _soar_! Watch it. They're
+a very bright crowd," and Mr. Chalmers paused to admire them.
+
+"In other words," said Bobby glumly. "I am what Biff Bates told me I
+would be--the goat."
+
+"Precisely," agreed Chalmers.
+
+"Begin suit anyhow," directed Bobby, "and we'll see what comes of it."
+
+"By the way," called Chalmers with a curious smile as Bobby opened the
+door; "I've just learned that one of the foremost enthusiasts in this
+whole manipulation has been quiet and conservative Silas Trimmer."
+
+Bobby did not swear. He simply slammed the door.
+
+Two days later Bobby was surprised to see Sharpe drop in upon him.
+
+"I understand you are bringing suit against the Consolidated for
+encroachment upon your territory, and against the city for abrogation
+of contract," began Sharpe.
+
+"Yes," said Bobby.
+
+"Don't you think it rather a waste of money, Mr. Burnit? I can
+guarantee you positively that you will not win either suit."
+
+"I'm willing to wait to find that out."
+
+"No use," said Sharpe impatiently. "I'll tell you what we will do, Mr.
+Burnit. If you care to have us to do so, the Consolidated, a little
+later on, will absorb the Brightlight."
+
+"On what terms?" asked Bobby.
+
+"It all depends. We might discuss that later. There's another matter
+I'd like to speak with you about. Stone wants to see you, even yet. I
+want to tell you, Mr. Burnit, he can get along a great deal better
+without you than you can without him, as you are probably willing to
+admit by now. But he still wants you. Go and see Stone."
+
+"On--what--terms--will the Consolidated now absorb the Brightlight?"
+demanded Bobby sternly.
+
+"Well," drawled Sharpe, with a complete change of manner, "the
+property has deteriorated considerably within a remarkably short space
+of time, but I should say that we would buy the Brightlight for three
+hundred thousand dollars in stock of the Consolidated, half preferred
+and half common."
+
+"And this is your very best offer?"
+
+"The very best," replied Sharpe, making no attempt to conceal his
+exultant grin.
+
+"Not on your life," declared Bobby. "I'm going to hold the Brightlight
+intact. I'm going to fulfill the city contract at a loss, if it takes
+every cent I can scrape together, and then I'm going to enter politics
+myself. I'm going to drive Stone and his crowd out of this city, and
+we shall see if we can not make a readjustment of the illuminating
+business on my basis instead of his. Good day, Mr. Sharpe."
+
+"Good day, sir," said Sharpe, and this time he laughed aloud.
+
+At the door he turned.
+
+"I'd like to call your attention, young man, to the fact that a great
+many very determined gentlemen have announced their intention of
+driving Mr. Stone and his associates out of this city. You might
+compare that with the fact that Mr. Stone and his friends are all here
+yet, and on top," and with that he withdrew.
+
+"If I may be so bold as to say so," said Mr. Applerod, worried to
+paleness by this foolish defiance of so great and good a man, "you
+have made a very grave error, Mr. Burnit, very grave, indeed. It is
+suicidal to defy Mr. Sharpe, and through him _Mr. Stone_!"
+
+"Will you shut up!" snarled Johnson to his ancient work-mate. "Mr.
+Burnit, I have no right to take the liberty, but I am going to
+congratulate you, sir. Whatever follies inexperience may have led you
+to commit, you are, at any rate, sir, a _man_, like your father was
+before you!" and by way of emphasis Johnson smacked his fist on his
+desk as he glared in Mr. Applerod's direction.
+
+"It's all very well to show fight, Johnson," said Bobby, a little
+wanly, "but just the same I have to acknowledge defeat. I am afraid I
+boasted too much. Chalmers, after considering the matter, positively
+refuses to bring suit. The whole game is over. I have the Brightlight
+Company on my hands at a net dead loss of every cent I have sunk into
+it, and it can not pay me a penny so long as these men remain in
+power. I am going to fight them with their own weapons, but that is a
+matter of years. In the meantime, my third business attempt is a
+hideous failure. Where's the gray envelope, Johnson?"
+
+"It is here," admitted Johnson, and from his file took the missive in
+question.
+
+As Bobby took the letter from Johnson Agnes came into the office and
+swept toward him with outstretched hand.
+
+"It is perfectly shameful, Bobby! I just read about it!"
+
+"So soon?" he wanted to know.
+
+She carried a paper in her hand and spread it before him. In the very
+head-line his fate was pronounced. "Brightlight Electric Tottering to
+Its Fall," was the cheerful line which confronted him, and beneath
+this was set forth the facts that every profitable contract heretofore
+held by the Brightlight Electric had been taken away from that
+unfortunate concern, in which the equipment was said to be so
+inefficient as to render decent service out of the question, and that,
+having remaining to it only a money-losing contract for city lighting,
+business men were freely predicting its very sudden dissolution. The
+item, wherein the head-line took up more space than the news, wound up
+with the climax statement that Brightlight stock was being freely
+offered at around forty, with no takers.
+
+To her surprise, Bobby tossed the paper on Johnson's desk and laughed.
+
+"I have been so long prepared for this bit of 'news' that it does not
+shock me much," he said; "moreover, the lower this stock goes the
+cheaper I can buy it!"
+
+"Buy it!" she incredulously exclaimed.
+
+"Exactly," he stated calmly. "I presume that, as heretofore, I'll be
+given another check, and I do not see any better place to put the
+money than right here. I am going to fight!"
+
+"Beg your pardon, sir," said Johnson. "Your last remark was spoken
+loud enough to be taken as general, and I am compelled to give you
+this envelope."
+
+Into his hands Johnson placed a mate to the missive which Bobby had
+not yet opened, and this one was inscribed:
+
+    _To My Son Robert, Upon His Declaration that He Will Take Two
+      Starts at the Same Business_
+
+Bobby looked at the two letters in frowning perplexity, and then
+silently walked into his own office, where Agnes followed him; and it
+was she who closed the door. He sat down at his desk and held that
+last letter of his father's before him in dread. He had so airily
+built up his program; and apprehension told him what this letter might
+contain! Presently he was conscious that Agnes' arm was slipped across
+his shoulder. She was sitting upon the arm of his chair, and had bent
+her cheek upon his head. So they read the curt message:
+
+    "To throw good money after bad is like sprinkling salt on a
+    cut. It only intensifies the pain and doesn't work much of a
+    cure. In your case it is strictly forbidden. You must learn to
+    cut your garment according to your cloth, to bite off only
+    what you can chew, to lift no more than you can carry. Your
+    next start must not be encumbered."
+
+"He's wrong!" declared Bobby savagely.
+
+"But if he is," protested Agnes, "what can you do about it?"
+
+"If his bequests are conditional I shall have to accept the
+conditions; but, nevertheless, I am going to fight; and I am going to
+keep the Brightlight Electric!"
+
+Mechanically he opened the other letter now. The contents were to this
+effect:
+
+    _To My Son Upon His Losing Money in a Public Service
+      Corporation_
+
+    "Every buzz-saw claims some fingers. Of course you had to be a
+    victim, but now you know how to handle a buzz-saw. The first
+    point about it is to treat it with respect. When you realize
+    thoroughly that a buzz-saw is dangerous, half the danger is
+    gone. So, when your wound is healed, you might go ahead and
+    saw, just as a matter of accomplishment. Bobby, how I wish I
+    could talk with you now, for just one little half hour."
+
+Convulsively Bobby crumpled the letter in his hand and the tears
+started to his eyes.
+
+"Bully old dad!" he said brokenly, and opened his watch-case, where
+the grim but humor-loving face of old John Burnit looked up at his
+beloved children.
+
+"And now what are you going to do?" Agnes asked him presently, when
+they were calmer.
+
+"Fight!" he vehemently declared. "For the governor's sake as well as
+my own."
+
+"I just found another letter for you, sir," said Johnson, handing in
+the third of the missives to come in that day's mail from beyond the
+Styx. It was inscribed:
+
+    _To My Son Robert Upon the Occasion of His Declaring Fight
+      Against the Politicians Who Robbed Him_
+
+    "Nothing but public laziness allows dishonest men to control
+    public affairs. Any time an honest man puts up a sincere fight
+    against a crook there's a new fat man in striped clothes. If
+    you have a crawful and want to fight against dirty politics in
+    earnest, jump in, and tell all my old friends to put a bet
+    down on you for me. I'd as soon have you spend in that way the
+    money I made as to buy yachts with it; and I can see where the
+    game might be made as interesting as polo. Go in and win,
+    boy."
+
+"And now what are you going to do?" Agnes asked him, laughing this
+time.
+
+"Fight!" he declared exultantly. "I'm going to fight entirely outside
+of my father's money. I'm going to fight with my own brawn and my own
+brain and my own resources and my own personal following! Why, Agnes,
+that is what the governor has been goading me to do. It is what all
+this is planned for, and the governor, after all, is right!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+SOME EMINENT ARTISTS AMUSE MEESTER BURNIT WHILE HE WAITS
+
+
+One might imagine, after Bobby's heroic declarations, that, like young
+David of old, he would immediately proceed to stride forth and slay
+his giant. There stood his Goliath, full panoplied, sneering, waiting;
+but alas! Bobby had neither sling nor stone. It was all very well to
+announce in fine frenzy that he would smash the Consolidated, destroy
+the political ring, drive Sam Stone and his henchmen out of town and
+wrest all his goods and gear from Silas Trimmer; but until he could
+find a place to plant his foot, descry an opening in the armor and
+procure an adequate weapon, he might just as well bottle his fuming
+and wait; so Bobby waited. In the meantime he stuck very closely to
+the Brightlight office, finding there, in the practice of petty
+economics and the struggle with well-nigh impossible conditions, ample
+food for thought. In a separate bank reposed the new fund of two
+hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which he kept religiously aside
+from the affairs of the Brightlight, and this fund also waited; for
+Bobby was not nearly so feverish to find instant employment for it as
+he had been with the previous ones--though he had endless chances.
+People with the most unheard of schemes seemed to have a peculiar
+scent for unsophisticated money, and not only local experts in the
+gentle art of separation flocked after him, but out of town
+specialists came to him in shoals. To these latter he took great
+satisfaction in displaying the gem of his collection of post-mortem
+letters from old John Burnit:
+
+    "You don't need to go away from home to be skinned; moreover,
+    it isn't patriotic."
+
+That usually stopped them. He was growing quite sophisticated, was
+Bobby, quite able to discern the claws beneath the velvet paw, quite
+suspicious of all the ingenious gentlemen who wanted to make a fortune
+for him; and their frantic attempts to "get his goat," as Biff Bates
+expressed it, had become as good as a play to this wise young person,
+as also to the wise young person's trustee.
+
+Agnes, who was helping Bobby wait, came occasionally to the office of
+the Brightlight on business, and nearly always Bobby had reduced to
+paper some gaudy new scheme that had been proposed to him, over which
+they both might laugh. In great hilarity one morning they were going
+over the prospectus of a plan to reclaim certain swamp lands in
+Florida, when the telephone bell rang, and from Bobby's difficulty in
+understanding and his smile as he hung up the receiver, Agnes knew
+that something else amusing had turned up.
+
+[Illustration: Little me to trot out and find an angel. Are you it?]
+
+"It is from Schmirdonner," he explained as he turned to her again.
+"He's the conductor of the orchestra at the Orpheum, you know. I
+gather from what he says that there are some stranded musicians here
+who probably speak worse English than myself, and he's sending them up
+to me to see about arranging a benefit for them. You'd better wait; it
+might be fun, or you might want to help arrange the benefit."
+
+"No," disclaimed Agnes, laughing and drawing her impedimenta together
+for departure, "I'll leave both the fun and the philanthropy to you. I
+know you're quite able to take care of them. I'll just wait long
+enough to hear how we're to get rid of the water down in Florida. I
+suppose we bore holes in the ground and let it run out."
+
+"By no means," laughed Bobby. "It's no where near so absurdly simple
+as that," and he turned once more to the prospectus which lay open on
+the desk before them.
+
+Before they were through with it there suddenly erupted into the outer
+office, where Johnson and Applerod glared at each other day by day
+over their books, a pandemonium of gabbling. Agnes, with a little
+exclamation of dismay at the time she had wasted, rose in a hurry, and
+immediately after she passed through the door there bounded into the
+room a rotund little German with enormous and extremely thick glasses
+upon his knob of a nose, a grizzled mustache that poked straight up on
+both sides of that knob, and an absurd toupee that flared straight out
+all around on top of the bald spot to which it was pasted. Behind him
+trailed a pudgy man of so exactly the Herr Professor's height and
+build that it seemed as if they were cast in the same spherical mold,
+but he was much younger and had jet black hair and a jet black
+mustache of such tiny proportions as to excite amazement and even awe.
+Still behind him was as unusually large young woman, fully a head
+taller than either of the two men, who had an abundance of jet black
+hair, and was dressed in a very rich robe and wrap, both of which were
+somewhat soiled and worn.
+
+"Signor R-r-r-r-icardo, der grosse tenore--Mees-ter Burnit,"
+introduced the rotund little German, with a deep bow commensurate with
+the greatness of the great tenor. "Signorina Car-r-r-avaggio--Mees-ter
+Burnit. I, Mees-ter Burnit, _Ich bin_ Brofessor Fruehlingsvogel."
+
+Bobby, for the lack of any other handy greeting, merely bowed and
+smiled, whereupon Signorina Caravaggio, stepping into a breach which
+otherwise would certainly have been embarrassing, seated herself
+comfortably upon the edge of Bobby's desk and swung one large but
+shapely foot while she explained matters.
+
+"It's like this, Mr. Burnit," she confidently began: "when that
+dried-up little heathen, Matteo, who tried to run the Neapolitan Grand
+Opera Company with stage money, got us this far on a tour that is a
+disgrace to the profession, he had a sudden notion that he needed
+ocean air; so he took what few little dollars were in the treasury and
+hopped right on into New York.
+
+"Here we are, then, at the place we were merely 'to make connections,'
+two hundred miles from our next booking and without enough money among
+us to buy a postage stamp. We haven't seen a cent of salary for six
+weeks, and the only thing we can do is to seize the props and scenery
+and costumes, see if they can be sold, and disband, unless somebody
+gallops to the rescue in a hurry. Professor Fruehlingsvogel happened to
+know another Dutchman here who conducts an orchestra at the Orpheum,
+and he sent us to you. He said you knew all the swell set and could
+start a benefit going if anybody in town could."
+
+"Yes," said Bobby, smiling; "Schmirdonner telephoned me just a few
+minutes ago that the Herr Professor Fruehlingsvogel would be up to see
+me, and asked me to do what I could. How many of you are there?"
+
+"Seventy-three," promptly returned Signorina Caravaggio, "and all
+hungry. Forty singers and an orchestra of thirty--seventy--besides
+props and the stage manager and Herr Fruehlingsvogel, who is the
+musical director."
+
+"Where are you stopping?" asked Bobby, aghast at the size of the
+contract that was offered him.
+
+"We're not," laughed the great Italian songstress. "We all went up and
+registered at a fourth-rate place they call the Hotel Larken, but
+that's as far as we got, for we were told before the ink was dry that
+we'd have to come across before we got a single biscuit; so there they
+are, scattered about the S. R. O. parts of that little two-by-twice
+hotel, waiting for little me to trot out and find an angel. Are you
+it?"
+
+"I can't really promise what I can do," hesitated Bobby, who had never
+been able to refuse assistance where it seemed to be needed; "but I'll
+run down to the club and see some of the boys about getting up a
+subscription concert for you. How much help will you need?"
+
+"Enough to land us on little old Manhattan Island."
+
+"And there are over seventy of you to feed and take care of for, say,
+three days, and then to pay railroad fares for," mused Bobby, a little
+startled as the magnitude of the demand began to dawn upon him. "Then
+there's the music-hall, advertising, printing and I suppose a score of
+other incidentals. You need quite a pile of money. However, I'll go
+down to the club at lunch time and see what I can do for you."
+
+"I knew you would the minute I looked at you," said the Signorina
+confidently, which was a compliment or not, the way one looked at it.
+"But, say; I've got a better scheme than that, one that will let you
+make a little money instead of contributing. I understand the Orpheum
+has next week dark, through yesterday's failure of The Married
+Bachelor Comedy Company. Why don't you get the Orpheum for us and back
+our show for the week? We have twelve operas in our repertoire. The
+scenery and props are very poor, the costumes are only half-way decent
+and the chorus is the rattiest-looking lot you ever saw in your life;
+but they can sing. They went into the discard on account of their
+faces, poor things. Suppose you come over and have a look. They'd melt
+you to tears."
+
+"That won't be necessary," hastily objected Bobby; "but I'll meet a
+lot of the fellows at lunch, and afterward I'll let you know."
+
+"After lunch!" exclaimed the Signorina with a most expressive placing
+of her hands over her belt, whereat the Herr Professor and Der Grosse
+Tenore both turned most wistfully to Bobby to see what effect this
+weighty plea might have upon him. "Lunch!" she repeated. "If you would
+carry a fork-full of steaming spaghetti into the Hotel Larken at this
+minute you'd start a riot. Why, Mr. Burnit, if you're going to do
+anything for us you've got to get into action, because we've been up
+since seven and we still want our breakfasts."
+
+"Breakfast!" exclaimed Bobby, looking hastily at his watch. It was now
+eleven-thirty. "Come on; we'll go right over to the Larken, wherever
+that may be," and he exhibited as much sudden haste as if he had seen
+seventy people actually starving before his very eyes.
+
+Just as the quartette stepped out of the office, Biff Bates, just
+coming in, bustled up to Bobby with:
+
+"Can I see you just a minute, Bobby? Kid Mills is coming around to my
+place this afternoon."
+
+"Haven't time just now, Biff," said Bobby; "but jump into the machine
+with us and I'll do the 'chauffing.' That will make room for all of
+us. We can talk on the way to the Hotel Larken. Do you know where it
+is?"
+
+"Me?" scorned Biff. "If there is an inch of this old town I can't put
+my finger on in the dark, blindfolded, I'll have that inch dug out and
+thrown away."
+
+At the curb, with keen enjoyment of the joke of it all, Bobby gravely
+introduced Mr. Biff Bates, ex-champion middle-weight, to these
+imported artists, but, very much to his surprise, Signorina Caravaggio
+and Professor Bates struck up an instant and animated conversation
+anent Biff's well-known and justly-famous victory over Slammer Young,
+and so interested did they become in this conversation that instead of
+Biff's sitting up in the front seat, as Bobby had intended, the
+eminent instructor of athletics manoeuvered the Herr Professor into
+that post of honor and climbed into the tonneau with Signor Ricardo
+and the Signorina, with the latter of whom he talked most volubly all
+the way over, to the evidently vast annoyance of Der Grosse Tenore.
+
+The confusion of tongues must have been a very tame and quiet affair
+as compared to the polyglot chattering which burst upon Bobby's ears
+when he entered the small lobby of the Hotel Larken. The male members
+of the Neapolitan Grand Opera Company, almost to a man, were smoking
+cigarettes. There were swarthy little men and swarthy big men, there
+seeming to be no medium sizes among them, while the women were the
+most wooden-featured lot that Bobby had ever encountered, and the
+entire crowd was swathed in gay but dingy clothing of the most
+nondescript nature. Really, had Bobby not been assured that they were
+grand opera singers he would have taken them for a lot of immigrants,
+for they had that same unhappy expression of worry. The principals
+could be told from the chorus and the members of the orchestra from
+the fact that they stood aloof from the rest and from one another,
+gloomily nursing their grievances that they, each one the most
+illustrious member of the company, should thus be put to
+inconvenience! It was a monstrous thing that they, the possessors of
+glorious voices which the entire world should at once fall down and
+worship, should be actually hungry and out of money! It was, oh,
+unbelievable, atrocious, barbarous, positively inhuman!
+
+With the entrance of the Signorina Caravaggio, bearing triumphantly
+with her the neatly-dressed and altogether money-like Bobby Burnit,
+one hundred and forty wistful eyes, mostly black and dark brown, were
+immediately focused in eager interest upon the possible savior. Behind
+the desk, perplexed and distracted but still grimly firm, stood frowzy
+Widow Larken herself, drawn and held to the post of duty by this vast
+and unusual emergency. Not one room had Madam Larken saved for all
+these alien warblers, not one morsel of food had she loosed from her
+capacious kitchen; and yet not one member of the company had she
+permitted to stray outside her doors while Signorina Caravaggio and
+Signor Ricardo and the Herr Professor Fruehlingsvogel had gone out to
+secure an angel, two stout porters being kept at the front door to
+turn back the restless. If provision could be made to pay the bills of
+this caravan, the Widow Larken--who was shaped like a pillow with a
+string tied around it and wore a face like a huge, underdone apple
+dumpling--was too good a business woman to overlook that opportunity.
+Bobby took one sweeping glance at that advancing circle of one hundred
+and forty eyes and turned to Widow Larken.
+
+"I will be responsible for the hotel bills of these people until
+further notice," said he.
+
+The Widow Larken, looking intently at Bobby's scarf-pin, relented no
+whit in her uncompromising attitude.
+
+"And who might you be?" she demanded, with a calm brow and cold
+determination.
+
+"I am Robert J. Burnit," said Bobby. "I'll give you a written order if
+you like--or a check."
+
+The Widow Larken's uncompromising expression instantly melted, but she
+did not smile--she grinned. Bobby knew precisely the cause of that
+amused expression, but if he had needed an interpreter, he had one at
+his elbow in the person of Biff Bates, who looked up at him with a
+reflection of the same grin.
+
+"They're all next to you, Bobby," he observed. "The whole town knows
+that you're the real village goat."
+
+The Widow Larken did not answer Bobby directly. She called back to a
+blue-overall-clad porter at the end of the lobby:
+
+"Open the dining-room doors, Michael."
+
+Signorina Caravaggio immediately said a few guttural words in German
+to Professor Fruehlingsvogel, a few limpid words in Italian to Signor
+Ricardo a few crisp words in French to Madame Villenauve, a nervous
+but rather attractive little woman with piercing black eyes. The
+singers of other languages did not wait to be informed; they joined
+the general stampede toward the ravishing paradise of midday
+breakfast, and as the last of them vacated the lobby, the principals
+no whit behind the humble members of the chorus in crowding and
+jamming through that doorway, Bobby breathed a sigh of relief. Only
+the Signorina was left to him, and Bobby hesitated just a moment as it
+occurred to him that, perhaps, a more personal entertainment was
+expected by this eminent songstress. Biff Bates, however, relieved him
+of his dilemma.
+
+"While you're gone down to see the boys at the Idlers' Club," said
+Biff, "I'm going to take Miss Carry--Miss--Miss--"
+
+"Caravaggio," interrupted the Signorina with a repetition of a laugh
+which had convinced Bobby that, after all, she might be a singer,
+though her speaking voice gave no trace of it.
+
+"Carrie for mine," insisted Biff with a confident grin. "I'm going to
+take Miss Carrie out to lunch some place where they don't serve
+prunes. I guess the Hotel Spender will do for us."
+
+Bobby surveyed Biff with an indulgent smile.
+
+"Thanks," said he. "That will give me time to see what I can do."
+
+"You take my advice, Mr. Burnit," earnestly interposed the Signorina.
+"Don't bother with your friends. Go and see the manager of the Orpheum
+and ask him about that open date. Ask him if he thinks it wouldn't be
+a good investment for you to back us."
+
+Biff, the conservative; Biff, whose vote was invariably for the
+negative on any proposition involving an investment of Bobby's funds,
+unexpectedly added his weight for the affirmative.
+
+"It's a good stunt, Bobby. Go to it," he counseled, and the Caravaggio
+smiled down at him.
+
+Again Bobby laughed.
+
+"All right, Biff," said he. "I'll hunt up the manager of the Orpheum
+right away."
+
+In his machine he conveyed Biff and the prima donna to the Hotel
+Spender, and then drove to the Orpheum.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+WITH THE RELUCTANT CONSENT OF AGNES, BOBBY BECOMES A PATRON OF MUSIC
+
+
+The manager of the Orpheum was a strange evolution. He was a man who
+had spent a lifetime in the show business, running first a concert
+hall that "broke into the papers" every Sunday morning with an account
+of from two to seven fights the night before, then an equally
+disreputable "burlesque" house, the broad attractions of which
+appealed to men and boys only. To this, as he made money, he added the
+cheapest and most blood-curdling melodrama theater in town, then a
+"regular" house of the second grade. In his career he had endured two
+divorce cases of the most unattractive sort, and, among quiet and
+conventional citizens, was supposed to have horns and a barbed tail
+that snapped sparks where it struck on the pavement. When he first
+purchased the Orpheum Theater, the most exclusive playhouse of the
+city, he began to appear in its lobby every night in a dinner-coat or
+a dress-suit, silk topper and all, with an almost modest diamond stud
+in his white shirt-front; and ladies, as they came in, asked in awed
+whispers of their husbands: "Is _that_ Dan Spratt?" Some few who had
+occasion to meet him went away gasping: "Why, the man seems really
+nice!" Others of "the profession," about whom the public never knew,
+spoke his name with tears of gratitude.
+
+Mr. Spratt, immersed in troubles of his own, scarcely looked up as
+Bobby entered, and only grunted in greeting.
+
+"Spratt," began Bobby, who knew the man quite well through "sporting"
+events engineered by Biff Bates, "the Neapolitan Grand Opera Company
+is stranded here, and--"
+
+"Where are they?" interrupted Spratt eagerly, all his abstraction
+gone.
+
+"At the Hotel Larken," began Bobby again. "I--"
+
+"Have they got their props and scenery?"
+
+"Everything, I understand," said Bobby. "I came around to see you--"
+
+"Who's running the show?" demanded Spratt.
+
+"Their manager decamped with the money--with what little there was,"
+explained Bobby, "and they came to me by accident. I understand you
+have an open date next week."
+
+"It's not open now," declared Spratt. "The date is filled with the
+Neapolitan Grand Opera Company."
+
+"There doesn't seem to be much use of my talking, then," said Bobby,
+smiling.
+
+"Not much," said Spratt. "They're a good company, but I've noticed
+from the reports that they've been badly managed. The Dago that
+brought them over didn't know the show business in this country and
+tried to run the circus himself; and, of course, they've gone on the
+rocks. It's great luck that they landed here. I just heard a bit ago
+that they were in town. I suppose they're flat broke."
+
+"Why, yes," said Bobby. "I just went up to the Hotel Larken and said
+I'd be responsible for their hotel bill."
+
+"Oh," said Spratt. "Then you're backing them for their week here."
+
+"Well, I'm not quite sure about that," hesitated Bobby.
+
+"If you don't, I will," offered Spratt. "There's a long line of
+full-dress Willies here that'll draw their week's wages in advance to
+attend grand opera in cabs. At two and a half for the first sixteen
+rows they'll pack the house for the week, and every diamond in the
+hock-shops will get an airing for the occasion. But you saw it first,
+Burnit, and I won't interfere."
+
+"Well, I don't know," Bobby again hesitated. "I haven't fully--"
+
+"Go ahead," urged Spratt heartily. "It's your pick-up and I'll get
+mine. Hey, Spencer!"
+
+A thin young man, with hair so light that he seemed to have no hair at
+all and no eyebrows, came in.
+
+"We've booked the Neapolitan Grand Opera Company for next week. Have
+they got Caravaggio and Ricardo with them?" he asked, turning abruptly
+to Bobby.
+
+Bobby, with a smile, nodded his head.
+
+"All right, Spence; get busy on some press stuff for the afternoon
+papers. You can fake notices about them from what you know. Use
+two-inch streamers clear across the pages, then you can get some fresh
+stuff and the repertoire to-night for the morning papers. Play it up
+strong, Spence. Use plenty of space; and, say, tell Billy to get ready
+for a three o'clock rehearsal. Now, Burnit, let's go up to the Larken
+and make arrangements."
+
+"We might just as well wait an hour," counseled Bobby. "The only one I
+found in the crowd who could speak English was Signorina Caravaggio."
+
+"I know her," said Spratt. "Her other name's Nora McGinnis. Smart
+woman, too, and straight as a string; and sing! Why, that big ox can
+sing a bird off a tree."
+
+"She's just gone over to lunch with Biff Bates at the Spender,"
+observed Bobby, "and we'd better wait for her. She seems to be the
+leading spirit."
+
+"Of course she is. Let's go right over to the Spender."
+
+Biff Bates did not seem overly pleased when his tete-a-tete luncheon
+was interrupted by Bobby and Mr. Spratt, but the Signorina Nora very
+quickly made it apparent that business was business. Arrangements were
+promptly made to attach the carload of effects for back salaries due
+the company, and to lease these to Bobby for the week for a nominal
+sum. Bobby was to pay the regular schedule of salaries for that week
+and make what profit he could. A rehearsal of _Carmen_ was to be
+called that afternoon at three, and a repertoire was arranged.
+
+Feeling very much exhilarated after all this, Bobby drove out in his
+automobile after lunch to see Agnes Elliston. He found that young lady
+and Aunt Constance about to start for a drive, their carriage being
+already at the door, but without any ceremony he bundled them into his
+machine instead.
+
+"Purely as my trustee," he explained, "Agnes must inspect my new
+business venture."
+
+Aunt Constance smiled.
+
+"The trusteeship of Agnes hasn't done you very much good so far," she
+observed. "As a matter of fact, if she wanted to build up a reputation
+as an expert trustee, I don't think she could accomplish much by
+printing in her circulars the details of her past stewardship."
+
+"I don't want her to work up a reputation as a trustee," retorted
+Bobby. "She suits me just as she is, and I'm inclined to thank the
+governor for having loaded her down with the job."
+
+"I'm becoming reconciled to it myself," admitted Agnes, smiling up at
+him. "Really, I have great faith that one day you will learn how to
+take care of money--if the money holds out that long. What is the new
+venture, Bobby?"
+
+He grinned quite cheerfully.
+
+"I am about to become an angel," he said quite solemnly.
+
+Aunt Constance shook her head.
+
+"No, Bobby," she said kindly; "there _are_ spots, you know, where
+angels fear to tread."
+
+But Agnes took the declaration with no levity whatever.
+
+"You don't mean in a theatrical sense?" she inquired.
+
+"_In_ a theatrical sense," he insisted. "I am about to back the
+Neapolitan Grand Opera Company."
+
+"Why, Bobby!" objected Agnes, aghast. "You surely don't mean it! I
+never thought you would contemplate anything so preposterous as that.
+I thought it was to be only a benefit!"
+
+"It's only a temporary arrangement," he reassured her, laughing that
+he had been taken so seriously. "I'm arranging so that they can earn
+their way out of town; that's all. I am taking you down now to see
+their first rehearsal."
+
+"I don't care to go," she declared, in a tone so piqued that Bobby
+turned to her in mute astonishment.
+
+Aunt Constance laughed at his look of utter perplexity.
+
+"How little you understand, Bobby," she said. "Don't you see that
+Agnes is merely jealous?"
+
+"Indeed not!" Agnes indignantly denied. "That is an idea more absurd
+than the fact that Bobby should go into such an enterprise at all.
+However, since I lay myself open to such a suspicion I shall offer no
+further objection to going."
+
+Bobby looked at her curiously and then he carefully refrained from
+chuckling, for Aunt Constance, though joking, had told the truth.
+Instant visions of dazzling sopranos, of mezzos and contraltos, of
+angelic voices and of vast beauty and exquisite gowning, had flashed
+in appalling procession before her mental vision. The idea, in the
+face of the appalling actuality, was so rich that Bobby pursued it no
+further lest he spoil it, and talked about the weather and equally
+inane topics the rest of the way.
+
+It was not until they had turned into the narrow alley at the side of
+the Orpheum, and from that to the still more narrow alley at its rear,
+that the zest of adventure began to make amends to Agnes for certain
+disagreeable moments of the ride. At the stage door a particularly
+bewildered-looking man with a rolling eye and a weak jaw, rendered
+limp and helpless by the polyglot aliens who had flocked upon him,
+strickenly let them in, to grope their way, amid what seemed an
+inextricable confusion, but was in reality the perfection of
+orderliness, upon the dim stage, beyond which stretched, in vast
+emptiness, the big, black auditorium. Upon the stage, chattering in
+shrill voices, were the forty members of the company, still in their
+queer clothing, while down in front, where shaded lights--seeming dull
+and discouraged amid all the surrounding darkness--streamed upon the
+music, were the members of the orchestra, chattering just as volubly.
+The general note was quite different in pitch from the one Bobby had
+heard that morning, for since he had seen them the members of the
+organization had been fed, and life looked cheerful.
+
+Wandering at a loss among these people, and trying in the dim twilight
+to find some face that he knew, the ears of Bobby and his party were
+suddenly assailed by an extremely harsh and penetrating voice which
+shouted:
+
+"Clear!"
+
+This was accompanied by a sharp clap from a pair of very broad hands.
+The chattering suddenly took on a rapid crescendo, ascending a full
+third in the scale and then dying abruptly in a little high falsetto
+shriek; and Bobby, with a lady upon either arm, found his little trio
+immediately alone in the center of the stage, a row of dim footlights
+cutting off effectually any view into the vast emptiness of the
+auditorium.
+
+"Hey, you; _clear_!" came the harsh voice again, accompanied by
+another sharp clap of the hands, and a bundle of intense fighting
+energy bounced out from the right tormentor wing, in the shape of a
+gaunt, fiercely-mustached and entirely bald man of about forty-five,
+who appeared perpetually to be in the last stages of distraction.
+
+"Who do you weesh to see?" demanded the gaunt man, in a very decided
+foreign accent. He had made a very evident attempt to be quite polite
+indeed, and forgiving of people who did not know enough to spring for
+the wings at the sound of that magic word, "Clear!"
+
+Any explanations that Bobby might have tried to make were happily
+prevented by a voice from the yawning blackness--a quiet voice, a
+voice of authority, the voice of Mr. Spratt.
+
+"Come right down in front here, Burnit. Jimmy, show the gentleman how
+to get down."
+
+"Thees way," snapped the gaunt man, with evident relief but no
+abatement whatever of his briskness, and he very hastily walked over
+to the right wings, where Jimmy, the house electrician, piloted the
+trio with equal relief through the clustered mass of singers to the
+door behind the boxes. As they emerged into the auditorium the raucous
+voice of the gaunt man was heard to shout: "All ready now. _Carmen_
+all ze way through." An apparent repetition of which statement he
+immediately made with equal raucousness in two or three languages.
+There was a call to Caravaggio in English, to Ricardo and the Signers
+Fivizzano and Rivaroli in Italian, to Messrs. Philippi and
+Schaerbeeken in Spanish and Dutch, to Madam Villenauve in French, to
+Madam Kadanoff in Russian, and to Mademoiselle Toeroek in Hungarian, to
+know if they were ready; then, in rough but effective German, he
+informed the Herr Professor down in the orchestra that all was
+prepared, clapped his hands, cried "Overture," and immediately plunged
+to the right upper entrance, marked by two chairs, where, with shrill
+objurgations, he began instructing and drilling the Soldiers' Chorus
+out of certain remembered awkwardnesses, as Herr Fruehlingsvogel's
+baton fell for the overture.
+
+Shorn of all the glamor that scenic environment, light effects and
+costume could give them, it was a distinct shock to Agnes to gaze in
+wondering horror from each one of those amazing faces to the other,
+and when the cigarette girls trooped out, amazement gave way to
+downright consternation. Nevertheless, she cheered up considerably,
+and the apex of her cheerfulness was reached when the oversized
+Signorina Caravaggio sang, very musically, however, the role of the
+petite and piquant Carmen. It was then that, sitting by Bobby in the
+darkness, Agnes observed with a sigh of content:
+
+"Your trustee quite approves, Bobby. I don't mind being absolutely
+truthful for once in my life. I _was_ a little jealous. But how could
+I be? Really, their voices are fine."
+
+Mr. Spratt, too, was of that opinion, and he came back to Bobby to say
+so most emphatically.
+
+"They'll do," said he. "After the first night they'll have this town
+crazy. If the seat sale don't go right for Monday we'll pack the house
+with paper, and the rest of the week will go big. Just hear that
+Ricardo! The little bit of a sawed-off toad sings like a canary. If
+you don't look at 'em, they're great."
+
+They _were_ superb. From the throats of that ill-favored chorus there
+came divine harmony, smooth, evenly-balanced, exhilarating, almost
+flawless, and as the great musical poem of passion unfolded and the
+magnificent aria of Don Jose was finished in the second act, the
+little group of listeners down in front burst into involuntary
+applause, to which there was but one dissenting voice. This voice,
+suddenly evolving out of the darkness at Bobby's side, ejaculated with
+supreme disgust:
+
+"Well, what do you think of that! Why, that fat little fishworm of a
+Dago is actually gone bug-house over Miss McGinnis," a fact which had
+been obvious to all of them the minute small Ricardo began to sing his
+wonderful love song to large Caravaggio.
+
+The rest of them had found only amusement in the fact, but to Biff
+Bates there was nothing funny about this. He sat in speechless
+disapproval throughout the balance of that much-interrupted
+performance, wherein Professor Fruehlingsvogel, now and then, stopped
+his music with a crash to shriek an excited direction that it was all
+wrong, that it was execrable, that it was a misdemeanor, a crime, a
+murder to sing it in that way! The passage must be all sung over; or,
+at other times, the gaunt stage director, whose name was Monsieur
+Noire, would rush with a hoarse howl down to Herr Professor, order him
+to stop the music, and, turning, berate some unfortunate performer who
+had defied the conventions of grand opera by acting quite naturally.
+On the whole, however, it was a very creditable performance, and
+Bobby's advisers gave the project their unqualified approval.
+
+"It is really a commendable thing," Aunt Constance complacently
+announced, "to encourage music of this order, and to furnish such a
+degree of cultivation for the masses."
+
+It was a worthy project indeed. As for the company itself there could
+be no question that it was a good one. No one expected acting in grand
+opera, no one expected that the performers would be physically
+adaptable to their parts. The voice! The voice was all. Even Agnes
+admitted that it was a splendid thing to be a patron of the fine arts;
+but Bobby, in his profound new wisdom and his thorough conversion to
+strictly commercial standards, said with vast iconoclasm:
+
+"You are overlooking the main point. I am not so anxious to become a
+patron of the fine arts as I am to make money," with which terrible
+heresy he left them at home, with a thorough understanding that he was
+quite justified in his new venture; though next morning, when he
+confided the fact to Johnson, that worthy, with a sigh, presented him
+with an appropriate missive from among those in the gray envelopes
+left in his care by the late John Burnit. It was inscribed:
+
+    _To My Son Robert, Upon His Deciding to Back a Theatrical
+      Venture_
+
+    "Sooner or later, every man thinks it would be a fine thing to
+    run a show, and the earlier in life it happens the sooner a
+    man will have it out of his system. I tried it once myself,
+    and I know. So good luck to you, my boy, and here's hoping
+    that you don't get stung too badly."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+STILL WITH THE RELUCTANT CONSENT OF AGNES, BOBBY INVESTS IN THE FINE
+ARTS
+
+
+That week's "season of grand opera" was an unqualified success,
+following closely the lines laid down by the experienced Mr. Spratt.
+Caravaggio and Ricardo and Philippi and Villenauve became household
+words, after the Monday night performance of _Carmen_, and for the
+balance of the week shining carriages rolled up to the entrance of the
+Orpheum, disgorging load after load of high-hatted gentlemen and
+long-plumed ladies. Before the end of the engagement it was definitely
+known that Bobby's investment would yield a profit, even deducting for
+the days of idleness during which he had been compelled to support the
+rehearsing company. The powers of darkness thereupon set vigorously to
+work upon him to carry the company on through the rest of its season.
+
+It was then that the storm broke. Against his going further with the
+company Agnes Elliston interposed an objection so decided and so
+unflattering that the _entente cordiale_ at the Elliston home was
+strained dangerously near to the breaking point, and in this she was
+aided and abetted by Aunt Constance, who ridiculed him, and by Uncle
+Dan Elliston, who took him confidentially for a grave and hardheaded
+remonstrance. Chalmers, Johnson, and even Applerod wrestled with him
+in spirit; his friends at the Idlers' Club "guyed" him unmercifully,
+and even Biff Bates, though his support was earnestly sought by the
+Signorina Caravaggio, also counseled him roughly against it, and
+through it all Bobby was made to feel that he was a small boy who had
+proposed to eat a peck of green apples and then go in swimming in
+dog-days. Another note from his father, handed to him by the faithful
+and worried Johnson, was the deciding straw:
+
+    _To My Son Robert, About That Theatrical Venture_
+
+    "When a man who knows nothing of the business backs a show,
+    there's usually a woman at the bottom of it--and that kind of
+    woman is mostly rank poison to a normal man, even if she is a
+    good woman. No butterfly ever goes back into its chrysalis and
+    becomes a grub again. Let birds of a feather flock together,
+    Bobby."
+
+That unfortunate missive, for once shooting so wide the mark, pushed
+Bobby over the edge. There was a streak of stubbornness in him which,
+well developed and turned into proper channels, was likely to be very
+valuable, but until he learned to use that stubbornness in the right
+way it bade fair to plunge him into more difficulties than he could
+extricate himself from with profit. Even Agnes, reading that note,
+indignantly agreed with Bobby that he was being unjustly misread.
+
+"It is absurd," he explained to her. "This is the first
+dividend-paying investment I have been able to make so far, and I'm
+going to keep it up just as long as I can make money out of it. I'd be
+very foolish if I didn't. Besides, this is just a little in-between
+flyer, while I'm conservatively waiting for a good, legitimate
+opening. It can take, at most, but a very small part of my two hundred
+and fifty thousand."
+
+Agnes, though defending him against his father, was still reluctant
+about the trip, but suddenly, with a curious smile, she withdrew all
+objections and even urged him to go ahead.
+
+"Bobby," said she, still with that curious smile and strangely shining
+eyes, and putting both her hands upon his shoulders, "I see that you
+must go ahead with this. I--I guess it will be good for you. Somehow,
+I think that this is to be your last folly, that you are really
+learning that the world is not all polo and honor-bets. So go
+ahead--and I'll wait here."
+
+He could not know how much that hurt her. He only knew, after she had
+talked more lightly of his trip, that he had her full and free
+consent, and, highly elated with his first successful business
+venture, he took up the contracts of the Neapolitan Grand Opera
+Company where Signor Matteo, the decamped manager and producer, had
+dropped them. The members of the company having attached the scenery
+and effects for back salaries, sold them to Bobby for ten thousand
+dollars, and he immediately found himself confronted by demands for
+settlements, with the alternative of damage suits, from the two cities
+in which the company had been booked for the two past weeks.
+
+Had Bobby not bound himself irrevocably to contracts which made him
+liable for the salaries of every member of this company for the next
+twenty weeks, he would have withdrawn instantly at the first hint of
+these suits; but, now that he was in for it, he promptly compromised
+them at a rate which made Spratt furious.
+
+"If I'd thought," said Spratt angrily in the privacy of the Orpheum
+office, "that you were sucker enough to get roped in for the full
+season, I'd have tossed you out of the running for this week. This
+game is a bigger gamble than the Stock Exchange. The smartest
+producers in the business never know when they have a winner or a
+loser. More than that, while all actors are hard to handle, of all the
+combinations on earth, a grand opera company is the worst. I'll bet a
+couple of cold bottles that before you're a week on the road you'll
+have leaks in your dirigible over some crazy dramatic stunts that are
+not in the book of any opera of the Neapolitan repertoire."
+
+The prediction was so true that it was proved that very night, which
+was Friday, during the repetition of _Carmen_. It seemed that Biff
+Bates, by means of the supreme dominance of the Caravaggio, had been
+made free of the stage, a rare privilege, and one that enabled Biff to
+spend his time, under unusual and romantic circumstances, very much in
+the company of the Celtic Signorina; all of which was very much to the
+annoyance, distress and fury of Signor Ricardo, especially on _Carmen_
+night. At all other times the great Ricardo thought very well indeed
+of the Signorina Nora, only being in any degree near to unfaithfulness
+when, on _Aida_ nights, he sang to vivacious little Madam Villenauve;
+but on _Carmen_ nights he was devotedly, passionately, madly in love
+with the divine Car-r-r-r-avaggio! Else how could he sing the
+magnificent second act aria? Life without her on those nights would be
+a hollow mockery, the glance of any possible rival in her direction a
+desecration. Why, he even had to restrain himself to keep from doing
+actual damage to Philippi, who, though on the shady side of
+forty-five, still sang a most dashing Escamillo; nor was his jealousy
+less poignant because Philippi and Caravaggio were sworn enemies.
+
+Thus it may be understood--by any one, at least, who has ever loved
+ecstatically and fervidly and even hectically, like the great
+Ricardo--how on Monday and Wednesday nights and the Thursday matinee,
+all of which were Caravaggio performances, he resented Biff's
+presence. From dark corners he more darkly watched them chatting in
+frank enjoyment of each other's company; he made unexpected darts in
+front of their very eyes to greet them with the most alarming scowls;
+and because he insolently brushed the shoulder of the peaceably
+inclined and self-sure Biff upon divers occasions, and Biff made no
+sign of resentment, he imagined that Biff trembled in his boots
+whenever he noted the approach of the redoubtable Ricardo with his
+infinitesimal but ferocious mustachios. Great, then, was his wonder,
+to say nothing of his rage, when Biff, after all the scowls and
+shoulderings that he had received on Thursday, actually came around
+for Friday night's _Carmen_ performance!
+
+Even before the fierce Ricardo had gone into his dressing-room he was
+already taking upon himself the deadly character of Don Jose, and his
+face surged red with fury when he saw Biff Bates, gaily laughing as if
+no doom impended, come in at the stage door with the equally gay and
+care-free Caravaggio. But after Signor Ricardo had donned the costume
+and the desperateness of the brigadier Don Jose--it was then that the
+fury sank into his soul! And that fury boiled and seethed as, during
+the first and second acts, he found in the wings Signorina
+Car-r-r-r-r-r-avaggio absorbed in pleasant but very significant chat
+with his deadly enemy, the crude, unmusical, inartistic, soulless
+Biffo de Bates-s-s-s! But, ah! There was another act to come, the
+third act, at the beginning of which the property man handed him the
+long, sharp, wicked-looking, bloodthirsty knife with which he was to
+fight Escamillo, and with which in the fourth act he was to kill
+Carmen. The mere possession of that knife wrought the great tenor's
+soul to gory tragedy; so much so that immediately after the third act
+curtain calls he rushed directly to the spot where he knew the
+contemptible Signor Biffo de Bates-s-s-s to be standing, and with
+shrill Latin imprecations flourished that keen, glistening blade
+before the eyes of the very much astounded Biff.
+
+For a moment, thoroughly incredulous, Biff refused to believe it,
+until a second demonstration compelled him to acknowledge that the
+great Ricardo actually meant threatening things toward himself. When
+this conviction forced its way upon him, Biff calmly reached out, and,
+with a grip very much like a bear-trap, seized Signor Ricardo by the
+forearm of the hand which held the knife. With his unengaged hand Biff
+then smacked the Signor Ricardo right severely on the wrist.
+
+"You don't mean it, you know, Sig-nor Garlic," he calmly observed. "If
+I thought you did I'd smack you on both wrists. Why, you little red
+balloon, I ain't afraid of any mutt on earth that carries a knife like
+that, as long as I got my back to the wall."
+
+Still holding the putty-like Signor by the forearm, he delicately
+abstracted from his clasp the huge knife, and, folding it up gravely,
+handed it back to him; then deliberately he turned his back on the
+Signor and pushed his way through the delightedly horror-stricken
+emotionalists who had gathered at the fray, and strolled over to where
+Signorina Caravaggio had stood an interested and mirth-shaken
+observer.
+
+"You mustn't think all Italians are like that, Biff," she said, her
+first impulse, as always, to see justice done; "but singers are a
+different breed. I don't think he's bluffing, altogether. If he got a
+real good chance some place in the dark, and was sure that he wouldn't
+be caught, he might use a stiletto on you."
+
+"If he ever does I'll slap his forehead," said Biff. "But say, he uses
+that cleaver again in the show?"
+
+The Signorina Nora shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"He's supposed to stab me with it in this next act."
+
+"He is!" exclaimed Biff. "Well, just so he don't make any mistake I'm
+going over and paste him one."
+
+It was not necessary, for Signor Ricardo, after studying the matter
+over and seeing no other way out of it, proceeded to have a fit. No
+one, not even the illustrious Signor, could tell just how much of that
+fit was deliberate and artificial, and just how much was due to an
+overwrought sensitive organization, but certain it was that the Signor
+Ricardo was quite unable to go on with the performance, and Monsieur
+Noire himself, as agitated as a moment before the great Ricardo had
+been, frantically rushed up to Biff and grabbed him roughly by the
+shoulders.
+
+"Too long," shrieked he, "we have let you be annoying the artists, by
+reason of the Caravaggio. But now you shall do the skidooing."
+
+With a laugh Biff looked back over his shoulder at the Caravaggio, and
+permitted Monsieur Noire to eject him bodily from the stage door upon
+the alley.
+
+The next morning, owing to the prompt action and foresightedness of
+Spratt, all the papers contained the very pretty story that the great
+Ricardo had succumbed to his own intensity of emotions after the third
+act of _Carmen_, and had been unable to go on, giving way to the
+scarcely less great Signor Dulceo. That same morning Bobby was
+confronted by the first of a long series of similar dilemmas. The
+Signorina Caravaggio must leave the company or Signor Ricardo would do
+so. No stage was big enough to hold the two; moreover, Ricardo meant
+to have the heart's blood of Signor Biffo de Bates-s-s-s!
+
+With a sigh, Bobby, out of his ignorance and independence, took the
+only possible course to preserve peace, and emphatically told Signor
+Ricardo to pack up and go as quickly as possible, which he went away
+vowing to do. Naturally the great tenor thought better of it after
+that, and though he had already been dropped from the cast of _Il
+Trovatore_ on Saturday afternoon, he reported just the same. And he
+went on with the company.
+
+It was not until they went upon the road, however, that Bobby fully
+realized what a lot of irresponsible, fretful, peevish children he had
+upon his hands. With the exception of serene Nora McGinnis, every one
+of the principals was at daggers drawn with all the others, sulking
+over the least advantage obtained by any one else, and accepting
+advantage of their own as only a partial payment of their supreme
+rank. The one most at war with her own world was Madam Villenauve,
+whose especial _bete noire_ was the MeeGeenees, whom, by no
+possibility, could she ever under any circumstance be induced to call
+Caravaggio.
+
+On the second day of their next engagement, as Bobby strode through
+the corridor of the hotel, shortly after luncheon, he was stopped by
+Madam Villenauve, who had been waiting for him in the door of her
+room. She was herself apparently just dressing to go out, for her
+coiffure was made and she had on a short underskirt, a kimono-like
+dressing-jacket and her street shoes.
+
+"I wish to speak wiz you on some beezness, Meester Burnit," she told
+him abruptly, and with an imperatively beckoning hand stepped back
+with a bow for him to enter.
+
+With just a moment of surprised hesitation he stepped into the room,
+whereupon the Villenauve promptly closed the door. A week before Bobby
+would have been a trifle astonished by this proceeding, but in that
+week he had seen so many examples of unconscious unconventionalities
+in and about the dressing-rooms and at the hotel, that he had
+readjusted his point of view to meet the peculiar way of life of these
+people, and, as usual with readjustments, had readjusted himself too
+far. He found the room in a litter, with garments of all sorts cast
+about in reckless disorder.
+
+"I have been seeing you last night," began Madam Villenauve, shaking
+her finger at him archly as she swept some skirts off a chair for him
+to sit down, and then took her place before her dressing-table, where
+she added the last deft touch to her coiffure. "I have been seeing you
+smiling at ze reedeec'lous Carmen. Oh, la, la! Carmen!" she shrilled.
+"It is I, monsieur, I zat am ze Carmen. It was zis Matteo, the
+scoundrel who run away wiz our money, zat allow le Ricardo to say whom
+he like to sing to for Carmen. Ricardo ees in loaf wiz la MeeGeenees.
+Le Ricardo is a fool, so zis Ricardo sing Carmen ever tam to ze great,
+grosse monstair MeeGeenees; an' ever'body zey laugh. Ze chorus laugh,
+ze principals laugh, le Monsieur Noire he laugh, even zat
+Fruehlingsvogel zat have no humair, he laugh, an' ze audience laugh,
+an' las' night I am seeing you laugh. Ees eet not so? _Mais!_ It is
+absurd! It is reedeec'lous. Le Ricardo make fool over la MeeGeenees.
+_I_ sing ze Carmen! I _am_ ze Carmen! You hear me sing Aida? Eet ees
+zat way. I sing Carmen. Now I s'all sing Carmen again! Ees eet not?"
+
+As Madam Villenauve talked, punctuating her remarks with quick,
+impatient little gestures, she jerked off her dressing-jacket and
+threw it on the floor, and Bobby saved himself from panic by reminding
+himself that her frank anatomical display was, in the peculiar ethics
+of these people, no more to be noticed than if she were in an evening
+gown, which was very reasonable, after all, once you understood the
+code. Still voicing her indignation at having been displaced in the
+role of Carmen by the utterly impossible and preposterous Caravaggio,
+she caught up her waist and was about to slip it on, while Bobby, with
+an amused smile, reflected that presently he would no doubt be
+nonchalantly requested to hook it in the back, when some one tried the
+door-knob. A knock followed and Madam Villenauve went to the door.
+
+"Who ees it?" she asked with her hand on the knob.
+
+"It is I; Monsieur Noire," was the reply.
+
+"Oh, la, come in, zen," she invited, and threw open the door.
+
+Monsieur Noire entered, but, finding Bobby in the chair by the
+dresser, stopped uncertainly in the doorway.
+
+"Oh, come on een," she gaily invited; "we are all ze good friends;
+_oui_?"
+
+It appeared that Monsieur Noire came in all politeness, yet with rigid
+intention, to inquire about a missing piece of music from the score of
+_Les Huguenots_, and Madam Villenauve, in all politeness and yet with
+much indignation, assured him that she did not have it; whereupon
+Monsieur Noire, with all politeness but cold insistence, demanded that
+she look for it; whereupon Madam Villenauve, though once more
+protesting that she had it not, in all politeness and yet with
+considerable asperity, declared that she would not search for it;
+whereupon Monsieur Noire, observing the piece of music in question
+peeping out from beneath a conglomerate pile of newspapers, clothing
+and toilet articles, laid hands upon it and departed. Madam
+Villenauve, entirely unruffled now that it was all over, but still
+chattering away with great volubility about the crime of Carmen,
+finished her dressing and bade Bobby hook the back of her waist, and
+by sheer calmness and certainty of intention forced him to accompany
+her over to rehearsal.
+
+Whatever annoyance he might have felt over this was lost in his
+amusement when he reached the theater in finding Biff Bates upon the
+stage waiting for him; and Biff, while waiting, was quite excusably
+whiling the time away with the adorable Miss McGinnis.
+
+"You see, Young Fitz lives here," Biff brazenly explained, "and I run
+up to see him about that exhibition night I'm going to have at the
+gym. I'm going to have him go on with Kid Jeffreys."
+
+"Biff," said Bobby warmly, "I want to congratulate you on your
+business enterprise. Have you seen Young Fitz yet?"
+
+"Well, no," confessed Biff. "I just got here about an hour ago. I
+didn't know your hotel, but it was a cinch from the bills to tell
+where the show was, so I came right around to the theater to see you
+first."
+
+"Exactly," admitted Bobby. "Do you _expect_ to see Young Fitz?"
+
+"Well, maybe, if I get time," said Biff with a sheepish grin. "Just
+now I'm going out for a drive with Miss McGinnis."
+
+"Caravaggio," corrected that young lady with a laugh.
+
+"McGinnis for mine," declared Biff. "By the way, Bobby, I saw a
+certain party before I left town and she gave me this letter for you.
+Certain party is as cheerful as a chunk of lead about your trip,
+Bobby, but she makes the swellest bluff I ever saw that she's tickled
+to death with it."
+
+With this vengeful shot in retaliation for his excuse about Young Fitz
+having been doubted he sailed away with the Caravaggio, who, though
+required to report at every rehearsal, was not in the cast for that
+night and was readily excused from further attendance. Since Bobby had
+received a very pleasant letter from Agnes when he got up that morning
+he opened this missive with a touch of curiosity added to the thrill
+with which he always took in his hands any missive, no matter how
+trivial, from her. It was but a brief note calling attention to the
+enclosed newspaper clipping, and wishing him success in his new
+venture. The clipping was a flamboyant article describing the decision
+of the city council to install a magnificent new ten-million-dollar
+waterworks system, and the personally interesting item in it, ringed
+around with a pencil mark, was that Silas Trimmer had been appointed
+by Mayor Garland as president of the waterworks commission.
+
+It was not news that could alter his fortunes in any way so far as he
+could see, but it did remind him, with a strange whipping of his
+conscience, that, after all, his place was back home, and that his
+proper employment should be the looking after his home interests. For
+the first time he began to have a dim realization that a man's place
+was among his enemies, where he could watch them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+WHEREIN THE FINE ARTS PRESENT BOBBY WITH A MOST EMBARRASSING DILEMMA
+
+
+It had become by no means strange to Bobby, even before the company
+"took the road," that some one of the principals should attach
+themselves to him in all his possible goings and comings, for each and
+every one of them had some complaint to make about all the others.
+They wanted readjustments of cast, better parts to sing, better
+dressing-rooms, better hotel quarters, better everything than the
+others had, and with the unhappy and excited Monsieur Noire he shared
+this unending strife. At first he saw it all in a humorous light, but,
+by and by, he came to a period of ennui and tried to rebel. This
+period gave him more trouble than the other, so within a short time he
+lapsed into an apathetic complaint-receptacle and dreamed no more of
+walking or riding to and from the hotel without one of these impulsive
+children of art, who seethed perpetually in self-prodded artificial
+emotions, attached to him. If it seemed strange at times that Madam
+Villenauve was more frequently with him than any of the others he only
+reflected that the vivacious little Frenchwoman was much more
+persistent; nor did he note that, presently, the others came rather to
+give way before her and to let her monopolize him more and more.
+
+It was during the third week that Professor Fruehlingsvogel was to
+endure another birthday, and Bobby, full of generous impulses as
+always, announced at rehearsal that in honor of the Professor's
+unwelcome milestone he intended to give a little supper that night at
+the hotel. Madam Villenauve, standing beside him, suddenly threw her
+arms around his neck and kissed him smack upon the lips, with a quite
+enthusiastic declaration, in very charmingly warped English, that he
+was "a dear old sing." Bobby, reverting quickly in mind to the fact of
+the extreme unconventionally of these people, took the occurrence
+quite as a matter of course, though it embarrassed him somewhat. He
+rather counted himself a prig that he could not sooner get over this
+habit of embarrassment, and every time Madam Villenauve insisted on
+calling him into her dressing-room when she was in much more of
+dishabille than he would have thought permissible in ordinary people,
+he felt that same painful lack of sophistication.
+
+At the supper that night, Madam Villenauve, with a great show of
+playful indignation, routed Madam Kadanoff from her accidental seat
+next to Bobby, and, in giving up the seat, which she did quite
+gracefully enough, Madam Kadanoff dropped some remark in choice
+Russian, which, of course, Bobby did not understand, but which Madam
+Villenauve did, for she laughed a little shrilly and, with an engaging
+upward smile at Bobby, observed:
+
+"I theenk I shall say it zat zees so chairming Monsieur Burnit is soon
+to marry wiz me; ees eet not, monsieur?"
+
+Whereupon Bobby, with his customary courtesy, replied:
+
+"No gentleman would care to deny such a charming and attractive
+possibility, Madam Villenauve."
+
+But the gracious speech was of the lips alone, and spoken with a
+warning glare against "kidding" at the grinning Biff Bates, who had
+found business of urgent importance for that night in the city where
+the company was booked. Bobby, in fact, had begun to tire very much of
+the whole business. To begin with, he found the organization a much
+more expensive one to keep up than he had imagined. The route, badly
+laid out, was one of tremendous long jumps; of his singers, like other
+rare and expensive creatures, extravagant care must be taken, and not
+every place that they stopped was so eager for grand opera as it might
+have been. At the end of three weeks he was able to compute that he
+had lost about a thousand dollars a week, and in the fourth week they
+struck an engagement so fruitless that even the cheerful Caravaggio
+became dismal.
+
+"It's a sure enough frost," she confided to Bobby; "but cheer up, for
+the worst is yet to come. Your route sheet for the next two months
+looks like a morgue to me, and unless you interpolate a few coon songs
+in _Tannhaeuser_ and some song and dance specialties between the acts
+of _Les Huguenots_ you're gone. You know I used to sing this route in
+musical comedy, and, on the level, I've got a fine part waiting for me
+right now in _The Giddy Queen_. I like this highbrow music all right,
+but the people that come to hear it make me so sad. You're a good
+sport, though, and as long as you need me I'll stick."
+
+"Thanks," said Bobby sincerely. "It's a pleasure to speak to a real
+human being once in a while, even if you don't offer any
+encouragement. However, we'll not be buried till we're dead,
+notwithstanding that we now enter upon the graveyard route."
+
+Doleful experience, however, confirmed the Caravaggio's gloomy
+prophecy. They embarked now upon a season of one and two and three
+night stands that gave Bobby more of the real discomforts of life than
+he had ever before dreamed possible. To close a performance at eleven,
+to pack and hurry for a twelve-thirty train, to ride until five
+o'clock in the morning--a distance too short for sleep and too long to
+stay awake--to tumble into a hotel at six and sleep until noon, this
+was one program; to close a performance at eleven, to wait up for a
+four-o'clock train, to ride until eight and get into a hotel at nine,
+with a vitally necessary rehearsal between that and the evening
+performance, was another program, either one of which wore on health
+and temper and purse alike. The losses now exceeded two thousand
+dollars a week. Moreover, the frequent visits of Biff Bates and his
+constant baiting of Signor Ricardo had driven that great tenor to such
+a point of distraction that one night, being near New York, he drew
+his pay and departed without notice. There was no use, in spite of
+Monsieur Noire's frantic insistence, in trying to make the public
+believe that the lank Dulceo was the fat Ricardo; moreover,
+immediately upon his arrival in New York, Signor Ricardo let it be
+known that he had left the Neapolitan Company, so the prestige of the
+company fell off at once, for the "country" press pays sharp attention
+to these things.
+
+A letter from Johnson at just this time also had its influence upon
+Bobby, who now was in an humble, not an antagonistic mood, and quite
+ripe for advice. Mr. Johnson had just conferred with Mr. Bates upon
+his return from a visit to the Neapolitan Company, and Mr. Bates had
+detailed to Mr. Johnson much that he had seen with his own eyes, and
+much that the Caravaggio had told him. Mr. Johnson, thereupon, begging
+pardon for the presumption, deemed this a fitting time, from what he
+had heard, to forward Bobby the inclosed letter, which, in its gray
+envelope, had been left behind by Bobby's father:
+
+    _To My Son in the Midst of a Losing Fight_
+
+    "Determination is a magnificent quality, but bullheadedness is
+    not. The most foolish kind of pride on earth is that which
+    makes a man refuse to acknowledge himself beaten when he is
+    beaten. It takes a pretty brave man, and one with good stuff
+    in him, to let all his friends know that he's been licked.
+    Figure this out."
+
+Bobby wrestled with that letter all night. In the morning he received
+one from Agnes which served to increase and intensify the feeling of
+homesickness that had been overwhelming him. She, too, had seen Biff
+Bates. She had asked him out to the house expressly to talk with him,
+but she had written a pleasant, cheerful letter wherein she hoped that
+the end of the season would repay the losses she understood that he
+was enduring; but she admitted that she was very lonesome without him.
+She gave him quite a budget of gay gossip concerning all the young
+people of his set, and after he had read that letter he was quite
+prepared to swallow his grit and make the announcement that for a week
+had been almost upon his tongue.
+
+Through Monsieur Noire, at rehearsal that afternoon, he declared his
+intention of closing the season, and offered them each two weeks'
+advance pay and their fare to New York. It was Signorina Caravaggio
+who broke the hush that followed this announcement.
+
+"You're a good sort, Bobby Burnit," she said, with kindly intent to
+lead the others, "and I'll take your offer and thank you."
+
+It appeared that the majority of them had dreaded some such denouement
+as this; some had been prepared for even less advantageous terms, and
+several, upon direct inquiry, announced their willingness to accept
+this proposal. A few declared their intention to hold him for the full
+contract. These were the ones who had made sure of his entire
+solvency, and these afterward swayed the balance of the company to a
+stand which won a better compromise. When Monsieur Noire, with a
+curious smile, asked Madam Villenauve, however, she laughed very
+pleasantly.
+
+"Oh, non," said she; "it does not apply, zis offair, to me. I do not
+need it, for Monsieur Burnit ees to marry wiz me zis Christmastam."
+
+"I am afraid, Madam Villenauve, that we will have to quit joking about
+that," said Bobby coldly.
+
+"Joking!" screamed the shrill voice of madam. "Eet ees not any joke.
+You can not fool wiz me, Monsieur Burnit. You mean to tell all zese
+people zat you are not to marry wiz me?"
+
+"I certainly have no intention of the kind," said Bobby impatiently,
+"nor have I ever expressed such an intention."
+
+"We s'all see about zat," declared the madam with righteous
+indignation. "We s'all see how you can amuse yourself. You refuse to
+keep your word zat you marry me? All right zen, you do! I bring suit
+to-day for brich promise, and I have here one, two, three, a dozen
+weetness. I make what you call subpoena on zem all. We s'all see."
+
+"Monsieur Noire," said Bobby, more sick and sore than panic-stricken,
+"you will please settle matters with all these people and come to me
+at the hotel for whatever checks you need," and, hurt beyond measure
+at this one more instance that there were, really, rapacious schemers
+in the world, who sought loathsome advantage at the expense of decent
+folk, Bobby crept away, to hide himself and try to understand.
+
+They were here for the latter half of the week, and, since business
+seemed to be fairly good, Bobby had decided to fill this engagement,
+canceling all others. In the morning it seemed that Madam Villenauve
+had been in earnest in her absurd intentions, for, in his room, at
+eleven o'clock, he was served with papers in the breach-of-promise
+suit of Villenauve _versus_ Burnit, and the amount of damages claimed
+was the tremendous sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, an
+amount, of course, only commensurate with Madam Villenauve's standing
+in the profession and her earning capacity as an artist, her pride and
+shattered feelings and the dashing to earth of her love's young dream
+being of corresponding value. Moreover, he learned that an injunction
+had been issued completely tying up his bank account. That was the
+parting blow. Settling up with the performers upon a blood-letting
+basis, he most ignominiously fled. Before he went away, however,
+Signorina Nora McGinnis Caravaggio called him to one side and confided
+a most delicate message to him.
+
+"Your friend, Mr. Bates," she began with an embarrassed hesitation
+quite unusual in the direct Irish girl; "he's a nice boy, from the
+ground up, and give him an easy word from me. But, Mr. Burnit, give
+him a hint not to do any more traveling on my account; for I've got a
+husband back in New York that ain't worth the rat poison to put him
+out of his misery, but I'm not getting any divorces. One mistake is
+enough. But don't be too hard on me when you tell Biff. Honest, up to
+just the last, I thought he'd come only to see you; but I enjoyed his
+visits." And in the eyes of the Caravaggio there stood real tears.
+
+A newsboy met Bobby on the train with the morning papers from home,
+and in them he read delightfully flavored and spiced accounts of the
+great Villenauve breach-of-promise case, embellished with many details
+that were entirely new to him. He had not counted on this phase of the
+matter, and it struck him almost as with an ague. The notoriety, the
+askance looks he would receive from his more conservative
+acquaintances, the "ragging" he would get at his clubs, all these he
+could stand. But Agnes! How could he ever face her? How would she
+receive him? From the train he took a cab directly home and buried
+himself there to think it all over. He spent a morning of intense
+dejection and an afternoon of the utmost misery. In the evening, not
+caring to dine in solitary gloom at home nor to appear yet among his
+fellows, he went out to an obscure restaurant in the neighborhood and
+ate his dinner, then came back again to his lonely room, seeing
+nothing ahead of him but an evening of melancholy alone. His butler,
+however, met him in the hall on his return.
+
+"Miss Elliston called up on the 'phone while you were out, sir."
+
+"Did you tell her I was at home?" asked Bobby with quick apprehension.
+
+"Yes, sir; you hadn't told me not to do so, sir; and she left word
+that you were to come straight out to the house as soon as you came
+in."
+
+"Very well," said Bobby, and went into the library.
+
+He sat down before the telephone and rested his hand upon the receiver
+for perhaps as much as five long minutes of hesitation, then abruptly
+he turned away from that unsatisfactory means of communication and had
+his car ordered; then hurriedly changed to the evening clothes he had
+not intended to don that night.
+
+In most uncertain anticipation, but quite sure of the most vigorous
+"blowing up" of his career, he whirled out to the home of the
+Ellistons and ascended the steps. The ring at the bell brought the
+ever imperturbable Wilkins, who nodded gravely upon seeing that it was
+Bobby and, relieving him of his coat and hat, told him:
+
+"Right up to the Turkish room, sir."
+
+There seemed a strange quietness about the house, and he felt more and
+more as if he might be approaching a sentence as he climbed the silent
+stairs. At the door of the Turkish room, however, Agnes met him with
+outstretched hands and a smile of welcome which bore traces of quite
+too much amusement for his entire comfort. When she had drawn him
+within the big alcove she laughed aloud, a light laugh in which there
+was no possible trace of resentment, and it lifted from his mind the
+load that had been oppressing it all day long.
+
+"I'm afraid you haven't heard," he began awkwardly.
+
+"Heard!" she repeated, and laughed again. "Why, Bobby, I read all the
+morning papers and all the evening papers, and I presume there will be
+excellent reading in every one of them for days and days to come."
+
+"And you're not angry?" he said, astounded.
+
+"Angry!" she laughed. "Why, you poor Bobby. I remember this Madam
+Villenauve perfectly, besides seeing her ten-years-ago pictures in the
+papers, and you don't suppose for a minute that I could be jealous of
+her, do you? Moreover, I can prove by Aunt Constance and Uncle Dan
+that I predicted just this very thing when you first insisted upon
+going on the road."
+
+He looked around, dreading the keen satire of Uncle Dan and the
+incisive ridicule of Aunt Constance, but she relieved his mind of that
+fear.
+
+"We were all invited out to dinner to-night, but I refused to go, for
+really I wanted to soften the blow for you. There is nobody in the
+house but myself and the servants. Now, do behave, Bobby! Wait a
+minute, sir! I've something else to crush you with. Have you seen the
+evening papers?"
+
+No; the morning papers had been enough for him.
+
+"Well, I'll tell you what they are doing. The Consolidated
+Illuminating and Power Company has secured an order from the city
+council compelling the Brightlight Electric Company to remove their
+poles from Market Street."
+
+Bobby caught his breath sharply. Stone and Sharpe and Garland, the
+political manipulators of the city, and its owners, lock, stock and
+barrel were responsible for this. They had taken advantage of his
+absence.
+
+"What a fool I have been," he bitterly confessed, "to have taken up
+with this entirely irregular and idiotic enterprise, a venture of
+which I knew nothing whatever, and let go the serious fight I had
+intended to make on Stone and his crowd."
+
+"Never mind, Bobby," said Agnes. "I have a suspicion that you have cut
+a wisdom-tooth. I rather imagined that you needed this one last folly
+as a sort of relapse before complete convalescence, to settle you down
+and bring you back to me for a more serious effort. I see that the
+most of your money is tied up in this embarrassing suit, and when I
+read that you were on your way home I went to Mr. Chalmers and got him
+to arrange for the release of some bonds. Following the provisions of
+your father's will your next two hundred and fifty thousand is waiting
+for you. Moreover, Bobby, this time I want you to listen to your
+trustee. I have found a new business for you, one about which you know
+nothing whatever, but one that you must learn; I want to put a weapon
+into your hands with which to fight for everything you have lost."
+
+He looked at her in wonder.
+
+"I always told you I needed you," he declared. "When _are_ you going
+to marry me?"
+
+"When you have won your fight, Bobby, or when you have proved entirely
+hopeless," she replied with a smile in which there was a certain
+amount of wistfulness.
+
+"You're a good sort, Agnes," he said a little huskily, and he pondered
+for some little time in awe over the existence of women like this. "I
+guess the governor was mighty right in making you my trustee, after
+all. But what is this business?"
+
+"The _Evening Bulletin_ is for sale, I have learned. Just now it is an
+independent paper, but it seems to me you could not have a better
+weapon, with your following, for fighting your political and business
+enemies."
+
+"I'll think that over very seriously," he said with much soberness. "I
+have refused everybody's advice so far, and have taken only my own. I
+have begun to believe that I am not the wisest person in the world;
+also I have come to believe that there are more ways to lose money
+than there are to make money; also I've found out that men are not the
+only gold-brick salesmen. Agnes, I'm what Biff Bates calls a 'Hick'!"
+
+"Look what your father has to say about this last escapade of yours,"
+she said, smiling, and from her desk brought him one of the familiar
+gray envelopes. This was the letter:
+
+    _To My Daughter Agnes, Upon Bobby's Entanglement with a
+      Blackmailing Woman_
+
+    "No man can guard against being roped in by a scheming woman
+    the first time; but if it happens twice he deserves it, and he
+    should be turned out to stay an idiot, for the signs are so
+    plain. A man swindler takes a man's money and makes a fool of
+    him; but a woman swindler takes a man's money and leaves a
+    smirch on him. Only a man's nearest and dearest can help him
+    live down such a smirch; so, Agnes, if my son has been this
+    particular variety of everlasting blank fool, don't turn
+    against him. He needs you. Moreover, you'll find him improved
+    by it. He'll be so much more humble."
+
+"I didn't really need that letter," Agnes shyly confessed; "but maybe
+it helped some."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+AGNES FINDS BOBBY A SLING AND BOBBY PUTS A STONE IN IT
+
+
+The wonderful change in a girl who, through her love, has become all
+woman, that was the marvel to Bobby; the breadth of her knowledge, the
+depth of her sympathy, the boundlessness of her compassionate
+forgiveness, her quality of motherliness; and this last was perhaps
+the greatest marvel of all. Yet even his marveling did not encompass
+all the wonder. In his last exploit, more full of folly than anything
+into which he had yet blundered, and the one which, of all others,
+might most have turned her from him, Agnes had had the harder part; to
+sit at home and wait, to dread she knew not what. The certainty which
+finally evolved had less of distress in it than not to know while day
+by day passed by. One thing had made it easier: never for one moment
+had she lost faith in Bobby, in any way. She was certain, however,
+that financially his trip would be a losing one, and from the time he
+left she kept her mind almost constantly upon the thought of his
+future. She had become almost desperately anxious for him to fulfill
+the hopes of his father, and day by day she studied the commercial
+field as she had never thought it possible that she could do. There
+was no line of industry upon which she did not ponder, and there was
+scarcely any morning that she did not at the breakfast table ask Dan
+Elliston the ins and outs of some business. If he was not able to tell
+her all she wanted to know, she usually commissioned him to find out.
+He took these requests in good part, and if she accomplished nothing
+else by all her inquiries she acquired such a commercial education as
+falls to the lot of but few home-kept young women.
+
+One morning her uncle came down a trifle late for breakfast and was in
+a hurry.
+
+"The Elliston School of Commercial Instruction will have a recess for
+this session," he observed as he popped into his chair. "I have an
+important engagement at the factory this morning and have about seven
+minutes for breakfast. During that seven minutes I prefer to eat
+rather than to talk. However, I do not object to listening. This being
+my last word except to request you to gather things closely about my
+plate, you may now start."
+
+"Very well," said she, dimpling as she usually did at any evidence of
+briskness on the part of her Uncle Dan, for from long experience she
+knew the harmlessness of his bark. "Nick Allstyne happened to remark
+to me last night that the _Bulletin_ is for sale. What do you think of
+the newspaper business for Bobby?"
+
+"The time necessary to answer that question takes my orange from me,"
+objected Uncle Dan as he hastily sipped another bite of the fruit and
+pushed it away. "The newspaper business for Bobby!" He drew the
+muffins toward him and took one upon his plate, then he stopped and
+pondered a moment. "Do you know," said he, "that's about the best
+suggestion you've made. I believe he could make a hummer out of a
+newspaper. I've noticed this about the boy's failures; they have all
+of them been due to lack of experience; none of them has been due to
+any absence of backbone. Nobody has ever bluffed him."
+
+Agnes softly clapped her hands.
+
+"Exactly!" she cried. "Well, Uncle Dan, this is the last word _I'm_
+going to say. For the balance of your seven minutes I'm going to help
+stuff you with enough food to keep you until luncheon time; but
+sometime to-day, if you find time, I want you to go over and see the
+proprietor of the _Bulletin_ and find out how much he wants for his
+property, and investigate it as a business proposition just the same
+as if you were going into it yourself."
+
+Uncle Dan, dipping voraciously into his soft boiled eggs, grinned and
+said: "Huh!" Then he looked at his watch. When he came home to dinner,
+however, he hunted up Agnes at once.
+
+"Your _Bulletin_ proposition looks pretty good," he told her. "I saw
+Greenleaf. He's a physical wreck and has been for two years. He has to
+get away or die. Moreover, his physical condition has reacted upon his
+paper. His circulation has run down, but he has a magnificent plant
+and a good office organization. He wants two hundred thousand dollars
+for his plant, good will and franchises. I'm going to investigate this
+a little further. Do you suppose Bobby will have two hundred thousand
+left when he gets through with grand opera?"
+
+"I hope so," replied Agnes; "but if he hasn't I'll have him waste the
+balance of this two hundred and fifty thousand so that he can draw the
+next one."
+
+Uncle Dan laughed in huge enjoyment of this solution.
+
+"You surely were cut out for high finance," he told her.
+
+She smiled, and was silent a while, hesitating.
+
+"You seem to think pretty well of the business as a business
+proposition," she ventured anxiously, by and by; "but you haven't told
+me what you think of it as applicable to Bobby."
+
+"If he'll take you in the office with him, he'll do all right," he
+answered her banteringly; but when he went up-stairs and found his
+wife he said: "Constance, if that girl don't pull Bobby Burnit through
+his puppyhood in good shape there is something wrong with the scheme
+of creation. There is something about you women of the Elliston family
+that every once in a while makes me pause and reverence the Almighty,"
+whereupon Aunt Constance flushed prettily, as became her.
+
+With the same earnestness of purpose Agnes handled the question of
+Bobby's breach-of-promise suit in so far as it affected his social
+reception. The Ellistons went to the theater and sat in a box to
+exhibit him on the second night after his return, and Agnes took
+careful count of all the people she knew who attended the theater that
+night. The next day she went to see all of them, among others Mrs.
+Horace Wickersham, whose social word was social law.
+
+"My dear," said the redoubtable Mrs. Wickersham, "it does Bobby Burnit
+great credit that he did not marry the creature. Of course I shall
+invite him to our affair next Friday night."
+
+After that there could be no further question of Bobby's standing,
+though without the firm support of Agnes he might possibly have been
+ostracised, for a time at least.
+
+It was with much less certainty that she spread before Bobby the facts
+and figures which Uncle Dan had secured about the condition and
+prospects of the _Bulletin_. She did not urge the project upon him.
+Instead, though in considerable anxiety, she left the proposition open
+to his own judgment. He pondered the question more soberly and
+seriously than he had yet considered anything. There were but two
+chances left to redeem himself now, and he felt much like a gambler
+who has been reduced to his last desperate stake. He grew almost
+haggard over the proposition, and he spent two solid weeks in
+investigation. He went to Washington to see Jack Starlett, who knew
+three or four newspaper proprietors in Philadelphia and elsewhere. He
+obtained introductions to these people and consulted with them,
+inspected their plants and listened to all they would say; as they
+liked him, they said much. Ripened considerably by what he had found
+out he came back home and bought the _Bulletin_. Moreover, he had very
+definitely made up his mind precisely what to do with it.
+
+On the first morning that he walked into the office of that paper as
+its sole owner and proprietor, he called the managing editor to him
+and asked:
+
+"What, heretofore, has been the politics of this paper?"
+
+"Pale yellow jelly," snapped Ben Jolter wrathfully.
+
+"Supposed to be anti-Stone, hasn't it been?" Bobby smilingly inquired.
+
+"But always perfectly ladylike in what it said about him."
+
+"And what are the politics of the employees?"
+
+At this Mr. Jolter snorted.
+
+"They are good newspaper men, Mr. Burnit," he stated in quick defense;
+"and a good newspaper man has no politics."
+
+Bobby eyed Mr. Jolter with contemplative favor. He was a stout,
+stockily-built man, with a square head and sparse gray hair that would
+persist in tangling and curling at the ends; and he perpetually kept
+his sleeves rolled up over his big arms.
+
+"I don't know anything about this business," confessed Bobby, "but I
+hope to. First of all, I'd like to find out why the _Bulletin_ has no
+circulation."
+
+"The lack of a spinal column," asserted Jolter. "It has had no policy,
+stood pat on no proposition, and made no aggressive fight on
+anything."
+
+"If I understand what you mean by the word," said Bobby slowly, "the
+_Bulletin_ is going to have a policy."
+
+It was now Mr. Jolter's turn to gaze contemplatively at Bobby.
+
+"If you were ten years older I would feel more hopeful about it," he
+decided bluntly.
+
+The young man flushed uncomfortably. He was keenly aware that he had
+made an ass of himself in business four successive times, and that
+Jolter knew it. By way of facing the music, however, he showed to his
+managing editor a letter, left behind with old Johnson for Bobby by
+the late John Burnit:
+
+    The mere fact that a man has been foolish four times is no
+    absolute proof that he is a fool; but it's a mighty
+    significant hint. However, Bobby, I'm still betting on you,
+    for by this time you ought to have your fighting blood at the
+    right temperature; and I've seen you play great polo in spite
+    of a cracked rib.
+
+    "P. S. If any one else intimates that you are a fool, trounce
+    him one for me."
+
+"If there's anything in heredity you're a lucky young man," said
+Jolter seriously, as he handed back the letter.
+
+"I think the governor was worried about it himself," admitted Bobby
+with a smile; "and if he was doubtful I can't blame you for being so.
+Nevertheless, Mr. Jolter, I must insist that we are going to have a
+policy," and he quietly outlined it.
+
+Mr. Jolter had been so long a directing voice in the newspaper
+business that he could not be startled by anything short of a
+presidential assassination, and that at press time. Nevertheless, at
+Bobby's announcement he immediately sought for his pipe and was
+compelled to go into his own office after it. He came back lighting it
+and felt better.
+
+"It's suicide!" he declared.
+
+"Then we'll commit suicide," said Bobby pleasantly.
+
+Mr. Jolter, after long, grinning thought, solemnly shook hands with
+him.
+
+"I'm for it," said he. "Here's hoping that we survive long enough to
+write our own obituary!"
+
+Mr. Jolter, to whom fighting was as the breath of new-mown hay, and
+who had long been curbed in that delightful occupation, went back into
+his own office with a more cheerful air than he had worn for many a
+day, and issued a few forceful orders, winding up with a direction to
+the press foreman to prepare for ten thousand extra copies that
+evening.
+
+When the three o'clock edition of the _Bulletin_ came on the street,
+the entire first page was taken up by a life-size half-tone portrait
+of Sam Stone, and underneath it was the simple legend:
+
+    THIS MAN MUST LEAVE TOWN
+
+The first citizens to awake to the fact that the _Bulletin_ was born
+anew were the newsboys. Those live and enterprising merchants, with a
+very keen judgment of comparative values, had long since ceased to
+call the _Bulletin_ at all; half of them had even ceased to carry it.
+Within two minutes after this edition was out they were clamoring for
+additional copies, and for the first time in years the alley door of
+the _Bulletin_ was besieged by a seething mob of ragged, diminutive,
+howling masculinity. Out on the street, however, they were not even
+now calling the name of the paper. They were holding forth that black
+first page and screaming just the name of Sam Stone.
+
+Sam Stone! It was a magic name, for Stone had been the boss of the
+town since years without number; a man who had never held office, but
+who dictated the filling of all offices; a man who was not ostensibly
+in any business, but who swayed the fortune of every public
+enterprise; a self-confessed grafter whom crusade after crusade had
+failed to dislodge from absolute power. The crowds upon the street
+snapped eagerly at that huge portrait and searched as eagerly through
+the paper for more about the Boss. They did not find it, except upon
+the editorial page, where, in the space usually devoted to drivel
+about "How Kind We Should Be to Dumb Animals," and "Why Fathers Should
+Confide More in Their Sons," appeared in black type a paraphrase of
+the legend on the outside: "_Sam Stone Must Leave Town._" Beneath was
+the additional information: "Further issues of the _Bulletin_ will
+tell why." Above and below this was nothing but startlingly white
+blank paper, two solid columns of it up and down the page.
+
+Down in the deep basement of the _Bulletin_, the big three-deck
+presses, two of which had been standing idle since the last
+presidential election, were pounding out copies by the thousand, while
+grimy pressmen, blackened with ink, perspired most happily.
+
+By five o'clock, men and even girls, pouring from their offices, and
+laborers coming from work, had all heard of it, and on the street the
+bold defiance created first a gasp and then a smile. Another attempt
+to dislodge Sam Stone was, in the light of previous efforts, a
+laughable thing to contemplate; and yet it was interesting.
+
+In the office of the _Bulletin_ it was a gleeful occasion. Nonchalant
+reporters sat down with that amazing front page spread out before
+them, studied the brutal face of Stone and chuckled cynically. Lean
+Doc Miller, "assistant city editor," or rather head copy reader, lit
+one cigarette from the stub of another and observed, to nobody in
+particular but to everybody in general:
+
+"I can see where we all contribute for a beautiful Gates Ajar floral
+piece for one Robert Burnit;" whereupon fat "Bugs" Roach, "handling
+copy" across the table from him, inquired:
+
+"Do you suppose the new boss really has this much nerve, or is he just
+a damned fool?"
+
+"Stone won't do a thing to _him_!" ingratiatingly observed a "cub"
+reporter, laying down twelve pages of "copy" about a man who had
+almost been burglarized.
+
+"Look here, you Greenleaf Whittier Squiggs," said Doc Miller most
+savagely, not because he had any particular grudge against the
+unfortunately named G. W., but because of discipline and the custom
+with "cubs," "the next time you're sent out on a twenty-minute
+assignment like this, remember the number of the _Bulletin_, 427 Grand
+Street. The telephone is Central 2051, and don't forget to report the
+same day. Did you get the man's name? Uh-huh. His address? Uh-huh.
+Well, we don't want the item."
+
+Slow and phlegmatic Jim Brown, who had been city editor on the
+_Bulletin_ almost since it was the _Bulletin_ under half a dozen
+changes of ownership and nearly a score of managing editors, sauntered
+over into Jolter's room with a copy of the paper in his hand, and a
+long black stogie held by some miracle in the corner of his mouth,
+where it would be quite out of the road of conversation.
+
+"Pretty good stuff," he drawled, indicating the remarkable first page.
+
+"The greatest circus act that was ever pulled off in the newspaper
+business," asserted Jolter. "It will quadruple the present circulation
+of the _Bulletin_ in a week."
+
+"Make or break," assented the city editor, "with the odds in favor of
+the break."
+
+A slenderly-built young man, whose red face needed a shave and whose
+clothes, though wrinkled and unbrushed, shrieked of quality, came
+stumbling up the stairs in such hot haste as was possible in his
+condition, and without ceremony or announcement burst into the room
+where Bobby Burnit, with that day's issue of the _Bulletin_ spread out
+before him, was trying earnestly to get a professional idea of the
+proper contents of a newspaper.
+
+"Great goods, old man!" said the stranger. "I want to congratulate you
+on your lovely nerve," and seizing Bobby's hand he shook it violently.
+
+"Thanks," said Bobby, not quite sure whether to be amused or
+resentful. "Who are you?"
+
+"I'm Dillingham," announced the red-faced young man with a cheerful
+smile.
+
+Bobby was about to insist upon further information, when Mr. Jolter
+came in to introduce Brown, who had not yet met Mr. Burnit.
+
+"Dill," drawled Brown, with a twinkle in his eye, "how much money have
+you?"
+
+"Money to burn; money in every pocket," asserted Mr. Dillingham;
+"money to last for ever," and he jammed both hands in his trousers'
+pockets.
+
+It was an astonishing surprise to Mr. Dillingham, after groping in
+those pockets, to find that he brought up only a dollar bill in his
+left hand and forty-five cents in silver in his right. He was still
+contemplating in awed silence this perplexing fact when Brown handed
+him a five-dollar bill.
+
+"Now, you run right out and get stewed to the eyebrows again,"
+directed Brown. "Get properly pickled and have it over with, then show
+up here in the morning with a headache and get to work. We want you to
+take charge of the Sam Stone expose, and in to-morrow's _Bulletin_ we
+want the star introduction of your life."
+
+"Do you mean to say you're going to trust the whole field conduct of
+this campaign to that chap?" asked Bobby, frowning, when Dillingham
+had gone.
+
+"This is his third day, so Dill's safe for to-morrow morning," Brown
+hastened to assure him. "He'll be up here early, so penitent that
+he'll be incased in a blue fog--and he'll certainly deliver the
+goods."
+
+Bobby sighed and gave it up. This was a new world.
+
+Over in his dingy little office, up his dingy flight of stairs, Sam
+Stone sat at his bare and empty old desk, looking contemplatively out
+of the window, when Frank Sharpe--his luxuriant gray mustache in an
+extraordinary and most violent state of straggling curliness--came
+nervously bustling in with a copy of the _Bulletin_ in his hand.
+
+"Have you seen this?" he shrilled.
+
+"Heard about it," grunted Stone.
+
+"But what do you think of it?" demanded Sharpe indignantly, and spread
+the paper out on the desk before the Boss, thumping it violently with
+his knuckles.
+
+Stone studied it well, without the slightest change of expression upon
+his heavy features.
+
+"It's a swell likeness," he quietly conceded, by and by.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+BOBBY BEGINS TO GIVE TESTIMONY THAT HE IS OLD JOHN BURNIT'S SON
+
+
+Closeted with Jolter and Brown, and mapping out with them the
+dangerous campaign into which they had plunged, Bobby did not leave
+the office of the _Bulletin_ until six o'clock. At the curb, just as
+he was about to step into his waiting machine, Biff Bates hailed him
+with vast enthusiasm.
+
+"Go to it, Bobby!" said he. "I'm backing you across the board, win,
+place and show; but let me give you a hot tip right from the stables.
+You want to be afraid to go home in the dark, or Stone's lobbygows
+will lean on you with a section of plumbing."
+
+"I've thought of that, Biff," laughed Bobby; "and I think I'll
+organize a band of murderers of my own."
+
+Johnson, whom Bobby had quite forgotten in the stress of the day,
+joined them at this moment. Thirty years as head bookkeeper and
+confidential adviser in old John Burnit's merchandise establishment
+had not fitted lean Johnson for the less dignified and more flurried
+work of a newspaper office, even in the business department, and he
+was looking very much fagged.
+
+"Well, Johnson, what do you think of my first issue of the
+_Bulletin_?" asked Bobby pleasantly.
+
+Johnson looked genuinely distressed.
+
+"To tell you the truth, Mr. Burnit," said he, "I have not seen it. I
+never in all my life saw a place where there were so many
+interruptions to work. If we could only be back in your father's
+store, sir."
+
+"We'll be back there before we quit," said Bobby confidently; "or I'll
+be in the incurable ward."
+
+"I hope so, sir," said Johnson dismally, and strode across the street
+to catch his car; but he came back hastily to add: "I meant about the
+store; not about the asylum."
+
+Biff Bates laughed as he clambered into the tonneau with Bobby.
+
+"If you'd make a billion dollars, Bobby, but didn't get back your
+father's business that Silas Trimmer snaked away from you, Johnson
+would think you'd overlooked the one best bet."
+
+"So would I," said Bobby soberly, and he had but very little more to
+say until the chauffeur stopped at Bobby's own door, where puffy old
+Applerod, who had been next to Johnson in his usefulness to old John
+Burnit, stood nervously awaiting him on the steps.
+
+"Terrible, sir! Terrible!" spluttered Applerod the moment he caught
+sight of Bobby. "This open defiance of Mr. Stone will put entirely out
+of existence what little there is left of the Brightlight Electric
+Company."
+
+"Cheer up, Applerod, for death must come to us all," encouraged Bobby.
+"Such shreds and fragments of the Brightlight as there are left would
+have been wiped out anyhow; and frankly, if you must have it, I put
+you in there as general manager, when I shifted Johnson to the
+_Bulletin_ this morning, because there was nothing to manage."
+
+Applerod threw up his hands in dismay.
+
+"And there will be less. Oh, Mr. Burnit, if your father were only
+here!"
+
+Bobby, whose suavity Applerod had never before seen ruffled, turned
+upon him angrily.
+
+"I'm tired hearing about my father, Applerod," he declared. "I revere
+the governor's memory too much to want to be made angry by the mention
+of his name. Hereafter, kindly catch the idea, if you can, that I am
+my own man and must work out my own salvation; and I propose to do it!
+Biff, you don't mind if I put off seeing you until to-morrow? I have a
+dinner engagement this evening and very little time to dress."
+
+"His own man," said Applerod sorrowfully when Bobby had left them.
+"John Burnit would be half crazy if he could know what a botch his son
+is making of things. I don't see how a man could let himself be
+cheated four times in business."
+
+"I can tell you," retorted Biff. "All his old man ever did for him was
+to stuff his pockets with kale, and let him grow up into the sort of
+clubs where one sport says: 'I'm going to walk down to the corner.'
+Says the other sport: 'I'll bet you see more red-headed girls on the
+way down than you do on the way back.' Says the first sport: 'You're
+on for a hundred.' He goes down to the corner and he comes back. 'How
+about the red-headed girls?' asks the second sport. 'I lose,' says the
+first sport; 'here's your hundred.' Now, when Bobby is left real
+money, he starts in to play the same open-face game, and when one of
+these business wolves tells him anything Bobby don't stop to figure
+whether the mut means what he says, or means something else that
+sounds like the same thing. Now, if Bobby was a simp they'd sting him
+in so many places that he'd be swelled all over, like an exhibition
+cream puff; but he ain't a simp. It took him four times to learn that
+he can't take a man's word in business. That's all he needed. Bobby's
+awake now, and more than that he's mad, and if I hear you make another
+crack that he ain't about all the candy I'll sick old Johnson on you,"
+and with this dire threat Biff wheeled, leaving Mr. Applerod
+speechless with red-faced indignation.
+
+It was just a quiet family dinner that Bobby attended that night at
+the Ellistons', with Uncle Dan and Aunt Constance Elliston at the head
+and foot of the table, and across from him the smiling face of Agnes.
+He was so good to look at that Agnes was content just to watch him,
+but Aunt Constance noted his abstraction and chided him upon it.
+
+"Really, Bobby," said she, "since you have gone into business you're
+ruined socially."
+
+"Frankly, I don't mind," he replied, smiling. "I'd rather be ruined
+socially than financially. In spite of certain disagreeable features
+of it, I have a feeling upon me to-night that I'm going to like the
+struggle."
+
+"You're starting a stiff one now," observed Uncle Dan dryly.
+"Beginning an open fight against Sam Stone is a good deal like being
+suspended over Hades by a single hair--amidst a shower of Roman
+candles."
+
+"That's putting it about right, I guess," admitted Bobby; "but I'm
+relying on the fact that the public at heart is decent."
+
+"Do you remember, Bobby, what Commodore Vanderbilt said about the
+public?" retorted Uncle Dan. "They're decent, all right, but they
+won't stick together in any aggressive movement short of gunpowder. In
+the meantime, Stone has more entrenchments than even you can dream.
+For instance, I should not wonder but that within a very short time I
+shall be forced to try my influence with you in his behalf."
+
+"How?" asked Bobby incredulously.
+
+"Well, I am trying to get a spur track from the X. Y. Z. Railroad to
+my factory on Spindle Street. The X. Y. Z. is perfectly willing to put
+in the track, and I'm trying to have the city council grant us a
+permit. Now, who is the city council?"
+
+"Stone," Bobby was compelled to admit.
+
+"Of course. I have already arranged to pay quite a sum of money to the
+capable and honest city councilman of that ward. The capable and
+honest councilman will go to Stone and give up about three-fourths of
+what I pay him. Then Stone will pass the word out to the other
+councilmen that he's for Alderman Holdup's spur track permit, and I
+get it. Very simple arrangement, and satisfactory, but, if they do not
+shove that measure through at their meeting to-morrow night, before
+Stone finds out any possible connection between you and me, the price
+of it will not be money. I'll be sent to you."
+
+"I see," said Bobby in dismay. "In other words, it will be put flatly
+up to me; I'll either have to quit my attacks on Stone, or be directly
+responsible for your losing your valuable spur track."
+
+"Exactly," said Uncle Dan.
+
+Bobby drew a long breath.
+
+"I'm very much afraid, Mr. Elliston, that you will have to do without
+your spur."
+
+Uncle Dan's eyes twinkled.
+
+"I'm willing," said he. "I have a good offer to sell that branch of my
+plant anyhow, and I think I'll dispose of it. I have been very frank
+with you about this, so that you will know exactly what to expect when
+other people come at you. You will be beset as you never were before."
+
+"I have been looking for an injunction, myself."
+
+"You will have no injunction, for Stone scarcely dares go publicly
+into his own courts," said Uncle Dan, with a pretty thorough
+knowledge, gained through experience, of the methods of the "Stone
+gang"; "though he might even use that as a last resort. That will be
+after intimidation fails, for it is quite seriously probable that they
+will hire somebody to beat you into insensibility. If that don't teach
+you the proper lesson, they will probably kill you."
+
+Agnes looked up apprehensively, but catching Bobby's smile took this
+latter phase of the matter as a joke. Bobby himself was not deeply
+impressed with it, but before he went away that night Uncle Dan took
+him aside and urged upon him the seriousness of the matter.
+
+"I'll fight them with their own weapons, then," declared Bobby. "I'll
+organize a counter band of thugs, and I'll block every move they make
+with one of the same sort. Somehow or other I think I am going to
+win."
+
+"Of course you will win," said Agnes confidently, overhearing this
+last phrase; and with that most prized of all encouragement, the faith
+in his prowess of _the_ one woman, Bobby, for that night at least,
+felt quite contemptuous of the grilling fight to come.
+
+His second issue of the _Bulletin_ contained on the front page a
+three-column picture of Sam Stone, with the same caption, together
+with a full-page article, written by Dillingham from data secured by
+himself and the others who were put upon the "story." This set forth
+the main iniquities of Sam Stone and his crew of municipal grafters.
+In the third day's issue the picture was reduced to two columns,
+occupying the left-hand upper corner of the front page, where Bobby
+ordered it to remain permanently as the slogan of the _Bulletin_; and
+now Dillingham began his long series of articles, taking up point by
+point the ramifications of Stone's machine, and coming closer and
+closer daily to people who would much rather have been left entirely
+out of the picture.
+
+It was upon this third day that Bobby, becoming apprehensive merely
+because nothing had happened, received a visit from Frank Sharpe. Mr.
+Sharpe was as nattily dressed as ever, and presented himself as
+pleasantly as a summer breeze across fields of clover.
+
+"I came in to see you about merging the Brightlight Electric Company
+with the Consolidated, Mr. Burnit," said Mr. Sharpe in a chatty tone,
+laying his hat, cane and gloves upon Bobby's desk and seating himself
+comfortably.
+
+From his face there was no doubt in Mr. Sharpe's mind that this was a
+mere matter of an interview with a satisfactory termination, for Mr.
+Sharpe had done business with Bobby before; but something had happened
+to Bobby in the meantime.
+
+"When I get ready for a merger of the Brightlight with the
+Consolidated I'll tell you about it; and also I'll tell you the
+terms," Bobby advised him with a snap, and for the first time Mr.
+Sharpe noted what a good jaw Bobby had.
+
+"I should think," hesitated Sharpe, "that in the present condition of
+the Brightlight almost any terms would be attractive to you. You have
+no private consumers now, and your contract for city lighting, which
+you can not evade except by bankruptcy, is losing you money."
+
+"If that were news to me it would be quite startling," responded
+Bobby, "but you see, Mr. Sharpe, I am quite well acquainted with the
+facts myself. Also, I have a strong suspicion that you tampered with
+my plant; that your hired agents cut my wires, ruined my dynamos and
+destroyed the efficiency of my service generally."
+
+"You will find it very difficult to prove that, Mr. Burnit," said
+Sharpe, with a sternness which could not quite conceal a lurking
+smile.
+
+"I'm beginning to like difficulty," retorted Bobby. "I do not mind
+telling you that I was never angry before in my life, and I'm
+surprised to find myself enjoying the sensation."
+
+Bobby was still more astonished to find himself laying his fist
+tensely upon his desk. The lurking smile was now gone entirely from
+Mr. Sharpe's face.
+
+"I must admit, Mr. Burnit, that your affairs have turned out rather
+unfortunately," he said, "but I think that they might be remedied for
+you a bit, perhaps. Suppose you go and see Stone."
+
+"I do not care to see Mr. Stone," said Bobby.
+
+"But he wants to see you," persisted Sharpe. "In fact, he told me so
+this morning. I'm quite sure you would find it to your advantage to
+drop over there."
+
+"I shall never enter Mr. Stone's office until he has vacated it for
+good," said Bobby; "then I might be induced to come over and break up
+the furniture. If Stone wants to see me I'm keeping fairly regular
+office hours here."
+
+"It is not Mr. Stone's habit to go to other people," bluffed Sharpe,
+growing somewhat nervous; for it was one of Stone's traits not to
+forgive the failure of a mission. He had no use for extenuating
+circumstances, He never looked at anything in this world but results.
+
+Bobby took down the receiver of his house telephone.
+
+"I'd like to speak to Mr. Jolter, please," said he.
+
+Sharpe rose to go.
+
+"Just wait a moment, Mr. Sharpe," said Bobby peremptorily, and Sharpe
+stopped. "Jolter," he directed crisply, turning again to the 'phone,
+"kindly step into my office, will you?"
+
+A moment later, while Sharpe stood wondering, Jolter came in, and
+grinned as he noted Bobby's visitor.
+
+"Mr. Jolter," asked Bobby, "have we a good portrait of Mr. Sharpe?"
+
+Jolter, still grinning, stated that they had.
+
+"Have a three-column half-tone made of it for this evening's
+_Bulletin_."
+
+Sharpe fairly spluttered.
+
+"Mr. Burnit, if you print my picture in the _Bulletin_ connected with
+anything derogatory, I'll--I'll--"
+
+Bobby waited politely for a moment.
+
+"Go ahead, Mr. Sharpe," said he. "I'm interested to know just what you
+will do, because we're going to print the picture, connected with
+something quite derogatory. Now finish your threat."
+
+Sharpe gazed at him a moment, speechless with rage, and then stamped
+from the office.
+
+Jolter, quietly chuckling, turned to Bobby.
+
+"I guess you'll do," he commented. "If you last long enough you'll
+win."
+
+"Thanks," said Bobby dryly, and then he smiled. "Say, Jolter," he
+added, "it's bully fun being angry. I'm just beginning to realize what
+I have been missing all these years. Go ahead with Sharpe's picture
+and print anything you please about him. I guess you can secure enough
+material without going out of the office, and if you can't I'll supply
+you with some."
+
+Jolter looked at his watch and hurried for the door. Minutes were
+precious if he wanted to get that Sharpe cut made in time for the
+afternoon edition. At the door, however, he turned a bit anxiously.
+
+"I suppose you carry a gun, don't you?"
+
+"By no means," said Bobby. "Never owned one."
+
+"I'd advise you to get a good one at once," and Jolter hurried away.
+
+That evening's edition of the _Bulletin_ contained a beautiful
+half-tone of Mr. Sharpe. Above it was printed: "The _Bulletin's_
+Rogues' Gallery," and beneath was the caption: "Hadn't this man better
+go, too?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+EDITOR BURNIT DISCOVERS THAT HE IS FIGHTING AN ENTIRE CITY INSTEAD OF
+ONE MAN
+
+
+At four o'clock of that same day Mr. Brown came in, and Mr. Brown was
+grinning. In the last three days a grin had become the trade-mark of
+the office, for the staff of the _Bulletin_ was enjoying itself as
+never before in all its history.
+
+"Stone's in my office," said Brown. "Wants to see you."
+
+Bobby was interestedly leafing over the pages of the _Bulletin_. He
+looked leisurely at his watch and yawned.
+
+"Tell Mr. Stone that I am busy, but that I will receive him in fifteen
+minutes," he directed, whereupon Mr. Brown, appreciating the joke,
+grinned still more expansively and withdrew.
+
+Bobby, as calmly as he could, went on with his perusal of the
+_Bulletin_. To deny that he was somewhat tense over the coming
+interview would be foolish. Never had a quarter of an hour dragged so
+slowly, but he waited it out, with five minutes more on top of it, and
+then he telephoned to Brown to know if Stone was still there. He was
+relieved to find that he was.
+
+"Tell him to come in," he ordered.
+
+If Stone was inwardly fuming when he entered the room he gave no
+indication of it. His heavy face bore only his habitually sullen
+expression, his heavy-lidded eyes bore only their usual somberness,
+his heavy brow had in it no crease other than those that time had
+graven there. With the deliberateness peculiar to him he planted his
+heavy body in a big arm-chair opposite to Bobby, without removing his
+hat.
+
+"I don't believe in beating around the bush, Mr. Burnit," said he,
+with a glance over his shoulder to make sure that the door was closed.
+"Of course you're after something. What do you want?"
+
+Bobby looked at him in wonder. He had heard much of Stone's bluntness,
+and now he was fascinated by it. Nevertheless, he did not forget his
+own viewpoint.
+
+"Oh, I don't want much," he observed pleasantly, "only just your
+scalp; yours and the scalps of a few others who gave me my education,
+from Silas Trimmer up and down. I think one of the things that
+aggravated me most was the recent elevation of Trimmer to the
+chairmanship of your waterworks commission. Trivial as it was, this
+probably had as much to do with my sudden determination to wipe you
+out, as your having the Brightlight's poles removed from Market
+Street."
+
+Stone laid a heavy hand easily upon Bobby's desk. It was a strong
+hand, a big hand, brown and hairy, and from the third pudgy finger
+glowed a huge diamond.
+
+"As far as Trimmer is concerned," said he, quite undisturbed, "you can
+have his head any minute. He's a mutt."
+
+"You don't need to give me Mr. Trimmer's head," replied Bobby, quite
+as calmly. "I intend to get that myself."
+
+"And as for the Brightlight," continued Stone as if he had not been
+interrupted, "I sent Sharpe over to see you about that this morning. I
+think we can fix it so that you can get back your two hundred and
+fifty thousand. The deal's been worth a lot more than that to the
+Consolidated."
+
+"No doubt," agreed Bobby. "However, I'm not looking, at the present
+moment, for a sop to the Brightlight Company. It will be time enough
+for that when I have forced the Consolidated into the hands of a
+receiver."
+
+Stone looked at Bobby thoughtfully between narrowed eyelids.
+
+"Look here, young fellow," said he presently. "Now, you take it from
+me, and I have been through the mill, that there ain't any use holding
+a grouch. The mere doing damage don't get you anything unless it's to
+whip somebody else into line with a warning. I take it that this ain't
+what you're trying to do. You think you're simply playing a grouch
+game, table stakes; but if you'll simmer down you'll find you've got a
+price. Now, I'd rather have you with me than against me. If you'll
+just say what you want I'll get it for you if it's in reach. But don't
+froth. I've cleaned up as much money as your daddy did, just by
+keeping my temper."
+
+"I'm going to keep mine, too," Bobby informed him quite cheerfully. "I
+have just found that I have one, and I like it."
+
+Stone brushed this triviality aside with a wave of his heavy hand.
+
+"Quit kidding," he said, "and come out with it. I see you're no piker,
+anyhow. You're playing for big game. What is it you want?"
+
+"As I said before, not very much," declared Bobby. "I only want to
+grind your machine into powder. I want to dig up the rotten municipal
+control of this city, root and branch. I want to ferret out every bit
+of crookedness in which you have been concerned, and every bit that
+you have caused. I want to uncover every man, high or low, for just
+what he is, and I don't care how well protected he is nor how shining
+his reputation, if he's concerned in a crooked deal I'm going after
+him--"
+
+"There won't be many of us left," Stone interrupted with a smile.
+
+"--I want to get back some of the money you have stolen from this
+city," continued Bobby; "and I want, last of all, to drive you out of
+this town for good."
+
+Stone rose with a sigh.
+
+"This is the only chance I'll give you to climb in with the music," he
+rumbled. "I've kept off three days, figuring out where you were
+leading to and what you were after. Now, last of all, what will you
+take to call it off?"
+
+"I have told you the price," said Bobby.
+
+"Then you're looking for trouble and you must have it, eh?"
+
+"I suppose I must."
+
+"Then you'll get it," and without the sign of a frown upon his brow
+Mr. Stone left the office.
+
+The next morning things began to happen. The First National Bank
+called up the business office of the _Bulletin_ and ordered its
+advertisement discontinued. Not content alone with that, President De
+Graff called up Bobby personally, and in a very cold and dignified
+voice told him that the First National was compelled to withdraw its
+patronage on account of the undignified personal attacks in which the
+_Bulletin_ was indulging. Bobby whistled softly. He knew De Graff
+quite well; they were, in fact, upon most intimate terms, socially.
+
+"I should think, De Graff," Bobby remonstrated, "that of all people
+the banks should be glad to have all this crookedness rooted out of
+the city. As a matter of fact, I intended shortly to ask your
+cooeperation in the formation of a citizens' committee to insure honest
+politics."
+
+"I really could not take any active part in such a movement, Mr.
+Burnit," returned De Graff, still more coldly. "The conservatism
+necessary to my position forbids my connection with any sensational
+publicity whatsoever."
+
+An hour later, Crone, the advertising manager, came up to Bobby very
+much worried, to report that not only the First National but the
+Second Market Bank had stopped their advertising, as had Trimmer and
+Company, and another of the leading dry-goods firms.
+
+"Of course," said Crone, "your editorial policy is your own, but I'm
+afraid that it is going to be ruinous to your advertising."
+
+"I shouldn't wonder," admitted Bobby dryly, and that was all the
+satisfaction he gave Crone; but inwardly he was somewhat disturbed.
+
+He had not thought of the potency of this line of attack. While he
+knew nothing of the newspaper business, he had already made sure that
+the profit was in the advertising. He sent for Jolter.
+
+"Ben," he asked, "what is the connection between the First National
+and the Second Market Banks and Sam Stone?"
+
+"Money," said the managing editor promptly. "Both banks are
+depositories of city funds."
+
+"I see," said Bobby slowly. "Do any other banks enjoy this patronage?"
+
+"The Merchants' and the Planters' and Traders' hold the county funds,
+which are equally at Stone's disposal."
+
+Bobby heard this news in silence, and Jolter, after looking at him
+narrowly for a moment, added:
+
+"I'll tell you something else. Not one of the four banks pays to the
+city or the county one penny of interest on these deposits. This is
+well known to the newspapers, but none of them has dared use it."
+
+"Go after them," said Bobby.
+
+"Moreover, it is strongly suspected that the banks pay interest
+privately to Stone, through a small and select ring in the court-house
+and in the city hall."
+
+"Go after them."
+
+"I suppose you know the men who will be involved in this," said
+Jolter.
+
+"Some of my best friends, I expect," said Bobby.
+
+"And some of the most influential citizens in this town," retorted
+Jolter. "They can ruin the _Bulletin_. They could ruin any business."
+
+"The thing's crooked, isn't it?" demanded Bobby.
+
+"As a dog's hind leg."
+
+"Go after them, Jolter!" Bobby reiterated. Then he laughed aloud. "De
+Graff just telephoned me that 'the conservatism of his position
+forbids him to take part in any sensational publicity whatsoever.'"
+
+Comment other than a chuckle was superfluous from either one of them,
+and Jolter departed to the city editor's room, to bring joy to the
+heart of the staff.
+
+It was "Bugs" Roach who scented the far-reaching odor of this move
+with the greatest joy.
+
+"You know what this means, don't you?" he delightedly commented. "A
+grand jury investigation. Oh, listen to the band!"
+
+Before noon the Merchants' and the Planters' and Traders' Banks had
+withdrawn their advertisements.
+
+At about the same hour a particularly atrocious murder was committed
+in one of the suburbs. Up in the reporters' room of the police
+station, Thomas, of the _Bulletin_, and Graham, of the _Chronicle_,
+were indulging in a quiet game of whist with two of the morning
+newspaper boys, when a roundsman stepped to the door and called Graham
+out. Graham came back a moment later after his coat, with such studied
+nonchalance that the other boys, eternally suspicious as police
+reporters grow to be, looked at him narrowly, and Thomas asked him,
+also with studied nonchalance:
+
+"The candy-store girl, or the one in the laundry office?"
+
+"Business, young fellow, business," returned Graham loftily. "I guess
+the _Chronicle_ knows when it has a good man. I'm called into the
+office to save the paper. They're sending a cub down to cover the
+afternoon. Don't scoop him, old man."
+
+"Not unless I get a chance," promised Thomas, but after Graham had
+gone he went down to the desk and, still unsatisfied, asked:
+
+"Anything doing, Lieut.?"
+
+"Dead as a door-nail," replied the lieutenant, and Thomas, still with
+an instinct that something was wrong, still sensitive to a certain
+suppressed tingling excitement about the very atmosphere of the place,
+went slowly back to the reporters' room, where he spent a worried
+half-hour.
+
+The noonday edition of the _Chronicle_ carried, in the identical
+columns devoted in the _Bulletin_ to a further attack on Stone, a
+lurid account of the big murder; and the _Bulletin_ had not a line of
+it! A sharp call from Brown to Thomas, at central police, apprised the
+latter that he had been "scooped," and brought out the facts in the
+case. Thomas hurried down-stairs and bitterly upbraided Lieutenant
+Casper.
+
+"Look here, you Thomas," snapped Casper; "you _Bulletin_ guys have
+been too fresh around here for a long time."
+
+In Casper's eyes--Casper with whom he had always been on cordial
+joking terms--he saw cruel implacability, and, furious, he knew
+himself to be "in" for that most wearing of all newspaper jobs--"doing
+police" for a paper that was "in bad" with the administration. He
+needed no one to tell him the cause. At three-thirty, Thomas, and
+Camden, who was doing the city hall, and Greenleaf Whittier Squiggs,
+who was subbing for the day on the courts, appeared before Jim Brown
+in an agonized body. Thomas had been scooped on the big murder, Camden
+and G. W. Squiggs had been scooped, at the city hall and the county
+building, on the only items worth while, and they were all at white
+heat; though it was a great consolation to Squiggs, after all, to find
+himself in such distinguished company.
+
+Brown heard them in silence, and with great solemnity conducted them
+across the hall to Jolter, who also heard them in silence and
+conducted them into the adjoining room to Bobby. Here Jolter stood
+back and eyed young Mr. Burnit with great interest as his two
+experienced veterans and his ambitious youngster poured forth their
+several tales of woe. Bobby, as it became him to be, was much
+disturbed.
+
+"How's the circulation of the _Bulletin_?" he asked of Jolter.
+
+"Five times what it ever was in its history," responded Jolter.
+
+"Do you suppose we can hold it?"
+
+"Possibly."
+
+"How much does a scoop amount to?"
+
+"Well," confessed Jolter, with his eyes twinkling, "I hate to tell you
+before the boys, but my own opinion is that we know it and the
+_Chronicle_ knows it and Stone knows it, but day after to-morrow the
+public couldn't tell you on its sacred oath whether it read the first
+account of the murder in the _Bulletin_ or in the _Chronicle_."
+
+Bobby heaved a sigh of relief.
+
+"I always had the impression that a 'beat' meant the death, cortege
+and cremation of the newspaper that fell behind in the race," he
+smiled. "Boys, I'm afraid you'll have to stand it for a while. Do the
+best you can and get beaten as little as possible. By the way, Jolter,
+I want to see you a minute," and the mournful delegation of three, no
+whit less mournful because they had been assured that they would not
+be held accountable for being scooped, filed out.
+
+"What's the connection," demanded Bobby, the minute they were alone,
+"between the police department and Sam Stone?"
+
+"Money!" replied Jolter. "Chief of Police Cooley is in reality chief
+collector. The police graft is one of the richest Stone has. The
+rake-off from saloons that are supposed to close at one and from
+crooked gambling joints and illegal resorts of various kinds, amounts,
+I suppose, to not less than ten to fifteen thousand dollars a week. Of
+course, the patrolmen get some, but the bulk of it goes to Cooley, who
+was appointed by Stone, and the biggest slice of all goes to the
+Boss."
+
+"Go after Cooley," said Bobby. Then suddenly he struck his fist upon
+the desk. "Great Heavens, man!" he exclaimed. "At the end of every
+avenue and street and alley that I turn down with the _Bulletin_ I
+find an open sewer."
+
+"The town is pretty well supplied," admitted Jolter. "How do you feel
+now about your policy?"
+
+"Pretty well staggered," confessed Bobby; "but we're going through
+with the thing just the same."
+
+"It's a man's-size job," declared Jolter; "but if you get away with it
+the _Bulletin_ will be the best-paying piece of newspaper property
+west of New York."
+
+"Not the way the advertising's going," said Bobby, shaking his head
+and consulting a list on his desk. "Where has Stone a hold on the
+dry-goods firm of Rolands and Crawford?"
+
+"They built out circular show-windows, all around their big block, and
+these extend illegally upon two feet of the sidewalk."
+
+"And how about the Ebony Jewel Coal Company?"
+
+"They have been practically allowed to close up Second Street, from
+Water to Canal, for a dump."
+
+Bobby sighed hopelessly.
+
+"We can't fight everybody in town," he complained.
+
+"Yes, but we can!" exclaimed Jolter with a sudden fire that surprised
+Bobby, since it was the first the managing editor displayed. "Don't
+weaken, Burnit! I'm with you in this thing, heart and soul! If we can
+hold out until next election we will sweep everything before us."
+
+"We will hold out!" declared Bobby.
+
+"I am so sure of it that I'll stand treat," assented Mr. Jolter with
+vast enthusiasm, and over an old oak table, in a quiet place, Mr.
+Jolter and Mr. Burnit, having found the sand in each other's craws,
+cemented a pretty strong liking.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+AN EXCITING GAME OF TIT FOR TAT WITH HIRED THUGS
+
+
+The _Bulletin_, continuing its warfare upon Stone and every one who
+supported him, hit upon names that had never before been mentioned but
+in terms of the highest respect, and divers and sundry complacent
+gentlemen who attended church quite regularly began to look for a
+cyclone cellar. They were compromised with Stone and they could not
+placate Bobby. The four banks that had withdrawn their advertisements,
+after a hasty conference with Stone put them back again the first day
+their names were mentioned. The business department of the _Bulletin_
+cheerfully accepted those advertisements at the increased rate
+justified by the _Bulletin's_ increased circulation; but the editorial
+department just as cheerfully kept castigating the erring conservators
+of the public money, and the advertisements disappeared again.
+
+Bobby's days now were beset from a hundred quarters with agonized
+appeals to change his policy. This man and that man and the other man
+high in commercial and social and political circles came to him with
+all sorts of pressure, and even Payne Winthrop and Nick Allstyne, two
+of his particular cronies of the Idlers', not being able to catch him
+at the club any more, came up to his office.
+
+"This won't do, old man," protested Payne; "we're missing you at
+billiards and bridge whist, but your refusal to take part in the
+coming polo tourney was the last straw. You're getting to be a regular
+plebe."
+
+"I am a plebe," admitted Bobby. "What's the use to deny it? My father
+was a plebe. He came off the farm with no earthly possessions more
+valuable than the patches on his trousers. I am one generation from
+the soil, and since I have turned over a furrow or two, just plain
+earth smells good to me."
+
+Both of Bobby's friends laughed. They liked him too well to take him
+seriously in this.
+
+"But really," said Nick, returning to the attack, "the boys at the
+club were talking over the thing and think this rather bad form, this
+sort of a fight you're making. You're bound to become involved in a
+nasty controversy."
+
+"Yes?" inquired Bobby pleasantly. "Watch me become worse involved.
+More than that, I think I shall come down to the Idlers', when I get
+things straightened out here, organize a club league and make you
+fellows march with banners and torch-lights."
+
+This being a more hilarious joke than the other the boys laughed quite
+politely, though Payne Winthrop grew immediately serious again.
+
+"But we can't lose you, Bobby," he insisted. "We want you to quit this
+sort of business and come back again to the old crowd. There are so
+few of us left, you know, that we're getting lonesome. Stan Rogers is
+getting up a glorious hunt and he wants us all to come up to his lodge
+for a month at least. You should be tired of this by now, anyhow."
+
+"Not a bit of it," declared Bobby.
+
+"Oh, of course, you have your money involved," admitted Payne, "and
+you must play it through on that account; but I'll tell you: if you do
+want to sell I know where I could find a buyer for you at a profit."
+
+Bobby turned on him like a flash.
+
+"Look here, Payne," said he. "Where is your interest in this?"
+
+"My interest?" repeated Payne blankly.
+
+"Yes, your interest. What have you to gain by having me sell out?"
+
+"Why, really, Bobby--" began Payne, thinking to temporize.
+
+"You're here for that purpose, and must tell me why," insisted Bobby
+sternly, tapping his finger on the desk.
+
+"Well, if you must know," stammered Payne, taken out of himself by
+sheer force of Bobby's manner, "my respected and revered--"
+
+"I see," said Bobby.
+
+"The--the pater is thinking of entering politics next year, and he
+rather wants an organ."
+
+"And Nick, where's yours?"
+
+"Well," confessed Nick, with no more force of reservation than had
+Payne when mastery was used upon him, "mother's city property and
+mine, you know, contains some rather tumbledown buildings that are
+really good for a number of years yet, but which adverse municipal
+government might--might depreciate in value."
+
+"Just a minute," said Bobby, and he sent for Jolter.
+
+"Ben," he asked, "do you know anything about Mr. Adam Winthrop's
+political aspirations?"
+
+"I understand he's being groomed for governor," said Jolter.
+
+"Meet his son, Mr. Jolter--Mr. Payne Winthrop. Also Mr. Nick Allstyne.
+I suppose Mr. Winthrop is to run on Stone's ticket?" continued Bobby,
+breaking in upon the formalities as quickly as possible.
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Payne," said Bobby, "if your father wants to talk with me about the
+_Bulletin_ he must come himself. Jolter, do you know where the
+Allstyne properties are?"
+
+Jolter looked at Nick and Nick colored.
+
+"That's rather a blunt question, under the circumstances, Mr. Burnit,"
+said Jolter, "but I don't see why it shouldn't be answered as bluntly.
+It's a row of two blocks on the most notorious street of the town,
+frame shacks that are likely to be the start of a holocaust, any windy
+night, which will sweep the entire down-town district. They should
+have been condemned years ago."
+
+"Nick," said Bobby, "I'll give you one month to dispose of that
+property, because after that length of time I'm going after it."
+
+This was but a sample. Bobby had at last become suspicious, and as old
+John Burnit had shrewdly observed in one of his letters: "It hurts to
+acquire suspiciousness, but it is quite necessary; only don't overdo
+it."
+
+Bobby, however, was in a field where suspiciousness could scarcely be
+overdone. When any man came to protest or to use influence on Bobby in
+his fight, Bobby took the bull by the horns, called for Jolter, who
+was a mine of information upon local affairs, and promptly found out
+the reason for that man's interest; whereupon he either warned him off
+or attacked him, and made an average of ten good, healthy enemies a
+day. He scared Adam Winthrop out of the political race entirely, he
+made the Allstynes tear down their fire-traps and erect better-paying
+and consequently more desirable tenements, and he had De Graff and the
+other involved bankers "staggering in circles and hoarsely barking,"
+as "Bugs" Roach put it.
+
+So far, Bobby had been subjected to no personal annoyances, but on the
+day after his first attack on the chief of police he began to be
+arrested for breaking the speed laws, and fined the limit, even though
+he drove his car but eight miles an hour, while his news carriers and
+his employees were "pinched" upon the most trivial pretexts. Libel
+suits were brought wherever a merchant or an official had a record
+clear enough to risk such procedure, and three of these suits were
+decided against him; whereupon Bobby, finding the money chain which
+bound certain of the judges to Sam Stone, promptly attacked these
+members of the judiciary and appealed his cases.
+
+His very name became a red rag to every member of Stone's crowd; but
+up to this point no violence had been offered him. One night, however,
+as he was driving his own car homeward, men on the watch for him
+stepped out of an alley mouth two blocks above the Burnit residence
+and strewed the street thickly with sharp-pointed coil springs. One of
+these caught a tire, and Bobby, always on the alert for the first sign
+of such accidents, brought his car to a sudden stop, reached down for
+his tire-wrench and jumped out. Just as he stooped over to examine the
+tire, some instinct warned him, and he turned quickly to find three
+men coming upon him from the alley, the nearest one with an uplifted
+slung-shot. It was with just a glance from the corner of his eye as he
+turned that Bobby caught the import of the figure towering above him,
+and then his fine athletic training came in good stead. With a
+sidewise spring he was out of the sphere of that descending blow, and,
+swinging with his heavy wrench, caught the fellow a smash upon the
+temple which laid him unconscious. Before the two other men had time
+to think, he was upon them and gave one a broken shoulder-blade. The
+other escaped. There had been no word from any of the three men which
+might lead to an explanation of this attack, but Bobby needed no
+explanation; he divined at once the source from which it came, and in
+the morning he sent for Biff Bates.
+
+"Biff," said he, "I spoke once about securing some thugs to act as a
+counter-irritant against Stone, but I have neglected it. How long will
+it take to get hold of some?"
+
+"Ten minutes, if I wait till dark," replied Biff. "I can go down to
+the Blue Star, and for ten iron men apiece can get you as fine a bunch
+of yeggs as ever beat out a cripple's brains with his own wooden leg."
+
+Bobby smiled.
+
+"I don't want them to go quite that far," he objected. "Are they men
+you can depend upon not to sell out to Stone?"
+
+"Just one way," replied Biff. "The choice line of murderers that hang
+out down around the levee are half of them sore on Stone, anyhow; but
+they're afraid of him, and the only way you can use them is to give
+'em enough to get 'em out of town. For ten a throw you can buy them
+body and soul."
+
+"I'll take about four, to start on duty to-night, and stay on duty
+till they accomplish what I want done," and Bobby detailed his plan to
+Biff.
+
+Stone had one peculiarity. Knowing that he had enemies, and those
+among the most reckless class in the world, he seldom allowed himself
+to be caught alone; but every night he held counsel with some of his
+followers at a certain respectable beer-garden where, in the
+summer-time, a long table in a quiet, half-screened corner was
+reserved for him and his followers, and in the winter a back room was
+given up for the same purpose. Here Stone transacted all the real
+business of his local organization, drinking beer, reviving
+strange-looking callers, and confining his own remarks to a grunted
+yes or no, or a brief direction. Every night at about nine-thirty he
+rose, yawned, and, unattended, walked back through the beer-garden to
+the alley, where he stood for some five minutes. This was his retreat
+for uninterrupted thought, and when he came back from it he had the
+day's developments summed up and the necessary course of action
+resolved upon.
+
+On the second night after the attempted assault upon Bobby he had no
+sooner closed the alley door behind him than a man sprang upon him
+from either side, a heavy hand was placed over his mouth, and he was
+dragged to the ground, where a third brawny thug straddled his chest
+and showed him a long knife.
+
+"See it?" demanded the man as he passed the blade before Stone's eyes.
+"It's hungry. You let 'em clip my brother in stir for a three-stretch
+when you could have saved him with a grunt, and if I wasn't workin'
+under orders, in half an hour they'd have you on slab six with ice
+packed around you and a sheet over you. But we're under orders. We're
+part of the reform committee, we are," and all three of them laughed
+silently, "and there's a string of us longer than the Christmas
+bread-line, all crazy for a piece of this getaway coin. And here's the
+little message I got to give you. This time you're to go free. Next
+time you're to have your head beat off. This thuggin' of peaceable
+citizens has got to be stopped; see?"
+
+A low whistle from a man stationed at the mouth of the alley
+interrupted the speech which the man with the knife was enjoying so
+much, and he sprang from the chest of Stone, who had been struggling
+vainly all this time. As the man sprang up and started to run, he
+suddenly whirled and gave Stone a vicious kick upon the hip, and as
+Stone rose, another man kicked him in the ribs. All three of them ran,
+and Stone, scrambling to his feet with difficulty, whipped his
+revolver from his pocket and snapped it. Long disused, however, the
+trigger stuck, but he took after them on foot in spite of the pain of
+the two fearful kicks that he had received. Instead of darting
+straight out of the alley, the men turned in at a small gate at the
+side of a narrow building on the corner, and slammed the gate behind
+them. He could hear the drop of the wooden bolt. He knew perfectly
+that entrance. It was to the littered back yard of a cheap saloon, at
+the side of which ran a narrow passageway to the street beyond, where
+street-cars passed every half-minute.
+
+Just as he came furiously up to the gate a policeman darted in at the
+alley mouth, and, catching the glint of Stone's revolver, whipped his
+own. He ran quite fearlessly to Stone, and with a dextrous blow upon
+the wrist sent the revolver spinning.
+
+"You're under arrest," said he.
+
+For just one second he covered his man, then his arm dropped and his
+jaw opened in astonishment.
+
+"Why, it's Stone!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Yes, damn you, it's Stone!" screamed the Boss, livid with fury, and
+overcome with anger he dealt the policeman a staggering blow in the
+face. "You damned flat-foot, I'll teach you to notice who you put your
+hands on! Give me that badge!"
+
+White-faced and with trembling fingers, and with a trickle of blood
+starting slowly from a cut upon his cheek, the man unfastened his
+badge.
+
+"Now, go back to Cooley and tell him I broke you," Stone ordered, and
+turned on his heel.
+
+By the time he reached the back door of the beer-garden he was limping
+most painfully, but when he rejoined his crowd he said nothing of the
+incident. In the brief time that it had taken him to go from the alley
+mouth to that table he had divined the significance of the whole
+thing. For the first time in his career he knew himself to be a
+systematically marked man, as he had systematically marked others; and
+he was not beyond reason. Thereafter, Bobby Burnit was in no more
+jeopardy from hired thugs, and for a solid year he kept up his fight,
+with plenty of material to last him for still another twelvemonth. It
+was a year which improved him in many ways, but Aunt Constance
+Elliston objected to the improvement.
+
+"Bobby, they _are_ spoiling you," she complained. "They're taking your
+suavity away from you, and you're acquiring grim, hard lines around
+your mouth."
+
+"They're making him," declared Agnes, looking fondly across at the
+firm face and into the clear, unwavering eyes.
+
+Bobby answered the look of Agnes with one that needed no words to
+interpret, and laughed at Aunt Constance.
+
+"I suppose they are spoiling me," he confessed, "and I'm glad of it.
+I'm glad, above all, that I'm losing the sort of suavity which led me
+to smile and tell a man politely to take it, when he reached his hand
+into my pocket for my money."
+
+"You'll do," agreed Uncle Dan. "When you took hold of the _Bulletin_,
+your best friends only gave you two months, But are you making any
+money?"
+
+Bobby's face clouded.
+
+"Spending it like water. We have practically no advertising, and a
+larger circulation than I want. We lose money on every copy of the
+paper that we sell."
+
+Uncle Dan shook his head.
+
+"Is there a chance that you will ever get it back?" he asked.
+
+"Bobby's so used to failure that he doesn't mind," interjected Aunt
+Constance.
+
+"Mind!" exclaimed Bobby. "I never minded it so much in my life as I do
+now. The _Bulletin_ must win. I'm bound that it shall win! If we come
+out ahead in our fight against Stone I'll get all my advertising back,
+and I'll keep my circulation, which makes advertising rates."
+
+The telephone bell rang in the study adjoining the dining-room, and
+Bobby, who had been more or less distrait all evening, half rose from
+his chair. In a moment more the maid informed them that the call was
+for Mr. Burnit. In the study they could hear his voice, excited and
+exultant. He returned as delighted as a school-boy.
+
+"Now I can tell you something," he announced. "Within five minutes the
+_Bulletin_ will have exclusive extras on the street, announcing that
+the legislature has just appointed a committee to investigate
+municipal affairs throughout the state. That means this town. I have
+spent ten thousand dollars in lobbying that measure through, and
+charged it all to improvements' on the _Bulletin_. Sounds like I had
+joined the ranks of the 'boodlers,' don't it? Well, I don't give a
+cooky for ethics so long as I know I'm right. I'd have been a simp, as
+Biff Bates calls it, to go among that crowd of hungry law jugglers
+with kind words and the ten commandments. I'm not using crossbows
+against cannon, and as a result I'm winning. I got my measure through,
+and now I think we'll put Stone and his crew of freebooters on the
+grill, with some extra-hot coals for my friend De Graff and the other
+saintly sinners who have been playing into Stone's hands. I have been
+working a year for this, and the entire politics of this town, with
+wide-reaching results in the state, is disrupted."
+
+"You selfish boy," chided Aunt Constance. "You have been here with us
+for more than an hour, expecting this all the time, and have not
+breathed one word of it to us. Don't you trust anybody any more?"
+
+"Oh, yes," replied Bobby easily; "but only when it is necessary."
+
+Agnes smiled across at him in calm content. She had but very little to
+say now. She was in that blissful happiness that comes to any woman
+when the man most in her mind is reaping his meed of success from a
+long and hard-fought battle.
+
+"Spoken like your father, Bobby," laughed Uncle Dan. "You're coming to
+look more and more like him every day. You talk like him and act like
+him. You have the same snap of your jaws. Your father, however, never
+dabbled in politics. He always despised it, and I see you're bound to
+be knee-deep in it."
+
+"My father would have succeeded in politics," said Bobby confidently,
+"as he succeeded in everything else, after he once got started. I have
+his confession in writing, however, that he made a few fool mistakes
+himself along at first. As for politics, I _am_ in it knee-deep, and
+I'm going to elect my own slate next fall."
+
+"Another reform party, of course," suggested Uncle Dan with a smile.
+
+"Not for Bobby," replied that decided young gentleman. "I am forming
+an affiliation with Cal Lewis."
+
+"Cal Lewis!" exclaimed Uncle Dan aghast. Then he closed his eyes and
+laughed softly. "As notorious in his way as Sam Stone himself. Why,
+Bobby, that's fighting fire with gasolene."
+
+"It's setting a thief to catch a thief. You must remember that for
+fifteen years Cal hasn't had any of the pie except in a minor way, and
+all this time he's been fighting Stone tooth and toe-nail. The late
+reform movement, which failed so lamentably to carry out its gaudy
+promises after it had won, left him entirely out of its calculations,
+and Lewis actually joined with Stone in overturning it. I propose to
+use Lewis' knowledge of political machinery, but in my own way. As a
+matter of fact, I have already engaged him and put him on salary; a
+good, stiff one, too. His business is to organize my political
+machine. I'm going to have a slate of clean men, who will not only
+conduct the business of this county and city with probity but with
+discretion, and I do not mind telling you that my candidate for mayor
+is Chalmers."
+
+Agnes gave a little cry of delight, and even Aunt Constance clapped
+her hands lightly, for Chalmers, a young lawyer of excellent social
+connections, was a prime favorite with the Ellistons, and in the
+business he had transacted for the Burnit estate Bobby had found in
+him sterling qualities.
+
+"Chalmers is a good man," agreed Uncle Dan, "though he is young, and
+practically without political influence; but, if you can make him
+mayor, I predict a brilliant political future for him."
+
+"He will have it," said Bobby confidently, "for I intend to make him
+the attorney for the investigating committee, and through his work I
+expect to have not less than a hundred thousand dollars of stolen
+money turned back into the city and county treasuries."
+
+As Bobby announced this he rose mechanically, and, still absorbed in
+the details of his big fight, walked out into the hall. It was not
+until he had his coat on and his hat in his hand that he came to
+himself; and with the deepest confusion found that he had been about
+to walk out without making any adieus whatever.
+
+"Why, where are you going?" inquired Agnes, as he came back into the
+drawing-room.
+
+He laughed sheepishly.
+
+"Why," he explained, "ever since I received that telephone message I
+have been seeing before me the _Bulletin_ extra that they are throwing
+on the street right now, and I forgot everything else. I'll simply
+have to go down and hold a copy of it in my hands."
+
+"You're just a big boy," laughed Aunt Constance. "Will you ever grow
+up?"
+
+"I hope not," declared Agnes, and taking his arm she strolled with him
+to the door in perfect peace and confidence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+MR. STONE LEAVES BOBBY A PARTING COMMISSION AND A LEFT-HANDED BLESSING
+
+
+It looked good to Bobby, that late extra of the _Bulletin_, and the
+force that he had kept on duty to get it out greeted him, as he walked
+through the office, with a running fire of comment and congratulation
+that was almost like applause. He had bought a copy on the street as
+he came in, and as he spread it out there came upon him a thrill of
+realization that this ought to be the beginning of the end.
+
+It was. The fact that Bobby, through the _Bulletin_, had forced this
+action, made him a power to be reckoned with; and straws, whole bales
+of them, began to show which way the wind was blowing.
+
+One morning a delegation headed by the Reverend Doctor Larynx waited
+upon him. The Reverend Doctor was a minister of great ingenuity and
+force, who sought the salvation of souls through such vital topics as
+Shall Men Go Coatless in Summer? The Justice of Three-Cent Car Fares,
+and The Billboards Must Go. All public questions, civic, state or
+national, were thoroughly thrashed out in the pulpit of the Reverend
+Larynx, and turned adrift with the seal of his condemnation or
+approval duly fixed upon them; and he managed to get his name and
+picture in the papers almost as often as the man who took eighty-seven
+bottles of Elixo and still survived. With him were four thoroughly
+respectable men of business, two of whom wore side-whiskers and the
+other two of whom wore white bow-ties.
+
+"Fine business, Mr. Burnit," said the Reverend Doctor Larynx in a
+loud, hearty voice, advancing with three strides and clasping Bobby's
+hand in a vise-like grip; for he was a red-blooded minister, was the
+Reverend Doctor Larynx, and he believed in getting down among the
+"pee-pul." "The _Bulletin_ has proved itself a mighty fine engine of
+reform, and the reputable citizens of this municipality now see a ray
+of hope before them."
+
+"I'm afraid that the reputable citizens," ventured Bobby, "have no one
+but themselves to blame for their past hopeless condition. They're too
+selfish to vote."
+
+"You have hit the nail on the head," declaimed the Reverend Larynx
+with a loud, hearty laugh, "but the _Bulletin_ will rouse them to a
+sense of duty. Last night, Mr. Burnit, the Utopian Club was formed
+with an initial membership of over seventy, and it selected a
+candidate for mayor of whom the _Bulletin_ is bound to approve. Shake
+hands with Mr. Freedom, the Utopian Club's candidate for mayor, Mr.
+Burnit."
+
+Bobby shook hands with Mr. Freedom quite nicely, and studied him
+curiously.
+
+He was one of the two who wore side-whiskers and a habitual Prince
+Albert, and he displayed a phenomenal length from lower lip to chin,
+which, by reason of his extremely high and narrow forehead, gave his
+features the appearance of being grouped in tiny spots somewhere near
+the center of a long, yellow cylinder. Mr. Freedom, he afterward
+ascertained, was a respectable singing-teacher.
+
+"Professor Freedom," went on the Reverend Doctor Larynx, still loudly
+and heartily, "has the time to devote to this office, as well as the
+ideal qualifications. He has no vices whatever. He does not even smoke
+nor use tobacco in any form, and under his regime the saloons of this
+town would be turned into vacant store-rooms, if there are laws to
+make possible such action."
+
+"I do not want the saloons put out of business," declared Bobby. "I
+merely want them vacated at twelve every night, without exception."
+
+When Doctor Larynx and his delegation went away in wrath the leader
+was already preparing his sermon upon The Iniquity of the Sons of Rich
+Fathers.
+
+On the following day a delegation from the business men's club waited
+upon him. The business men's club wanted a business administration.
+This crowd Bobby handled differently. Upon his desk, tabulated in
+advance against just such an emergency, he had statistics concerning
+all the business men's administrations that had been tried in various
+cities, and he submitted this statement without argument. It needed
+none.
+
+"Politics is in itself a distinct business," he explained. "You would
+not one of you take up the duties of a surveyor without previous
+training. The only trouble is that there are no restrictions placed
+upon politicians. I propose to use them, but to regulate them."
+
+He did not convert the delegation by this one interview, but he did by
+cultivating these men and others of their kind separately. He ate
+luncheons and dinners with them at the Traders' Club, played billiards
+with them, smoked and talked with them; and the burden of his talk was
+Chalmers. When he finally got ready for his campaign the business men
+were with him unanimously, at least outwardly. Inwardly, there were
+reservations, for the matter of special privileges was one to be very
+gravely considered; and special privileges, at a price not entirely
+prohibitive, was the bulwark of Stone's regime.
+
+"But the Stone regime," Bobby advised them, coming brutally to the
+point and telling them what he knew of their own affairs and Stone's,
+"is about to come to an end. The handwriting is on the wall, and you
+might just as well climb into the band wagon, for at last I have the
+public on my side."
+
+At last he had. For a solid year he had been trying to understand the
+peculiar apathy of the public, and he did not understand it yet. They
+seemed to like Stone and to look upon his wholesale corruption as a
+joke; but by constant hammering, by showing the unredeemable
+cussedness of Stone and his crowd, he had produced some impression--an
+impression that, alas! was of the surface only--until the
+investigating committee began its sessions. When it became understood,
+however, that certain of the thieves might actually be sent to the
+penitentiary, then who so loud in their denunciation as the public?
+Why, Stone had robbed them right and left; why, Stone was an enemy to
+mankind; why, Stone and all his friends were monsters whom it were a
+good and a holy thing to skewer and flay and cast into everlasting
+brimstone!
+
+Facts were uncovered that set the entire city in turmoil. More than
+fifty men who had never been born had been carried upon the city and
+county pay-rolls, and half of their salaries went directly into
+Stone's pocket, the other half going to the men who conducted this
+paying enterprise. Contracts for city paving and other improvements
+were let to favored bidders at an enormous figure, and Stone
+personally had one-fourth of the huge profits on "scamped" work,
+another fourth going to those who arranged the details and did the
+collecting. Innumerable instances of this sort were brought out; but
+the biggest scandal of all, in that it involved men who should have
+been unassailable, was that of the banks. The relentless probe brought
+out the fact that all city and county funds had been distributed among
+four banks, the deposits yielding no revenue whatever to either
+commonwealth. These funds, however, had paid privately two per cent.
+interest, and this interest was paid in cash, in sealed envelopes, to
+the city and county auditors and treasurers, who took the envelopes
+unbroken to Stone for distribution. The amounts thus diverted from the
+proper channels totaled to an enormous figure, and, as this money was
+the most direct and approachable, Chalmers, who had the interesting
+role of inquisitor, set out to get it. The officials who had been
+longest at the crib, grown incautious were now men of property, and by
+the use of red-hot pincers Chalmers was able to restore nearly sixty
+thousand dollars of stolen money, with the possibility of more in
+sight.
+
+It was upon the heels of this that Chalmers' candidacy for mayor was
+announced, and the manner in which the Stone machine dropped to pieces
+was laughable. Chalmers, and the entire slate so carefully prepared by
+Bobby in conjunction with the shrewd old fox, Cal Lewis, won by a
+majority so overwhelming as to be almost unanimous. Immediately upon
+Chalmers' election heads began to drop, and the first to go was
+Cooley, chief of police, in whom, four years later, Bobby recognized
+the driver of his ice wagon. Coincident with the election came
+well-founded rumors of grand jury indictments. Two of Stone's closest
+and busiest lieutenants, who were most in danger of being presented
+with nice new suits of striped clothing, quietly converted their
+entire property into cash and then just as quietly slipped away to
+Honduras.
+
+Late one afternoon, as Bobby sat alone in his room in the almost
+deserted _Bulletin_ building, so worried over his business affairs
+that he had no time for elation over his political and personal
+triumphs, the door opened and Stone stood before him. The pouches
+under Stone's eyes were heavier and darker, his cheeks drooped
+flabbily and he seemed to have fallen away inside his clothes, but
+upon his face there sat the same stern impassiveness. Bobby instantly
+rose, having good cause to want to be well planted upon his feet with
+this man near him. Stone carefully closed the door behind him and
+advanced to the other side of Bobby's desk.
+
+"Well, you win," he said huskily.
+
+Bobby drew a long breath.
+
+"It has cost me a lot of money, Mr. Stone. It has left me almost flat
+broke--but I got you."
+
+"I give you credit," admitted Stone. "I didn't think anybody could do
+it, least of all a kid; but you got me and you got me good. It's been
+a hard fight for all of us, I guess. I'm a little run down," and he
+hesitated curiously; "my doctor says I got to take an ocean trip." He
+suddenly blazed out: "Damn it, you might as well be told! I'm running
+away!"
+
+Bobby found himself silent. For two years he had planned and hoped for
+this moment of victory. Now that the exultant moment had come he found
+himself feeling strangely sorry for this big man, in spite of his
+unutterable rascality.
+
+"I ain't coming back," Stone went on after a pause, "and there's
+something I want to ask you to do for me."
+
+"I should be glad to do it, Mr. Stone, if it is anything I can allow
+myself to do."
+
+"Aw, cut it!" growled Stone. "Look here. I got a list of some poor
+mutts I been looking out for, and I've just set aside a wad to keep it
+going. I want you to look after 'em and see that the money gets spread
+around right. I know you're square. I don't know anybody else to give
+it to."
+
+To Bobby he handed a list of some fifty names and addresses, with
+monthly amounts set down opposite them. They were widows and orphans
+and helpless creatures of all sorts and conditions, blind and deaf and
+crippled, whom Stone, in the great passion that every man has for some
+one to love and revere him, and in the secret tenderness inseparable
+from all big natures, had made his pensioners.
+
+"There ain't a soul on earth knows about these but me, and every one
+of 'em is wise to it that if they ever blat a word about it the pap's
+cut off. I don't want a thing, not even a hint, printed about
+this--see? I ain't afraid that you'll use it in the paper after me
+asking you not to, so I don't ask you for any promise."
+
+"I'll do it with pleasure," offered Bobby.
+
+"Well, I guess that's about all," said Stone, and turned to go.
+
+Bobby came from behind his desk.
+
+"After all, Stone," he said, with some hesitation, "I'm sorry to lose
+an enemy so worth while. I wish you good luck wherever you are going,"
+and he held out his hand.
+
+Stone looked at the proffered hand and shook his head.
+
+"I'd rather smash your face," he growled, and passed out of the door.
+
+It was the last that Bobby ever saw of him, and all that the
+_Bulletin_ carried about his flight was the "fact," not at all too
+prominently displayed for the man's importance as a public figure,
+that Stone's health was in jeopardy and that he was about to take an
+ocean voyage upon the advice of his physician; and on that day Stone's
+picture disappeared from the place it had occupied upon the front page
+of the _Bulletin_.
+
+It was a victory complete and final, but it was not without its sting,
+for on that same day Bobby faced an empty exchequer. It was Johnson
+who brought him the sad but not at all unexpected tidings, at a moment
+when Chalmers and Agnes happened to be in the office. Seeing them,
+Johnson hesitated at the door.
+
+"What is it, Johnson?" asked Bobby.
+
+"Oh, nothing much," said Mr. Johnson with a pained expression. "I'll
+come back again."
+
+He had a sheet of paper with him and Bobby held out his hand for it.
+Still hesitating, old Johnson brought it forward and laid it down on
+Bobby's desk.
+
+"You know you told me, sir, to bring this to you."
+
+Had the others not been present he would have added the reminder that
+he had been instructed to bring this statement a week in advance of
+the time when Bobby should no longer be able to meet his payroll.
+Bobby looked up from the statement without any thought of reserve
+before these three.
+
+"Well, it's come. I'm broke."
+
+"Not so much a calamity in this instance as it has been in others,"
+said Agnes sagely. "Fortunately, your trustee is right here, and your
+trustee's lawyer, who has two hundred and fifty thousand dollars still
+to your account."
+
+Bobby listened in frowning silence, and old Johnson, who had prepared
+himself before he came upstairs for such a contingency, quietly laid
+upon Bobby's desk one of the familiar gray envelopes and withdrew. It
+was inscribed:
+
+    _To My Son Robert, Upon the Turning Over to Him of His Sixth
+      and Last Experimental Fund_
+
+    "If a man fails six times he'd better be pensioned and left to
+    live a life of pleasant ease; for everybody has a right to be
+    happy, and not all can gain happiness through their own
+    efforts. So, if you fail this last time, don't worry, my boy,
+    but take measures to cut your garment according to the income
+    from a million and a half dollars, invested so safely that it
+    can yield you but two per cent. If the fault of your ill
+    success lies with anybody it lies with me, and I blame myself
+    bitterly for it many times as I write this letter.
+
+    "Remember, first, last and always, that I want you to be
+    happy."
+
+Bobby passed the letter to Agnes and the envelope to Chalmers.
+
+"This is a little premature," he said, smiling at both of them, "for
+I'm not applying for the sixth portion."
+
+Agnes looked up at him in surprise.
+
+"Not applying for it?"
+
+"No," he declared, "I don't want it. I understand there is a provision
+that I can not use two of these portions in the same business."
+
+Both Chalmers and Agnes nodded.
+
+"I don't want money for any other business than the _Bulletin_,"
+declared Bobby, "and if my father has it fixed so that he won't help
+me as I want to be helped, I don't want it at all."
+
+"There is another provision about which you perhaps don't know,"
+Chalmers informed him; "if you refuse this money it reverts to the
+main fund."
+
+Bobby studied this over thoughtfully.
+
+"Let it revert," said he. "I'll sink or swim right here."
+
+The next day he went to his bank and tried to borrow money. They liked
+Bobby very much indeed over at the bank. He was a vigorous young man,
+a young man of affairs, a young man who had won a great public
+victory, a young man whom it was generally admitted had done the city
+an incalculable amount of good; but they could not accept Bobby nor
+the _Bulletin_ as a business proposition. Had they not seen the
+original fund dwindle and dwindle for two years until now there was
+nothing left? Wouldn't another fund dwindle likewise? It is no part of
+a bank's desire to foreclose upon securities. They are quite well
+satisfied with just the plain interest. Moreover, the _Bulletin_
+wasn't such heavy security, anyhow.
+
+Bobby tried another bank with like results, and also some of his firm
+business friends at the Traders' Club. In the midst of his dilemma
+President De Graff of the First National came to him.
+
+"I understand you have been trying to borrow some money, Burnit?"
+
+It sounded to Bobby as if De Graff had come to gloat over him, since
+he had been instrumental in dragging De Graff and the First National
+through the mire.
+
+"Yes, sir, I have," he nevertheless answered steadily.
+
+"Why didn't you come to us?" demanded De Graff.
+
+"To you?" said Bobby, amazed. "I never thought of you in that
+connection at all, De Graff, after all that has happened."
+
+De Graff shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"That was like pulling a tooth. It hurt and one dreaded it, but it was
+so much better when it was out. Until you jumped into the fight Stone
+had me under his thumb. The minute the exposure came he had no further
+hold on me. It is the only questionable thing I ever did in my life,
+and I'm glad it was exposed. I admire you for it, even though it will
+hurt me in a business way for a long time to come. But about this
+money now. How much do you need at the present time?"
+
+"I'd like an account of about twenty-five thousand."
+
+"I can let you have it at once," said De Graff, "and as much more as
+you need, up to a certain reasonable point that I think will be amply
+sufficient."
+
+"Is this Stone's money?" asked Bobby with sudden suspicion.
+
+De Graff smiled.
+
+"No," said he, "it is my own. I have faith in you, Burnit, and faith
+in the _Bulletin_. Suppose you step over to the First National with me
+right away."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+AUNT CONSTANCE ELLISTON LOSES ALL HER PATIENCE WITH A CERTAIN PROSAIC
+COURTSHIP
+
+
+That night, with a grave new responsibility upon him and a grave new
+elation, sturdier and stronger than he had ever been in his life, and
+more his own master, Bobby went out to see Agnes.
+
+"Agnes, when my father made you my trustee," he said, "he laid upon
+you the obligation that you were not to marry me until I had proved
+myself either a success or a failure, didn't he?"
+
+"He did," assented Agnes demurely.
+
+"But you are no longer my trustee. The last money over which you had
+nominal control has reverted to the main fund, which is in the hands
+of Mr. Barrister; so that releases you."
+
+Agnes laughed softly and shook her head.
+
+"The obligation wasn't part of the trusteeship," she reminded him.
+
+"But if I choose to construe it that way," he persisted, "and declare
+the obligation null and void, how soon could you get ready to be
+married to the political boss of this town and one of its leading
+business men? Agnes," he went on, suddenly quite serious, "I can not
+do without you any longer. I have waited long enough. I need you and
+you must come to me."
+
+"I'll come if you insist," she said simply, and laid both her hands in
+his. "But, Bobby, let's think about this a minute. Let's think what it
+means. I have been thinking of it many, many days, and really and
+truly I don't like to give up, because of its bearing upon our future
+strength. Yesterday I drove down Grand Street and looked up at that
+Trimmer and Company sign, and so long as that is there, Bobby, I could
+not feel right about our deserting the colors, as it were; that is,
+unless you have definitely given up the fight."
+
+"Given up!" repeated Bobby quickly. "Why, I have just begun. I've been
+to school all this time, Agnes, and to a hard school, but now I'm sure
+I have learned my lesson. I have won a fight or two; I have had the
+taste of blood; I'm going after more; I'm going to win."
+
+"I'm sure that you will," she repeated. "Think how much better
+satisfied we will be after you have done so."
+
+"Yes, but think, too, of the time it will take," he protested. "First
+of all I must earn money; that is, I must make the _Bulletin_ pay. I
+can do that. It is on the edge of earning its way right now, but I owe
+twenty-five thousand dollars. It is going to take a long, long time
+for me to win this battle, and in it I need you."
+
+"I am always right here, Bobby," she reminded him. "I have never
+failed you when you needed me, have I? But maybe it won't take so
+long. You say you are going to make the _Bulletin_ pay. If you do that
+counts for a business success, enough to release you on that side. But
+really, Bobby, how difficult a task would it be to get back control of
+your father's store?"
+
+"Hopeless, just now," said he.
+
+"How much money would it take?"
+
+"Well, not so very much in comparison with the business itself," he
+told her. "I own two hundred and sixty thousand dollars' worth of
+stock, Trimmer owns two hundred and forty thousand, while sixty
+thousand more are scattered among his relatives and dependents. That
+stock is not for sale, that is the trouble; but if I could buy
+twenty-one thousand dollars of it I could do what I liked with the
+entire concern."
+
+"Then Bobby, let's not think of anything else but how to get that
+stock. Let's insist on having that for our wedding present."
+
+Bobby regarded her gravely for a long time.
+
+"Agnes, you're a brick!" he finally concluded. "You're right, as you
+have always been. We'll wait. But you don't know, oh, you don't know
+how hard that is for me!"
+
+"It is not the easiest thing in the world for me," she gently reminded
+him.
+
+From the time that she had laid her hands in his he had held them, and
+now he had gathered them to him, pressing them upon his breast.
+Suddenly, overcome by his great longing for her, he clasped her in his
+arms and held her, and pressed his lips to hers. For a moment she
+yielded to that embrace and closed her eyes, and then she gently drew
+away from him.
+
+"We mustn't indulge in that sort of thing very much," she reminded
+him, "or we're likely to lose all our good resolutions."
+
+"Good resolutions," declared Bobby, "are a nuisance."
+
+She smiled and shook her head.
+
+"Look at the people who haven't any," she reminded him.
+
+It was perhaps half an hour later when an idea which brought with it a
+smile came to her.
+
+"We've definitely resolved now to wait until you have either
+accomplished what you set out to do, or completely failed, haven't
+we?"
+
+"Yes," he assented soberly.
+
+"Then I'm going to open one of the letters your father left for us. I
+have been dying with curiosity to know what is in it," and hurrying up
+to her secretary she brought down one of the inevitable gray
+envelopes, addressed:
+
+    _To My Children Upon the Occasion of Their Deciding to Marry
+      Before the Limit of My Prohibition_
+
+    "What I can not for the life of me understand is why the devil
+    you didn't do it long ago!"
+
+Bobby was so thoroughly awake to the underlying principle of Agnes'
+contention that even this letter did nothing to change his viewpoint.
+
+"For it isn't him, it is us, or rather it is me, who is to be
+considered," he declared. "But it does seem to me, Agnes, as if for
+once we had got the better of the governor."
+
+They were still laughing over the unexpectedness of the letter when
+Aunt Constance came in, and they showed it to her.
+
+"Good!" she exclaimed, dwelling longer upon the inscription than upon
+the letter itself. "I think you're quite sensible, and I'll arrange
+the finest wedding for Agnes that has ever occurred in the Elliston
+family. You must give me at least a couple of months, though. When is
+it to come off? Soon, I suppose?"
+
+Carefully and patiently they explained the stand they had taken. At
+first she thought they were joking, and it took considerable
+reiteration on their part for her to understand that they were not.
+
+"I declare I have no patience with you!" she avowed. "Of all the
+humdrum, prosaic people I ever saw, you are the very worst! There is
+no romance in you. You're as cool about it as if marriage were a
+commercial partnership. Oh, Dan!" and she called her husband from the
+library. "Now what do you think of this?" she demanded, and explained
+the ridiculous attitude of the young people.
+
+"Great!" decided Uncle Dan. "Allow me to congratulate you," and he
+shook hands heartily with both Agnes and Bobby, whereat Aunt Constance
+denounced him as being a sordid soul of their own stripe and went to
+bed in a huff. She got up again, however, when she heard Agnes retire
+to her own room for the night, and came in to wrestle with that young
+lady in spirit. She found Agnes, however, obdurate in her content, and
+ended by becoming an enthusiastic supporter of the idea. "Although I
+did have my heart so set on a fine wedding," she plaintively
+concluded. "I have been planning it for ages."
+
+"Just keep on planning, auntie," replied Agnes. "No doubt you will
+acquire some brilliant new ideas before the time comes."
+
+So this utterly placid courtship went on in its old tranquil way, with
+Bobby a constant two and three nights a week visitor to the Elliston
+home, and with the two young people discussing business more
+frequently than anything else; for Bobby had learned to come to Agnes
+for counsel in everything. Just now his chief burden of conversation
+was the letting of the new waterworks contract, which, with public
+sentiment back of him, he had fought off until after the Stone
+administration had ended. Hamilton Ferris, an old polo antagonist of
+his, represented one of the competing firms as its president, and
+Bobby had been most anxious that he should be the successful bidder,
+as was Agnes; for Bobby had brought Ferris to dinner at the Ellistons
+and to call a couple of times during his stay in the city, and all of
+the Ellistons liked him tremendously. Bobby was quite crestfallen when
+the opening of the bids proved Ferris to be the second lowest man.
+
+"I've tried hard enough for it," declared Ferris during a final dinner
+at the Ellistons that night. "There isn't much doing this year, and I
+figured closer than anybody in my employ would dared to have done. In
+view of my estimate I can not for the life of me see how your local
+company overbid us all by over a million dollars."
+
+"It is curious," admitted Bobby, still much puzzled.
+
+"It's rather unsportsmanlike in me to whine," resumed Ferris, "but I
+am bound to believe that there is a colored gentleman in the woodpile
+somewhere."
+
+"That would be no novelty," returned Bobby. "Ever since I bought the
+_Bulletin_ I have been gunning for Ethiopians amid the fuel and always
+found them. The Middle West Construction Company, however, is a new
+load of kindling to me. I never heard of it until it was announced
+this morning as the lowest bidder."
+
+"Nobody ever heard of it," asserted Ferris. "It was no doubt organized
+for the sole purpose of bidding on this job. Probably when you delve
+into the matter you will discover the fine Italian hand of your
+political boss."
+
+"Hardly," chuckled Uncle Dan, indulging in his recent propensity to
+brag on Bobby. "Our local boss was Sam Stone, and Bobby has just
+succeeded in running him and two of his expert wire workers out of the
+country."
+
+"If anybody here is the political boss it is Bobby," observed Agnes,
+laughing.
+
+"I'm sorry to have to suspect him," laughed Ferris. "Well, there is no
+use crying over spilled milk; but I had hoped to bring Mrs. Ferris out
+for a good long visit."
+
+"Give your wife my regards, Mr. Ferris, and tell her she must come
+anyhow," insisted Mrs. Elliston. "Since I have heard that you married
+the daughter of my old schoolmate, I have been wanting the Keystone
+Construction Company to have a big contract here more than you have, I
+think."
+
+"Sounds very nice, Constance," said her husband dryly, "but I doubt if
+any woman ever wanted to see the daughter of her old schoolmate as
+badly as any man ever wanted to make a million dollars. Bobby, I'll
+make you a small bet. I'll bet your new construction company is
+composed of the shattered fragments of the old Stone crowd. I'll even
+bet that Silas Trimmer is in it."
+
+"If he is," suddenly declared Agnes, "I'm going to go into the
+detective business," whereat Uncle Dan enjoyed himself hugely. Her
+vindictiveness whenever the name of Silas Trimmer was mentioned had
+become highly amusing to him, in spite of the fact that he admired her
+for it.
+
+"Go right ahead," said Bobby approvingly. "If you find anything that
+will enable me to give that gentleman a financial backset I'll see
+that you get a handsome reward. In the meantime I'm going to find out
+something about the Middle West Construction Company myself."
+
+Accordingly he asked his managing editor about that concern the first
+thing in the morning.
+
+Ben Jolter lit his old pipe, folded his bare arms and patted them
+alternately in speculative enjoyment.
+
+"I have something like two pages of information about them, if we
+could use it," he announced. "I have been getting reports from the
+entire scouting brigade ever since the contract was let yesterday, and
+you may now prepare for a shock. The largest stock-holders of the
+concern are Silas Trimmer and Frank Sharpe, and the minor
+stock-holders, almost to a man, consist of those who had their little
+crack at the public crib under your old, time-tried and true friend,
+Sam Stone."
+
+"I admit that I am properly shocked," responded Bobby.
+
+"It hinges together beautifully," Jolter went on. "The whole
+waterworks project was a Stone scheme, and Stone people--even though
+Stone himself is wiped out--secure the contract. The last expiring act
+of the Stone administration was to employ Ed Scales as chief engineer
+until the completion of the waterworks, which may occupy eight or ten
+years, and the contract with Scales is binding on the city unless he
+can be impeached for cause. Scales was city engineer under the
+previous reform spasm, but Stone probably found him good material and
+kept him on. The waterworks plans were prepared under his supervision
+and he got them ready for bidding. Now what's the answer?"
+
+"Easy," returned Bobby. "The city loses."
+
+"Right," agreed Jolter; "but how? I don't see that we can do anything.
+Scales, having prepared the plans, is the logical man to see that they
+are carried out, and he is perfectly competent. His record is clean,
+so that he owns no property, nor does any of his family--although that
+may be because he never had a chance. The Middle West Construction
+Company, though just incorporated, is financially sound, thoroughly
+bonded, and, moreover, has put into the hands of the city ample
+guarantee for its twenty per cent. forfeit as required by the terms of
+the contract. There isn't a thing that the _Bulletin_ can do except to
+boost local enterprise with a bit of reservation, then lay low and
+wait for developments."
+
+"I dislike to do it," objected Bobby. "It hurts me to think of
+mentioning Stone or Trimmer in any complimentary way whatsoever."
+
+Jolter laughed. "You're a fine and consistent enemy," he said.
+
+"I guess I came by it honestly," smiled Bobby, and from a drawer in
+his desk took one of the gray John Burnit letters.
+
+"'Always forgive your enemies,'" read Jolter aloud; "'that is, after
+you are good and even with them.'"
+
+"Here goes for them, then," said Jolter, passing back the letter with
+an approving chuckle. "We'll let them go right ahead, and in the
+meantime the _Bulletin_ will do a lot of real nifty old sleuthing."
+
+But the _Bulletin's_ sleuthing brought nothing wrong to light, and
+work upon the big waterworks contract was begun with a rush.
+
+In the meantime Agnes, true to her threat, was doing some
+investigating on her own account. She renewed her girlhood
+acquaintance with Trimmer's daughter, who was now Mrs. Clarence
+Smythe, and with others of the Trimmer connection, and she saw these
+women folk frequently for the sole purpose of gathering up any scraps
+of information that might drop. The best she could gather, however,
+was that Clarence Smythe and Silas Trimmer were no longer upon very
+friendly terms; that Mrs. Smythe had quarreled with her father about
+Clarence; also that Clarence's Trimmer and Company stock was in Mrs.
+Smythe's name. These scraps of information, slight as they were, she
+religiously brought to Bobby. When the new waterworks began Agnes
+saved all the newspaper clippings relating to that tremendous
+undertaking, and she frequently drove out there of evenings after the
+workmen had all gone home; with just what purpose she could not say,
+but she felt impelled, as she half-sheepishly confessed to her Uncle
+Dan, to "keep an eye on the job." She kept up her absurd surveillance
+in spite of all Uncle Dan's ridicule, and one evening she came home in
+a state of quivering excitement. She called up Bobby at once.
+
+"Bobby," she wanted to know, "has the city decided to cut down
+expenses on the waterworks, or have the plans been changed for any
+reason?"
+
+"Not that the public knows about," replied Bobby. "Why?"
+
+"The pumping station is not so big as the newspapers said it was to
+be. It is over thirty feet shorter and over twenty feet narrower."
+
+"How do you know?" demanded Bobby.
+
+"I took Wilkins out there with me to-night and had him measure it for
+me with a yard-stick while the watchman had gone for his supper,"
+replied Agnes triumphantly.
+
+Bobby stopped to laugh.
+
+"Impossible," said he. "You have measured it wrong or misunderstood it
+in some way or other."
+
+"You go out and measure it for yourself," insisted Agnes.
+
+Partly to humor her and partly because his interest had been aroused,
+Bobby went out the next night and measured the pumping station, the
+excavation for which was already completed, and to his astonishment
+found that Agnes' measurements were correct. He immediately wrote to
+Ferris about it, told him the present dimensions and asked him upon
+what basis he had figured. In place of replying Ferris came on.
+Arriving in the city on Saturday, on Sunday he and Bobby went out to
+the site, and Ferris examined the new waterworks with a deliberation
+which well-nigh got him into serious trouble with the watchman.
+
+"Well, young man, your fair city is stung," declared Ferris. "The
+trenches are not so deep as specified by two feet, and from their
+width I can tell that the foundation walls are to be at least six
+inches thinner. I bid on the best grade of Portland cement for that
+job. It was spelled with a _B_, however, in my copy of the
+specification, and I asked your man Scales about it. 'Oh,' said he,
+'that's a misprint in the typewriting,' and he changed the _B_ to _P_
+with a lead pencil. Under that shed are about a thousand barrels of
+_Bortland_ cement. I never heard of that brand, but I can tell cement
+when I see it, and this stuff will have no more adhesive power than
+plain mud. Bedford stone was specified. They have several car-loads of
+stone dumped down here which is not Bedford stone at all. I could tell
+a piece of Bedford in the dark. This is an inferior rock which will
+discolor in six months and will disintegrate in five years."
+
+Bobby thought the thing over quietly for some minutes.
+
+"About the dimensions of the building, Ferris, you might possibly be
+mistaken, might you not?" asked Bobby.
+
+"Impossible," returned Ferris. "I have not figured on many jobs for
+years, but our chief estimator had been sent down to Cuba when this
+thing came up and I did the work myself, so I have a very vivid memory
+of it and can not possibly have it confused with any other bid.
+Moreover, we have all those things on record in our office and I
+looked it up before I came away. The dimensions of the power house and
+pumping station were to be one hundred and ninety by one hundred and
+sixty feet. The present dimensions are one hundred and fifty-eight by
+one hundred and thirty-three."
+
+Bobby was thoughtfully silent for a while.
+
+"Do you remember who else bid on the contract?" he inquired presently.
+
+"Every one of them," smiled Ferris. "I can give you their addresses
+and the names of the people to wire to if that is what you want. We
+meet them on every big job."
+
+"Do you mind wiring yourself?" asked Bobby. "They would be more apt to
+give you confidential information."
+
+"With pleasure," agreed Ferris, and wrote the telegrams.
+
+On the following morning Bobby received answers at his office to all
+but one of his telegrams, and the information was unanimous that the
+original plans had called for a building one hundred and ninety by one
+hundred and sixty feet.
+
+"Now I begin to understand," said Ferris. "This was the first set of
+important plans I ever saw in which the dimensions were not marked,
+but they were most accurately drawn to scale, one-fourth inch to the
+foot. They are probably using the same drawings with an altered scale,
+although it would be an absurdly clumsy trick. If that is the case it
+is easy to see how the Middle West Construction Company could
+under-bid us by more than a million dollars and still make more money
+than we figured on."
+
+Bobby reached for the telephone.
+
+"Get me the mayor's office," he called to the girl at his private
+telephone exchange. "Will you 'stick around' to see the fuss?" he
+inquired with grim pleasure, as he hung up the receiver.
+
+Ferris grinned as he noted the light of battle dawning in Bobby's
+eyes.
+
+"I don't know," he replied. "It depends on the size and duration of
+the fuss."
+
+"If you don't stay I'll have you subpoenaed. I may have to, anyhow.
+As for the size of the fuss, I can promise you a bully one if what you
+surmise is correct."
+
+His telephone bell rang and Bobby turned to it quickly.
+
+"Hello, Chalmers!" he began, then laughed. "Beg pardon, Agnes; I
+thought it was the mayor's office;" he apologized, then listened
+intently. There were a few eager queries, and when Bobby hung up the
+telephone receiver it was with great satisfaction. "I haven't seen as
+much fun in sight since I began my fight on Stone," he declared. "Miss
+Elliston, who has developed a marvelous new capacity for finding out
+other men's business secrets through their women folk, has just
+telephoned me the results of her last night's detective work. It seems
+that Silas Trimmer, one of the heavy backers of the Middle West
+Construction Company, has just negotiated a loan upon his stock in the
+mercantile establishment of Trimmer and Company, my share of which was
+known as the John Burnit Store until Trimmer beat me out of control. I
+understand that Trimmer has mortgaged everything to the hilt to go
+into this waterworks deal."
+
+The bell rang again. This time it was Chalmers.
+
+[Illustration: I'd be tickled black in the face to make good any day]
+
+"Say, Chalmers," said Bobby, "I want you to get me some sort of a
+legal document that will allow me to take possession of and examine
+all the books, papers and drawings of the city engineer's department,
+including the waterworks engineer's office.... Yes, you can,
+Chalmers," he insisted, against an obvious protest. "There is some
+legal machinery you can put in motion to get it, and I want it right
+away. Moreover, I want you to secure me somebody to serve the writ and
+to keep it quiet."
+
+Then he explained briefly what had been partly discovered and partly
+surmised. Next Bobby sent for Jolter and laid the facts before him, to
+the great joy of that aggressive gentleman. Then he called up Biff
+Bates, and made an appointment with him to meet him at Jimmy Platt's
+office in half an hour. He would have telephoned Platt, but the
+engineer had no telephone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+BIFF RENEWS A PLEASANT ACQUAINTANCE AND BOBBY INAUGURATES A TRAGEDY
+
+
+"Is Mr. Platt in?"
+
+Biff stood hesitantly in the door when he found the place occupied
+only by a brown-haired girl, who was engaged in the quiet,
+unprofessional occupation of embroidering a shirtwaist pattern.
+
+The girl looked up with a smile at the young man's awkwardness, and
+felt impelled to put him at his ease.
+
+"He's not in just now, but I expect him within ten or fifteen minutes
+at the outside. Won't you sit down, Mr. Bates?"
+
+He looked at her much mystified at this calling of his name, but he
+mumbled his thanks for the chair which she put forward for him, and,
+sitting with his hat upon his knees, contemplated her furtively.
+
+"I guess you don't remember me," she said in frank enjoyment of his
+mystification, "but I remember you perfectly. I used to see you quite
+often out at Westmarsh when Mr. Burnit was trying to redeem that
+persistent swamp. I am Mr. Platt's sister."
+
+"No!" exclaimed Biff in amazement. "You can't be the kid that used to
+ride on the excavating cars, and go home with yellow clay on your
+dresses every day."
+
+"I'm the kid," said she with a musical laugh; "and I'm afraid I
+haven't quite outgrown my hoydenish tendencies even yet."
+
+Biff had no comment to make. He was lost in wonder over that eternal
+mystery--the transformation which occurs when a girl passes from
+fourteen to eighteen.
+
+"Don't you remember?" she gaily went on. "You gave me a boxing lesson
+out there one afternoon and promised to give me more of them, but you
+never did."
+
+Biff cleared a sudden huskiness from his throat.
+
+"I'd be tickled black in the face to make good any day," he urged
+earnestly, and then hastily corrected the offer to: "That is, I mean
+I'll be very glad to--to finish the job."
+
+Immediately he turned violently red.
+
+"I don't seem to care as much for the accomplishment as I did then,"
+observed the girl with a smile, "but I do wish I could learn to swing
+my nice Indian clubs without cracking the back of my head."
+
+"I got a medal for club swinging," said Biff diffidently. "I'll teach
+you any time you like. It's easy. Come right over to the gym on
+Tuesday and Friday forenoons. Those are ladies' mornings, and I've got
+nothing but real classy people at that."
+
+The entrance of Mr. Platt interrupted Biff just as he was beginning to
+feel at ease, and threw that young gentleman, who always appropriated
+and absorbed other people's troubles, into much concern; for Mr. Platt
+was hollow-eyed and sunken-cheeked from worry. His coat was very
+shiny, and his hat was shabby. The dusty and neglected drawing on his
+crude drawing-table told the story all too well. The engineering
+business, so far as Mr. Platt was concerned, seemed to be a total
+failure. Nevertheless, he greeted Mr. Bates warmly, and inquired after
+Mr. Burnit.
+
+"He's always fine," said Biff. "He had me come up here to meet him."
+
+"I should scarcely think he would care to come here after the
+unfortunate outcome of the work I did for him," said Mr. Platt.
+
+"You mean on old Applerod's Subtraction?"
+
+"You couldn't hardly call it the Applerod Addition, could you?"
+responded Jimmy with a smile. "That was a most unlucky transaction for
+me as well as for Mr. Burnit."
+
+Biff looked about the room comprehendingly.
+
+"I guess it put you on the hummer, all right," said he. "It don't look
+as if you done anything since."
+
+"But very little," confessed Mr. Platt. "My failure on that job hurt
+my reputation almost fatally."
+
+Biff gravely sought within himself for words of consolation, one of
+his fleeting ideas being to engage Mr. Platt on the spot to survey the
+site of Bates' Athletic Hall, although there was not the slightest
+possible need for such a survey. In the midst of his sympathetic gloom
+came in Mr. Ferris and Bobby.
+
+"Jimmy, how would you like to be chief construction engineer of the
+new waterworks?" asked Bobby, with scant waste of time, after he had
+introduced Ferris.
+
+Mr. Platt gasped and paled.
+
+"I think I could be urged, from a sense of public duty, to give up my
+highly lucrative private practice," he said with a pitiful attempt at
+levity, though his voice was husky, and his tightly clenched hand,
+where the white knuckles rested upon his drawing-table, trembled.
+
+"Don't build up too much hope on it, Jimmy; but if what we surmise is
+correct you will have a chance at it," and he briefly explained.
+"We're going right out there," concluded Bobby, "and I want you to go
+along to help investigate. We have to find some incriminating
+evidence, and you'd be more likely to know how and where to look for
+it than any of us."
+
+It is needless to say that Jimmy Platt took his hat with alacrity.
+Before he went out, with new hope in his heart, he turned and shook
+hands ecstatically with his sister. Still holding Jimmy's hand she
+turned to Bobby impulsively:
+
+"I do hope, Mr. Burnit, that this turns out right for Jimmy."
+
+Bobby turned to her abruptly and with a trace of a frown. It was a
+rather poorly trained office employee, he thought, who would intrude
+herself into conversation that it was her duty to forget, but Biff
+Bates caught that look and stepped into the breach.
+
+"This is Nellie, Bobby--that is, it used to be Nellie," he stated with
+a quick correction, and blushed violently.
+
+"It is Nellie still," laughed that young lady to Bobby, and the
+puzzled look upon his face was swiftly driven away by a smile, as he
+suddenly recognized in her traces of the long-legged girl who had been
+always present at the Applerod Addition, who had ridden in his
+automobile, and had confided to him most volubly, upon innumerable
+occasions, that her brother Jimmy was about the smartest man who ever
+sighted through a transit.
+
+In the hastily constructed frame office out at the waterworks site, Ed
+Scales, pale and emaciated and with black rings under his eyes, looked
+up nervously as Bobby's little army, reenforced from four to six by
+the addition of a "plain clothes man" and Dillingham, the _Bulletin's_
+star reporter, invaded the place. Before a word was spoken, Feeney,
+the plain clothes man, presented Scales with a writ, which the latter
+attempted to read with unseeing eyes, his fingers trembling.
+
+"What does this mean?"
+
+"That I have come to take possession," said Bobby, "with power to make
+an examination of every scrap of paper in the place. Frankly, Scales,
+we expect to find something crooked about the waterworks contract. If
+we do you know the result. If we do not, the interruption will be only
+temporary, and you will have very pretty grounds for action; for I am
+taking a long shot, and if I don't find what I am after I have put
+myself and the mayor into a bad scrape."
+
+Scales thrice opened his mouth to speak, and thrice there came no
+sound from his lips. Then he laid a bunch of keys upon his desk,
+shoving them toward Feeney, and rose. He half-staggered into the large
+coat room behind him. He had scarcely more than disappeared when there
+was the startling roar of a shot, and the body of Scales, with a round
+hole in the temple, toppled, face downward, out of the door. It was
+Scales' tragic confession of guilt. They sprang instantly to him, but
+nothing could be done for him. He was dead when they reached him.
+
+"Poor devil," said Ferris brokenly. "It is probably the first crooked
+thing he ever did in his life, and he hadn't nerve enough to go
+through with it. I feel like a murderer for my share in the matter."
+
+Bobby, too, had turned sick; his senses swam and he felt numb and
+cold. He was aroused by a calm, dispassionate voice at the telephone.
+It was Dillingham, sending to the _Bulletin_ a carefully lurid account
+of the tragedy, and of the probable causes leading up to it.
+
+"We'll have an extra on the street in five minutes," he told Bobby
+with satisfaction as he rose. "That means that the _Chronicle_ men
+will come out in a swarm, but it will take them a half-hour to get
+here. We have that much time, then, to dig up the evidence we are
+after, and if we hustle we can have a second extra out before the
+_Chronicle_ can get a line. It's the biggest beat in years. Come on,
+boys, let's get busy," and he took up the keys that Scales had left on
+the desk.
+
+Dillingham had no sooner left the telephone than Feeney took up the
+receiver and called for a number. The reporter turned upon him like a
+flash, recognizing that call as the number of the coroner's office.
+Dillingham suddenly caught himself before he had spoken, and looked
+hastily about the room. In the corner near the floor was a little box
+with the familiar bells upon it, and binding screws that held the
+wires. Quickly Dillingham slipped over to that corner just as Feeney
+was saying:
+
+"Hello! Coroner's office, this is Feeney. Is that you, Jack?...
+Well----"
+
+At that instant Dillingham loosened a binding screw and slipped off
+the loop of the wire.
+
+"Hello, coroner!" repeated Feeney. "I say, Jack! Hello! Hello! Hello,
+there! _Hello! Hello!_" Then Feeney pounded the mouthpiece, jerked the
+receiver hook up and down, yelled at exchange, and worked himself into
+a vast fever.
+
+"What's the matter with this thing, anyhow, Dill?" he finally
+demanded.
+
+"Exchange probably went to sleep on you," said Dillingham.
+
+Easily he was now opening one by one the immense flat drawers of a
+drawing-case, and with much interest delving into the huge drawings
+that it contained.
+
+"Come here, Mr. Platt," Dillingham went on. "You cast your eagle eye
+over these drawings while I do a little job of interviewing," and he
+walked over to the employees of the office, who, since they had been
+roughly warned by Feeney not to go near "that body," had huddled,
+scared and limp, in the far corner of the room.
+
+Perspiring and angry, Feeney tried for five solid minutes to obtain
+some response from the dead telephone, then he gave it up.
+
+"I've got to go out and hunt up another 'phone," he declared. "Biff,
+I'll appoint you my deputy. Don't let anybody touch the corpse till
+the coroner comes."
+
+"I'll go with you," said Bobby hastily, very glad to leave the room,
+and both he and Mr. Ferris accompanied Feeney. No sooner was Feeney
+out of the place than Dillingham reconnected the telephone and went
+back to his investigations. He was thoroughly satisfied, after a few
+questions, that the present employees knew nothing whatever, and Platt
+reported to him that every general drawing he could find was marked
+three-tenths inch to the foot, none being marked one-fourth.
+
+"That doesn't matter so much," mused Dillingham. "It will be easy
+enough to prove that these are the same drawings that were provided
+the contestants, and six firms will swear that they were marked
+one-fourth of an inch to the foot. What we have to do is to prove that
+the drawings the Middle West Company used as the basis of their bid
+were marked one-fourth inch to the foot."
+
+The telephone bell rang violently while Dillingham was puzzling over
+this matter, and one of the employees started to answer it.
+
+"No, you don't!" shouted Dillingham. "You fellows are dispossessed."
+
+He took down the receiver.
+
+"Waterworks engineer's office?" came a brisk voice through the
+telephone.
+
+"Yes," said Dillingham.
+
+"This is the _Chronicle_. The _Bulletin_ has an extra----"
+
+Dillingham waited to hear no more. He hung up the receiver with a
+grin, and it was music in his ears to hear those bells impatiently
+jangling for the next ten minutes. It seemed to quicken his
+intelligence, for presently he slapped his hand upon his leg and
+jumped toward the group of employees in the corner.
+
+"Say!" he demanded. "Who figured on this job for the Middle West
+Company?"
+
+"Dan Rubble, I suppose," answered a lanky draftsman, who, still
+wearing his apron, had slipped his coat on over his oversleeves and
+retained his eye-shade under his straw hat. "At least, he seemed to
+know all about the plans. He's the boss contractor. There he is now."
+
+Looking out of the window Dillingham saw a brawny, red-haired giant
+running from the tool-house, carrying a cylindrical tin case about
+five feet long. He pulled off the cap of this as he came and began to
+drag from the inside of the case a thick roll of blue-prints. He was
+hurrying toward a big asphalt caldron underneath which blazed a hot
+wood fire.
+
+"Come on, Biff," yelled Dillingham, and hurried out of the door,
+closely followed by Bates.
+
+They both ran with all their might toward the caldron, but before they
+could reach the spot Rubble had shoved the entire roll into the fire.
+Biff wasted no precious moments, but, glaring Mr. Rubble in the eye as
+he ran, doubled his fist with the evident intention of damaging that
+large gentleman's countenance with it. He suddenly ducked his round
+head as he approached, however, and plunged it into the middle of Mr.
+Rubble's appetite; whereupon Mr. Rubble grunted heavily, and sat down
+quite uncomfortably near to the caldron. Biff, though it scorched his
+hands, dragged the blazing roll of blue-prints from the flames and,
+seizing a near-by pail of water, started for the drawings, just as big
+Dan regained his feet and made a rush for him.
+
+Dillingham, slight and no fighter but full of sand, jumped crosswise
+into that melee, and with a flying leap literally hung himself about
+Rubble's neck. Big Dan, roaring like a bull at this unexpected and
+most unprofessional mode of warfare, placed his two hands upon
+Dillingham's hips and tried to force him away; failing in this, he ran
+straight forward with all this living clog hanging to him, and planted
+a terrific kick upon Biff's ribs, just as Biff had dashed the pail of
+water from end to end of the blazing roll of drawings. He poised for
+another kick, but Biff had dropped the pail by this time, and as the
+foot swung forward he grabbed it. Rubble, losing his balance, pitched
+forward, landing squarely upon the top of the unhappy Dillingham, who
+signified his retirement from the game with an astonishingly large
+"Woof!" to come from so small a body; moreover, he released his arms;
+but Rubble, freed from the weight on his chest, found another one on
+his back. Biff felt quite competent to manage him, but by this time
+half a dozen men came running from different directions, and as there
+were a hundred or more of them on the job, all beholden for their
+daily bread and butter to Mr. Rubble, things looked bad for Biff and
+Dillingham.
+
+"Back up there, you mutts, or I'll make peek-a-boo patterns out of the
+lot of you!" howled a penetrating voice, and Mr. Feeney, heading the
+relief party, which consisted only of Bobby and Mr. Ferris, whipped
+from each hip pocket a huge blue-steel revolver, at the same time
+brushing back his coat to display his badge.
+
+Those men might have fought Mr. Feeney's guns, but they had no mind to
+fight that badge, and they held back while Bobby and Mr. Ferris helped
+to calm Mr. Rubble by the simple expedient of sitting on him.
+
+Three days later Bobby induced Messrs. Sharpe, Trimmer and all of
+their associates, without any difficulty whatever, to meet with him in
+the office of the mayor.
+
+"Gentlemen of the Middle West Construction Company," said Bobby; "I am
+sorry to say that you are not telling the truth when you claim that
+you figured _in good faith_ on this absurd and almost unknown
+three-tenths-inch scale, when all the others figured on the same
+drawings at one-fourth inch. The rescue of these prints, covered with
+Rubble's marginal figures, does not leave you a leg to stand on," and
+Bobby tapped his knuckles upon the charred-edged blueprints that lay
+unrolled on the desk before him. Fortunately the three inside prints
+were left fairly intact, and these were plainly marked one-fourth inch
+to the foot. "Moreover, rolled up inside the blueprints was even
+better evidence," went on Bobby; "evidence that Mr. Trimmer has
+perhaps forgotten. Nothing has been said about it until now, and
+nothing has been published since we saved them from the fire."
+
+From the drawer of his desk he drew several sheets of white paper.
+They were letter-heads of Trimmer and Company and were covered with
+Rubble's figures.
+
+"Here's a note from Mr. Trimmer to Mr. Rubble, requesting him to
+prepare a statement showing the difference in cost '_between
+three-tenths and one-fourth_.' He does not say three-tenths or
+one-fourth what, but that is quite enough, taken in conjunction with
+these summaries on another sheet of paper. They are set down in two
+columns, one headed three-tenths and the other one-fourth. I have had
+Mr. Platt go over these figures, and he finds that the first number in
+one column exactly corresponds to the number of yards of excavating in
+this job when figured on the scale of three-tenths inch to the foot.
+The first number in the next column exactly corresponds to the
+excavating when figured at the one-fourth-inch scale. Every item will
+compare in the same manner: concrete, masonry, face-brick, and all.
+Now, if you chaps want to take this clumsy and almost laughable
+attempt at a steal into the courts I'm perfectly willing; but I should
+advise you not to do so."
+
+Mr. Sharpe cleared his throat. He, the first one to declare that the
+Middle West would "go into court and stand upon its rights," was now
+the first one to recant.
+
+"I don't suppose it's worth while to contest the matter," he admitted.
+"We have no show with your administration, I see. We lose the contract
+and will step down and out quite peaceably; although there ought to be
+some arrangement by which we might get credit for the amount of work
+already done."
+
+"No," declared Chalmers, with quite a reproving smile, "you may just
+keep on using the available part of it; for the point is that _you
+don't lose the contract_! You keep the contract, and you will build
+the power-house upon the original scale of one-fourth inch to the
+foot. Also you will carry out the rest of the work on the same basis
+as figured by other contractors. I want to remind you that you are
+well bonded, well financed, and that the city holds a guarantee of
+twenty per cent. of the contract price as a forfeit for the due and
+proper completion of this job."
+
+"Why, it means bankruptcy!" shrieked Silas Trimmer, the deeply-graven
+circle about his mouth now being but the pallid and piteous caricature
+of his old-time sinister smile.
+
+"That is precisely what I intend," retorted Bobby with a snap of his
+jaws. "I have long, long scores to settle with both of you gentlemen."
+
+"But you haven't against the other members of this company," protested
+Sharpe. "Our other stockholders are entirely innocent parties."
+
+"They have my sincere sympathy for being caught in such dubious
+company," replied Bobby with a contemptuous smile. "I happen to have a
+roster of your stock-holders, and every man of them has been mixed up
+in crooked deals in combination with Stone or Stone enterprises; so
+whatever they lose on this contract will be merely by way of
+restitution to the city."
+
+"Look here, Mr. Burnit," said Sharpe, dropping his tone of
+remonstrance for one intended to be wheedling; "I know there are a
+number of financial matters between us that might have a tendency to
+make you vindictive. Now why can't we just get together nicely on all
+of these things and compromise?"
+
+Chalmers rapped his knuckles sharply upon his desk.
+
+"Kindly remember where you are," he warned.
+
+"When I get around to settling day there will be no such thing as a
+compromise," declared Bobby with repressed anger. "I'll settle all
+those other matters in my own way and at my own time."
+
+"One thing more, gentlemen," said Chalmers, as the chopfallen
+committee of the Middle West Construction Company rose to depart; "I
+wish to remind you that there is a forfeit clause in your contract for
+delay, so I should advise you to resume operations at once. Mr. Platt
+succeeds the unfortunate Mr. Scales as constructing engineer, and he
+will see that the plans and specifications of the entire contract are
+carried out to the letter."
+
+Platt, who had said nothing, walked away with Bobby.
+
+"You were speaking about following the plans exactly, Mr. Burnit," he
+said when they were alone upon the street. "I find on an examination
+of the subsoil that there will be a few minor changes required. The
+runway, for instance, which goes down to the river northward from the
+power-house for the purpose of unloading coal barges, would be much
+better placed on the south side, away from the intake. There is
+practically no difference in expense, except that in running to the
+southward the riprap work will need to be carried about three feet
+deeper and with concreted walls, in place of being thrown loosely in
+the trenches as originally planned."
+
+"All those things are up to you, Jimmy," said Bobby indifferently.
+"You must use your own judgment. Any changes of the sort that you deem
+necessary just bring before the city council, and I am quite sure that
+you can secure permission to make them."
+
+"Very well," said Platt, and he left Bobby at the corner with a
+curious smile.
+
+He was a different looking Jimmy Platt from the one Bobby had found in
+his office a week before. He was clean-shaven now, and his clothing
+was quite prosperous looking. Bobby, surmising the condition of
+affairs, had delicately insisted on making Platt a loan, to be repaid
+from his salary at a conveniently distant period, and the world looked
+very bright indeed to him.
+
+The next day work on the new waterworks was resumed. In bitter
+consultation the Middle West Construction Company had discovered that
+they would lose less by fulfilling their contract than by forfeiting
+their twenty per cent., and they dispiritedly turned in again, kept
+constantly whipped up to the mark by Platt and by the knowledge that
+every day's non-completion of the work meant a heavy additional
+forfeit, which they had counted on being able to evade so long as the
+complaisant Mr. Scales was in charge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+JIMMY PLATT ENJOYS THE HAPPIEST DAY OF HIS LIFE
+
+
+The straightening out of the waterworks matter left Bobby free to turn
+his attention to the local gas and electric situation. The _Bulletin_,
+since Bobby had defeated his political enemies, had been put upon a
+paying basis and was rapidly earning its way out of the debt that he
+had been compelled to incur for it; but the Brightlight Electric
+Company was a thorn in his side. Its only business now was the street
+illumination of twelve blocks, under a municipal contract which lost
+him money every month, and it had been a terrific task to keep it
+going.
+
+The Consolidated Illuminating and Power Company, however, Bobby
+discovered by careful inquiry, was in even worse financial straits
+than the Brightlight. To its thirty millions of stock, mostly water,
+twenty more millions of water had been added, making a total
+organization of fifty million dollars; and the twenty million dollars'
+stock had been sold to the public for ten million dollars, each
+purchaser of one share of preferred being given one share of common.
+As the preferred was to draw five per cent., this meant that two and
+one-half million dollars a year must be paid out in dividends. The
+salary roll of the company was enormous, and the number of non-working
+officers who drew extravagant stipends would have swamped any company.
+Comparing the two concerns, Bobby felt that in the Brightlight he had
+vastly the better property of the two, in that there was no water in
+it at its present, half-million-dollar capitalization.
+
+It was while pondering these matters that Bobby, dropping in at the
+Idlers' Club one dull night, found no one there but Silas Trimmer's
+son-in-law, the vapid and dissolute Clarence Smythe, which was a
+trifle worse than finding the place entirely deserted. To-night
+Clarence was in possession of what was known at the Idlers' as "one of
+Smythe's soggy buns," and despite countless snubs in the past he
+seized upon Bobby as a receptacle for his woes.
+
+"I'm going to leave this town for good, Burnit!" he declared without
+any preliminaries, having waited so long to convey this startling and
+important information that salutations were entirely forgotten.
+
+"For good! For whose good?" inquired Bobby.
+
+"Mine," responded Clarence. "This town's gone to the bow-wows. It's in
+the hands of a lot of pikers. There's no chance to make big money any
+more."
+
+"Yes, I know," said Bobby dryly; "I had something to do with that,
+myself."
+
+"It was a fine lot of muck-raking you did," charged Clarence. "Well,
+I'll give you another item for your paper. I have resigned from the
+Consolidated."
+
+"It was cruel of you."
+
+"It was time," said Clarence, ignoring the flippancy. "Something's
+going to drop over there."
+
+Bobby smiled.
+
+"It's always dropping," he agreed.
+
+"This is the big drop," the other went on, with a wine-laden man's
+pride in the fact of possessing valuable secrets. "They're going to
+make a million-dollar bond issue."
+
+"What for?" inquired Bobby.
+
+"They need the money," chuckled Mr. Smythe. "Those city bonds, you
+know."
+
+"What bonds?" demanded Bobby eagerly, but trying to speak
+nonchalantly.
+
+Mr. Smythe suddenly realized the solemn gravity of his folly. Once
+more he was talking too much. Once more! It was a thing to weep over.
+"I'm a fool," he confessed in awe-stricken tones; "a rotten fool,
+Burnit. I'm ashamed to look anybody in the face. I'm ashamed----"
+
+"It's highly commendable of you, I'm sure," Bobby agreed, and took his
+hasty leave before Clarence should begin to sob.
+
+Immediately he called up Chalmers at his home.
+
+"Chalmers," he demanded, "why must the Consolidated Illuminating and
+Power Company purchase city bonds?"
+
+Chalmers laughed.
+
+"Originally so Sam Stone could lend money to the Consumers' Electric.
+It is a part of their franchise, which is renewable at their option in
+ten-year periods, and which became a part of the Consolidated's
+property when the combine was effected. To insure 'faithful
+performance of contract,' for which clause every crooked municipality
+has a particular affection, they were to purchase a million dollars'
+worth of city bonds. Each year one hundred thousand dollars' worth
+were retired. In the tenth year, in renewing their franchise for the
+next ten years, they were compelled to renew also their million
+dollars of city bonds. These bonds they then used as collateral. Stone
+carried all that he could, at enormous usury, I understand, and let
+some of his banker friends in on the rest; and I suppose the banks
+paid him a rake-off. The ten-year period is up this fall, and their
+bonds are naturally retired; but, of course, they will renew."
+
+"I'm not so sure about that," said Bobby. "Look up everything
+connected with it in the morning, and I'll see you at noon."
+
+When they met the next day at noon, however, before Bobby could talk
+about the business in hand, Chalmers, with a suppressed smile, handed
+him a folded slip of paper.
+
+Bobby examined that legal document--a dissolution of the injunction
+which had tied up a hundred and fifty thousand dollars in his bank for
+more than two years--with a sigh of relief.
+
+"It seems," said Chalmers dryly, "that at the time you laid yourself
+liable to Madam Villenauve's breach-of-promise suit she had an
+undivorced husband living, Monsieur Villenauve complacently hiding
+himself in France and waiting for his share of the money. Let this be
+a lesson to you, young man."
+
+Bobby hotly resented that grin.
+
+"I'll swear to you, Chalmers," he asserted, "I never so much as
+thought of the woman except as a nuisance."
+
+"I apologize, old man," said Chalmers. "But at least this will teach
+you not to back any more grand opera companies."
+
+"I prefer to talk about the electric situation," said Bobby severely.
+"What have you found out about it?"
+
+"That the Ebony Jewel Coal Company, a former Stone enterprise, has
+threatened suit against the Consolidated for their bill. The
+Consolidated is in a pinch and must raise money, not only to buy that
+allotment of the new waterworks bonds, but to meet the Ebony's and
+other pressing accounts. It must also float this bond issue, for it is
+likely to fall behind even on its salary list."
+
+"Fine!" said Bobby. "I can see a lot of good citizens in this town
+holding stock in a bankrupt illuminating concern. Just watch this
+thing, will you, Chalmers? About this nice, lucky hundred and fifty
+thousand, we may count it as spent."
+
+"What in?" asked Chalmers, smiling. "Do you think you can trust
+yourself with all that money?"
+
+"Hush," said Bobby. "Don't breathe it aloud. I'm going to buy up all
+the Brightlight Electric stock I can find. It's too bad, Chalmers," he
+added with a grin, "that as mayor of the city you could not, with
+propriety, hold stock in this company," and although Chalmers tried to
+call him back Bobby did not wait. He was too busy, he said.
+
+His business was to meet Agnes and Mrs. Elliston for luncheon
+down-town, and during the meal he happened to remark that Clarence
+Smythe had determined to shake the dust of the city from his feet.
+
+"I thought so," declared Agnes. "Aunt Constance, I'm afraid you'll
+have to finish your shopping without me. I must call upon Mrs.
+Smythe."
+
+Mrs. Elliston frowned her disapproval, but she knew better than to
+protest. Before Agnes called upon Mrs. Smythe, however, she dropped in
+at the manufacturing concern of D. A. Elliston and Company.
+
+"Uncle Dan, how much money of mine have you in charge just now?" she
+demanded to know.
+
+"Cash? About five or six thousand."
+
+"And how much more could you raise on my property?"
+
+"Right away? About fifteen, on bonds and such securities. This is no
+time to sacrifice real estate."
+
+"It isn't enough," said Agnes, frowning, and was silent for a time.
+"You'll just have to loan me about ten thousand more."
+
+"Oh, will I?" he retorted. "What for?"
+
+"I want to make an investment."
+
+"So I judged," he dryly responded. "Well, young lady, as your steward
+I reckon I'll have to know something more about this investment before
+I turn over any money."
+
+With sparkling eyes and blushes that would come in spite of her, she
+told him what she intended to do. When she had concluded, Dan Elliston
+slapped his knees in huge joy.
+
+"You shall have all the money you want," he declared.
+
+Upon that same afternoon Bobby started to buy up, here and there,
+nearly the entire stock of the Brightlight, purchasing it at an
+absurdly low price. Then he went to De Graff, to Dan Elliston, and to
+others to whose discretion he could trust. His own plans were well
+under way when the Consolidated Illuminating and Power Company
+announced, with a great flourish of trumpets, its new bond issue. The
+_Bulletin_ made no comment upon this. It merely published the news
+fact briefly and concisely--an unexpected attitude, which brought
+surprise, then wonder, then suspicion to the office of the
+_Chronicle_. The _Chronicle_ had been a Stone organ during the heydey
+of Stone's prosperity; the _Bulletin_ had fought the Consolidated
+tooth and toe-nail; the already criminally overcapitalized
+Consolidated was about to float a new bond issue; the _Bulletin_ did
+not fight this issue; _ergo_, the _Bulletin_ must have something to
+gain by the issue.
+
+The _Chronicle_ waited three days, then began to fight the bond issue
+itself, which was precisely the effect for which Bobby had planned.
+Grown astute, Bobby realized that if the bond issue failed the
+Consolidated would go bankrupt at once instead of a year or so later.
+The newspaper, however, which would force that bankruptcy would, by
+that act, be the apparent means of losing a vast amount of money to
+the poor investors of the town, and Bobby left that ungrateful task to
+the _Chronicle_. He even went so far as to defend the Consolidated in
+a mild sort of manner, a proceeding which fanned the _Chronicle_ into
+fresh fury.
+
+For three months desperate attempts were made by the Consolidated to
+make the new bonds attractive to the public, but less than one hundred
+thousand dollars was subscribed. Bobby was tabulating the known
+results of this subscription with much satisfaction one morning when
+Ferris walked into his office.
+
+"I hope you didn't come into town to dig up another scandal, old man,"
+said Bobby, greeting his contractor-friend with keen pleasure.
+
+"No," said Ferris; "came in to give you a bit of news. The Great
+Eastern and Western Railroad wants to locate its shop here, and is
+building by private bid. I have secured the contract, subject to
+certain alterations of price for distance of hauling and difficulty of
+excavation; but the thing is liable to fall through for lack of a
+location. They can't get the piece of property they are after, and
+there is only one other one large enough and near enough to the city.
+The chief engineer and I are going out to look at it again to-day.
+Come with us. If we decide that the property will do, and if we can
+secure it, you may have an exclusive news-item that would be very
+pretty, I should judge." And Ferris smiled at some secret joke.
+
+"I'll go with pleasure," said Bobby, "and not by any means just for
+the news. When do you want to go?"
+
+"Oh, right away, I guess. I'll telephone to Shepherd and have him
+order a rig."
+
+"What's the use?" demanded Bobby, much interested. "My car's right
+within call. I'll have it brought up."
+
+Shepherd, the chief engineer of the G. E. and W., when they picked him
+up at the hotel, proved to be an entire human being with red whiskers
+and not a care in the world. Bobby was enjoying a lot of preliminary
+persiflage when Shepherd incidentally mentioned their destination.
+
+"It is known as Westmarsh," he observed. "I suppose you know where it
+is."
+
+Bobby, who had already started the machine and had placed his hand on
+the steering wheel, gave a jerk so violent that he almost sent the
+machine diagonally across the street, and Ferris laughed aloud. His
+little joke was no longer a secret.
+
+"Westmarsh!" Bobby repeated. "Why, I own that undrainable swamp."
+
+"Swamp?" exclaimed Shepherd. "It's as dry as a bone. I looked it over
+last night and am going out to-day to study the possible approaches to
+it."
+
+"But you say it is dry!" protested Bobby, unable to believe it.
+
+"Dry as powder," asserted Shepherd. "There has been an immense amount
+of water out there, but it has been well taken care of by the splendid
+drainage system that has been put in."
+
+"It cost a lot of money to put in that drainage system," commented
+Bobby; "but we found it impracticable to drain an entire river."
+
+It was Shepherd's turn to be puzzled, a process in which he stopped to
+laugh.
+
+"This is the first time I ever heard an owner belittle his own
+property," he declared. "I suppose that next you'll only accept half
+the price we offer."
+
+Bobby kept up his part of the conversation but feebly as they whirled
+out to the site of the old Applerod Addition. He was lost in
+speculation upon what could possibly have happened to that unfortunate
+swamp area. When they arrived, however, he was surprised to find that
+Shepherd had been correct. The ground, though sunken in places and
+black with the residue of one-time stagnant water, was firm enough to
+walk upon, and after many tests he even ran the machine across and
+across it. Moreover, grass and weeds, forcing their way here and
+there, were already beginning to hide and redeem the ugly earthen
+surface.
+
+Bobby surveyed the miracle in amazement. It was the first time he had
+seen the place in a year. Even in his trips to the waterworks site,
+which was just north, beyond the hill, he had chosen the longer and
+less solid river road rather than to come past this spot of
+humiliating memories.
+
+"I can't understand it," he said again and again to the two men. "Why,
+Mr. Shepherd, I spent thousands of dollars in filling this swamp and
+draining it, with the idea of making a city subdivision here. Silas
+Trimmer, the man from whom I bought the place, imagined it to be fed
+by underground springs, but he let me spend a fortune to attract
+people out to see my new building lots so that he could, without cost,
+sell his own. That is his addition up there on the hills, and I'm glad
+to say he has recently mortgaged it for all that it will carry."
+
+"How about the springs?" asked Shepherd with a frown. "Did you find
+them? You must have stopped them. Are they liable to break out again?"
+
+"That's the worst of it," replied Bobby, still groping. "It wasn't
+springs at all. It was a peculiar geological formation, some
+disarranged strata leading beneath the hill from the river and
+emptying into the bottom of this pond. All through the year it seeped
+in faster than our extensive drainings could carry it away, and in the
+spring and fall, when the river was high, it poured in. I don't see
+what could have happened. Suppose we run over and see the engineer who
+worked on this with me. He is now in charge of the new waterworks."
+
+In five minutes they were over there. Jimmy Platt, out in his
+shirt-sleeves under a broad-brimmed straw hat, greeted them most
+cordially, but when Bobby explained to him the miracle that had
+happened to the old Applerod Addition, Platt laughed until the tears
+came into his eyes; and even after he stopped laughing there were
+traces of them there.
+
+"Come down here and I'll show you," said he.
+
+Leading south from the pumping station, diagonally down the steep bank
+to the river, had been built a splendid road, flanked on both sides by
+very solid, substantial-looking retaining walls.
+
+"You see this wall?" asked Jimmy, pointing to the inside one. "It runs
+twenty feet below low-water level, and is solidly cemented. You
+remember when I got permission to move this road from the north side
+to the south side of the pumping station? I did that after an
+examination of the subsoil. This wall cuts off the natural siphon that
+fed the water to your Applerod Addition. I have been going past there
+in huge joy twice a day, watching that swamp dry up."
+
+"In other words," said Bobby, "you have been doing a little private
+grafting on my account. How many additional dollars did that
+extra-deep wall cost?"
+
+"I'm not going to tell you," asserted Jimmy stoutly. "It isn't very
+much, but whatever it is the city good and plenty owes you for saving
+it over a million on this job. But if I'd had to pay for it myself I
+would have done it to correct the mistake I made when I started to
+drain that swamp for you. I guess this is about the most satisfactory
+minute of my life," and he looked it.
+
+"A fine piece of work," agreed Shepherd, casting a swift eye over the
+immense and busy waterworks site, and then glancing at the hill across
+which lay Bobby's property. "You're lucky to have had this chance, Mr.
+Platt," and he shook hands cordially with Jimmy. "I'm perfectly
+satisfied, Mr. Burnit. Do you want to sell that property?"
+
+"If I can get out at a profit," replied Bobby. "Otherwise I'll regrade
+the thing and split it up into building lots as I originally
+intended."
+
+"Let's go back down to the hotel and talk 'turkey,'" offered Shepherd
+briskly. "What do you think of the place, Ferris? Will it do?"
+
+"Fine!" said Ferris. "The property lies so low that we won't have to
+cart away a single load of our excavation. If we can only get a
+right-of-way through that natural approach to the northeast--"
+
+"I think I can guarantee a right-of-way," interrupted Bobby, smiling,
+with his mind upon the city council which had been created by his own
+efforts.
+
+"All right," said Shepherd. "We'll talk price until I have browbeaten
+you as low as you will go. Then I'll prepare a plat of the place and
+send it on to headquarters. You'll have an answer from them in three
+days."
+
+As they whirred away Bobby's eyes happened to rest upon a young man
+and a young woman rowing idly down-stream in a skiff, and he smiled as
+he recognized Biff Bates and Nellie Platt.
+
+On the day Bobby got the money for his Westmarsh property old Applerod
+came up from the office of the Brightlight Electric Company, where he
+held a lazy, sleepy afternoon job as "manager," and with an
+ingratiating smile handed Bobby a check for five thousand dollars.
+
+"What's this for?" asked Bobby, puzzled.
+
+"I have decided to give you back the money and take up again my
+approximate one-fifth share in the Applerod Addition," announced that
+gentleman complacently.
+
+Bobby was entirely too much surprised at this to be amused.
+
+"You're just a trifle too late, Mr. Applerod," said he. "Had you come
+to me two weeks ago, when I thought the land was worthless, out of
+common decency I would not have let you buy in again. Since then,
+however, I have sold the tract at a profit of forty thousand dollars."
+
+"You have?" exclaimed Applerod. "I heard you were going to do
+something of the kind. I'm entitled to one-fifth of that profit, Mr.
+Burnit--eight thousand dollars."
+
+"You're entitled to a good, swift poke in the neck!" exclaimed the
+voice of wizened old Johnson, who stood in the doorway, and who, since
+his friendship with Biff Bates, had absorbed some of that gentleman's
+vigorous vernacular. "Applerod, I'll give you just one minute to get
+out of this office. If you don't I'll throw you downstairs!"
+
+"Mr. Johnson," said Applerod with great dignity, "this office does not
+belong to you. I have as much right here--"
+
+Mr. Johnson, taking a trot around Bobby's desk so as to get Mr.
+Applerod between him and the door, made a threatening demonstration
+toward the rear, and Applerod, suddenly deserting his dignity, rushed
+out. Bobby straightened his face as Johnson, still blazing, came in
+from watching Applerod's ignominious retreat.
+
+"Well, Johnson," said he, ignoring the incident as closed, "what can I
+do for you to-day?"
+
+"Nothing!" snapped Johnson. "I have forgotten what I came for!" and
+going out he slammed the door behind him.
+
+In the course of an hour Bobby was through with his morning allotment
+of mail and his daily consultation with Jolter, and then he called
+Johnson to his office.
+
+"Johnson," said he, "I want you to do me a favor. There is one block
+of Brightlight stock that I have not yet bought up. It is in the hands
+of J. W. Williams, one of the old Stone crowd, who ought to be wanting
+money by this time. He holds one hundred shares, which you should be
+able to buy by now at fifty dollars a share. I want you to buy this
+stock in your own name, and I want to loan you five thousand dollars
+to do it with. I merely want voting power; so after you get it you may
+hold it if you like and still owe me the five thousand dollars, or
+I'll take it off your hands at any time you are tired of the
+obligation. You'd better go to Barrister and have him buy the stock
+for you."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Johnson.
+
+Bobby immediately went to De Graff.
+
+"I came to subscribe for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars' worth
+of additional stock in the New Brightlight. I have just deposited two
+hundred and eighty-five thousand dollars in your bank."
+
+"You're becoming an expert," said De Graff with a quizzical smile.
+"With the million dollars' valuation at which we are to buy in the
+present Brightlight, the two hundred and fifty thousand subscribed for
+by Dan Elliston, and the ten thousand held by Miss Elliston, this new
+subscription about gives you control of the New Brightlight, don't
+it?"
+
+"That's what I want," Bobby exulted. "You don't object, do you?"
+
+"Not on my own account," De Graff assured him; "but you'd better have
+Barrister buy this in for you until we are organized. Then you can
+take it over."
+
+"I guess you're right," agreed Bobby. "I'll send Barrister right over,
+and I think I shall make him take up the remaining ten thousand on his
+own account. A week from to-night is the council meeting at which the
+Consolidated must make good to renew their franchise, and we don't
+want any hitch in getting our final incorporation papers by that time.
+The members of the Consolidated are singing swan songs in seven
+simultaneous keys at this very moment."
+
+Bobby's description of the condition of the Consolidated was scarcely
+exaggerated. It was a trying and a hopeless period for them. The bond
+issue had failed miserably. It had not needed the _Chronicle_ to
+remind the public of what a shaky proposition the Consolidated was,
+for Bobby had thoroughly exposed the corporation during the
+_Bulletin's_ campaign against Sam Stone. Bond-floating companies from
+other cities were brought in, and after an examination of the books
+threw up their hands in horror at the crudest muddle they had ever
+found in any investigation of municipal affairs.
+
+On the night of the council meeting, Sharpe and Trimmer and Williams,
+representing the Consolidated, were compelled to come before the
+council and confess their inability to take up the bonds required to
+renew their franchise; but they begged that this clause, since it was
+an entirely unnecessary one and was not enjoined upon gas or electric
+companies in other cities, be not enforced. Council, however, was
+obdurate, and the committee thereupon begged for a further extension
+of time in which to raise the necessary amount of money. Council still
+was obdurate, and by that obduracy the franchise of the Consumers'
+Electric Company, said franchise being controlled by the Consolidated
+Illuminating and Power Company, became null and void.
+
+Thereupon Bobby Burnit, President De Graff and Dan Elliston,
+representing the New Brightlight Electric Company, recently organized
+for three million dollars, came forward and prayed for a franchise for
+the electric lighting of the entire city, agreeing to take over the
+poles and wiring of the Consolidated at a fair valuation; and council
+was not at all obdurate, which was scarcely strange when one reflected
+that every member of that municipal body had been selected and put in
+place through the direct instrumentality of Bobby Burnit. It was
+practical politics, true enough, but Bobby had no qualms whatever
+about it.
+
+"It may be quite true that I have not been actuated by any highly
+noble motives in this," he confessed to a hot charge by Williams, "but
+so long as in municipal affairs I am not actuated by any ignoble
+motives I am doing pretty fairly in this town."
+
+There was just the bare trace of brutality in Bobby as he said this,
+and he suddenly recognized it in himself with dismay. What pity Bobby
+might have felt for these bankrupt men, however, was swept away in a
+gust of renewed aggressiveness when Trimmer, arousing himself from the
+ashen age which seemed all at once to be creeping over him, said, with
+a return of that old circular smile which had so often before
+aggravated Bobby:
+
+"I am afraid I'll have to draw out of my other ventures and retire on
+my salary as president and manager of Trimmer and Company."
+
+Vengefulness was in Bobby's eyes as he followed Trimmer's sprawling
+figure, so much like a bloated spider's in its bigness of
+circumference and its attenuation of limbs, that suddenly he shuddered
+and turned away as when one finds oneself about to step upon a toad.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+IN WHICH, BEING THE LAST CHAPTER, EVERYTHING TURNS OUT RIGHT, AND
+EVERYBODY GETS MARRIED
+
+
+At the offices of the New Brightlight Electric Company there was
+universal rejoicing. Johnson was removed from the _Bulletin_ to take
+charge of the new organization until it should be completed, and Bobby
+himself, for a few days, was compelled to spend most of his time
+there. During the first week after the granting of the franchise Bobby
+called Johnson to him.
+
+"Mr. Johnson," said he quite severely, "you have been so careful and
+so faithful in all other things that I dislike to remind you of an
+overlooked duty."
+
+"I am sorry, sir," said Johnson. "What is it?"
+
+"You have neglected to make out a note for that five-thousand-dollar
+loan. Kindly draw it up now, payable in ten years, with interest at
+four per cent. _after_ the date of maturity."
+
+"But, sir," stammered Johnson, "the stock is worth par now."
+
+"Would you like to keep it?"
+
+"I'd be a fool to say I wouldn't, sir. But the stock is not only worth
+par,--it was worth that in the old Brightlight; and I received an
+exchange of two for one in the New Brightlight, which is also worth
+par this morning; so I hold twenty thousand dollars' worth of stock."
+
+"It cost me five thousand," insisted Bobby, "and we'll settle at that
+figure."
+
+"I don't know how to thank you, sir," trembled Johnson, but he
+stiffened immediately as Applerod intruded himself into the room with
+a bundle of papers which he laid upon the desk.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Mr. Burnit," began Applerod, "but I have five
+thousand dollars I'd like to invest in the New Brightlight Company if
+you could manage it for me."
+
+"I'm sorry, Applerod," said Bobby, "but there isn't a share for sale.
+It was subscribed to the full capitalization before the incorporation
+papers were issued."
+
+Applerod was about to leave the room in deep dejection when Johnson,
+with a sudden happy inspiration, called him back.
+
+"I think I know where you can buy five thousand," said Johnson; "but
+you will have to hurry to get it."
+
+"Where?" asked Applerod eagerly, while Bobby went to the window to
+conceal his broad smiles.
+
+"Just put on your hat and go right over to Barrister," directed
+Johnson; "and take a blank check with you. I'll telephone him, to save
+time for you. The stock is worth par, and that lonesome fifty shares
+will be snapped up before you know it."
+
+"You will excuse me till I go up-town, Mr. Burnit?" inquired Applerod,
+and bustled out eagerly.
+
+He had no sooner left the building than Johnson grabbed Bobby's
+telephone and called up Barrister.
+
+"This is Johnson," he said to the old attorney. "I have just sent
+Applerod over to you to buy fifty shares of New Brightlight at par.
+Take his check and hold it for delivery of the stock. I'll have it
+over to you within an hour, or as soon as I can have the transfer
+made. It is my stock, but I don't want him to know it."
+
+Hanging up the receiver old Johnson sat in the chair by Bobby's desk
+and his thin shoulders heaved with laughter.
+
+"Applerod will be plumb crazy when he finds that out," he said. "To
+think that I have fifteen thousand dollars' worth of this good stock
+that didn't cost me a cent, all paid for with Applerod's own five
+thousand dollars!"
+
+Johnson laughed so hard that finally he was compelled to lay his head
+on the desk in front of him, with his lean old fingers over his eyes.
+
+"Thanks to you, Robert; thanks to you," he added after a little
+silence.
+
+Bobby, turning from the window, saw the thin shoulders still heaving.
+There was a glint of moisture on the lean hands that had toiled for so
+many years in the Burnit service, and as Bobby passed he placed his
+hand on old Johnson's bowed head for just an instant, then went out,
+leaving Johnson alone.
+
+It was Applerod who, returning triumphantly with Barrister's promise
+of the precious block of New Brightlight for delivery in the
+afternoon, brought Bobby a copy of his own paper containing so much
+startling news that the front page consisted only of a hysteria of
+head-lines. Sudden proceedings in bankruptcy had been filed against
+the Consolidated Illuminating and Power Company. These proceedings had
+revealed the fact that Frank L. Sharpe, supposed to have left the city
+on business for the company, had in reality disappeared with the
+entire cash balance of the Consolidated. This disappearance had
+immediately thrust the Middle West Construction Company into
+bankruptcy. By Stone's own acts the Stone enterprises had crumpled and
+fallen, and all his adherents were ruined.
+
+Out of the chaos that the startling facts he was able to glean created
+in Bobby's mind there came a thought of Ferris, and he immediately
+telephoned him, out at the site of the new G. E. and W. shops, where
+ground was already being broken, that he would be out that way.
+
+Half an hour later he took Ferris into his machine and they whirled
+over to the waterworks site, where the work had stopped as abruptly as
+if that scene of animation had suddenly been stricken of a plague and
+died. On the way Bobby explained to Ferris what had happened.
+
+"You were the lowest legitimate bidder on the job, I believe," he
+concluded.
+
+"Yes, outside of the local company."
+
+"If I were you I'd get busy with Jimmy Platt on an estimate of the
+work already done," suggested Bobby. "I think it very likely that the
+city council will offer the Keystone Construction Company the contract
+at its former figure, with the proper deductions for present progress.
+We will make up the difference between their bid and yours, and
+whatever loss there is in taking up the work will come out of the
+forfeit put up by the Middle West Company."
+
+Jimmy Platt ran out to meet them like a lost soul. The waterworks
+project had become his pet. He lived with it and dreamed of it, and
+that there was a prospect of resuming work, and under such skilful
+supervision as that of Ferris, delighted him. While Jimmy and Mr.
+Ferris went into the office to prepare a basis of estimating, Bobby
+stayed behind to examine the carbureter of his machine, which had been
+acting suspiciously on the way out, and while he was engaged in this
+task a voice that he knew quite well saluted him with:
+
+"Fine work, old pal! I guess you put all your lemons into the squeezer
+and got the juice, eh?"
+
+Biff had a copy of the _Bulletin_ in his hand, which was sufficient
+explanation of his congratulations.
+
+"Things do seem to be turning out pretty lucky for me, Biff," Bobby
+confessed, and then, looking at Mr. Bates, he immediately apologized.
+"I beg pardon for calling you Biff," said he. "I should have said Mr.
+Bates."
+
+"Cut it!" growled Biff, looking himself over with some complacency
+nevertheless.
+
+From his nice new derby, which replaced the slouch cap he had always
+preferred, to his neat and uncomfortably-pointed gun-metal leathers
+which had supplanted the broad-toed tans, Mr. Bates was an epitome of
+neatly-pressed grooming. White cuffs edged the sleeves of his gray
+business suit, and--wonder of wonders!--he wore a white shirt with a
+white collar, in which there was tied a neat bow of--last wonder of
+all--modest gray!
+
+"I suppose that costume is due to distinctly feminine influence, eh,
+Biff?"
+
+"Guilty as Cassie Chadwick!" replied Biff with a sheepish grin. "She's
+tryin' to civilize me."
+
+"Who is?" demanded Bobby.
+
+"Oh, _she_ is. You know who I mean. Why, she's even taught me to cut
+out slang. Say, Bobby, I didn't know how much like a rough-neck I used
+to talk. I never opened my yawp but what I spilled a line of
+fricasseed gab so twisted and frazzled and shredded you could use it
+to stuff sofa-cushions; but now I've handed that string of talk the
+screw number. No more slang for your Uncle Biff."
+
+"I'm glad you have quit it," approved Bobby soberly. "I suppose the
+next thing I'll hear will be the wedding bells."
+
+"No!" Biff denied in a tone so pained and shocked that Bobby looked up
+in surprise to see his face gone pale. "Don't talk about that, Bobby.
+Why, I wouldn't dare even think of it myself. I--I never think about
+it. Me? with a mitt like a picnic ham? Did you ever see her hand,
+Bobby? And her eyes and her hair and all? Why, Bobby, if I'd ever
+catch myself daring to think about marrying that girl I'd take myself
+by the Adam's apple and give myself the damnedest choking that ever
+turned a mutt's map purple."
+
+"I'm sorry, after all, that you are through with slang, Biff," said
+Bobby, "because if you were still using it you might have expressed
+that idea so much more picturesquely;" but Biff did not hear him, for
+from the office came Nellie Platt with a sun-hat in her hand.
+
+"Right on time," she said gaily to Biff, and, with a pleasant word for
+Bobby, went down with Mr. Bates to the river bank, where lay the neat
+little skiff that Jimmy had bought for her.
+
+Bobby and Ferris and Platt, standing up near the filters, later on,
+were startled by a scream from the river, and, turning, they saw the
+skiff, in mid-stream, struck by a passing steamer and splintered as if
+it were made of pasteboard. Nellie had been rowing. Biff had called
+her attention to the approaching steamer, across the path of which
+they were passing. There had been plenty of time to row out of the way
+of it, but Nellie in grasping her oar for a quick turn had lost it.
+Fortunately the engines had been stopped immediately when the pilot
+had seen that they must strike, so that there was no appreciable
+underdrag. Biff's head had been grazed slightly, enough to daze him
+for an instant, but he held himself up mechanically. Nellie, clogged
+by her skirts, could not swim, and as Biff got his bearings he saw her
+close by him going down for the second time. Two men sprang from the
+lower deck of the steamer, but Biff reached her first, and, his senses
+instantly clearing as he caught her, he struck out for the shore.
+
+The three men on shore immediately ran down the bank, and sprang into
+the water to help Biff out with his burden. He was pale, but strangely
+cool and collected.
+
+"Don't go at it that way!" he called to them savagely, knowing neither
+friend nor foe in this emergency. "Get her loosened up someway, can't
+you?"
+
+Without waiting on them, Biff ripped a knife from his pocket, opened
+it and slit through waist and skirt-band and whatever else intervened,
+to her corset, which he opened with big fingers, the sudden deftness
+of which was marvelous. Directing them with crisp, sharp commands, he
+guided them through the first steps toward resuscitation, and then
+began the slow, careful pumping of the arms that should force breath
+back into the closed lungs.
+
+For twenty minutes, each of which seemed interminable, Jimmy and Biff
+worked, one on either side of her, Biff's face set, cold,
+expressionless, until at last there was a flutter of the eyelids, a
+cry of distress as the lungs took up their interrupted function, then
+the sharp, hissing sound of the intake and outgo of natural, though
+labored, breath; then Nellie Platt opened her big, brown eyes and
+gazed up into the gray ones of Biff Bates. She faintly smiled; then
+Biff did a thing that he had never done before in his mature life. He
+suddenly broke down and cried aloud, sobbing in great sobs that shook
+him from head to foot and that hurt him, as they tore from his throat,
+as the first breath of new life had hurt Nellie Platt; and, seeing and
+understanding, she raised up one weak arm and slipped it about his
+neck.
+
+It was about a week after this occurrence when Silas Trimmer, coming
+back from lunch to attend the annual stock-holders' meeting of Trimmer
+and Company, stopped on the sidewalk to inspect, with some curiosity,
+a strange, boxlike-looking structure which leaned face downward upon
+the edge of the curbing. It was three feet wide and full sixty feet
+long. He stooped and tried to tilt it up, but it was too heavy for his
+enfeebled frame, and with another curious glance at it he went into
+the store.
+
+The meeting was set for half-past two. It was now scarcely two, and
+yet, when he opened the door of his private office, which had been set
+apart for that day's meeting, he was surprised at the number of people
+he found in the room. A quick recognition of them mystified him the
+more. They were Bobby Burnit and Agnes, Johnson, Applerod and
+Chalmers.
+
+"I came a little early, Mr. Trimmer," said Bobby, in a polite
+conversational tone, "to have these three hundred shares transferred
+upon the books of Trimmer and Company, before the stock-holders'
+meeting convenes."
+
+"What shares are they?" inquired Silas in a voice grown strangely
+shrill and metallic.
+
+"The stock that was previously controlled by your son-in-law, Mr.
+Clarence Smythe. Miss Elliston bought them last week from your
+daughter, with the full consent of your son-in-law."
+
+"The dog!" Trimmer managed to gasp, and his fingers clutched
+convulsively.
+
+"Possibly," admitted Bobby dryly. "At any rate he has had to leave
+town, and I do not think you will be bothered with him any more. In
+the meantime, Mr. Trimmer, I'd like to call your attention to a few
+very interesting figures. When you urged me, four years ago, to
+consolidate the John Burnit and Trimmer and Company Stores, my
+father's business was appraised at two hundred and sixty thousand
+dollars and yours at two hundred and forty. On your suggestion we took
+in sixty thousand dollars of additional capital. I did not know as
+much at that time as I do now, and I let you sell this stock where you
+could control it, virtually giving you three thousand shares to my two
+thousand six hundred. You froze me out, elected your own board, made
+yourself manager at an enormous salary, and voted your son-in-law
+another one so ridiculous that it was put out of all possibility for
+my stock ever to yield any dividends. All right, Mr. Trimmer. With the
+purchase of this three hundred shares I now control two thousand nine
+hundred shares and you two thousand seven hundred. I presume I don't
+need to tell you what is going to happen in today's meeting."
+
+To this Silas returned no answer.
+
+"I am an old man," he muttered to himself as one suddenly stricken. "I
+am an old, old man."
+
+"I am going to oust you," continued Bobby, "and to oust all your
+relatives from their fat positions; and I am going to elect myself to
+everything worth while. I have brought Mr. Johnson with me to inspect
+your books, and Mr. Chalmers to take charge of certain legal matters
+connected with the concern immediately after the close of to-day's
+meeting. I am going to restore Applerod to his position here from
+which you so unceremoniously discharged him, and make Johnson general
+manager of this and all my affairs. I understand that your stock in
+this concern is mortgaged, and that you will be utterly unable to
+redeem it. I intend to buy it and practically own the entire company
+myself. Are there any questions you would like to ask, Mr. Trimmer?"
+
+There was none. Silas, crushed and dazed and pitiable, only moaned
+that he was an old man; that he was an old, old man.
+
+Bobby felt the gentle pressure of Agnes' hand upon his arm. There was
+a moment of silence.
+
+Trimmer looked around at them piteously. Once more Bobby felt that
+touch upon his sleeve. Understanding, he went over to Silas and took
+him gently by the arm.
+
+"Come over here to the window with me a minute," said he, "and we will
+have a little business talk."
+
+"Business! Oh, yes; business!" said Silas, brightening up at the
+mention of the word.
+
+He rose nervously and allowed Bobby to lead him, bent and almost
+palsied, over to the window, where they could look out on the busy
+street below, and the roofs of the tall buildings, and the blue sky
+beyond where it smiled down upon the river. It was only a fleeting
+glance that Silas Trimmer cast at the familiar scene outside, and
+almost immediately he turned to Bobby, clutching his coat sleeve
+eagerly. "You--you said something about business," he half-whispered,
+and over his face there came a shadow of that old, shrewd look.
+
+"Why, yes," replied Bobby uncomfortably. "I think we can find a place
+for you, Mr. Trimmer. You have kept this concern up splendidly, no
+matter how much beset you were outside, and--and I think Johnson will
+engage you, if you care for it, to look after certain details of
+buying and such matters as that."
+
+"Oh, yes, the buying," agreed Silas, nodding his head. "I always was a
+good buyer--and a good seller, too!" and he chuckled. "About what do
+you say, now, that my services would be worth?" and with the prospect
+of bartering more of his old self came back.
+
+"We'll make that satisfactory, I can assure you," said Bobby. "Your
+salary will be a very liberal one, I am certain, and it will begin
+from to-day. First, however, you must have a good rest--a vacation
+with pay, understand--and it will make you strong again. You are a
+little run down."
+
+"Yes," agreed Silas, nodding his head as the animation faded out of
+his eyes. "I'm getting old. I think, Mr. Burnit, if you don't mind
+I'll go into the little room there and lie on the couch for a few
+minutes."
+
+"That is a good idea," said Bobby. "You should be rested for the
+meeting."
+
+"Oh, yes," repeated Silas, nodding his head sagely; "the meeting."
+
+They were uncomfortably silent when Bobby had returned from the little
+room adjoining. The shadow of tragedy lay upon them all, and it was
+out of this shadow that Bobby spoke his determination.
+
+"I am going to get out of business," he declared. "It is a hard, hard
+game. I can win at it, but--well, I'd rather go back, if I only could,
+to my unsophistication of four years ago. I don't like business. Of
+course, I'll keep this place for tradition's sake, and because it
+would please my father--no, I mean it _will_ please him--but I'm going
+to sell the _Bulletin_. I have an offer for it at an excellent profit.
+I'm going to intrust the management of the electric plant to my good
+friend Biff, here, with Chalmers and Johnson as starboard and larboard
+bulwarks, until the stock is quoted at a high enough rating to be a
+profitable sale; then I'm going to turn it into money, and add it to
+the original fund. I think I shall be busy enough just looking after
+and enjoying my new partnership," and he smiled down at Agnes, who
+smiled back at him with a trusting admiration that needed no words to
+express.
+
+"Beg your pardon, sir," said old Johnson, "but I have a letter here
+for you," and from his inside pocket he drew one of the familiar
+steel-gray envelopes, which he handed to Bobby.
+
+It was addressed:
+
+    _To My Son Bobby, Upon His Regaining His Father's Business_
+
+The message inside was so brief that one who had not known well old
+John Burnit would never have known the full, full heart out of which
+he penned it:
+
+    "I knew you'd do it, dear boy. Whatever mystery I find in the
+    great hereafter I shall be satisfied--for I knew you'd do it."
+
+That was all.
+
+"Johnson," said Bobby, crumpling up the letter in his hand, and
+speaking briskly to beat back his emotion, "we will move our offices
+to the same old quarters, and we will move back, for my use, my
+father's old desk with my father's portrait hanging above it, just as
+they were when Silas Trimmer ordered them removed."
+
+Two of the stock-holders came in at this moment, and Agnes went down
+into the store to find Biff Bates and Nellie Platt, for there was much
+shopping to do. Agnes had taken pretty Nellie under her chaperonage,
+and every day now the girls were busy with preparations for certain
+events in which each was highly interested.
+
+Up in the office there was a meeting that was a shock to all the
+stock-holders but one, and after it was over Bobby joined the
+shoppers. When the four of them had clambered into Bobby's automobile
+and were rolling away, Bobby stopped his machine.
+
+"Look," he said in calm triumph, and pointed upward, his hand clasping
+a smaller hand which was to rest contentedly in his through life.
+
+Over the Grand Street front of the building from which they had
+emerged, workmen were just raising a huge electric sign, and it bore
+the legend:
+
+                     THE JOHN BURNIT'S SON STORES
+
+
+
+
+Popular Copyright Books
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+  Bella Donna. By Robert Hichens.
+  Betrayal, The. By E. Phillips Oppenheim.
+  Bill Toppers, The. By Andre Castaigne.
+  Butterfly Man, The. By George Barr McCutcheon.
+  Cab No. 44. By R. F. Foster.
+  Calling of Dan Matthews, The. By Harold Bell Wright
+  Cape Cod Stories. By Joseph C. Lincoln.
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+  City of Six, The. By C. L. Canfield.
+  Conspirators, The.  By Robert W. Chambers.
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+  Day of the Dog, The. By George Barr McCutcheon.
+  Depot Master, The. By Joseph C. Lincoln.
+  Derelicts. By William J. Locke.
+  Diamonds Cut Paste. By Agnes & Egerton Castle.
+  Early Bird, The. By George Randolph Chester.
+  Eleventh Hour, The. By David Potter.
+  Elizabeth in Rugen. By the author of Elizabeth and Her German Garden.
+  Flying Mercury, The. By Eleanor M. Ingram.
+  Gentleman, The. By Alfred Ollivant.
+  Girl Who Won, The. By Beth Ellis.
+  Going Some. By Rex Beach.
+  Hidden Water. By Dane Coolidge.
+  Honor of the Big Snows, The. By James Oliver Curwood.
+  Hopalong Cassidy. By Clarence E. Mulford.
+  House of the Whispering Pines, The. By Anna Katherine Green.
+  Imprudence of Prue, The. By Sophie Fisher.
+  In the Service of the Princess. By Henry C. Rowland.
+  Island of Regeneration, The. By Cyrus Townsend Brady.
+  Lady of Big Shanty, The. By Berkeley F. Smith.
+  Lady Merton, Colonist. By Mrs. Humphrey Ward.
+  Lord Loveland Discovers America. By C. N. & A. M. Williamson.
+  Love the Judge. By Wymond Carey.
+  Man Outside, The. By Wyndham Martyn.
+  Marriage of Theodora, The. By Molly Elliott Seawell.
+  My Brother's Keeper. By Charles Tenny Jackson.
+  My Lady of the South. By Randall Parrish.
+  Paternoster Ruby, The. By Charles Edmonds Walk.
+  Politician, The. By Edith Huntington Mason.
+  Pool of Flame, The. By Louis Joseph Vance.
+  Poppy. By Cynthia Stockley.
+  Redemption of Kenneth Galt, The. By Will N. Harben.
+  Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary, The. By Anna Warner.
+  Road to Providence, The. By Maria Thompson Davies.
+  Romance of a Plain Man, The. By Ellen Glasgow.
+  Running Fight, The. By Wm. Hamilton Osborne.
+  Septimus. By William J. Locke.
+  Silver Horde, The. By Rex Beach.
+  Spirit Trail, The. By Kate & Virgil D. Boyles.
+  Stanton Wins. By Eleanor M. Ingram.
+  Stolen Singer, The. By Martha Bellinger.
+  Three Brothers, The. By Eden Phillpotts.
+  Thurston of Orchard Valley. By Harold Bindloss.
+  Title Market, The. By Emily Post.
+  Vigilante Girl, A. By Jerome Hart.
+  Village of Vagabonds, A. By F. Berkeley Smith.
+  Wanted--A Chaperon. By Paul Leicester Ford.
+  Wanted: A Matchmaker. By Paul Leicester Ford.
+  Watchers of the Plains, The. By Ridgwell Cullum.
+  White Sister, The. By Marion Crawford.
+  Window at the White Cat, The. By Mary Roberts Rhinehart.
+  Woman in Question, The. By John Reed Scott.
+  Anna the Adventuress. By E. Phillips Oppenheim.
+  Ann Boyd. By Will N. Harben.
+  At The Moorings. By Rosa N. Carey.
+  By Right of Purchase. By Harold Bindloss.
+  Carlton Case, The. By Ellery H. Clark.
+  Chase of the Golden Plate. By Jacques Futrelle.
+  Cash Intrigue, The. By George Randolph Chester.
+  Delafield Affair, The. By Florence Finch Kelly.
+  Dominant Dollar, The. By Will Lillibridge.
+  Elusive Pimpernel, The. By Baroness Orczy.
+  Ganton & Co. By Arthur J. Eddy.
+  Gilbert Neal. By Will N. Harben.
+  Girl and the Bill, The. By Bannister Merwin.
+  Girl from His Town, The. By Marie Van Vorst.
+  Glass House, The. By Florence Morse Kingsley.
+  Highway of Fate, The. By Rosa N. Carey.
+  Homesteaders, The. By Kate and Virgil D. Boyles.
+  Husbands of Edith, The. George Barr McCutcheon.
+  Inez. (Illustrated Ed.) By Augusta J. Evans.
+  Into the Primitive. By Robert Ames Bennet.
+  Jack Spurlock, Prodigal. By Horace Lorimer.
+  Jude the Obscure. By Thomas Hardy.
+  King Spruce. By Holman Day.
+  Kingsmead. By Bettina Von Hutten.
+  Ladder of Swords, A. By Gilbert Parker.
+  Lorimer of the Northwest. By Harold Bindloss.
+  Lorraine. By Robert W. Chambers.
+  Loves of Miss Anne, The. By S. R. Crockett.
+  Marcaria. By Augusta J. Evans.
+  Mam' Linda. By Will N. Harben.
+  Maids of Paradise, The. By Robert W. Chambers.
+  Man in the Corner, The. By Baroness Orczy.
+  Marriage A La Mode. By Mrs. Humphry Ward.
+  Master Mummer, The. By E. Phillips Oppenheim.
+  Much Ado About Peter. By Jean Webster.
+  Old, Old Story, The. By Rosa N. Carey.
+  Pardners. By Rex Beach.
+  Patience of John Moreland, The. By Mary Dillon.
+  Paul Anthony, Christian. By Hiram W. Hays.
+  Prince of Sinners, A. By E. Phillips Oppenheim.
+  Prodigious Hickey, The. By Owen Johnson.
+  Red Mouse, The. By William Hamilton Osborne.
+  Refugees, The. By A. Conan Doyle.
+  Round the Corner in Gay Street. Grace S. Richmond.
+  Rue: With a Difference. By Rosa N. Carey.
+  Set in Silver. By C. N. and A. M. Williamson.
+  St. Elmo. By Augusta J. Evans.
+  Silver Blade, The. By Charles E. Walk.
+  Spirit in Prison, A. By Robert Hichens.
+  Strawberry Handkerchief, The. By Amelia E. Barr.
+  Tess of the D'Urbervilles. By Thomas Hardy.
+  Uncle William. By Jennette Lee.
+  Way of a Man, The. By Emerson Hough.
+  Whirl, The. By Foxcroft Davis.
+  With Juliet in England. By Grace S. Richmond.
+  Yellow Circle, The. By Charles E. Walk.
+
+
+Any of the following: titles can be bought of your bookseller at 50
+cents per volume.
+
+  The Shepherd of the Hills. By Harold Bell Wright.
+  Jane Cable. By George Barr McCutcheon.
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+  The Halo. By Bettina von Hutten.
+  Jerry Junior. By Jean Webster.
+  The Powers and Maxine. By C. N. and A. M. Williamson.
+  The Balance of Power. By Arthur Goodrich.
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+  Arms and the Woman. By Harold MacGrath.
+  Artemus Ward's Works (extra illustrated).
+  At the Mercy of Tiberius. By Augusta Evans Wilson.
+  Awakening of Helena Richie. By Margaret Deland.
+  Battle Ground, The. By Ellen Glasgow.
+  Belle of Bowling Green, The. By Amelia E. Barr.
+  Ben Blair. By Will Lillibridge.
+  Best Man, The. By Harold MacGrath.
+  Beth Norvell. By Randall Parrish.
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+  Bob, Son of Battle. By Alfred Ollivant.
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+  Casting Away of Mrs. Leeks and Mrs. Aleshine. By Frank R. Stockton.
+  Cecilia's Lovers. By Amelia E. Barr.
+  Circle, The. By Katherine Cecil Thurston (author of "The
+    Masquerader," "The Gambler").
+  Colonial Free Lance, A. By Chauncey C. Hotchkiss.
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+  Fighting Chance, The. By Robert W. Chambers.
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+  Heart's Highway, The. By Mary E. Wilkins.
+  Holladay Case, The. By Burton Egbert Stevenson.
+  Hurricane Island. By H. B. Marriott Watson.
+  In Defiance of the King. By Chauncey C. Hotchkiss.
+  Indifference of Juliet, The. By Grace S. Richmond.
+  Infelice. By Augusta Evans Wilson.
+  Lady Betty Across the Water. By C. N. and A. M. Williamson.
+  Lady of the Mount, The. By Frederic S. Isham.
+  Lane That Had No Turning, The. By Gilbert Parker.
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+  Man from Red Keg, The. By Eugene Thwing.
+  Marthon Mystery, The. By Burton Egbert Stevenson.
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+  Millionaire Baby, The. By Anna Katharine Green.
+  Missourian, The. By Eugene P. Lyle, Jr.
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+  My Friend the Chauffeur. By C. N. and A. M. Williamson.
+  My Lady of the North. By Randall Parrish.
+  Mystery of June 13th. By Melvin L. Severy.
+  Mystery Tales. By Edgar Allan Poe.
+  Nancy Stair. By Elinor Macartney Lane.
+  Order No. 11. By Caroline Abbot Stanley.
+  Pam. By Bettina von Hutten.
+  Pam Decides. By Bettina von Hutten.
+  Partners of the Tide. By Joseph C. Lincoln.
+  Phra the Phoenician. By Edwin Lester Arnold.
+  President, The. By Alfred Henry Lewis.
+  Princess Passes, The. By C. N. and A. M. Williamson.
+  Princess Virginia, The. By C. N. and A. M. Williamson.
+  Prisoners. By Mary Cholmondeley.
+  Private War, The. By Louis Joseph Vance.
+  Prodigal Son, The. By Hall Caine.
+  Quickening, The. By Francis Lynde.
+  Richard the Brazen. By Cyrus T. Brady and Edw. Peple.
+  Rose of the World. By Agnes and Egerton Castle.
+  Running Water. By A. E. W. Mason.
+  Sarita the Carlist. By Arthur W. Marchmont.
+  Seats of the Mighty, The. By Gilbert Parker.
+  Sir Nigel. By A. Conan Doyle.
+  Sir Richard Calmady. By Lucas Malet.
+  Speckled Bird, A. By Augusta Evans Wilson.
+  Spirit of the Border, The. By Zane Grey.
+  Spoilers, The. By Rex Beach.
+  Squire Phin. By Holman F. Day.
+  Stooping Lady, The.  By Maurice Hewlett.
+  Subjection of Isabel Carnaby. By Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler.
+  Sunset Trail, The. By Alfred Henry Lewis.
+  Sword of the Old Frontier, A. By Randall Parrish.
+  Tales of Sherlock Holmes. By A. Conan Doyle.
+  That Printer of Udell's. By Harold Bell Wright.
+  Throwback, The. By Alfred Henry Lewis.
+  Trail of the Sword, The. By Gilbert Parker.
+  Treasure of Heaven, The. By Marie Corelli.
+  Two Vanrevels, The. By Booth Tarkington.
+  Up From Slavery. By Booker T. Washington.
+  Vashti. By Augusta Evans Wilson.
+  Viper of Milan, The (original edition). By Marjorie Bowen.
+  Voice of the People, The. By Ellen Glasgow.
+  Wheel of Life, The. By Ellen Glasgow.
+  When Wilderness Was King. By Randall Parrish.
+  Where the Trail Divides. By Will Lillibridge.
+  Woman in Grey, A. By Mrs. C. N. Williamson.
+  Woman in the Alcove, The. By Anna Katharine Green.
+  Younger Set, The. By Robert W. Chambers.
+  The Weavers. By Gilbert Parker.
+  The Little Brown Jug at Kildare. By Meredith Nicholson.
+  The Prisoners of Chance. By Randall Parrish.
+  My Lady of Cleve. By Percy J. Hartley.
+  Loaded Dice. By Ellery H. Clark.
+  Get Rich Quick Wallingford. By George Randolph Chester.
+  The Orphan. By Clarence Mulford.
+  A Gentleman of France. By Stanley J. Weyman.
+  Purple Parasol, The. By George Barr McCutcheon.
+  Princess Dehra, The. By John Reed Scott.
+  Making of Bobby Burnit, The. By George Randolph Chester.
+  Last Voyage of the Donna Isabel, The. By Randall Parrish.
+  Bronze Bell, The. By Louis Joseph Vance.
+  Pole Baker. By Will N. Harben.
+  Four Million, The. By O. Henry.
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+  Wayfarers, The. By Mary Stewart Cutting.
+  Held for Orders. By Frank H. Spearman.
+  Story of the Outlaw, The. By Emerson Hough.
+  Mistress of Brae Farm, The. By Rosa N. Carey.
+  Explorer, The. By William Somerset Maugham.
+  Abbess of Vlaye, The. By Stanley Weyman.
+  Alton of Somasco. By Harold Bindloss.
+  Ancient Law, The. By Ellen Glasgow.
+  Barrier, The. By Rex Beach.
+  Bar 20. By Clarence E. Mulford.
+  Beloved Vagabond, The. By William J. Locke.
+  Beulah. (Illustrated Edition.) By Augusta J. Evans.
+  Chaperon, The. By C. N. and A. M. Williamson.
+  Colonel Greatheart. By H. C. Bailey.
+  Dissolving Circle, The. By Will Lillibridge.
+  Elusive Isabel. By Jacques Futrelle.
+  Fair Moon of Bath, The. By Elizabeth Ellis.
+  54-40 or Fight. By Emerson Hough.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Making of Bobby Burnit, by
+George Randolph Chester
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