lize enough to get even.

"Has the stock recently bought been placed to my credit?" asked Jack. He
was told that it had been. "And how much is it?" he demanded. They
informed him that it amounted to 83,000 shares, which, with the 50,000
shares first bought by him, gave him 133,000 shares, or the entire stock
except 17,000 shares.

Jack was lost in thought a few minutes, then said: "I want all the papers
except the 17,000 shares, and I want with them your own and Stetson's
resignation as officers of the company."

The papers were given him, and taking the bundle he carried it to his own
bank and deposited it, then went home.

He repaired directly to Jim's apartment, found him, and said: "Jim, my
heart is broken. You have stood by me so far, help me now to arrange
things so that I can say good-bye to Rose"--here he broke down and
sobbed--"and then go back to America."

"Why, old friend," said Sedgwick, "if you and Rose are all right, what
can so upset you?"

"Why, bless my soul, Jim, I'm ruined; my fortune is nearly all gone," he
answered.

Then Sedgwick drew from him all the dismal story.

When he had finished, Sedgwick said: "Get me that prospectus, Jack: I
want to see it before I make up my mind." Jack complied, and Sedgwick
read it carefully through. The statement of the mine, the description
of its development, and of the value of the ore, had been prepared by an
expert so eminent that he could not afford to sell his name to bolster up
a fraud.

When Sedgwick had finished reading he sat in thought for a few minutes,
and then said: "Jack, go and find the man from whom this property was
purchased, get all the facts that you can, even if you have to get him
drunk; then come to me to-morrow, and by that time we will think
something out. By the way, first run over to Rose, tell her you have been
called away on business and may not be home until late, so that she will
not expect you."

Jack left his friend and met Rose in the hall. She had just come in to
visit Grace. He caught her up as men sometimes do children, kissed her
and said gaily: "Don't look for me to-night, sweetheart. I'm going to be
engaged until late."

She twined both her arms around one of his arms and said teasingly: "Are
not you and I engaged, and is not ours a prior engagement?"

"O, yes," he said, "but this other engagement is with a man."

"So is mine," she said.

"And sometimes I think he is not much of a man, either," said Jack.