sometimes. They aren't allowed to carry
it on the railroads, you know--have to team it. Young Akers says George
rides around over the bumpy roads, sitting on as much as three hundred
quarts of nitroglycerin! My Lord! Talk about romantic tumbles! If he
gets blown sky-high some day he won't have a bigger drop, when he comes
down, than he's already had! Don't it beat the devil! Young Akers said
he's got all the nerve there is in the world. Well, he always did have
plenty of that--from the time he used to ride around here on his white
pony and fight all the Irish boys in Can-Town, with his long curls all
handy to be pulled out. Akers says he gets a fair salary, and I should
think he ought to! Seems to me I've heard the average life in that
sort of work is somewhere around four years, and agents don't write any
insurance at all for nitroglycerin experts. Hardly!"

"No," said Eugene. "I suppose not."

Kinney rose to go. "Well, it's a pretty funny thing--pretty odd, I
mean--and I suppose it would be pass-around-the-hat for old Fanny
Minafer if he blew up. Fred told me that they're living in some
apartment house, and said Georgie supports her. He was going to study
law, but couldn't earn enough that way to take care of Fanny, so he gave
it up. Fred's wife told him all this. Says Fanny doesn't do anything but
play bridge these days. Got to playing too high for awhile and lost more
than she wanted to tell Georgie about, and borrowed a little from old
Frank Bronson. Paid him back, though. Don't know how Fred's wife heard
it. Women do' hear the darndest things!"

"They do," Eugene agreed.

"I thought you'd probably heard about it--thought most likely Fred's
wife might have said something to your daughter, especially as they're
cousins."

"I think not."

"Well, I'm off to the store," said Mr. Kinney briskly; yet he lingered.
"I suppose we'll all have to club in and keep old Fanny out of the
poorhouse if he does blow up. From all I hear it's usually only a
question of time. They say she hasn't got anything else to depend on."

"I suppose not."

"Well--I wondered--" Kinney hesitated. "I was wondering why you hadn't
thought of finding something around your works for him. They say he's
an all-fired worker and he certainly does seem to have hid some decent
stuff in him under all his damfoolishness. And you used to be such a
tremendous friend of the family--I thought perhaps you--of course I know
he's a queer lot--I know--"

"