o head me off."

"We found where we kin develop 250,000 jolts," Porcupine Jim announced.

"Volts, James," corrected Mr. Dill, and added, dryly, "Don't start in to
put up the plant until I get back."

He _was_ coming back then--he _was_! Figuratively, all Ore City fell at
his feet, though strictly only two scrambled for the privilege of
unbuckling his snow-shoes, and only three picked up his bag.

XI

THE GHOST AT THE BANQUET

T. Victor Sprudell's dinner guests were soon to arrive, and Mr.
Sprudell's pearl gray spats were twinkling up and down the corridor of
Bartlesville's best hotel, and back and forth between the private
dining-room and the Room of Mystery adjoining, where mechanics of
various kinds had been busy under his direction, for some days.

But now, so far as he could see, everything was in perfect working order
and he had only to sit back and enjoy his triumph and receive
congratulations; for once more Mr. Sprudell had demonstrated his
versatile genius!

The invited guests came, all of them--a few because they wanted to, and
the rest because they were afraid to stay away. Old Man "Gid" Rathburn,
who cherished for Sprudell the same warm feeling of regard that he had
for a rattlesnake, occupied the seat of honor, while John Z. Willetts, a
local financier, whose closet contained a skeleton that Sprudell by
industrious sleuthing had managed to unearth, was placed at his host's
left to enjoy himself as best he could. Adolph Gotts, who had the
contract for the city paving and hoped to renew it, was present for the
sole purpose, as he stated privately, of keeping the human catamount off
his back. Others in the merry party were Abram Cone and Y. Fred Smart.

The dinner was the most elaborate the chef had been able to devise, the
domestic champagne was as free as the air, and Mr. Sprudell, stimulated
by the presence of the moneyed men of Bartlesville and his private
knowledge of the importance of the occasion, was keyed up to his best.
Genial, beaming, he quoted freely from his French and Latin phrase-book
and at every turn of the conversation was ready with appropriate
verse--his own, mostly.

This was Mr. Sprudell's only essay at promoting, but he knew how it was
done. A good dinner, wine, cigars; and he had gone the ingenious guild
of money-raisers one better by an actual, uncontrovertible demonstration
of the safety and value of his scheme.

His personal friends already had an outline of the