at the Judge had told
himself at the time, though it may be that some lurking whisperer in
his soul had hinted that it might be well to preserve the great amount
of cash in hand, and Roger's stock was practically that. Then came the
evil days. Laboriously, he had built up a name for conservatism which
most of the town accepted, but secretly he had always been a gambler:
Wall Street was his goal; to adventure there, as one of the great
single-eyed Cyclopean man-eaters, his fond ambition; and he had
conceived the distillery trust as a means to attain it; but the
structure tumbled about his ears; other edifices of his crumbled at the
same time; he found himself beset, his solvency endangered, and there
was the Tabor stock, quite as good as gold; Roger had just died, and it
was enough to save him.--Save? That was a strange way to be
remembering it to-day, when Fate grinned at him out of a dreadful mask
contorted like the face of Norbert Flitcroft.

Martin Pike knew himself for a fool. What chance had he, though he
destroyed the check a thousand times over, to escape the records by
which the coil of modern trade duplicates and quadruplicates each slip
of scribbled paper? What chance had he against the memories of men?
Would the man of whom he had bought, forget that the check was signed
by Roger's agent? Had the bank-clerk forgotten? Thrice fool, Martin
Pike, to dream that in a town like Canaan, Norbert or any of his kind
could touch an order for so great a sum and forget it! But Martin Pike
had not dreamed that; had dreamed nothing. When failure confronted him
his mind refused to consider anything but his vital need at the time,
and he had supplied that need. And now he grew busy with the future:
he saw first the civil suit for restitution, pressed with the ferocity
and cunning of one who intended to satisfy a grudge of years; then,
perhaps, a criminal prosecution.... But he would fight it! Did they
think that such a man was to be overthrown by a breath of air? By a
girl, a bank-clerk, and a shyster lawyer? They would find their case
difficult to prove in court. He did not believe they COULD prove it.
They would be discredited for the attempt upon him and he would win
clear; these Beaver Beach scandals would die of inertia presently;
there would be a lucky trick in wheat, and Martin Pike would be Martin
Pike once more; reinstated, dictator of church, politics, business; all
those things which were the breath o