owell laughed. "I guess that's so--till they get 'em."

"Or don't get them," Henderson added. And then both laughed.

"It looks as if it would go through this time. Bemis says the C. D.'s
badly scared. They'll have to come down lively."

"I shouldn't wonder. By-the-way, look in tomorrow. I've got something to
show you."

Henderson lit his cigar, and they both puffed in silence for some
moments.

"By-the-way, did I ever show you this?" Hollowell took from his
breast-pocket a handsome morocco case, and handed it to his companion.
"I never travel without that. It's better than an accident policy."

Henderson unfolded the case, and saw seven photographs--a showy-looking
handsome woman in lace and jewels, and six children, handsome like their
mother, the whole group with the photographic look of prosperity.

Henderson looked at it as if it had been a mirror of his own destiny,
and expressed his admiration.

"Yes, it's hard to beat," Hollowell confessed, with a soft look in his
face. "It's not for sale. Seven figures wouldn't touch it." He looked at
it lovingly before he put it up, and then added: "Well, there's a figure
for each, Rodney, and a big nest-egg for the old woman besides. There's
nothing like it, old man. You'd better come in." And he put his hand
affectionately on Henderson's knee.

Jeremiah Hollowell--commonly known as Jerry--was a remarkable man.
Thirty years ago he had come to the city from Maine as a "hand" on
a coast schooner, obtained employment in a railroad yard, then as a
freight conductor, gone West, become a contractor, in which position
a lucky hit set him on the road of the unscrupulous accumulation of
property. He was now a railway magnate, the president of a system, a
manipulator of dexterity and courage. All this would not have come about
if his big head had not been packed with common-sense brains, and he had
not had uncommon will and force of character. Success had developed the
best side of him, the family side; and the worst side of him--a brutal
determination to increase his big fortune. He was not hampered by any
scruples in business, but he had the good-sense to deal squarely with
his friends when he had distinctly agreed to do so.

Henderson did not respond to the matrimonial suggestion; it was not
possible for him to vulgarize his own affair by hinting it to such a
man as Hollowell; but they soon fell into serious talk about schemes in
which they were both interested. This talk