!
Just because I winged a couple of cheap hack horses one day, when my
nerves weren't steady, the livery people made me stop, and one of my
fellow tenants in the old rookery threatened to have me arrested for
conducting a shooting gallery without a license. He was a dentist, and
he said the snap of the rifle worried his victims."

The two typewriting machines outside clicked steadily. Some one knocked
at the door.

"Come in!" shouted Balcomb.

One of the typewriter operators entered with a brisk air of business and
handed a telegram to Balcomb, who tore it open nonchalantly. As he read
it, he tossed the crumpled envelope over his shoulder in an
absent-minded way.

"By Jove!" he exclaimed, slapping his leg as though the news were
important. Then, to the girl, who waited with note-book and pencil in
hand: "Never mind; don't wait. I'll dictate the answer later."

"How did it work?" he asked, turning to Leighton, who had been looking
over the books on the table.

"How did what work?"

"The fake. It was a fake telegram. That girl's trained to bring in a
message every time I have a caller. If the caller stays thirty minutes,
it's two messages,--in other words I'm on a fifteen-minute schedule. I
tip a boy in the telegraph office to keep me supplied with blanks. It's
a great scheme. There's nothing like a telegram to create the
impression that your office is a seething caldron of business. Old Prexy
was in town the other day. I don't suppose he ever got a dose of
electricity in his life unless he had been sorely bereft of a member of
his family and was summoned to the funeral baked meats. Say, he must
have thought I had a private wire!"

Leighton sat down and fanned himself with his hat.

"You'll be my death yet. You have the cheek of a nice, fresh, new
baggage-check, Balcomb."

"Your cigar isn't burning well, Morris. Won't you try another? No? I
like my guests to be comfortable."

"I'm comfortable enough. I'm even entertained. Go ahead and let me see
the rest of the show."

"Oh, we haven't exactly a course of stunts here. Those are nice girls
out there. I've broken them of the chewing-gum habit, and they can
answer anxious inquiries at the door now without danger of
strangulation."

"They seem speedy on the machine. Your correspondence must be something
vast!"

"Um, yes. It has to be. Every cheap skate of a real estate man keeps one
stenographer. My distinction is that I keep two. They're easy
advertising.