m think of a weird, mystical
strain of music that had sometimes haunted his brain and yet which he
had never been able to seize and capture. As he gazed on the soaring,
mystical Peak, he remembered his dream, and slowly, but very surely, he
perceived that a purpose was forming in his mind, almost without the
connivance of his will. He got upon his feet and laughed aloud. A sudden
youthful intoxication of delight welled up within him and rang forth in
that laugh. Life, for the first time in three years, seemed to him like
a glorious thing; an irresistible, a soul-stirring purpose had taken
possession of him, and he knew that no obstacle could stand against it.

He started for the town almost on a run, scorning the prosaic cars which
harbored passengers who whistled out of tune. He struck directly across
the intercepting plain, and though he soon had to slacken his pace, his
winged thoughts went on before him, and he took no note of the distance.

That evening Peckham sent off a telegram of one hundred and eleven words
to Heinrich Leitmann, of the Leitmann Orchestra, and Monday afternoon
the following answer came:

"Full Leitmann Orchestra can engage for Springtown, evening of
19th. Terms, five thousand dollars, expenses included. Answer
before 13th. Buffalo, N. Y.

(Signed) "H. LEITMANN."

And now Lewis Peckham came out a full-fledged speculator. He sold out of
four mines and bought into six; he changed his ventures three times in
twenty-four hours, each time on a slight rise. He haunted the
stockbroker's offices, watching out for "pointers"; he button-holed
every third man on the street; he drank in every hint that was dropped
in his hearing. On Tuesday afternoon he "cleaned up" his capital and
found himself in possession of three thousand five hundred dollars.

"Peckham's going it hard," men said at the club. "He must be awfully
bitten."

All day Wednesday he could not muster courage to put his money into
anything, though stocks were booming on every hand. And yet on
Wednesday, as on Monday and on Tuesday, he did his office work and
superintended that of his subordinates methodically and exactly. The
substratum of character which the long-headed Hillerton had built upon,
held firm.

On Wednesday evening Peckham stood, wild-eyed and haggard, in the light
of Estabrook's drug-store and scanned the faces of the foot-passengers.
Early in the evening Ellio