uld be here, to witness what I am doing; and second, because Jane
would have had you, and I want you to be with Jeanette when I tell her
some things that she must know to-night--she and mother."

He was sitting in a deep easy chair, with one foot--not his lame
foot--curled under him, a wiry-looking little gray cat of a man who
nervously drummed on the mahogany chair arm, or kept running his hands
over the carving, or folding and unfolding them, and twirled his
thumbs incessantly as he talked. He smiled as he began:--

"Well, girls, father got off the chair car at Sycamore Ridge this
morning, after having had the best sleep he has had in twenty years."

He paused for the effect of his declaration to sink in. Jeanette
asked, "Where was the car?"

"What car?" teased the little gray cat.

"Why, our car?"

"My dear, we have no car," he smiled, with the cream of mystery on his
lips. Then he licked it off. "I sold the car three weeks ago, when I
left the Ridge the last time." He dropped into an eloquent silence,
and then went on: "I rode in the chair car to save three dollars. I
need it in my business."

His mother's blue eyes were watching him closely. She exclaimed,
"John, quit your foolishness. What have you done?"

He laughed as he said: "Mother, I have returned to you poor but
honest. My total assets at this minute are seventy-five million
dollars' worth of stock of the National Provisions Company, tied up in
this bundle on the floor here, and five thousand dollars in the
Exchange National Bank of Sycamore Ridge which I have held for thirty
years. I sold my State Bank stock last Monday to Gabe Carnine. I have
thirty-four dollars and seventy-three cents in my pocketbook, and that
is all."

The women were puzzled, and their faces showed it. So the little gray
cat made short work of the mice.

"Well, now, to be brief and plain," said Barclay, pulling himself
forward in his chair and thrusting out an arm and hand, as if to grip
the attention of his hearers, "I have always owned or directly
controlled over half the N.P.C. stock--representing a big pile of
money. I am trying to forget how much, and you don't care. But it was
only part of my holdings--about half or such a matter, I should say.
The rest were railroad bonds on roads necessary to the company,
mortgages on mills and elevators whose stock was merged in the
company, and all sorts of gilt-edged stuff, bank stock and insurance
company stock--all needed to m