ttle while we sat in silence over our cheese and salad. Then
Indiman spoke up, suddenly:

"Mr. Harding."

The young man looked at him dully.

"The story of your persistent ill-fortune has interested me. But I find
it difficult to believe in the consistency of bad luck; it must change
sooner or later."

"Not for me," answered the young man, with quick conviction.

"I have a fancy to put that to the test. Take this card to my
brokers--you know them, Sandford & Sands, of New Street. I have
instructed them to place at your disposal a credit of one hundred
thousand dollars. You will be at their office to-morrow morning, and at
precisely ten o'clock you will receive from me a sealed communication
containing certain information upon which you can rely absolutely. Use
your credit according to your best judgment, and report the results to
me at eight o'clock to-morrow evening. The address is on the card, and
you will dine with me."

"I thank you," said the young man, simply. "If such a thing were
possible--" He stopped and shook his head.

"Nonsense!" said Indiman, bluffly. "You must believe in yourself, man;
it is the first requisite for success. To-morrow evening at eight,
then."

Sitting over a final cigar in Indiman's library, he made me a sharer in
the mystery. "It is simply that the canal treaty will be reported
unfavorably to-morrow by the committee, and consequently it will fail
to pass the Senate. How do I know? I heard it from Senator Morrison's
own lips."

"Well?"

"As you know, the dining-hall of the Utinam Club is of a circular
shape, and it happens to possess certain peculiar acoustic properties.
In other words, it is a whispering-gallery, and it so chanced that
Senator Morrison sat at one of the definite points--they call them
vocal foci, I think--and I at the other. That is the whole story."

"You are quite sure--there can be no mistake?"

"Not the slightest doubt. The man with Morrison is a broker, and he has
the Senator's order to sell ten thousand Panama common at the market
to-morrow. When the news of the treaty's failure to pass reaches Wall
Street, by the regular channels, the stock will break sharply and the
profits on the deal should be enormous. No wonder that Senator
Morrison's flying trip to New York should be worth the taking."

"And Harding?"

"It remains to be proven whether the fault lies in the man himself or
in his alleged bad luck. I am sending him the bare fact as to the cana