h
important items in Mr. Gadgem's list, and both checks passed through the
bank and were paid before the smash came."

The tones of Pawson's voice, the twisting together of his bony hands in
a sort of satisfied contentment, and the weary look on his uncle's face
were the opening of so many windows in the boy's brain. At the same
instant one of those creepy chills common to a man when some hitherto
undiscovered vista of impending disaster widens out before him, started
at the base of Harry's spine, crept up his shoulder-blades, shivered
along his arms, and lost itself in his benumbed fingers. This was
followed by a lump in his throat that nearly strangled him. He left his
chair and touched Pawson on the shoulder.

"Does this mean, Mr. Pawson--this money being locked up in the bank
vaults and not coming out for months--and may be never--does it mean
that Mr. Temple--well, that Uncle George--won't have enough money to
live on?" There was an anxious, vibrant tone in Harry's voice that
aroused St. George to a sense of the boy's share in the calamity and the
privations he must suffer because of it. Pawson hesitated and was about
to belittle the gravity of the situation when St. George stopped him.

"Yes--tell him--tell him everything, I have no secrets from Mr. Rutter.
Stop!--I'll tell him. It means, Harry"--and a brave smile played about
his lips--"that we will have to live on hog and hominy, may be, or
pretty nigh it--certainly for a while--not bad, old fellow, when you get
accustomed to it. Aunt Jemima makes very good hominy and--"

He stopped; the brave smile had faded from his face.

"By Jove!--that's something I didn't think of!--What will I do with the
dear old woman--It would break her heart--and Todd?"

Here was indeed something on which he had not counted! For him to forego
the luxuries that enriched his daily life was easy--he had often in his
hunting trips lived for weeks on sweet potato and a handful of cornmeal,
and slept on the bare ground with only a blanket over him, but that his
servants should be reduced to similar privations suggested possibilities
which appalled him. For the first time since the cruel announcement fell
from Rutter's lips the real situation, with all that it meant to his own
future and those dependent upon him, stared him in the face.

He looked up and caught Harry's anxious eyes scanning his own. His
old-time, unruffled spirit came to his assistance.

"No, son!" he cried in his ch