he pups for $25 apiece, and went away,
ashamed to look their proud mother in the face.

Fortune smiled on him before the day was over, however. He took
"Subway" Smith for a ride in the "Green Juggernaut," bad weather and
bad roads notwithstanding. Monty lost control of the machine and headed
for a subway excavation. He and Smith saved themselves by leaping to
the pavement, sustaining slight bruises, but the great machine crashed
through the barricade and dropped to the bottom of the trench far
below. To Smith's grief and Brewster's delight the automobile was
hopelessly ruined, a clear loss of many thousands. Monty's joy was
short-lived, for it was soon learned that three luckless workmen down
in the depths had been badly injured by the green meteor from above.
The mere fact that Brewster could and did pay liberally for the relief
of the poor fellows afforded him little consolation. His carelessness,
and possibly his indifference, had brought suffering to these men and
their families which was not pleasant to look back upon. Lawsuits were
avoided by compromises. Each of the injured men received $4,000.

At this time every one was interested in the charity bazaar at the
Astoria. Society was on exhibition, and the public paid for the
privilege of gazing at the men and women whose names filled the society
columns. Brewster frequented the booth presided over by Miss Drew, and
there seemed to be no end to his philanthropy. The bazaar lasted two
days and nights, and after that period his account-book showed an even
"profit" of nearly $3,000. Monty's serenity, however, was considerably
ruffled by the appearance of a new and aggressive claimant for the
smiles of the fair Barbara. He was a Californian of immense wealth and
unbounded confidence in himself, and letters to people in New York had
given him a certain entree. The triumphs in love and finance that had
come with his two score years and ten had demolished every vestige of
timidity that may have been born with him. He was successful enough in
the world of finance to have become four or five times a millionaire,
and he had fared so well in love that twice he had been a widower.
Rodney Grimes was starting out to win Barbara with the same dash and
impulsiveness that overcame Mary Farrell, the cook in the mining-camp,
and Jane Boothroyd, the school-teacher, who came to California ready to
marry the first man who asked her. He was a penniless prospector when
he married Mary, a