elit his cigar and endeavored
to pull himself together. He had a half-scared, half-puzzled look
on his face and once in awhile he scratched his head.

Meantime Peters repaired to the nearest hotel and ordered a dinner
of steak and fried potatoes, washed down with a pint of champagne.
He then purchased a new suit of clothes, a box of collars, a few
shirts, and a hat. When he entered Mr. Banks' office an hour later
the latter with difficulty recognized his visitor.

"I owe you three hundred dollars, I believe," remarked Peters,
laying down the bills.

"Owe--me--What? You didn't get that money out of Rosenheim?"
stammered Banks.

"Why not?" asked Peters casually. "Of course I did. Every cent
of it."

Banks looked at him in utter amazement. He, too, scratched his
head.

"Say," he suddenly exploded, "you must be quite a feller! Now,
look here, I've got a claim against the Pennsylvania and Susquehanna
Terminal Company for two million dollars that I wish you'd come in
and give me a little help on. What do you say?"

Peters hesitated and pursed his lips.

"Oh, I don't mind if I do," said he carelessly.

You may have heard of the celebrated law firm of Banks & Peters--
who do a business of about four hundred thousand a year? Well,
that is Peters. Banks says he's "the ablest young lawyer in New
York."

Peters, however, does not deserve the same credit as another young
fellow of my acquaintance, since in Peters' case necessity was the
parent of his invention; whereas in the other the scheme that led
to success was the offspring of an ingenuity that needed no starvation
to stimulate it into activity.

Baldwin was a youth of about thirty, who had done pretty well at
the bar without giving any evidence of brilliancy and only moderate
financial success. He perceived the obvious fact that the way to
make money at the law is to have money-makers for clients, but he
had no acquaintances with financiers and had no reason to advance
to himself why he should ever hope to receive any business from
such. Reading one day that a certain young attorney he knew had
received a large retainer for bringing an injunction in an important
railroad matter, it occurred to him that, after all, it was merely
chance and nothing else that had sent the business to the other
instead of to himself. "If I'd only known Morgan H. Rogers I might
have had the job myself," thought he.

So he pondered deeply over how he could get to know