pick up at least ten scattered shares of
their stock. He figured that before midnight he would have them in his
possession. As to the next day and the next steps, well, the nerve of a
real American plunger clings to life until the sunset of all hopes, even
as the snake's tail, though the serpent's head be bruised beyond repair,
is supposed to wriggle until sunset.

He despatched a telegram at New Haven. He received a reply at
Providence, and he read it and felt like a gambler who has drawn a
card to fill his bobtail hand. When a design is brazen and the game is
largely a bluff, plain, lucky chance must be appealed to.

The telegram had been addressed to Attorney Sawyer Franklin, in a Maine
city. It had requested an appointment with Mr. Franklin on the following
morning.

The reply had stated that Mr. Franklin was critically ill in a hospital,
but that all matters of business would be attended to by his office
force, as far as was possible.

Attorney Sawyer Franklin, as Mr. Fogg, of course, was fully aware, was
clerk of the Vose line corporation, organized according to the Maine
law as a "foreign corporation," under the more liberal regulations which
have attracted so many metropolitan promoters into the states of Maine
and New Jersey.

XVIII ~ HOW AN ANNUAL MEETING WAS HELD--ONCE!

O, a ship she was rigged and ready for sea,
And all of her sailors were fishes to be!
Windy-y-weather,
Stormy-y-weather!
When the wind blows we're all together!
--The Fishes.

Fletcher Fogg, suave, dignified, radiating business importance,
freshened by a barber's ministrations, walked into the Franklin
law-offices the next morning at nine-thirty.

He announced himself to a girl typist, and she referred him to a young
man who came forth from a private room.

"I have power of attorney from Mr. Franklin to transact his routine
business," explained the young man. "Of course, if it's a new case or a
question of law--"

"Neither, neither, my dear sir! Simply a matter of routine. But," he
leaned close to the young man's ear, "strictly private."

Mr. Fogg himself closed the door of the inner office when the two had
retired there.

"One of your matters to-day, I believe, is the annual meeting of the
Vose line. I am a stockholder."

Fogg produced a packet of certificates and laid them on the desk.

"Are there to be any officers or other stockholders present?" he ask