them away forever.
It was part of the damnable system of Northern finance and now
Fitzpatrick was to suffer a similar injustice.

"Fitz in Klutchem's power! My God, suh!" he burst out at last, "you
don't tell me so! And Fitz never told me a word about it. My po' Fitz!
My po' Fitz!" he added slowly with quivering lips. "Are you quite
sure, Major, that the situation is as serious as you state it?"

"Quite sure. He told me so himself. He wanted me to keep still about
it, but I didn't want you to think he was ill."

"You did right, Major. I should never have forgiven you if you had
robbed me of the opportunity of helpin' him. It's horrible; it's
damnable. Such men as Klutchem, suh, ought to be drawn and quartered."

For an instant the Colonel leaned forward, his elbows on his knees,
and looked steadily into the fire; then he said slowly with a voice
full of sympathy, and in a tone as if he had at last made up his mind:

"No, I won't disturb the dear fellow to-night. He needs all the sleep
he can get."

* * * * *

The Colonel was still in his chair gazing into the fire when I left.
His pipe was out; his glass untasted; his chin buried in his collar.

"My po' Fitz!" was all he said as he lifted his hand and pressed my
own. "Good-night, Major."

When I had reached the hall door he roused himself, called me back and
said slowly and with the deepest emotion:

"Major, I shall help Fitz through this in the mornin' if it takes
eve'y dollar I've got in the world. Stop for me as you go downtown
and we will call at his office together."

II

Fitz had not yet arrived when the Colonel in his eagerness stepped in
front of me, and peered through the hole in the glass partition which
divided Fitz's inner and outer offices.

"Come inside, Colonel, and wait--expect him after a while," was the
reply from one of the clerks,--the first arrival.

But the Colonel was too restless to sit down, and too absorbed even to
thank the young man for his courtesy or to accept his invitation. He
continued pacing up and down the outer office, stopping now and then
to note the heap of white ribbons tangled up in a wicker
basket--records of the disasters and triumphs of the day before,--or
to gaze silently at the large map that hung over the steam-heater, or
to study in an aimless way the stock lists skewered to the wall.

He had risen earlier than usual and had dressed himself with the
greatest care an