d with every detail perfect. His shoes with their
patches, one on each toe, were polished to more than Chad's customary
brilliancy; his gray hair was brushed straight back from his forehead,
its ends overlapping the high collar behind; his goatee was twisted to
a fish-hook point and curled outward from his shirt-front; his
moustache was smooth and carefully trimmed.

The coat,--it was the same old double-breasted coat, of many
repairs--was buttoned tight over his chest giving his slender figure
that military air which always distinguished the Virginian when some
matter of importance, some matter involving personal defence or
offence, had to be settled. In one hand he carried his heavy cane with
its silver top, the other held his well-brushed hat.

"What has kept Fitz?" he asked with some anxiety.

"Nothing, Colonel. Board doesn't open till ten o'clock. He'll be along
presently," I answered.

Half an hour passed and still no Fitz. By this time I, too, had begun
to feel nervous. This was a day of all others for a man in Fitz's
position to be on hand early.

I interviewed the clerk privately.

"Stopped at the Bank," he said in an undertone. "He took some cats and
dogs up with him last night and is trying to get a loan. Going to rain
down here to-day, I guess, and somebody'll get wet. Curb market is
steady, but you can't tell anything till the Board opens."

At ten minutes before ten by the clock on the wall Fitz burst into the
office, pulled a package from inside his coat, thrust it through the
hole in the glass partition, whispered something to a second clerk who
had just come in, and who at Fitz's command grabbed up his hat, and
with three plunges was through the doorway and racing down the street.
Then Fitz turned and saw us.

"Why, you dear Colonel, where the devil did you come from?"

The Colonel did not answer. He had noticed Fitz's concentrated,
business-like manner, so different from his bearing of the night
before, and had caught the anxious expression on the clerk's face as
he bounded past him on his way to the street. It was evident that the
situation was grave and the crisis imminent. The Colonel rose from his
seat and held out his hand, his manner one of the utmost solemnity.

"I have heard all about it, Fitz. I am here to stand by you. Let us go
inside where we can discuss the situation quietly."

Fitz looked at the clock--it was a busy day for him--shook the
Colonel's hand in an equally impressi