fare?"

Ruferton smiled. "My dear fellow, perhaps you had better go and ask him.
If Hamilton Burton has turned things topsy-turvy to act as your savior
in an eleventh-hour crisis, common sense compels me to infer that he has
a reason too interesting to ignore."

Mr. Hendricks paced the path for a few minutes in the disquiet of
intense nervousness, then he spoke with sharp accusation and distrust.

"You don't know what this matter is! You have come here by special train
to warn me that I face ruin; and you pretend to have no inkling of the
nature of my peril! You speak of veiled threats. Are you lying to me,
Ruferton?"

"Draw your own conclusions." The time had come for playing the card of
offended sensibilities and Mr. Ruferton turned promptly on his heel.
"Stay where you are and--read the newspapers. Burton's instructions were
to bring you back, but I don't suppose he expected me to kidnap you in
your own behalf. I presume he anticipated your sane realization that he
didn't send for you to smoke a cigar with him. He presumed you were
interested in avoiding disgrace."

"Don't you understand," demanded Hendricks blankly, "how inconceivable
it is that you should come on a mission like this without knowing its
exact nature?"

The other nodded. "Burton didn't know that you were out of town. When
last night, quite late, he learned of this matter he sent me to find
you. There was no time for discussion or explanation."

"Wait until I pack my bag." The Honorable Hendricks, whose dignity on
the bench would so honor the judicial ermine, rushed wildly into the
house while Hamilton Burton's envoy stood outside contemplatively
kicking about among the fallen leaves.

With the flaming of that morning's headlines announcing J.J. Malone's
illness a spirit of nervousness began stalking in the Street. Of this
restlessness Hamilton Burton was duly apprised and while he scornfully
laughed at blind luck he acknowledged the power of his Star, and gave
thanks to his own unnamed gods.

His eye was brilliantly clear and his step resilient, but Paul, whose
delicate nature possessed a quality approaching the clairvoyant, divined
that his great brother was exalted by some prospect of portentous
moment, and that it might mean triumph--or reverse. Timidly the younger
questioned the elder.

That afternoon while Hamilton was outlining future and audacious
strokes of finance Paul was with him. For hours they sat together, the
younger man a