s I am, making just enough to get along, and have a lot of friends. I
wouldn't throw down a friend for a million dollars! I suppose I'm the
only man in town that thinks this way, but I'm a sort of peculiar duck!"

"You mean to tell me that you are not anxious to better yourself, to get
along in the world?"

"Oh, I manage to get along!" Jim Farland replied. "I even eat meat now
and then. I haven't seen the face of the famous wolf outside my door for
some time. What is money?"

"Everything!" the masked man replied.

"That's what you think. It gives me an inkling as to what sort of man
you are. I happen to know a fellow to whom money is everything--and I
have reason to suspect that he is considerably interested in the case of
Sidney Prale. Be careful you do not betray your identity to me!"

Farland had the satisfaction of hearing the masked man gasp, and he
chuckled.

"Well, what is the proposition?" Farland inquired. "You seem to waste a
lot of time."

"We want you merely to tell Sidney Prale that you will not work on the
case any more--that you are done. Then go about your regular business.
We'll have you watched, and as soon as we are satisfied that you are
keeping faith with us, we'll send you ten thousand dollars in cash. If
you make the agreement with me, I'll give you a thousand cash to-night
before you leave this place, as a sort of retainer and expression of our
sincerity. Then, following the fee of ten thousand dollars, you'll find
that much business is flowing your way. All you have to do to get all
this is to withdraw from the Prale case at once."

"You must be afraid that I am finding out some things," Jim Farland
suggested.

"That is scarcely the reason," the masked man answered. "We want Sidney
Prale to stand alone, to be without help of any sort--that is all."

"But I am more than Sidney Prale's employee. I am his friend!" Farland
protested.

"You were his friend ten years ago, sir, but a man may change a great
deal in ten years. Are you quite sure that the Sidney Prale of to-day is
the boyish, friendly Sidney Prale of ten years ago?"

"I am quite sure; and that is why I am trying to help him," Jim Farland
declared.

"I fear that he is fooling you--as he is deceiving others. He is not
worthy of such friendship as you are giving him."

"How do I know that?" Farland asked. "If I could have some sort of an
explanation----"

He awaited the other's reply. If he could get some inkling as to why