own words--decided to
cut the whole show.

Our firm had been named as the administrators of the Swain estate, and
when the storm was over and we were sitting among the ruins, Freddie
expressed the intention of going to work.

"What will you do?" Mr. Royce inquired. "Ever had any training in
making money?"

"No, only in spending it," retorted Freddie, easily. "But I can
learn. I was thinking of studying law. That's a good trade, isn't it?"

"Splendid!" assented Mr. Royce, warmly. "And there are always so many
openings. You see, nobody studies law--lawyers are as scarce as hen's
teeth."

"Just the same, I think I'll have a try at it," said Freddie,
sturdily. "There's always room at the top, you know," he added, with a
grin. "I can go to the night-school at the University, and I ought to
be able to earn enough to live on, as a clerk or something. I know how
to read and write."

"That will help, of course," agreed Mr. Royce. "But I'm afraid that,
right at first, anyway, you can scarcely hope to live in the style to
which you have been accustomed."

Freddie turned on him with fire in his eyes.

"Look here," he said, "suppose you give me a job. I'll do my work and
earn my wages--try me and see."

There was something in his face that touched me, and I glanced at Mr.
Royce. I saw that his gruffness was merely a mantle to cloak his real
feelings; and the result was that Freddie Swain was set to work as a
copying-clerk at a salary of fifteen dollars a week. He applied
himself to his work with an energy that surprised me, and I learned
that he was taking the night-course at the University, as he had
planned. Finally, one night, I met him as I was turning in to my rooms
at the Marathon, and found that he had rented a cubby-hole on the top
floor of the building. After that, I saw him occasionally, and when
six months had passed, was forced to acknowledge that he was
thoroughly in earnest. I happened to remark to Mr. Royce one day that
Swain seemed to be making good.

"Yes," my partner agreed; "I didn't think he had it in him. He had a
rude awakening from his dream of affluence, and it seems to have done
him good."

But, somehow, I had fancied that it was from more than a dream of
affluence he had been awakened; and now, as I sat staring at this
letter, I began to understand dimly what the other dream had been.

The first thing was to get the letter into his hands, for I was
certain that it was a cry for help. I gla