been describing his luncheon of the day before to his friends.

"I am dead sure of one thing," he declared. "She is on our side, and I
honestly believe that she means getting that paper."

"But she hasn't even the entree to the house now," Weiss objected.

"There are plenty of the servants there," Littleson answered, "whom she
must know very well, and through whom she could get in, especially if
Phineas is really up in his room. I tell you fellows, I truly believe
we'll have that wretched document in our hands by this time to-morrow."

"The day I see it in ashes," Bardsley muttered, "I'll stand you fellows
a magnum of Pommery '92."

"I wonder," Weiss remarked, "what sort of terms she is on with her
cousin, the little girl with the big eyes."

"I wish to Heaven one of you could make friends with that child!"
Bardsley exclaimed. "I'd give a tidy lot to know whether Phineas Duge
lies there on his bed, or whether his hand is on the telephone half the
time. You are sure, Littleson, that Dick Losting is in Europe?"

"Absolutely certain," Littleson answered. "I had a letter from him dated
Paris only yesterday."

"Then who in God's name is shaking the Chicago markets like this!"
Bardsley declared, striking the newspaper which lay by his side with the
palm of his hand. "You notice, too, the stocks which are being hit are
all ours, every one of them. Damn! If Phineas should be sitting up there
in his room with that hideous little smile upon his lips, talking and
talking across the wires hour after hour, while we hang round like
idiots and play his game! It's maddening to think of."

"Oh, rot!" Littleson declared. "You can imagine everything if you try.
There are the doctor's bulletins! We've had a dozen detectives all round
the place, and there is not a single murmur of his having been seen by
any one, or known to have even dictated a letter."

"I've never known him sick for a day in my life," Bardsley said thickly.

"It must come some time," Littleson answered. "It's always these men
who've never been ill at all, who come down suddenly. I'm not going to
worry myself about nothing. Our only mistake was in the way that child
was handled. I think Weiss frightened her."

Weiss shrugged his shoulders.

"Perhaps I did," he said. "You see I'm not a fashionable young spark
like you. Why the devil don't you go and call on her? It's only a civil
thing to do. You are supposed to be one of her uncle's greatest friends,
and h