sensational newspaper, magnified several hundred times.

AUCTION SALE.
BY ORDER OF THE BANKRUPTCY COURT,

that desirable property known as Anson's Mill, fully
equipped with machinery, in condition for immediate use,
with never-failing water power, which at slight expense may
be enormously increased; together with ten acres of freehold
land; without reserve to the highest bidder; on the
Seventeenth of November!

"A desirable property," said Challis, sadly, "which nobody desires
except the Trust, and probably _it_ cares nothing about it now."

"You forget that it is desired by Stanmore Anson."

"I am afraid that even he is tired of it by this time. I am sorry, but
I feared it was inevitable."

Stranleigh looked up at him.

"Could you make this factory pay, if it were given into your charge?"

"Not in its present condition."

"I mean, of course, with your recommendations carried out. If the mill,
free from all encumbrances, filled with modern machinery, rightly
placed, were put under your management, could you make it pay?"

Challis did not answer for some moments. His brow was wrinkled in
thought, and he seemed making some mental calculations.

"There would need to be a suitable amount of working capital----"

"Yes, yes; all that is understood. Could you make it pay?"

"I am almost sure I could, but there is that incalculable factor, the
opposition of the Trust."

"Damn the Trust!" cried Stranleigh. "I beg your pardon; I should have
said, blow the Trust! I thought I had lost the power of becoming
excited, not to say profane. It must be the exhilarating air of America.
The sale is a good way off yet, and I think it will be further off
before I get through with it. If you will accept the management, and
your father-in-law proves at all reasonable, I guarantee to find the
necessary money."

"You mean that, Mr. Ponderby----"

"Exactly. I am his chief business adviser, as well as his only
chauffeur. But we are forgetting the matter in hand. We must rescue the
wardrobe of Mrs. Challis. Drive on to the mansion. You know the way, and
I don't."

"I'm a warned-off trespasser, but here goes."

"You won't be called on to trespass very much. You're my chauffeur, _pro
tem_. Perhaps you won't need to enter the house at all. I shall see Mrs.
Anson before I meet her husband, if possible, and will try to persuade
her to give me the wardrobe."