r, old fellow. We won't give up the
ship yet. How much is it? It can't be a great sum."

"It ain't. But, Ros--you--you can't--you mustn't be mixed up in this. I
shan't let you. Don't you see?"

I argued and pleaded and reasoned with him for what seemed a long time
before he would consent to tell me the whole story. And when it was told
there was nothing new or novel in it. The old tale of an honest man who
had not meant to go wrong, but, tempted by one of those wiles of the
devil, an "inside tip" on the stock market, had bought heavily on
margins, expecting to clear a handsome profit in a short time. The stock
was Louisville and Transcontinental and the struggle for its control by
certain big interests had made copy for financial writers for nearly
a year. George had bought at a time when one syndicate had, so it
believed, secured the control.

Then something went wrong in the deal and the shares began to decline
in value. He put up more margins and still more, but it continued to
decline. Finally under the spur of another "tip," the last of his own
savings having gone to the insatiate brokers, he sent, to bolster his
account and to save him from utter ruin, some bonds belonging to the
bank.

"Not much," he declared, "only about thirty-five hundred dollars' worth,
that's all. I never would have done it, Ros, but I was wild, desperate,
you see. Here I was, getting ready to be married; Nellie and Cap'n Jed
and the rest believing me to be comfortably fixed. It's easy enough now
to say that I ought to have gone to her and told her. If I hadn't been
certain that the market would turn and I'd be all right in a week, I'd
have done it. But I was sure I'd be all right and I couldn't take the
chance. I knew what her father would say about her marrying a pauper,
and I just couldn't take the risk of losing her; I couldn't. She means
more to me than--than--oh, wait until your time comes! Wait until the
girl comes along that you care for more than the whole world. And
then see what you'd do. See what it would mean to give her up! Just
wait--wait and see!"

"Yes, yes," I put in, hastily. "I understand, George. But the stock,
Louisville and Transcontinental, how is it now?"

"Just the same. It is dead, practically speaking. It hasn't moved half
a point for six weeks. I've been expecting it would, but it hasn't. It's
all right; the value is there; I know it. If I could only hang on and
wait I could get my money back, part of it,