nd accept your magnificent offer right now. Brethren, we
are in luck. A special providence seems to have been at work through the
whole thing. A vain and ungodly enterprise broke down in our midst, and
we are, by our act, directing streams of evil into channels of good. In
putting this tent to our use we will be turning over the tables of the
money-changers, and causing grain of righteousness to grow where tares
of evil flourished."

As Henley walked homeward along the lonely road he mused: "I could have
run that crowd up to seventy-five as easy as not. They would have raked
up the balance, but I reckon a fellow ought to let well enough alone."

Of all the denizens of Chester and its environs, no one had keener
enjoyment over the gossip concerning these various deals than Dixie
Hart. She had enough of the speculative tendency in her make-up to
heartily appreciate the situation in all its phases, and she was glad,
too, that her friend had found, so soon after his return home, such good
opportunities to exercise his rare gifts. She went into the store only a
day or two after the sale of the tent, and found Henley alone.

"So you won out in that venture, after all?" she laughed. "And, if what
folks say is true, you made big money."

"I'm not out of the woods yet," he smiled. "There is always a drawback,
you know." He pointed through the open doorway to the lion's cage on the
shoemaker's lot across the street. "I've still got that thing, and I'm
afraid it's going to be a white elephant. I'm sorry, too, for I'd like
to make a clean sweep, just because folks bet that I'd lose heavy. I'd
give the cage away if I could do it, but, like a fool, I went and said
that I'd show 'em that I could turn every item in the lot over at a
profit."

"What are you asking for it?" Dixie inquired.

"Twenty-five dollars," he replied. "If I can't sell it like it stands
I'll split it up an' use the iron some way or other."

"It would be a pity to do that," the girl said, thoughtfully. "Let me
take a look at it."

He stood in the doorway and watched her as she crossed the street in her
easy, graceful way, and then he saw her approach the lion's cage, turn
the bolt of the door, and look in, and heard the sound of her fist as it
rapped against the wooden sides. Then she disappeared. She had entered
the cage and was out of sight for several minutes. Emerging, she came
directly across the street to Henley, her head hanging thoughtfully, a
sligh