iew conclude with his own murder. Mr. Harley, having exhausted
expletive and opprobrious term, might empty the six chambers of his
dreadful weapon into Storri. Thus spake Storri's fears, and he cowered
while Mr. Harley raged. Indeed, the tables had been turned, and Mr.
Harley was taking virulent advantage of the reversal. Among other
matters, he taunted Storri with his, Mr. Harley's, possession of those
French shares, and gave him to know that the happy transfer had been the
fruit of his, Mr. Harley's, own superior wit.

"For," said Mr. Harley, with no more noble purpose than to augment
Storri's pangs, "did you think that one of my depth was for long to be
held at the mercy of such a dolt as yourself?"

"Then it was you," moaned Storri, who made the mistake of believing what
Mr. Harley said, "then it was you who bought Northern Consolidated--you,
and your confederates to whom you betrayed us?"

Mr. Harley smiled loftily, and was silent as though disdaining reply. He
was willing to have Storri think his overthrow due to him and him alone.
It would please him should Storri believe that he, Mr. Harley, had
conquered not only the possession of those shares, but of the five
hundred thousand dollars which were so painfully collected as Storri's
contribution to the pool's four millions. It would promote Mr. Harley's
satisfaction to the superlative; it would make Storri's humiliation
complete. By all means teach Storri that he, Mr. Harley, constructed the
ambush into which the pool had sold its blindfold way. Wherefore, Mr.
Harley with shrug and sneer consented to Storri's charges of betrayal,
and intimated his own profitable joy of that treason. After thirty
minutes of triumph, Mr. Harley, mightily restored in his own graces,
arose to depart.

"And for a last word, you scoundrel," quoth the loud Mr. Harley, "I told
Mrs. Hanway-Harley I would shoot you if you so much as laid hand to my
front gate. You might do well to remember that promise; I have been
known on occasion to tell Mrs. Hanway-Harley the truth."

After the last gloomy notice Mr. Harley went his defiant way, while
Storri sank back a more deeply wounded wolf than ever.

Mr. Harley drew his check and dispatched it to Mr. Fopling, and Richard
in due course received a check from the latter. Mr. Harley did not
allude to the transaction on those few and distant occasions when he and
Mr. Fopling met; and Mr. Fopling, burdened of his feuds with Ajax, soon
forgot the a