, listening judicially to the
remarks of some visitor. Jimmy, who was no fool, recognized the
stranger as the business manager of an insurance paper about half whose
space was given to articles highly eulogistic of certain insurance
companies whose advertisements, by some singular coincidence,
invariably appeared further on in the publication. From the position
of the two Jimmy deduced that the conversation was not likely to be
terminated very soon, and dashed back to Mr. O'Connor with that
intelligence. The Vice-President was still studying the many-colored
sheet.

"Busy, eh? Well, leave that map turned up, and let me know as soon as
he is at liberty." And he strode back to his own office and shut the
door with a slam that disturbed the serene spectacles of Mr. Otto
Bartels, who was sedulously studying a long row of figures on a
reinsurance bordereau.

Mr. Bartels was Secretary of the Guardian, and his office adjoined that
of the Vice-president. Mr. Bartels, who was very short and stout, and
very methodical, and Teutonic beyond all else, looked up with mild
surprise in his placid eyes and the hint of something on his face which
in a more mobile countenance would have been an expression of gentle
remonstrance. His place was lost, in the column he was scanning, by
the dislodgment of his spectacles, which he wore well down toward the
lower reaches of his nose--it would have been out of place to speak of
that organ as possessing an end or a tip, for it was much too bulbous
for any such term to fit. Taking the spectacles with both hands, he
replaced them at their wonted angle, and with that phantom of
disapproval still striving for expression and outlet among his
features, he resumed his employment.

Otto Bartels was a discovery of Mr. Wintermuth's, many years before,
when that gentleman occupied a less conspicuous position with the
corporation of which he was now long since the head. One day, sitting
at his desk, he looked up to observe a youth who stood gravely
regarding him in silence for at least three minutes before his speech
struggled near enough the surface to make itself audible. It appeared
that the stranger was in need of a position, that he was accurate,
though not quick at figures, and that he would begin work for whatever
wage was found proper. He was given a trial in the accounts
department, and for five years his sponsor heard no more of him. At
the end of that time he found that his protege