parts. I recognize I'm leading the procession a bit now, Armstrong; but
as I said before, you can't dangle much longer if you're an honorable
man; and then what I've said is right in line. If you'll take a word of
advice that's intended right, even if it seems patronizing, you'll wake
up right now and begin to steer straight for the flag-pole. If you keep
on floundering aimlessly and waiting for an act of Providence you'll come
to grief as surely as to-morrow is coming, old man."

"And by steering straight you mean to save money. To get my eye on a
dollar, leave everything else, and chase it until it drops from
fatigue."

"I mean get power; and dollars are the tangible evidence and
manifestation of power. They are the only medium that passes current in
any country any day in the year."

Armstrong smiled, a smile that was not pleasant to see.

"You'd have me give up my literary aspirations then, let them die
a-borning as it were--"

"I didn't say that. So far as I can see you can keep on just the same.
There are twenty-four hours in every day. But make that phase secondary.
I don't discount writers in the least or their work; but with the world
as it is the main chance doesn't lie that way--and it's the main chance
we're all after. Fish or no fish, I tell you some time you'll find this
out for yourself. To get the most out of life a man must be in the
position to pass current wherever he may be. In the millennium the
standard may be different--I for one sincerely hope it will be; but in
the twentieth century dollars are the key that unlocks everything.
Without them you're as helpless as a South Sea islander in a metropolitan
street. You're at the mercy of every human being that wants to give you a
kick; and the majority will give it to you if they see you are
defenceless."

Armstrong was still smiling, the same being a smile not pleasant to see.

"Now that I've got you going," he commented, "I've a curiosity to have
you keep on. You're certainly stirring with a vengeance to-night,
Darley."

"And accomplishing nothing. Strange as it may seem to you, I'm serious."

"I don't doubt it, old man." Of a sudden the smile had passed. "I can't
adjust my point of view to yours at all. If I thought dollars were the
end of existence I'd quit the game now. If the world has come to this--"

"The world hasn't come to it and never will. You simply can't or won't
see the point. I repeat, that of themselves they're nothing, but