be done. The Lord put us
here, you you, and me me, and we've got to stick it out to the end."

"And become enemies in the course of events."

"Yes," quickly, "but let's not think about it. It'll come soon enough;
and meantime--" The sentence halted while with unconscious skill
Armstrong rolled a cigarette--"and meantime," he repeated as he scratched
a match and waited for the sulphur to burn free, "I want to use you."
Again the sentence halted while he blew a cloud of smoke: "I had another
offer to-day."

Following the other's example, Roberts lit a cigar, big and black, and
sat puffing in judicial expectancy.

"It's what you'd call a darned good offer," explained Armstrong:
"position as chemist to the Graham Specialty Company, who are building
the factory over on the East side--perfumes and toilet preparations and
that sort of thing."

"Yes."

"Graham himself came to see me. As a matter of fact he's the whole
company. He labored with me for two hours. I had to manufacture an
engagement out of whole cloth to get away."

"And you decided--"

"I didn't decide. I took the matter under advisement."

"Which means that you did decide after all."

Armstrong grimaced in a mannerism all his own, an action that ended in an
all-expressive shrug. "I suppose so," he admitted reluctantly.

"I hardly see where I can be of service then," commented the other. "If
you were ten years younger and a minor and I your guardian--"

"You might point out with your yardstick how many kinds of an idiot I am
and stir me up."

His companion smiled; as suddenly the look passed.

"I'd do so cheerfully if it would do any good. As it is--" The sentence
ended in comprehensive silence. "What, by the way, did Graham offer?"

"Five thousand dollars a year, and if I made good an interest later in
the business. He said four thousand dollars to begin with and gradually
crawled up."

"You're getting now from the University--"

"Twelve hundred."

"With ultimate possibilities,--I emphasize possibilities--"

"I'll be dean of the department some day if I stick."

"With a salary of two thousand a year."

Armstrong nodded.

"And that's the end, the top round of the ladder if you were to remain
until you were fifty and were displaced eventually without a pension."

"Yes; that's the biggest plum on the university tree. It can't grow
anything larger."

In his place Darley Roberts dropped back as though he had nothing to say.
Involuntaril