it myself."

Nevertheless, they made up the five dollars between them and mailed a
check for it on their way to dinner. The next morning there were more
answers in the big mail-box. The bottom was quite covered with postal
cards containing lists of twenty names each.

Also, there was a letter from the man of the rolled-up sleeves, stating
that he was prepared to run some twenty thousand copies of the paper,
and would start the press upon receipt of a check for the amount. This
was a severe blow, but as the amount was comparatively small it was not
fatal. Besides, they had grown somewhat accustomed to such things. They
were not even surprised when their landlord, who, with his family,
occupied apartments in the rear, came in to demand his rent in the
middle of the month--a thing he had never dreamed of doing since the
first year of their occupancy. Not that he was at all afraid, he said,
but he was only a poor man who sublet to them, and had met with ill
fortune. Later, the Colonel came up with still further strange letters,
though none so pathetic as the one of the night before.

However, there were other complications. People in small villages were
sending lists containing the same names. Some of the lists were almost
identical. When Perner realized this he scowled anxiously, and lay down
on the couch to think.

"Good heavens! fellows," he exclaimed, "we'll ruin the nation!"

"What's the matter? What do you mean?" asked Van Dorn.

"Why, see here! People will be sending in the same names, and sending
each other's names, till they get us so mixed up we can't straighten the
thing out in a hundred years! Then they'll accuse us of fraud, and blame
each other for a lot of things, too. The result will be that they'll get
into a fight until the whole nation is in one immense wrangle. We'll
ruin the country! That's what we'll do! We'll ruin the country!"

Perner had arisen and was walking the floor excitedly.

"I tell you, Van, your 'cash for names' scheme is a fallacy! I said so
the other day, and I say so all the more now. I'll admit that I believed
in it and abetted it at first. It looked like a big thing, and we all
thought it was, but it isn't. In the first place, we can't afford it, as
I told you before. In the next place, the people don't understand it,
and we're going to be deluged with letters like those that came with the
first mail. And even if we could afford it, and even if those letters
didn't count, we ca