ass, but there was a slight flush
and a look of deep reflection on his face. Barrifield maintained
silence, and the sense of his importance grew powerfully with each
second. By and by his eyes half closed and drifted vaguely into the
unseen. Livingstone promptly recalled him.

"But go on with the story, old man. What was the next step? It's no fair
play to get us all worked up this way and then go to sleep."

Barrifield chuckled lazily.

"That's all," he said; "the rest is mere detail. Frisby went home and
got up copy for his advertising. He gave the Bible as a premium. It was
a three-dollar Bible; sold at three dollars the world over, and you know
there's not supposed to be much profit in Bibles. Frisby filled up the
pages he had engaged, offering in glowing terms the Bible and the paper
both for two dollars. He got the indorsement of the Rev. Montague Banks,
whose name is familiar to every man, woman, and child between the
oceans, and he sold over _one hundred thousand Bibles during the first
six weeks_! _One hundred thousand! He told me so!_"

Barrifield's voice dropped to an intense whisper as he made this last
statement, and the effect was tremendous. The others stared at him, at
the ceiling, and at each other. They repeated the figures, and added
under their breath various exclamations peculiar to each. Livingstone,
who did not swear except when he pounded his finger or stumbled over a
chair in the dark, only said:

"By gad! old man, by gad!"

"In one day," continued Barrifield, leaning half across the table and
emphasizing each word with a slight motion of his head, "in one day he
got in six thousand dollars cash! Think of it!"

The others _were_ thinking, and thinking hard. Perner was first to
venture an objection:

"But that was a religious paper, Barry, with a Bible for a premium. We
could hardly expect--"

"That's just where you're wrong," anticipated Barrifield. "Ours will be
religious in tone, too, and a home paper besides. It will go to every
household that Frisby's would reach, and to thousands besides who are
not of any particular denomination. We also will offer Bibles, but we
will offer other things too. We will offer watches and cameras, and
premiums for boys and girls--dolls, fishing-tackle, and guns--"

"I should think," interrupted Van Dorn, dryly, "that with a gun and a
Bible we might gather in the most of them."

"Now you're talking sense!" said Barrifield, excitedly. "We'll get all