ny, for in that the only salaried officer is the secretary, who
gets fifty cents a year, and the happy home-builders pile up double
compound interest for the wise members who rent; but with a national
company it's different. A national building-loan company's business is
to collect money to juggle with, for the exclusive benefit of the
officers."

"You're a bright young man," said Mr. Fox admiringly. "But the
business was such a cinch it began to get crowded, and so the
lawmakers, who were mostly stock-holders in the three biggest
companies, had a spasm of virtue, and passed such stringent laws for
the protection of poor investors that no new company could do any
business. We tried to buy a pull but it was no use; there wasn't pull
enough to go round; so I'm going to retire and enjoy myself. This
country's getting too corrupt to do business in," and Mr. Fox relapsed
into sorrowful silence over the degeneracy of the times.

When his sorrow had become grief--midway of another bottle--a house
detective prevailed upon him to go to bed, leaving young Wallingford
to loneliness and to thought--also to settle the bill. This, however,
he did quite willingly. The evening had been worth much in an
educational way, and, moreover, it had suggested vast, immediate
possibilities. These possibilities might have remained vague and
formless--mere food for idle musing--had it not been for one important
circumstance: while the waiter was making change he picked some folded
papers from the floor and laid them at Wallingford's hand. Opened,
this packet of loose leaves proved to be a list of several hundred
names and addresses. There could be no riddle whatever about this
document; it was quite obviously a membership roster of the defunct
building-loan association.

"The judge ought to have a duplicate of this list; a single copy's so
easy to lose," mused Wallingford with a grin; so, out of the goodness
of his heart, he sat up in his room until very late indeed, copying
those pages with great care. When he sent the original to Mr. Fox's
room in the morning, however, he very carelessly omitted to send the
duplicate, and, indeed, omitted to think of remedying the omission
until after Mr. Fox had left the hotel for good.

Oh, well, a list of that sort was a handy thing for anybody to have
around. The names and addresses of nine hundred people naive enough to
pay a dollar and a quarter a week to a concern of whose standing they
knew absolute