t least for liberty.

At last the crash came. I was sitting in my office one morning,
engaged in the difficult task of trying to make ten into fifteen, when
I heard the clatter of hoofs.

A moment later the door was opened, and Jones ushered in Colonel
McGregor. I nodded to the colonel, who came in with his usual
leisurely step, sat himself down, and took off his gloves. I roused
myself to say:

"What can I do for you, colonel?"

He waited till the door closed behind Jones, and then said:

"I've got to the bottom of it at last, Martin."

This was true of myself also, but the colonel meant it in a different
sense.

"Bottom of what?" I asked, rather testily.

"That old scamp's villainy," said he, jerking his thumb toward the
Piazza and the statue of the Liberator. "He's very 'cute, but he's
made a mistake at last."

"Do come to the point, colonel. What's it all about?"

"Would you be surprised to hear," said the colonel, adopting a famous
mode of speech, "that the interest on the debt would not be paid on
the 31st?"

"No, I shouldn't," said I resignedly.

"Would you be surprised to hear that no more interest would ever be
paid?"

"The devil!" I cried, leaping up. "What do you mean, man?"

"The President," said he calmly, "will, on the 31st instant,
_repudiate the national debt_!"

I had nothing left to say. I fell back in my chair and gazed at the
colonel, who was now employed in lighting a cigarette. At the same
moment a sound of rapid wheels struck on my ears. Then I heard the
sweet, clear voice I knew so well saying:

"I'll just disturb him for a moment, Mr. Jones. I want him to tear
himself from work for a day, and come for a ride."

She opened my door, and came swiftly in. On seeing the colonel she
took in the position, and said to that gentleman:

"Have you told him?"

"I have just done so, signorina," he replied.

I had not energy enough to greet her; so she also sat down uninvited,
and took off her gloves--not lazily, like the colonel, but with an air
as though she would, if a man, take off her coat, to meet the crisis
more energetically.

At last I said, with conviction:

"He's a wonderful man! How did you find it out, colonel?"

"Had Johnny Carr to dine and made him drunk," said that worthy.

"You don't mean he trusted Johnny?"

"Odd, isn't it?" said the colonel. "With his experience, too. He might
have known Johnny was an ass. I suppose there was no one else."

"He knew," sai