ract interest, Anthony's
color grew darker and his voice decidedly sharper.

"Sit still," he commanded, "and listen to me. David, up to this evening
you had no real hope of attaining your ambition. In fine, opportunity to
make the goal was not yours. Now opportunity is yours!"

"Is it?" David said throatily, albeit he did not resume his seat.

"Because this is what I mean to do for you, David; I mean to take you
out of your present humble situation and educate you. I mean to have you
here to live with me."

"_What?_" David gasped.

"From this very evening!" Anthony said firmly, and also astonishingly.
"I shall outfit you properly and supply you with what money you need. I
shall have you prepared for the best engineering college we can find,
and entered there for the most complete engineering course. If you are
helping in the support of your family, I shall pay to them a sum
equivalent to your wages each month--or perhaps a little more, if it be
essential to removing all anxiety from your mind. You follow me?"

David merely clutched the edge of his coat and gulped, staring
fascinatedly at Anthony.

"I am reasonably wealthy, and I shall bear every expense that you may
incur, David. When you have graduated, and everything that can be taught
you has been taught you, I shall establish you in proper offices and use
my considerable personal influence to see that you are supplied with
work, and again until you are self-supporting I shall bear all the
expense. In short, David," Anthony concluded, "I am holding
_opportunity_ before you--opportunity to do, without trouble or worry or
delay, the thing you most desire. Well?"

Even Johnson Boller was mildly interested, although only mildly, and
with a deprecatory smile on his lips. He knew exactly what the boy would
do, of course, but it had no connection with Anthony's crack-brained
notion.

David would grab with both hands at this kind of opportunity and settle
down to a life of ease, and the chances were that he'd get Anthony to
sign something that would cost him thousands when he had waked up and
lost interest in the opportunity proposition.

To Johnson's sleepy and suspicious eye David looked like a crafty little
devil, if one ever walked.

Yet after a silent thirty seconds opportunity, in her gaudiest and most
conspicuous form, had made no visible impression on David Prentiss. His
bewildered eyes roved from Anthony to Johnson Boller. Once he seemed
about to laugh