for you--"

"Not unless you are free for the evening," returned the other; "are
you?"

"I'm awfully sorry--"

"Oh, all right. Let me know when you expect to be free--telephone me at
my rooms--"

"I'll let you know when I see you here to-morrow," said the boy; but
Selwyn shook his head: "I'm not coming here to-morrow, Gerald"; and he
walked leisurely into Neergard's office and seated himself.

"So you have committed the firm to the Siowitha deal?" he inquired
coolly.

Neergard looked up--and then past him: "No, not the firm. You did not
seem to be interested in the scheme, so I went on without you. I'm
swinging it for my personal account."

"Is Mr. Erroll in it?"

"I said that it was a private matter," replied Neergard, but his manner
was affable.

"I thought so; it appears to me like a matter quite personal to you and
characteristic of you, Mr. Neergard. And that being established, I am
now ready to dissolve whatever very loose ties have ever bound me in any
association with this company and yourself."

Neergard's close-set black eyes shifted a point nearer to Selwyn's; the
sweat on his nose glistened.

"Why do you do this?" he asked slowly. "Has anybody offended you?"

"Do you _really_ wish to know?"

"Yes, I certainly do, Captain Selwyn."

"Very well; it's because I don't like your business methods, I don't
like--several other things that are happening in this office. It's
purely a difference of views; and that is enough explanation, Mr.
Neergard."

"I think our views may very easily coincide--"

"You are wrong; they could not. I ought to have known that when I came
back here. And now I have only to thank you for receiving me, at my own
request, for a six months' trial, and to admit that I am not qualified
to co-operate with this kind of a firm."

"That," said Neergard angrily, "amounts to an indictment of the firm. If
you express yourself in that manner outside, the firm will certainly
resent it!"

"My personal taste will continue to govern my expressions, Mr. Neergard;
and I believe will prevent any further business relations between us.
And, as we never had any other kind of relations, I have merely to
arrange the details through an attorney."

Neergard looked after him in silence; the tiny beads of sweat on his
nose united and rolled down in a big shining drop, and the sneer etched
on his broad and brightly mottled features deepened to a snarl when
Selwyn had disappeared.

For the so