in his owner's office.

Maclin was in a humanly soothing mood. He fairly crooned over Larry
and could tell to a nicety the workings of his mind.

He puffed and puffed at his enormous cigar; he was almost hidden from
sight in the smoke but his words oozed forth as if they were cutting
through a soft, thick substance.

"Now, Larry," he said; "don't make a mistake. Some women don't have
weak spots, they have knots--weak ends tied together, so to speak. The
cold, calculating breed--and your wife, no offence intended, is mighty
chilly--can't be broken, as you intimate, but they can be untied
and"--Maclin was pleased with his picturesque figures of speech--"left
dangling."

This was amusing. Both men guffawed.

"Do you know, Rivers"--Maclin suddenly relapsed into seriousness--"it
was a darned funny thing that a girl like your wife should fall
into your open mouth, marry you off-hand, as one might say. Mighty
funny, when you come to think of it, that your old man should let
her--knowing all he knew and seeming to set such a store by the
girl."

Larry winced and felt the lash on his back. So long had that lash hung
unused that the stroke now made him cringe.

"No use harking back to that, Maclin," he said: "some things ain't
common property, you know, even between you and me. We agreed to
that."

"Yes?" the word came softly. Was it apologetic or threatening?

There was a pause. Then Maclin unbent.

"Larry," he began, tossing his cigar aside, "you haven't ever given me
full credit, my boy, for what I've tried to do for you. See here, old
man, I have got you out of more than one fix, haven't I?"

Larry looked back--the way was not a pleasant one.

"Yes," he admitted, "yes, you have, Maclin."

"I know you often get fussed, Rivers, about what you term my _using_
you in business, but I swear to you that in the end you'll think
different about that. I've got to work under cover myself to a certain
extent. I'm not my own master. But this I can say--I'm willing to be a
part of a big thing. When the public _is_ taken into our confidence,
we'll all feel repaid. Can you--do you catch on, Larry?"

"It's like catching on to something in the dark," Larry muttered.

"Well, that's something," Maclin said cheerfully. "Something to hold
to in the dark isn't to be sneered at."

"Depends upon what it is!" Apparently Larry was in a difficult mood.
Maclin tried a new course.

"It's one thing having a friend in the dark, old man