"STAR" TALES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10302, 6 November 1911, Page 4

"STAR" TALES.

I BURNING DAYLIGHT. (By JACK LONDON.) 'Author of "Tho Call of tho Wild," "The Sea, Wolf," etc. [All Rights Reserved.] FABT IS. CIIAPTKR, XXI. though Daylight_ appeared among Stfs fellows hearty-voiced, inexhaustible, spilling over with energy and vitality, deep down ho was a very weary man. And sometimes, under tho liquor drug, snatches .of wisdom came to him tar more luckily than in his sober moments, as, for instance, one night, when he sat on the edge of the bed with cno shoe in his hand and meditated on Dede's aphorism to tho effect that ho Could not sleep in more than one bed at p, time. Still holding the shoo, he looked at the array of horsehair bridles on the walls. Then, carrying tho shoe, pe got up and solemnly counted them, tourneying into the two adjoining rooms to complete the tale. Then he came back to tho bed and gravely iwjdressed his shoe:— " The little woman's right. Only tme bed at a time. One hundred and forty hair bridles, and nothing doing With ary one of them. One bridle at H time I I can't ride one horse at a time. Poor old Bob. I'd better bo pending you out to pasture. Thirty tnillion dollars, and a hundred million $r nothing in sight, and what have I got to show for itP There's lota <of things money can't buy. It can't buy ihe little woman. It can't buy capacity. What's the good of thirty millions when I ain't frot room for more than a quart of cocktails a day? If T had a hundred-quart-cocktail thirst, it'd he different. But one quart—one measly little quart! Here I am, a 'thirty times over -millionaire,- slaving harder every day than any dozen men that work for me, and all I get is two meals that don't taste good, one bed, a tyuart of Martina, and a hundred and 'forty hair bridles to look at on the wall." He stared around at the array, disconsolately. "Mr Shoe, I'm sizzled. Good-night." , Far worse than tho controlled, steady 3rinker is the solitary drinker, and it was this that Daylight was developing into. He_ rarely drank sociably any more, but in his own room, by himself. Returning weary from each day's unremitting effort, he drugged himself to sleep, knowing that on the morrow ne would rise up with a dry and burning mouth and repeat the programme. But the country did not recover with Its wonted elasticity. Money did not become freer, though the casual reader of Daylight's newspapers, -as well as of the other owned and subsidised nowspers in the country, could only have concluded that the money tightness was over and that the panic was past history. All public utterances were . cheery and optimistic, but privately many of the utterers were in desperate etraita. The scenes enacted in the privacy of Daylight's office, pnd of the meetings of his boards of directors, would have given the lie to the editorials in his newspapers; as, for instance, Vhen he addressed the big stockholders Jn the Sierra and Salvador Power Company, the United Water Company, and the several other stock companies:— " You've got to dig. You've got a Ijood thing, but you'll have to sacrifice In order to hold ( on. There ain't no use spouting hard times explanations. l)on't I know the liar,' times is on? Ain't that what you're here for? As

I saidi before, you've got to dig. I run the majority stock, and it's come

to a case of assess. It's that or smash. If ever I start going you ,won't know what struck you, I'll smash that hard. The small fiy can let go, but you big onesi can't. This ship won't rink as long as you stay with

her. But if you start to Icavo her, down you'll sure go before you can get to shore. This assessment has got to be met, that's all." • The big wholesale supply houses, the caterers for his hotels, and all the crf"d that incessantly demanded to b.« paid, had their hot half-hours with ihim. He summoned them to his office Mid displayed his latest patterns of can 'and- can't and will and won't.

"By God, you've got to carry me!" lie told them. "If you think this is a pleasant little game of parlour whist and that you can quit and go home /whenever you want, you're plumb wrong. Look here, Watkins, you remarked five minutes ago that you wouldn't stand fox. Now let me tell you a few. You're going to stand for it and keep on standing for it. You're going to continue supplying me and taking my paper until the pinch is over. How you're going to do it is your trouble, not mine. You remember what I did to Klinkner and the Altamont Trust Company? I know ■the inside of your business better than you do yourself, and if you try to drop me I'll smash you. Even if I'd be going to smash myself, I'd fiud a minute to turn on you and bring you down .with me. It's sink or swim for all of

us, and I reckon you'll find it to your Interest to keep lhe on top the puddle."

Perhaps his bitterest figlit was with tho stockholders of tho United Water Company, for it was practically tho whole of tho gross earnings of this company that he voted to lend to himfcoU' apd used to holster up his v/icio battle front. Yet he nevw pushed hia arbitrary rulo too far. v&snpelling sacrifice from the men whoso fortunes wero tied up with his, nevertheless when any one of them was driven to tho wall and was in dire need. Davlitrht was there to help him back into tho line. Only a strong man could have saved so complicated a situation in such time of stress., and Daylight was that man. He turned and twisted, schemed and devised,, bludgeoned and bullied tho weaker ones, kept the faint-hearted in tho fight, and had 110 mercy on tho der-orfcer.

And in tho end, when early summer was on, everything began to mend. There came a day when Daylight did the unprecedented. Re left the ofhee an hour earlier than usual, and for the reason that for the first time sines tho panic there was not an item of work waiting to bo dono. He dropped into Hegan's private office, before leaving, for a chat, and, as he stood up to go, lie said : —• " Hegan, we're all hunkadorv. We're pulling out of the financial pawnshop in fine shape, and we'll get out withoutleaving one unredeemed pledgo behind. The worst is over, and the end is iu sight. Just a tight rein for a couple more weeks, just a. bit of a pinch or a flurry or so now and. then, and w r e can let go and spit on our hands." For onco he varied tho programme. Instead of going directly to his hotel, ho started on a round of the bars and the cafes, drinking a cocktail hero and a cocktail there, and two or three when be encountered men he knew. It was after an hour or so of this that he dropped into the bar of the Parthenon for one last drink before facing to dinner. By this time all his being was pleasantly warmed by the alcohol, and ho was in the most genial and best of spirits. At the comer of tho bar several young men were up to the old trick of resting their elbows and attempting to force each other's hands down. One broad-shouldered young giant never removed his elbow, but put down every hand that came against him. Daylight was interested. " It's SloEson," the barkeeper told him, in answer to his query. "He's the heavy-hammer thrower at the U.C. Broke all records this year, and tho world's record on top of it. He's a husky all right all right." Daylight nodded and went over to him, placing his own arm in opposition.

" I'd like to go you a flutter, son, on that proposition," ho said. The young man laughed and locked hands with him; and'to Daylight's astonishment it was his own hand that was forced down on the bar. "Hold on," he muttered. "Just one more flutter. I reckon I wasn't just heady that time." Again the hands locked. It happened quickly. The offensive attack of Daylight's muscles slipped instantly into defence, and, resisting vainly, his hand was forced over and down. Daylight was dazed. It had been no trick. The skill was equal, or, if anything, the superior skill had been his. Strength, sheer strength, had done it. He called for the drinks, and, still dazed and pondering, held up his own arm and looked at it as at some new, strange thing. He did not know his arm. It certainly was not the arm he had carried around with hiin all the years. The ohl, arm? Why, it would havo been play to turn down that young husky's. But this arm—ho -continued to look at it with such dubious perplexity as to bring a roar of laughter from the young men.

This laughter aroused him. Ho joined in at first, and then his face slowly grew grave. He leaned toward the hammer-thrower.

" Son," ho said, " let me whisoer a secret. Get out of hero and quit drinking beforo you begin." The young: fellow flushed angrily, but Daylight held steadily on.

" You listen "to your dad, and let him say a few. I'm a youn;r man myself, only I ain't. Lot me tell you, several years ago for mo to turn your hand down would have been like committing assault and battery on a kindergarten." Slosson looked his incredulity, while the. others grinned and clustered around Davlicht encouragingly. " Son, I ain't given to preaching. This is the first time I ever cone to the penitent form, and you put mo there .yourself—hard. I'vo seen a few in my time, and I ain't fastidious so- as you can notico it. But let ma tell you right now that I'm worth the devil alono knows how many millions, and that I'd suro give it all, right here on tho bar, to turn down your hand. Which means I'd give the whole shooting match just to bo back where I was before I quit sleeping under the stars and come into the hen-coops of cities to drink cocktails and lift up my feet and ride. Son, that's what's tho mattor with me. and that's the way I feel about it. The game -ain't worth the candle. You just take care of yourcolf, and roll my advice over once in a while. Good-night." He turned and lurched out of the place, the- moral cjtect c f his utterance largely spoiled the fact that he was so patently full while he uttered it. Still in a daze, Daylight made to his hotel, accomplished his dinner, and prepared for bed.

"1 he damned young whipperspapper!" he muttered- "Put' my hand down easy as you please. My hand!" He held up the -offendimi; member and regarded it with stupid won dor. The hand that had never been beaten! The hand that had made the Circle City giants wince! And a kid from college, with a laugh on his hnd put it down—twice! Dedo wn<" J irdit. He was not the same man. The i ituation would bear more s?rions loo!: : rg into than he'had ever given it. .But this was not the time. In the morning, after a good sleep, he would give it consideration CHAPTER XXII. Daylight awoke with the familiar parched moutli and lips and tin-out, took a long drink of water from the pitcher beside his bed, and gathered u;> the train of thought where he had left it the night before. He reviewed the casement of the financial strain. Tilings were manding at last. "While the going was still rough, the greatest dangers v:«ro already past. As he bud told Hegan, a tight rein and careful playing were all that was needed now. J 1 lumen and dangers were bound to -conic, but net so grave as the ones they had already weathered. He had been hit hard, but ha was coming through without broken bones, which was more than Simon Doliiver end many another ceuid sny. And not one of hia business friends had been ruined. He had compelled thorn to ftav in line to save his.-i----selfj and they had been saved as woil.

His mind moved on to the incident at the corner of the bar of the Parthenon, when tho young athlete had turned his hand down. Bo was 110 lender stunned by the event, but lie was shocked and grieved, as only a strong man con lis, at this passing of his strength. And tho issue \va3 too clear for him to even with himself. I-Je knew why his hand had gone down. Not _ bocause ho way an old man. Ho was just iii tho first Hush of his prime, and, by rights, it was the hand of the hammer-thrc-v.-er which should have scene down. Daylight knew that he had taken liberties with himself. Ho had pi ways looked upon tins strength of his ns permanent, and here, for years, it had been steadily oozing from him. M ho had diagnosed it, he had corno in freni unci"!' ti;-;; star" to roost in lh« coops of cities. He had al most forgotten how to walk. fie bin! lifted up hi-5 feet and 1,0.ui ridden around in automobiles, cabs and carnages. and elect vie carsi. H., had not exercised, and ho hud dryr&tt°(3 his muscles with alcohol. And was it worth it P What did all hri money mean after all? D.*da vt"£S l i'.'.'it. It could. buy him no more than nn>: bod at a time, and at_ the same time it made nim the abject est of /.•lave's. It tied him. fast. He war; tied by it right now. Even he so desired, he could wot lie abed this very

day. 1:1 is money called him. The office whistle would soon blow, and ho must answer it. The early sunshine was streaming through hip. window—a fine day for a ride in the hills on Bob, with Dedo beside him on her Mnh. Yet all his millions could not buy him this one, day. One of those flurries might come alone;, and lie had to be on the , c '?iot to meet it. Thirty millions! And they r r 3™3 7)owerle.~s to persuade Dede to ride on Mab—Mab, whom he had. bought, and who was nouscd and rn'owing fat on pasture. What were thirty mi'lions when, they could not buy a man a ride with the girl ho loved? Thirty millions !—that made him come here and go there, that rede upon him like so many millstones, that destroyed him while they grew, that put their foot clown and nrevented him from winning this o-jrl who worked for ninety a mem til. "Which iva.3 better? he ask-d himself. All this was .Dede's own thought. It was what she had meant when she prayed he would go broke. Ho held up his offending right arm. It wasn't the same -okl arm. Of course she could not love that arm and that body as she had loved the strong, clean arm and body of years before. lie didn't like that arm and body himself. A roimcr whinper-snapper had been able to take liberties with it. It had gone b.irii on him. Re snt rn> suddenly. No. l>3 r God. lie had pone back on it! He had pone hack on himself. He had gone back on Dede. She was right, a thousand times right, and she had sense enough to know it, senso enough to refuse to marry a money-slave with a whisky-rotted carcase.

He got out of bed and looked at himself in the long mirror on the wardrobe door. Ho wasn't pretty. The oldti*na loan cheeks were gone. Those ware heavy, seemed to hang down by their own weight. He looked for the line 3 of cruelty Dede had spoken of, and he found them, and he found the "harshness in the eyes as well, tho eyes that were muddy now after all the cocktails of the night before. lie looked at the clearly-defined pouches that showed under his eyes, and they shocked him. Ho rolled up the sleeve of his pyjamas. No wonder the ham-mer-thrower had put his hand. down. Those weren't muscles. A rising tide of fat had submerged them. .He stripped off the pyiama coat. Again he was shocked, this time by tho bulk of his V'-d". It wasn't pretty. Tho ' ■ iiach had become a paunch. Tho ridged muscles of chest and shoulders and abdomen had broken down into rolls of Sesh. lie sat down on the bed. and through his mind drifted pictures of his youthful excellence, of the hardships he had endured over other men. of the Itidians and dogs he had run off their legs in the heart-breaking days and nights' on the Alaskan trail, of the feats of strength that had made him king over a husky race of frontiersmen.

And this was age. Then there drifted across the field of vision of his mind's eye the old man ho had encountered at Glen Ellen, coming up the hillside through the fires of sunset, whiteheaded and white-bearded, eighty-four, in his hand the pail of foaming milk and in hi? face ail the warm glow and content of the passing summer day. That had been age. Yes, siree, eighty-four, and spryer than meet," he could near the okl man say. " And I ain't loafed none. I walked across the Plains with on ox-team and fit Injuns in 'sl, and I was a family man then with seven youngsters."

Next ha remembered the old woman of the chaparral, pressing grapes in her mountain clearing; and Forguson, the littles man v.-ho had scuttled into the road like a rabbit, the one-time managing editor of a great newspaper, who was content to livo in the chaparral along with his spring of mountain water and his hand-reared and manicured fruit trees. Ferguson had solved a problem. A weakling and an alcoholic, he had run away from the doctors and the chicken-coop of a city, and soaked up health lik-e a thirsty sponge. Well, Daylight pondered, if a sick man whom the doctors had given up could develop into a healthy farm labourer, what couldn't a merely stout man like himself do under similar circumstances? He caught a vision of his body with all its youthful excellenco returned, and thought of Dede, and sat down suddenly on the bed, startled by the greatness of the idea that had come to him. He did not sit long. His mind, working in its customary way, like a steel trap, canvassed the idea in all its bearings. It was big—bigger than anything ho had faced before. And he faced it squarely, picked it up in his two hands and turned it over and around and looked at it. The simplicity of it delighted him. Ho chuckled over it, reached his decision, and began to dress. Midway in the dressing he stopped in order to use the telephono. Dede was the first he called up.

" Don't come to the office this morning," he said. " I'm coming cut to see you for a moment." He called up others. He ordered, his motor-car. To Jones he gave instructions for the forwarding of Bob and Wolf to Gk-n E-llen. Hegan he surprised by asking him to look up the deed of tho Glen Ellen ranch, and make out a new one in Dede Mason's name. " Who?" Hegsn demanded. "Dede Mfrson," Daylight replied impertiirbab!y—"the 'phone must b9 indistinct

this morning. D-c-d-e M-a-s-o-n. Got it?"

Half an hour later he was (lying out to Berkeley. And for the first time the big red car halted directly before the house. Dede offered to receive him in the parlour, but he shook his head and nodded toward her rooms. "In there," hj? said. "No other place would suit." As the door closed his arms went out and around her. Then he stood with his hands on her shoulders and looking down into her face. " Dede, if I t-all you flat and straight that I'm going up to live on that ranch afc Glen Ellen, that I ain't taking a cent with me, that I'm going to scratch for every bite I eat, and that I ain't going to play ary a card at the business game again, will you corns along with me?" She gave a glad little cry, and he nestled her in closely. But the next moment she had thrust herself out from him to the eld position at arm's length. " I—l don't understand," she said breathlessly. " And you ain't answered my proposition, though I guess no answer is necc&sary. We're just going to got married right away and start. I've sent Bob and Wolf along already. When will you be ready?" .Dede could not forbear to smile. "My, what a hurricane of a man it is! I'm quite blown away. And you haven't explained a word to me." Daylight smiled responsiveiy. " Look here, Dede, this is what cardsharps call a show-down. No more philandering and. frills and long-dis-tance sparring between you and me. We'ro just going to talk straight out in m-c-eting—the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Now, you answer some questions for me, and then I'll answer yours." He paused. " We!!. I've got only one question after all: Do you love me enough to marrv me?" "lint—she began. " tfo buts," he broke in sharply. " This is a show-down. When I say marry, I mean what I told you at first, tnai wg d go up and live on the ranch. Do you love me enough for that?" She looked at him for a moment, then her lids dropped, and all of her seemed to advertise consent. " Come on, thou, let's start." The muscles of his legs tensed involuntarily, if he were about to lend her to the door. " auto's waiting outside. i-lore s nothing to delay, excepting getting your ha.t." He over bov. "I reckon it's allowable. ' he said, as he kissed her. It wap a long embrace, and she was the first to speak. " You haven't answered nry questions. How is this possible? I-] o w can you leave your business? Has anything happened ?" '"No, nothing's happened vet, but it s going to, blame, quick. I've token i your preaching to heart, and I've come to the penitent form. You are my Lord God, and I'm sure going to serve you. The rest can go to thunder. You were sure, right. I've been the slave to my money, and since I can't serve two masters I'm letting the money slido. I'd sooner have you than all the money in the wot Id, that's all." Again he held her closely in his arms. "And I've sure got you, Dedo. I've sure got you. " And I want to tell you a few more. I've taken my last drink. You're marrying a whisky-soak, but your husband won't be that. He's going to grow into another man so quick you won't know him. A couple of months from now, up there in Glen Ellen, you'll wake up some morning and find you've got a perfect stranger in the house with you, and you'll have to get introduced to linn a.ll over again. You'll say, " I'm Mrs Harrish, who are ycuP' And I'll say, 'l'm Mam Harnish's younger brother. I've just arrived from Alaska to attend the funeral.' 'What funeral?' you'll say. And I'll say, ' Why, the funeral of that good-for-nothing, gambling, whiskydrinking Burning Daylight—tho man that died of fatty degeneration of tho heart from sitting in night and day at the business game.' 'Yes, ma'am,' T) ' sure a G ono 'coon, but I ve come to take his place and make you happy. And now, ma'am, if you'll allow me, I'll just meander down to the pasture and milk the cow while you're getting breakfast.' " Again lie caught her hand and made as if to> start with hor for the door. When the resisted, he bent and kissed her again and again. " I'm sure hungry for you, little woman, he murmured. "You make thirty millions look like thirty cents." " Do sit down and be sensible," she urged, her cheeks flushed, tho golden light in her eyes burning more golden than he had ever seen it before. But Daylight was bent on having his way, and when he sat down it was with her beside him and his arm | around her.

' les, ma am,' I'll say, 'Burning .Daylight was a pretty good cuss, but it's_ better _ that he's gone. He quit rolling up m his rabbit-skins and sleeping m the snow, and went to living in a chicken-coop. He lifted up liis legs and quit walking and working, and too it to existing 011 Martini cocktails and Scotch whisky. He thought he loved you, ma'am, and ho did his best, but he loved his cocktails more, and lie loved hk money mere, and himself more, and 'moat everything else more thnn, he diet ynu.' And then I'll say, iflii am , you just run your eyes over m.o and sec lio-.v different I am. I ain't got a cocktail thirst, and all the incriey I got- is a. dollar and forty cents and I've got to buy a new axe, the last one bc-r-tg plumb wove out, and I can love you just about eleven times as much as your first husband did. You ceo, ma'am, he went all to fat. And there ain't ary ounce of fat 011 me.' And I'll roll up my sleeves and show you, and say, ' Mrs Knrnish, after having experience with being married to that old fat money-bags, do you-all mind marrying a slim young fellow like 111 c?' And you'll just wipe a tear away for poor old Daylight, and kind r.i' lean towards me with a willing e::prfs?iuu in your eye, and then I'll oiur-li in ay bo. some, being a young fellow, and put my arm around you, like .hat. and then—why, then I'll up and *!'•.' r " v my brother's widow, and go out and do the chores while sho's cooking a bice to eac." " lv.it you haven't answered my questions," sho reproached him, as she emerged, rosy and radiant, from the or.;brace that had accompanied the culmination o? his narrative. " i\.r,v just whet do you want to know?" ho asked. 1 want to Know ho r all this is po c ?il>l'j V How yen are able, to leave your business at a time like this? What you meant by saying that something was going to happen quickly? J——" fe.'ia hesitated and blushed. " I answert'd you know." " aiu ' married," he urged, all the whimsicality of his utterance duplicated in his' eyes. " You know ivo got to make wav for that husky young brother of mine, and I am t got long to live." Sho made an impatient mono, and he continued senous.y. '• You see, it's like this, Ve to. I re been working like forty ? OS „ Sinc9 f!" s blamed panic set in, ami all tlio time some of those ideas you d given mowere getting ready to sprout Veil, they sprouted this morning, thai s ail. J si:n.rted to get up. expectinjr to go to the oilice as usual! .but J. didu t go to the, office. All that sprouting took place there and then iae sun was shining in the window, ana l knew it was a hue day in the hills. And [ knew I wan ted" to ride tn the hills with you just about thirty million times more than I wanted to go to the oflice. And I knew all tho tune it was impossible. And why? localise of the office. The office wouldn't lot n_te. All my money reared up on its hind legs 11 ml got in the way and wouldn't lot me. it's a way that blamed money has of getting in the way. \ou know that yours. l !]'. ■" And thru 1 made i:p my mind thafc .1 was at_ the dividing of the ways. On-' "' ov bv.i to tho (.Moctx. The other

way led to Berkeley. And I took the Berkeley road. I'm never going to set foot in tho office again. That's all gone, finished, over and done with, and I'm letting it slide clean to smash and then some. My mind's set on this. You see, I've got religion, and it's sure the old-time religion; it's love and yon. and it's okler than the oldest religion in the world. It's IT, that's what it is—lT, with a capital I-T." She looked at him with a sudden, startled expression." "You mean " she began. " I mean just that. I'm wiping the slate clean. I'm letting it all go to smash. When them thirty million dollars stood up to my face and said I couldn't go out with you in the hills to-day, I know t'ho timo had come tor me to put my foot down. And I'm putting" it down. I've got you, and sny strength to work for you, and that little ranch in Sonoma. That's all I want, and that's all I'm going to savo out, along with Bob and Wolf, a suit case and a hundred and forty liair bridges. All the rest goes, and good riddance. It's that much junk." But Dodo was persistent.

" Then this—this tremendous loss is all unnecessary?" she asked. " Just what I haven't been telling you. .It is necessary. If that money thinks it can stand up right to my face and say I can't go riding with you—" "No, no; be serious," Dede broko in. "I don't mean that, and you know it. What I want to know is, from a standpoint of business, is this failure necessary?"

Ho shook his head. " You bot it isn't necessary. That's the point of it. I'm not letting go of it because I'm licked to a standstill by the panic and have to let go. I'm firing it out when I've licked the panic snd am winning, hands down. That just shows how little I think of it. It's you that counts, littlo woman, and I make my play accordingly."

But she drew away from his sheltering arms. " You are mad, Elam." " Call mo that again," he murmured ecstatically. "It's sure sweeter than the chink of millions."

All this she ignored. " It's madness. You don't know what you are doing—" " Oh, yes, I do," he assured her. " I'm winning the dearest wish of my heart. Why, your little finger is worth more "

" I was never more sensible in my life. I know what I want, and I'm going to get it. I want you and the open lair. I want to get my foot off the paviilg-stones and my car away from the telephone. I want a little ranch-house in one of the prettiest bits of country God ever made, and I want to do the chores around that ranchhouse—milk cows, and chop wood, and curry horses, and plough the ground, and all the rest of it; and I want you there in the ranch-house with mo. I'm plumb tired of everything else, and clean wore out. And I'm. sure the luckiest man alive, for I've got what money can't buy. I've got you, and thirty millions couldn't buy you, nor three thousand millions, nor thirty cents—"

A knock at tho door interrupted him, and he. was left to stare delightedly at tho Crouched Venus and on around the room at Dede's dainty possessions, while she answered the telephone. " It is Mr Hegan," she said, on returning. "He is holding the line. He says it is important." Daylight shook his head and smiled. " Please tell Mr Hegan to hang up. I'm done with the office and I don't want to hear anything about anything." A minute later she was back again. "He refuses to hang up. He told me to tell you that Unwm is in the office now, waiting to see you, and Harrison, too. Mr Hegan said that Grirnshaw and ITodgkins are in trouble. That it looks as if they are going to break. And he said something about protection." It was startling information. Both Unwin and Harrison represented big banking corporations, and Daylight knew that if the house of Grimshaw and Hodgkins went it would precipitate a number of failures and start a flurry of serious dimensions. But Daylight smiled, and shook his head, and mimicked the stereotyped office tone of voice as he said :

" Miss Mason, you will kindly tell Mr Hegan that there is nothing "doing and to hang up." " But you can't do this," she pleaded. "Watch me," ho eriinly answered. " Elam!"

"Say it again!" he cried. "Say it again, and a- dosen Grimshaws and HodgkirL? can smash!"

He caught her by fife hand and drew her to liim. " You let Hegnn hanrr on to that line till "he's tired. Wo can't he wasting a second on him on. a day like this. He's only in lovo with books and things, but I've fiot a real live woman in my arms that's loving me all the time she's kicking over the traces." ~o continued v <