ard day's work; you take a dissatisfied woman,
and she'll make your home a hell. I know men--Great Scott! I don't know
how they live!" He paused again. Justin did not answer. He sat with his
head on his hand, looking, not at Leverich, but to one side of him.

[Illustration: "EVEN REDGE ... HAD BEEN ALLOWED TO HOLD HIM"]

"When I say I've made the money," continued Leverich, "I mean that I
actually _have_ made most of it--made it out of nothing! like the first
chapter of Genesis. If a man has money to start with, he can add to it
as easily as you can roll up a snowball. It's no credit to him. But I've
had only my brains. I've seen money where other men couldn't, and
nothing has stood in my way of getting to it. That's the whole secret of
success. And my attitude's fair--you couldn't find a fairer. When one of
your clerks falls sick, you pay him his full salary for three or four
months till he's around again. _I_ know! Well, I don't do any such
stunts. When I was a clerk myself, I was on the sick-list once for three
months, and nobody paid me. After the first month I was bounced, and I
didn't expect anything else. I didn't expect any philanthropical
business, and I don't give it. That's fair, isn't it? I don't give
quarter, and I don't expect any. If I'm squeezed, I pay. I don't stand
still in the middle of a deal and snivel about what I can do and what I
can't do. I don't snivel about what you call moral obligations. I only
recognize money obligations. Why, see here, Alexander," he broke off,
"if you use the influence you spoke of, you don't have to tell me what
it is--you don't have to tell anybody but Hardanger. Cater himself
needn't know that you had anything to do with it."

"But I'd know," said Justin quietly.

Leverich lost his easy manner; his jaw protruded.

"Very well, then; it comes down to this: If you fail us now, out of any
of your fool scruples toward that poor devil across the street,--who's
bound to get the blood sucked out of him anyway,--you ruin your own
prospects, and you try and cheat us out of the money we put up on you.
By ----, if you see any honor in that, I don't."

"Mr. Leverich," said Justin, raising his head simply, with a steely
gleam in his eyes that matched the other's, "when I try to cheat you or
Lewiston or any man out of what has been put up on me, I'll give you
leave to say what you please. At present I'll say good morning."

[Illustration: "AFTER THIS HE ONLY APPEARED IN THE VIL