t to follow
suit--pride or no pride."

"I suppose you're pretty pleased," said Good with a smile.

"Pleased? Honest, I'm tickled pink! I feel as if I'd been sitting in on
a sky-the-limit game boosting the ante with a pair of shoe-strings. I've
felt like passing lots of times. Without you at my elbow I guess I'd
have done it."

"You think that's--unusual?"

"Maybe not that. But I do feel--well--like a burglar."

"My dear boy," laughed Good, "I'm not much of a business man, but I
think a general show-down would reveal a lot of jokers in front of chaps
who are playing like royal flushes. A good face with an empty hand wins
in other games besides poker. You can't bank nerve--but you can draw
checks on it."

As he finished speaking, a boy entered and handed him a card. He glanced
at it, hesitated a moment, scratching his head thoughtfully, and then,
with an inscrutable smile, passed it to Roger.

"It's for you, lad."

"But didn't he ask for you?" said Roger surprisedly.

"Yes--but he made a mistake."

"All right--show him in."

A moment later a round little man, with bulging eyes which peered
near-sightedly and with a curiously worried expression from beneath a
deeply furrowed forehead, seated himself at the desk behind which Roger
was seated.

"Mr. Good," he began, "I ..."

Good, who had withdrawn his chair unobtrusively into a corner, spoke
quietly.

"You're addressing Mr. Wynrod. He's the man you want to see."

The little man did not hesitate. "I see. Well, Mr. Wynrod, I am Mr.
Burdick--Philemon P. Burdick. Possibly you've heard of me?" He paused,
and when there was no response, proceeded, apparently neither surprised
nor disappointed. "Evidently you have not. However, that is immaterial
quite immaterial. The purpose of my call is not to acquaint you with
myself, but with my work." He paused again.

"Yes?"

"I have come, sir, to seek your assistance--the assistance of your
excellent publication, I should say."

Roger stirred a trifle uneasily, and Mr. Burdick, the worried expression
in his eyes deepening, hurried on, as if fearful of interruption.

"First I wish to congratulate you upon _The Dispatch_. It is doing a
noble work. The community owes you a debt of gratitude, sir, a very
great debt."

"Thank you," murmured the young man at the desk.

"But there is one thing--a little thing, and yet a great thing--which
you have left undone. It is my purpose now to ascertain your position in
the ma