r. He thinks the people elected him. I know I did. Nora
Nashville was getting fifty dollars a week in vaudeville when I took
hold of her; now she gets a thousand. I even made people believe Mrs.
Hampton-Rhodes was a society leader at Newport, when all she ever saw
of Newport was Bergers and the Muschenheim-Kings. Why, I am the man that
made the American People believe Russian dancers can dance!"

"It's plain to see you hate yourself," said 'Peter. "You must not get so
despondent or you might commit suicide. How much money will you want?"

"How much have you got?"

"All kinds," said Peter. "Some in a letter-of-credit that my father
earned from the fretful pig, and much more in cash that I won at poker
from the pashas. When that's gone I've got to go to work and earn my
living. Meanwhile your salary is a hundred a week and all you need
to boost Gilman and the Order of the Crescent. We are now the Gilman
Defense, Publicity, and Development Committee, and you will begin by
introducing me to the man I am to bribe."

"In this country you don't need any introduction to the man you want to
bribe," exclaimed Stetson; "you just bribe him!"

That same night in the smoking-room of the hotel, Peter and Stetson made
their first move in the game of winning for Professor Gilman the Order
of the Crescent. Stetson presented Peter to a young effendi in a frock
coat and fez. Stetson called him Osman. He was a clerk in the foreign
office and appeared to be "a friend of a friend of a friend" of the
assistant third secretary.

The five volumes of the "Rise and Fall" were spread before him, and
Peter demanded to know why so distinguished a scholar as Doctor
Gilman had not received some recognition from the country he had so
sympathetically described. Osman fingered the volumes doubtfully, and
promised the matter should be brought at once to the attention of the
grand vizier.

After he had departed Stetson explained that Osman had just as little
chance of getting within speaking distance of the grand vizier as of the
ladies of his harem.

"It's like Tammany," said Stetson; "there are sachems, district leaders,
and lieutenants. Each of them is entitled to trade or give away a few of
these decorations, just as each district leader gets his percentage
of jobs in the street-cleaning department. This fellow will go to his
patron, his patron will go to some undersecretary in the cabinet, he
will put it up to a palace favorite, and they wil