and presently he came back to Bobby more panic-stricken
than ever.

"I'm going to sell my interest in the Applerod Addition the minute I
find a buyer," he declared, "and I'd advise you to do the same."

"Don't be foolish," counseled Bobby, frowning. "You _can't_ lose."

"But man!" quavered Applerod. "I have four thousand dollars of my own
cash, all I've been able to scrape together in a lifetime, tied up in
this thing, and I _mustn't_ lose!"

Bobby regarded his father's old confidential clerk more in sorrow than
in anger. He was not used to dealing with men of any age so utterly
lacking in gameness.

"Four thousand," he repeated, then he looked across his big
checker-board. "I'll give you ten thousand for it right now."

"What!" objected Applerod, aghast. "Why, Burnit, the work is nearly
done and I have already in sight seventy-six thousand dollars of clear
profit over my investment."

Bobby did not remind Applerod that his four thousand dollars
represented only a trifling part of the investment required to yield
this seventy-six thousand dollars' profit. Yet, after all, there was
no flaw in Applerod's commercial reasoning.

"I didn't expect you to accept it," replied Bobby. "If you were
determined to get out, however, you've had an offer of six thousand
profit, with no risk."

"I'd be crazy," declared Applerod. "I can get a better price than
that."

Bobby was thoughtful for an hour after Applerod had left him; then he
hurried into the club-house and telephoned to Chalmers. This was in
the forenoon. In the afternoon Applerod was served with an injunction
based upon an indivisibility of interest, restraining him from
disposing of his share; and in his anger he let it slip out that he
had already been trying to open negotiations with Trimmer!

"Honestly, it hurts!" said Bobby wearily, telling of the incident to
Agnes that night. "I didn't know there were so many unsportsmanlike
people."

"I think that is precisely what your father wanted you to find out,"
she observed.

"I don't want to know it," protested Bobby. "I'd stay much happier to
believe that everybody in the world was of the right sort."

She shook her head.

"No, Bobby," she said gently; "you have to know that there is the
other kind, in order properly to appreciate truth and honor and
loyalty."

"I could almost believe I was in a Sunday-school class," grinned
Bobby. "No wonder it's snowing."

Agnes looked out of the window with a cry of