just before coming from my office this evening that the doors of the
Mercantile Trust would not open to-morrow. Too bad! A lot of my
personal friends are heavily involved. Bank's been shaky for some
time. Ames and Company will take over their tangible assets; I believe
you were interested, were you not?" He glanced at the trembling man
out of the corners of his eyes.

Wales turned ashen. His hands shook as he grasped the railing before
him and tried to steady himself.

"Hits you pretty hard, eh?" coolly queried Ames.

"It--it--yes--very hard," murmured the dazed man. "Are you--positive?"

"Quite. But step into the waiting room and 'phone the newspapers. They
will corroborate my statements."

Representative Wales was serving his first term in Congress. His
election had been a matter of surprise to everybody, himself included,
excepting Ames. Wales knew not that his detailed personal history had
been for many months carefully filed in the vaults of the Ames tower.
Nor did he ever suspect that his candidacy and election had been
matters of most careful thought on the part of the great financier
and his political associates. But when he, a stranger to congressional
halls, was made a member of the Ways and Means Committee, his
astonishment overleaped all bounds. Then Ames had smiled his own
gratification, and arranged that the new member should attend the
formal opening of the great Ames palace later in the year. Meantime,
the financier and the new congressman had met on several occasions,
and the latter had felt no little pride in the attention which the
great man had shown him.

And so the path to fame had unrolled steadily before the guileless
Wales until this night, when the first suspicions of his thraldom had
penetrated and darkened his thought. Then, like a crash from a clear
sky, had come the announcement of the Mercantile Trust failure. And as
he stood there now, clutching the marble railing, his thought busy
with the woman and the two fair children who would be rendered
penniless by this blow, the fell presence of the monster Ames seemed
to bend over him as the epitome of ruthless, brutal, inhuman cunning.

"How much are you likely to lose by this failure?" the giant asked.

Wales collected his scattered senses. "Not less than fifty thousand
dollars," he replied in a husky voice.

"H'm!" commented Ames. "Too bad! too bad! Well, let's go below. Ha!
what's this?" stooping and apparently taking up an object