lace was not in the city,
the afternoon train from the east deposited a large, dignified
personage of robust, well-nourished, ministerial manner and apparel,
who bore comfortably upon his well-padded shoulders the name, Isaiah
Granger.

Isaiah Granger! The name alone would have been an open sesame to the
important circle which made possible the prosperity of Major Tumble's
bank and the First M. E. Church. But Mr. Granger had other things to
recommend him. He came, quoth the _Jordan Record_--whose editor's
notes Major Trimble held--to make his home in that most beautiful of
towns, Jordan City. He was an old friend of Major Tumble's. Mr.
Granger was "well fixed"--Major Trimble gave his word for that.

Hence Mr. Granger was met at the station by Major Trimble, driven in
the Major's ponderous car to his home and there introduced to Mrs.
Trimble--strange that being so old a friend of the Major's he should
not have met Mrs. Trimble before--and then in the seclusion of the
Major's library he had shucked his coat, as it were, and said:

"Well, what's the prospects for a killing? Got any of 'em lined up?"

"First," retorted Major Trimble, stroking his knife-edged nose, "let me
see your credentials from Senator Fairclothe."

The visitor smiled and passed over the requested credentials. Major
Trimble inspected them as an astute banker should.

"All right," he said, and waited.

Mr. Granger passed over a bank draft.

"All right," repeated the banker, "and ten percent on all sales made
here or through connections from here."

"Ten per cent," agreed Granger, "and no responsibility to be attached
to you."

"I'll take care of that," snapped Trimble, "Now, Granger, I think you
ought to do some real business here."

And Granger did.

Long before Roger Payne had sold his share in his business, Isaiah
Granger was leading the choir in the First M. E. Church and Mrs.
Granger, a lady of girth and charm, was President of the Jordan
Beautiful Society. Their position in Jordan was solid and assured.
Long before Roger finally escaped from the large city, Isaiah Granger,
and therefore Jordan, had been most significantly honored.

Granger had been appointed by United States Senator Lafayette
Fairclothe, in a letter written on Senate stationery, as district
manager for that great organization, The Prairie Highlands Association,
Senator Fairclothe, President, Washington, D. C.--which, under the
encouragement of the Government