ll Mr. Hegan to hang up. I'm done with the office and I
don't want to hear anything about anything."

A minute later she was back again.

"He refuses to hang up. He told me to tell you that Unwin is in the
office now, waiting to see you, and Harrison, too. Mr. Hegan said that
Grimshaw and Hodgkins are in trouble. That it looks as if they are
going to break. And he said something about protection."

It was startling information. Both Unwin and Harrison represented big
banking corporations, and Daylight knew that if the house of Grimshaw
and Hodgkins went it would precipitate a number of failures and start a
flurry of serious dimensions. But Daylight smiled, and shook his head,
and mimicked the stereotyped office tone of voice as he said:--

"Miss Mason, you will kindly tell Mr. Hegan that there is nothing doing
and to hang up."

"But you can't do this," she pleaded.

"Watch me," he grimly answered.

"Elam!"

"Say it again," he cried. "Say it again, and a dozen Grimshaws and
Hodgkins can smash!"

He caught her by the hand and drew her to him.

"You let Hegan hang on to that line till he's tired. We can't be
wasting a second on him on a day like this. He's only in love with
books and things, but I've got a real live woman in my arms that's
loving me all the time she's kicking over the traces."

CHAPTER XXIII

"But I know something of the fight you have been making," Dede
contended. "If you stop now, all the work you have done, everything,
will be destroyed. You have no right to do it. You can't do it."

Daylight was obdurate. He shook his head and smiled tantalizingly.

"Nothing will be destroyed, Dede, nothing. You don't understand this
business game. It's done on paper. Don't you see? Where's the gold I
dug out of Klondike? Why, it's in twenty-dollar gold pieces, in gold
watches, in wedding rings. No matter what happens to me, the
twenty-dollar pieces, the watches, and the wedding rings remain.
Suppose I died right now. It wouldn't affect the gold one iota. It's
sure the same with this present situation. All I stand for is paper.
I've got the paper for thousands of acres of land. All right. Burn up
the paper, and burn me along with it. The land remains, don't it? The
rain falls on it, the seeds sprout in it, the trees grow out of it, the
houses stand on it, the electric cars run over it. It's paper that
business is run on. I lose my paper, or I lose my life, it's all the