la's face.

Miss Carwell, perusing a document, recited:

"Memo. of certain matters between Captain Poland and myself. And while
I think of it let me state that but for his timely and generous
financial aid I would have been ruined by that scoundrel Bartlett.
Captain Poland saved me. And should the stock of the concern ever be on
a paying basis I intend to repay him not only all he advanced me but any
profit I may secure shall be divided with him in gratitude. That there
will be a profit I very much doubt, though this does not lessen my
gratitude to Captain Poland for his aid."

There was a little gasp from Viola as she heard this.

"Captain Poland saved father from possible ruin," she murmured, "and
I--I treated him so! Oh! oh!"

CHAPTER XV. POOR FISHING

"Have a drink, Colonel?"

"Eh?"

"I said--Here, boy! A Scotch high and a mint julep."

Colonel Ashley, roused from his reverie as he sat in his club, gazing
out on the busy, fashionable, hurrying, jostling, worried, happy, sad,
and otherwise throngs that swept past the big Fifth avenue windows,
shifted himself in the comfortable leather chair, and looked at his
cigar. It had gone out, and he decided that it was not worth relighting.

"Cigars, too!" ordered Bruce Garrigan.

"Oh, were you speaking to me?" and the colonel seemed wholly awake now.

"Not only to you, but in your interests," went on Garrigan, with a
smile. "Hope I didn't disturb your nap, but--"

"Oh, no," the colonel hastened to assure his companion with his usual
affability. "I had finished sleeping."

"So I inferred. Do you know how many hours, minutes and seconds the
average human being has passed in sleep when he reaches the age of
forty-five years?" and Garrigan smiled quizzically.

"No, sir," answered Colonel Ashley, "I do not."

"Neither do I," confessed Mr. Garrigan as he sank down in a chair beside
the colonel and accepted the glass from a tray which the much-buttoned
club attendant held out to him. "I don't know, and I don't much care."

Then, when cigars were glowing and the smoke arose in graceful clouds,
an aroma as of incense shrouding the two as they gazed out on the
afternoon throngs, Garrigan remarked:

"I didn't know you were here. In fact, I didn't know you were a member
of this club."

"You wouldn't know it if my attendance here were needed to prove it,"
said the colonel with a smile. "I don't get here very often, but I
had to run up on some business, and