money."

"On a wild gamble? Why, Anna, we couldn't stay on here with the
Judge--that would be getting help I'm not allowed to have--we'd have
to go live in some cheap apartment; we couldn't even have a maid for
awhile; we couldn't entertain anybody; we couldn't have any outside
pleasures; I'd have to work like a dog; you _know_ what the crowd on
the hill would say--and then I'm beaten before I start anyway.
Quitter! You wouldn't call a man a quitter if he stayed out of a
hurdle race because he'd broken a leg, would you?"

"Well," said Anna, "I'm willing to live in such a cheap apartment that
the landlord calls it a _flat_. And you can't get any servants these
days; there _aren't_ any. And who cares about entertaining? And for
outside pleasures, why couldn't we go to the Orpheum?" They all
laughed, but Anna was the first to stop. "I'll work just as hard as
you will, Henry. I'll peel potatoes and wash the sink--" She glanced,
ruefully, at her hands--"and if it'll help you, I--I'd sell tickets or
be an usher or play the piano. Why, Henry, it would be a _circus_--and
we wouldn't need any snake-charmers, either."

"_And_ an education," said Judge Barklay.

"And a gold-mine for us--in just one little year. We could do it; I
_know_ we could."

"And if the stupid fool who's had it this last year could make money
out of it," added the Judge, "and you used any intelligence on it,
you'd come out ahead. John made up his figures very carefully. That's
the kind of man he was."

Henry stared at them alternately. "But if I _did_ fall down--"

"Henry!" The Judge was using a professional gesture. "What do you
suppose your time is worth, at its present market value? Don't you
think you can afford to risk a year of it against half a million
dollars?"

"But when I've practically closed with Mix--"

"Sign any agreement?"

"No, he's having one typed."

The judge breathed in relief. "You're lucky. You'd lose money if you
took a third interest for a gift, and if you took _all_ of it as a
gift you'd lose three times as much. Because you'd have to assume your
share of his liabilities. People think he's got money, but he hasn't;
he's broke. He must have picked you for a life preserver."

Henry's jaw dropped. "What makes you think so?"

"I don't think so; I _know_ so. Oh, he's pretty shifty on his feet,
and he's got a good many people hoodwinked--your uncle always gave
him too much credit, incidentally--but his New York correspond