lways chirked me up too.

And the more I saw of Marmaduke, the less I thought about the bats. Get
under the surface, and he wa'n't nutty at all. He just had a free flow of
funny thoughts and odd ways of expressin' 'em. Most of us are so shy of
lettin' go of any sentiments that can't be had on a rubber stamp that it
takes a mighty small twist to put a person in the queer class.

However, business is business, and I'd just as soon Marmaduke hadn't been
on hand the other day when Pyramid Gordon comes in with one of his
heavyweight broker friends. Course, I didn't know anything about the
stranger; but I know Pyramid, and his funnybone was fossilized years ago.
Marmaduke don't offer to make any break, though. He takes his fav'rite
seat over by the window and goes to gazin' out and rubbin' his chin.

Seems that Mr. Gordon and his friend was both tangled up in some bank
chain snarl that was worryin' 'em a lot. Things wouldn't be comin' to a
head for forty-eight hours or so, and meantime all they could do was sit
tight and wait.

Now, Pyramid's programme in a case of that kind is one I made out for him
myself. It's simple. He comes to the studio for an hour of the roughest
kind of work we can put through. After that he goes to his Turkish bath,
and by the time his rubber is through with him he's ready for a private
room and a ten hours' snooze. That's what keeps the gray out of his
cheeks, and helps him look a Grand Jury summons in the face without goin'
shaky.

So it's natural he recommends the same course to this Mr. Gridley that
he's brought along. Another thick-neck, Gridley is, with the same flat
ears as Pyramid, only he's a little shorter and not quite so rugged
around the chin.

"Here we are, now," says Pyramid, "and here's Professor McCabe, Gridley.
If he can't make you forget your troubles, you will be the first on
record. Come on in and see."

But Gridley he shakes his head. "Nothing so strenuous for me," says he.
"My heart wouldn't stand it. I'll wait for you, though."

"Better come in and watch, then," says I, with a side glance at
Marmaduke.

"No, thanks; I shall be quite as uncomfortable here," says Gridley, and
camps his two hundred and ten pounds down in my desk chair.

It was a queer pair to leave together,--this Gridley gent, who was
jugglin' millions, and gettin' all kinds of misery out of it, and
Marmaduke, calm and happy, with barely one quarter to rub against
another. But of course there wa'n't