hen we shall see if Tutwater is not ready for her!"

"I see," says I. "You with your hand on the knob, eh? It's an easy way of
passin' the time too; that is, providin' such things as visits from the
landlord and the towel collector don't worry you."

"Not at all," says he. "Merely petty annoyances, thorns and pebbles in
the pathways that lead to each high emprise."

Say, it was almost like hearin' some one read po'try, listenin' to
Tutwater talk; didn't mean much of anything, and sounded kind of good. At
the end of half an hour I didn't know any more about his game than at the
beginning. I gathered, though, that up to date it hadn't produced any
ready cash, and that Tutwater had been on his uppers for some time.

He was no grafter, though. That dollar twenty-five weighed heavier on his
mind than it did on mine. He'd come in and talk about not bein' able to
pay it back real regretful, without even hintin' at another touch. And
little by little I got more light on Tutwater, includin' some details of
what he called his career.

There was a lot to it, so far as variety went. He'd been a hist'ry
professor in some one-horse Western college, had tried his luck once up
at Nome, had canvassed for a patent dishwasher through Michigan, done a
ballyhoo trick outside a travelin' tent show, and had given bump lectures
on the schoolhouse circuit.

But his prize stunt was when he broke into the real estate business and
laid out Eucalyptus City. That was out in Iowa somewhere, and he'd have
cleaned up a cool million in money if the blamed trolley company hadn't
built their line seven miles off in the other direction.

It was gettin' this raw deal that convinces him the seed district wa'n't
any place for a gent of his abilities. So he sold out his options on the
site of Eucalyptus to a brick makin' concern, and beat it for 42d-st.
with a capital of eighty-nine dollars cash and this great director scheme
in his head. The brass plate had cost him four dollars and fifty cents,
one month's rent of the upstairs coop had set him back thirty more, and
he'd been livin' on the rest.

"But look here, Tutty," says I, "just what sort of enterprise do you
think you can direct?"

"Any sort," says he, "anything, from running an international exposition,
to putting an icecream parlor on a paying basis."

"Don't you find your modesty something of a handicap?" says I.

"Oh, I'm modest enough," he goes on. "For instance, I don't claim to
invent