light
stoop, but with a quick staccato step which betokened great nervous
energy, a quality which the alert expression of his beady eyes
confirmed with distinct emphasis.

"Hello, Creamer!" hailed Sam to this gentleman. "I didn't expect to
see you here quite so soon."

"You had every right to expect me," snapped the little man querulously.
"After all the experimenting I have done for you boys, you had every
reason to keep me posted on all your movements; and yet I reckon if I
hadn't been in your office yesterday evening when Jack said he was
coming down here, you would not have notified me until you had your
company all formed. Then I suppose you'd have written to tell me how
much stock you had assigned to me. I'm going to be in on the formation
of this company, and I'm going to have my say about it!"

"Will you never get over that dyspepsia?" chided Sam easily. "There
was no intention of leaving you out."

"Just what I told him," declared Jack, turning from Miss Stevens to
them. "I have been swearing to him that as soon as we had found out
to-day what we were to do I would have wired him at once."

"You were quite right, Jack," approved Sam, opening the door of the car
for them, "and as a proof of it, Creamer, when you return to your
office you will find there a letter postmarked yesterday, telling you
our exact progress here, and warning you to be in readiness to come on
telegram."

"All right, then," said Mr. Creamer, somewhat mollified, "but since
that letter's there and I'm here, you might as well tell me what you've
done."

Sam stopped the proceedings long enough to introduce Creamer to Miss
Stevens after he had closed the door upon them and had taken his own
seat by the chauffeur.

"All right," he then said to Mr. Creamer, "I'll begin at the beginning."

He began at the beginning. He told Mr. Creamer all the steps in the
development of the company. He detailed to him the names of the
gentlemen concerned, and their complete commercial histories, pausing
to answer many pertinent side questions and observations from his
younger brother, who proved to be as keen a student of business puzzles
as Sam himself.

"That's all very well," said Mr. Creamer, "and now I'm here. I want to
get away to-night: Can't we form that company to-day? At what figure
do you propose offering the original stock?"

"The preferred at fifty, with a par value of a hundred," returned Sam
promptly.

"Common?" asked Mr. C