think; I'll look it
up for you."

My dream of wealth began fading as the whole situation became clear and
suspicions implicit in the peculiar behavior of the stock were
confirmed. The corporation had evidently fallen into the hands of
unscrupulous promoters who manipulated for the small but steady "take"
its fluctuations on the market afforded. Without attempting to operate
the factory, my reasoning ran, they had taken advantage of the stock's
low price to double whatever they cared to invest twice yearly. It was a
neat and wellshaped little racket and discovery, as the broker admitted,
would have exposed them to legal action. Only my recklessness with the
checks from the _Weekly Ruminant_ and the _Honeycomb_ had broken the
routine.

But ... they had offered me several thousand dollars, evidently in cold
cash. Defunct or not, then, the business was presumably worth at least
that. And if they had employed the stock to maintain some sort of
income, why, I could certainly learn to do the same. I was an
independent man afterall.

Except for the slightly embarrassing detail of being without current
funds I was also free of Le ffacase and the _Daily Intelligencer_. "Mr
Blank," I said, "I need some money for immediate expenses."

"I knew youd see things in a sensible light, Weener. I'll have your
check in a minute."

"You misunderstand me. I have no intention of giving up any part of
Consolidated Pemmican."

"Ah?"

"No."

He looked at me intently. "Mr. Weener, I am not a wealthy man. Above and
beyond that, since this grass business started, I assure you any common
laborer has made more money than I. Any common laborer," he repeated
sadly.

"Oh, I only need about a thousand dollars for immediate outlays. Just
write me a check for that much, like a good fellow."

"Mr Weener, how can we be sure you won't call upon us again for
more--ah--expensemoney?"

I drew myself up indignantly. "Mr Blank, no one has ever questioned my
integrity before. When I say a thousand dollars is all the expensemoney
I require, why, it is all the expensemoney I require. To doubt it is to
insult me."

"Ah," he said.

"Ah," I agreed.

Reluctantly he wrote the check and handed it to me. Then, more amicably,
we settled the details of the stock transfer and he gave me the location
of my property. I went back to the _Intelligencer_ office with the
springy step of a man who acknowledges no master. In my mind I prepared
a triumph: I would w