His
father had gone and he was alone with his conscience and Mr. Carter's
fifty-dollar bill.

CHAPTER XIII

THE CAMERONS HAVE A VISITOR

During the next week Paul was obliged to go several times to the _Echo_
offices and each time he went with the secret hope that he would see Mr.
Carter and have the opportunity to hand back to him the hateful money
that burned in his breast pocket. The chance, however, never came. The
door of the great man's private room was continually closed and when the
boy suggested to the clerk that he wait and talk with the publisher, he
was told that Mr. Carter was engaged and could see no one that day. The
thought of mailing the money occurred to Paul, but as this method of
returning it seemed precarious and uncertain, he promptly abandoned the
idea. For the same reason he was unwilling to leave the bill in a sealed
envelope to be delivered to the editor-in-chief by one of the employees.
Should a sum so immense, at least so immense in the lad's estimation, be
lost, he never could replace it. Certainly he was in trouble enough
already without chancing another dilemma.

In the meantime he carried the bill around with him, trying in the
interval to decide what to do with it. Gradually he became accustomed to
having the money in his possession. It did not seem so strange a thing
now as it had in the beginning. After all, fifty dollars was not such a
vast sum. To a person of Mr. Carter's wealth it probably was nothing at
all, an amount too trifling to cause a second thought. Besides, he had
not really bound himself to Mr. Carter. He had not actually guaranteed
to do anything. It was Mr. Carter who had insisted that he take the
money.

Unquestionably in exchange for it Paul was expected to use his influence
to persuade the boys of 1920 to sell their paper; still, using one's
influence did not necessarily mean that one must succeed. If he
suggested the deal and it failed to go through, would he not have done
all that was required of him? Mr. Carter had stipulated nothing more
than that he use his influence. If the _Echo_ owner had over-estimated
the power of that influence, was not that his lookout? No doubt such an
understanding was quite customary in business circles and was not so
important a matter as he took it to be.

The more the lad thought the matter over the more plausible the
retention of the money seemed. To use one's influence was surely a
legitimate arrangement. It was d