pay its
price, and that he desired above all else to become a rich man--a
truly rich man, and marry a fairy-princess sort of person. And as far
as education was concerned he felt that if he was not quite so
brushed up on his A B C's as he was on minding his P's and Q's the
result would not be half bad. Unconsciously his attitude toward the
world was a composite of the philosophy of Marcus Aurelius, the
cynical wisdom of Omar Khayyam, and plain and not to be duplicated
Yankee pep.

As Steve planned it he was to leave his mark on the world and not
endure the world's mark upon himself. This straight-limbed and
altogether too handsome youngster--his grandmother had been a
Basque--possessed the same quality of the fortune hunter as his
grandfather, only he did not propose to do his prospecting in the
mines of Nevada. Following the general tactics of a Stone Age man--a
belief in muscle and great initiative--Steve found himself at
twenty-four in the city of Hanover and in the employ of Mark
Constantine, a hide-and-leather magnate who was said to be like all
hard-boiled eggs--impossible to beat. After Steve advanced to the top
notch of his ability he discovered that the only reason he was not
considered as a junior member of the firm was because he could not buy
stock. At this same time Beatrice Constantine had become interested in
him.

To her mind Steve was different in other ways than merely being
handsome and possessed of physical strength. And she considered that
if he had a fortune he would be far more wonderful than any of the
young gentlemen of her set who wondered which would be the lucky chap
to lead Constantine's Gorgeous Girl to the wedding-license bureau.

In the seventeen-year-old patronizing fashion of a Gorgeous Girl she
permitted Steve to see that she was interested, and Steve with the
romance of his Basque grandmother and the audacity of his Irish
grandfather immediately thought of what a strange and wonderful thing
it would be if he could by hook or crook become a rich man all in the
twinkling of an eye, and marry this superior, elegant little person.

The Gorgeous Girl had never known anything but the most gorgeous side
of life. Her father, self-made from a boyhood as poor as Steve's,
carved his way to the top without delay or remorse for any one he may
have halted or harmed in the so doing. He had wisely married a working
girl whom he loved in undemonstrative fashion, and when at the turning
point of