ollars. You can make them yours."

"I guess it's a fake."

"That begins with an 'F.' Mine begins with an 'A.' The Mayor has the
cash."

The reporter looked at the Mayor. His Honor's lips were moving
inaudibly. He was going over all the words of five letters that began
with an "A."

Among them was _Agony_.

Lubin again looked at the ten-thousand-dollar yellow-back and at H. R.
and suddenly rushed out. On the way he collected nine erudite friends.
They went to the nearest branch of the public library. Each got a
dictionary and divided all the definitions under "A" into nine parts.

Nothing doing!

"I knew it was a fraud!" yelled the _Onward_ man. "It isn't in the
dictionary."

He fairly flew back to the Garden.

H. R. was just about to go into the arena. Lubin yelled:

"There is no such word in the dictionary. I protest against this--"

"You talk like an old-school Republican," said H. R., coldly, to Lubin.

It killed speech in the young man.

The Mayor clenched his right fist tightly. The ten-thousand-dollar
treasury note lay crumpled within.

"Sir," said H. R. to him, with real dignity, "you have my word that the
word _is_ in the dictionary."

The Mayor, naturally thinking of political consequences, spoke, "Of
course, Mr. Rutgers, I expect you to prove it."

"Sir, I shall see to it that you are re-elected!" H. R. said this so
positively that his Honor blushed guiltily. "I am not stupid enough to
endeavor to perpetrate so transparent a fraud as this young man charges
me with. But it would be even greater stupidity to be unfair to honest
guessers by telling Mr. Lubin or anybody else what the word is. It is of
five letters and begins with an 'A' and it is in the dictionary. But I
will tell you, your Honor, and you, Mr. Lubin, what I will do. I shall
ask the question and give the answer to a man who will say whether it is
a fair question and whether the word is a fair answer. His decision will
be final. He will not, I am sure, send for the ten thousand dollars
after he hears the answer."

The Mayor shook his head dubiously.

"Who is the man?"

Mr. Lubin, being young, went much further.

"There is no man in New York whose word--"

"Silence, sir! I know the man. If he says that the word answers the
question, everybody in New York will be convinced--Socialists,
Democrats, Republicans, Progressives, Suffragists, newspaper editors,
and all."

"There can't be such a man," said Lubin, decisively.

H