d a smile of
assent. "No, I couldn't."

"I'm sure--"

"And then I'm going to Philadelphia on Saturday morning to stay over
Sunday. I wish you'd asked me earlier."

"So do I," murmured H. Rutgers, with conviction and despair judiciously
admixed.

The secretary had meant to quiz H. Rutgers about the association, but H.
Rutgers's manner and words disarmed suspicion. It was not that H.
Rutgers always bluffed, but that he always bluffed as he did, that makes
his subsequent career one of the most interesting chapters of our
political history.

"And here's the permit," said the secretary.

H. Rutgers, without looking at it, put it in his pocket as if it were
all a matter of course. It strengthened the secretary's belief that
non-suspiciousness was justified.

"Thanks, very much," said H. Rutgers. "I am, I still repeat, very sorry
that neither you nor the Mayor can come." He paid to the Mayor's
eloquent secretary the tribute of a military salute and left the room.

III

The union of the sandwich-men was an assured success. Victory had come
to H. Rutgers by the intelligent use of brains. The possession of brains
is one of the facts that can always be confirmed at the source.

Next he arranged for the band. He told the band-master what he wished
the band to do. The band-master thereupon told him the price.

"Friend," said H. Rutgers, pleasantly, "I do not deal in dreams either
as buyer or seller. That's the asking price. Now, how much will you
take?" Not having any money, Hendrik added, impressively, "Cash!"

The band-master, being a native-born, repeated the price--unchanged. But
he was no match for H. Rutgers, who took a card from his pocket, looked
at what the band-master imagined was a list of addresses of other bands,
and then said, "Let me see; from here to--" He pulled out his watch and
muttered to himself, but audible by the band-master, "It will take me
half an hour or more."

H. Rutgers closed his watch with a sharp and angry snap and then
determinedly named a sum exactly two-thirds of what the band-master had
fixed as the irreducible minimum. It was more than Hendrik could
possibly pay.

The band-master shook his head, so H. Rutgers said, irascibly:

"For Heaven's sake, quit talking. I'm nearly crazy with the
arrangements. Do you think you're the only band in New York or that I
never hired one before? Here's the Mayor's permit." He showed it to the
musical director, who was thereby enabled t