l right, and just as it ought
to be, but it's a little irregular. It gives me what belongs to me, but
the law happens to be against it."

Phipps hesitated, and glanced suspiciously, and even menacingly, at the
paper. Mr. Belcher knew that he would like to tear it in pieces, and so,
without unseemly haste, he picked it up, placed it in its drawer, locked
it in, and put the key in his pocket.

"I don't want to get into trouble," said Phipps.

"Phipps," said Mr. Belcher, in a conciliatory tone, "I don't intend
that you shall get into trouble."

Then, rising, and patting his servant on the shoulder, he added:

"But it all depends on your standing by me, and standing by yourself.
You know that you will lose nothing by standing by the General, Phipps;
you know me."

Phipps was not afraid of crime; he was only afraid of its possible
consequences; and Mr. Belcher's assurance of safety, provided he should
remember his story and adhere to it, was all that he needed to confirm
him in the determination to do what Mr. Belcher wished him to do.

After Phipps retired, Mr. Belcher took out his document again, and
looked it over for the hundredth time. He recompared the signatures
which he had forged with their originals. Consciously a villain, he
regarded himself still as a man who was struggling for his rights. But
something of his old, self-reliant courage was gone. He recognized the
fact that there was one thing in the world more powerful than himself.
The law was against him. Single-handed, he could meet men; but the great
power which embodied the justice and strength of the State awed him, and
compelled him into a realization of his weakness.

The next morning Mr. Belcher received his brokers and operators in bed
in accordance with his custom. He was not good-natured. His operations
in Wall street had not been prosperous for several weeks. In some way,
impossible to be foreseen by himself or his agents, everything had
worked against him He knew that if he did not rally from this passage of
ill-luck, he would, in addition to his loss of money, lose something of
his prestige. He had a stormy time with his advisers and tools, swore a
great deal, and sent them off in anything but a pleasant frame of mind.

Talbot was waiting in the drawing-room when the brokers retired, and
followed his card upstairs, where he found his principal with an ugly
frown upon his face.

"Toll," he whimpered, "I'm glad to see you. You're the best