t, and facing his companion, in the attitude and with the
expression of a man who, finding himself in the presence of an enemy,
assumes the defensive.

"Oh no," was the quiet answer--"not _made_ of money. But, for a
particular friend, you can no doubt, easily raise such a trifle as ten
thousand dollars?"

"Trifle! You mock me, sir!"

"Don't get excited about this matter, Mr. Jasper," coolly returned
Martin, whose name the reader has probably recognised as that of
an agent employed by the merchant and Grind, the lawyer, some years
before, in making investigations relative to the existence of coal on
certain lands not far from Reading, Pennsylvania. "Don't get excited,"
he repeated. "That will do no good. I have not come to rob you. I
don't ask you to give me ten thousand dollars. All I want is a loan,
for which I will pledge good security."

"What kind of security?" asked Jasper quickly.

"Security on my lead-mine."

"Pooh! I wouldn't give the snap of a finger for such security!"

Jasper, thrown off his guard, spoke more contemptuously than was
prudent.

An instant change was visible in Martin, who, rising, commenced
buttoning up his coat. There was about him every mark of a man deeply
offended.

"Good evening, sir!" said he, with a low, formal bow, yet with his
eyes fixed searchingly in those of the merchant.

"Martin,"--Jasper did not smile, nor was there in his voice the
slightest affectation of good feeling--yet his manner and tone were
both decisive,--"Martin, sit down again. Talk in reason, and I will
hear."

The man resumed his seat, and, with his eyes still in those of Jasper,
said--

"I have talked in reason. You are worth, so report says, not less than
three hundred thousand dollars. How the first hundred thousand came,
is known, certainly, only to one man beside you and me. In procuring
that large sum I was a very prominent agent."

"You have already been paid for your services a dozen times over."

"There may be a difference of opinion about this," replied the man
boldly--"and there _is_ a difference of opinion."

"I have already advanced you over five thousand dollars."

"What of that! Five thousand to three hundred thousand that you have
made by the operation."

"You are in error, Martin," said Jasper, with a blended look
of perplexity and distress. "I am not worth the sum you have
mentioned--nothing like it. My losses during the past six months have
been very heavy."

"It is your