see that man in front of us?" he asked, pointing to a figure
about six feet ahead.

"Yes. What of him?"

"It is our bookkeeper, David Mullins."

"Is it, indeed? Do you know whom he is walking with?"

Chester glanced at a rather flashily dressed individual who was walking
arm in arm with the bookkeeper.

"No," he answered.

"It is Dick Ralston," answered Arthur, "one of the most notorious
gamblers in the city."

CHAPTER XVIII.

DICK RALSTON.

Chester was new to the city and a novice in worldly affairs, but the
discovery that the bookkeeper was on intimate terms with a gambler
astounded him. He felt that Mr. Fairchild ought to know it, but he
shrank from telling him.

Of course, the presumption was that Mullins was also a gambler, but
this was not certain. Chester decided to say nothing, but to be
watchful. David Mullins had been five years in his present place, and
his services must have been satisfactory or he would not have been
retained.

There was one thing, however, that Chester did not know. This
gambler--Dick Ralston, as he was familiarly called--was only a recent
acquaintance. Mullins had known him but three months, but had already,
through his influence, been smitten by the desire to become rich more
quickly than he could in any legitimate way.

He had accompanied Dick to the gaming table, and tried his luck, losing
more than he could comfortably spare. He was in debt to his dangerous
friend one hundred and fifty dollars, and on the evening in question
Dick had intimated that he was in need of the money.

"But how can I give it to you?" asked Mullins, in a tone of annoyance.

"You receive a good salary."

"One hundred dollars a month, yes. But I can't spare more than thirty
dollars a month toward paying the debt."

"Which would take you five months. That won't suit me. Haven't you got
any money saved up?"

"No; I ought to have, but I have enjoyed myself as I went along, and it
has taken all I earned."

"Humph! Very pleasant for me!"

"And for me, too. It isn't very satisfactory to pinch and scrape for
five months just to get out of debt. If it was for articles I had
had--in other words, for value received--it would be different. But it
is just for money lost at the gaming table--a gambling debt."

"Such debts, among men of honor," said Dick, loftily, "are the most
binding. Everywhere they are debts of honor."

"I don't see why," grumbled Mullins.

"Come," said Ralston, soot