paper with a smile of satisfaction thinly concealed on his dark face.

* * * * *

Harkness did not reply. He found little pleasure in the look on
Schwartzmann's face, and his glance passed on to a fourth man who sat
quietly at one side of the room.

Young, his tanned face made bronze by contrast with his close-curling
blond hair, there was no need of the emblem on his blouse to mark him
as of the flying service. Beside the spread wings was the triple star
of a master pilot of the world; it carried Chet Bullard past all
earth's air patrols and gave him the freedom of every level.

Beside him a girl was seated. She rose quickly now and came toward
Harkness with outstretched hand. And Harkness found time in the
instant of her coming to admire her grace of movement, and the
carriage that was almost stately.

The mannish attire of a woman of business seemed almost a discordant
note; he did not realize that the hard simplicity of her costume had
been saved by the soft warmth of its color, and by an indefinable,
flowing line in the jacket above the rippling folds of an undergarment
that gathered smoothly at her knees. He knew only that she made a
lovely picture, surprisingly appealing, and that her smile was a
compensation for the less pleasing visage of her companion,
Schwartzmann.

"Mademoiselle Vernier," Herr Schwartzmann had introduced her when they
came. And he had used her given name as he added: "Mademoiselle Diane
is somewhat interested in our projects."

She was echoing Warrington's words as she took Harkness' hand in a
friendly grasp. "I hope, indeed, that it is the lucky day for you,
Monsieur. Our modern transportation--it is so marvelous, and I know so
little of it. But I am learning. I shall think of you as developing
your so-splendid properties wonderfully."

* * * * *

Only when she and Schwartzmann were gone did Harkness answer his
counsellor's remark. The steady Harkness eyes were again wrinkled
about with puckering lines; the shoulders seemed not so square as
usual.

"Lucky?" he said. "I hope you're right. You were Father's attorney for
twenty years--your judgment ought to be good; and mine is not entirely
worthless.

"Yes, it is a good deal we have made--of course it is!--it bears every
analysis. We need that land if we are to expand as we must, and the
banks will carry me for the twenty million I can't swing. But,
confound it, Warr