well aware of
the fact that if the money came in they would surely get their share.
All who know me are pretty well satisfied on that score. Deal squarely
with the people about you, is my maxim, and they will stand by you when
the pinch comes. I have gone on that principle all through my varied
career and I know the benefit of what I speak."

"Yes; all things considered," replied Fogg, "you have been on the
Square."

"Good! You're improving! Well, as I was saying, I got my company
together and set out. We opened in Denver. Did fairly well; pushed on
still further. Struck bad business, and at the end of a couple of weeks
landed high and dry on Saturday night in a far Western town--No need of
mentioning names."

"As soon as that--two weeks?"

"Just two weeks. Oh, don't affect surprise. I've known companies to go
where the woodbine twineth on the third night out. There is nothing new
in that. Well, the night I have reference to was so bad, that is the
receipts were so slender, that we didn't take in money enough to pay for
the gas, and remember we were under contract to play the following
Monday in a city not more than fifty miles or so away."

"Well, you had all Sunday and most of Monday to get there, and keep your
date. There's nothing in that," remarked Fogg, with a smile.

"Very true; but, my optimistic friend, permit me to inform you that my
company was not solely made up of pedestrians, and, moreover, walking in
midwinter as a rule is not good. So you may readily recognize I was in a
perplexing predicament. After I glanced over the box office statement I
hardly knew where I was at. As I thought the situation over before me
arose the stern reality of a large-sized board bill, for bear in mind I
had guaranteed to pay the traveling and hotel bills of the company.
Hotelkeepers are such matter-of-fact and precise individuals in their
peculiar ways of dealings that it is difficult for those of empty
pockets to get along pleasantly with them."

"Absurdly so," admitted Fogg.

"Pleased to hear you say so, but then, my boy, you never ran a hotel."

"No, but I kept the books of a traveling politician one season!"

"You did?"

"Fact."

"You weren't traveling with a show?"

"Nit, I was attending political conventions."

"Oh, that settles it. That was a dead easy job. The party put up the
dough and the public in the end pays the score. That's another
proposition altogether. But the poor player who--well, no matt