experience, still the hero among the men for his heroic rescue of the
"Boss"--a reputation which he never lost; making friends every day both
in the village and in New York and keeping them; absorbed in his slender
library, and living within his means, which small as they were, now
gave him two rooms at Mrs. Hicks's,--one of which he had fitted up as a
little sitting-room and in which Ruth had poured the first cup of tea,
her father and some of the village people being guests.

His one secret--and it was his only one--he kept locked up in his heart,
even from Peter. Why worry the dear old fellow, he had said to himself a
dozen times, since nothing would ever come of it.

While all this had been going on in the house of MacFarlane, much more
astonishing things had been developing in the house of Breen.

The second Mukton Lode scoop,--the one so deftly handled the night of
Arthur Breen's dinner to the directors,--had somehow struck a snag
in the scooping with the result that most of the "scoopings" had been
spilled over the edge there to be gathered up by the gamins of the
Street, instead of being hived in the strong boxes of the scoopers. Some
of the habitues in the orchestra chairs in Breen's office had cursed
loud and deep when they saw their margins melt away; and one or two of
the directors had broken out into open revolt, charging Breen with the
fiasco, but most of the others had held their peace. It was better to
crawl away into the tall grass there to nurse their wounds than to
give the enemy a list of the killed and wounded. Now and then an
outsider--one who had watched the battle from afar--saw more of the
fight than the contestants themselves. Among these was Garry Minott.

"You heard how Mason, the Chicago man, euchred the Mukton gang, didn't
you?" he had shouted to a friend one night at the Magnolia--"Oh, listen!
boys. They set up a job on him,--he's a countryman, you know a poor
little countryman--from a small village called Chicago--he's got three
millions, remember, all in hard cash. Nice, quiet motherly old gentleman
is Mr. Mason--butter wouldn't melt in his mouth. Went into Mukton with
every dollar he had--so kind of Mr. Breen to let him in--yes, put him
down for 2,000 shares more. Then Breen & Co. began to hoist her up--five
points--ten points--twenty points. At the end of the week they had,
without knowing it, bought every share of Mason's stock." Here Garry
roared, as did the others within hearing.