s flowing through this office, never ceasing day in
and day out, year after year, is like the current of the blood tending
back to the heart, like the response of the nerves to the pulse-beat,
reporting at the brain, bringing news of the body's health, even down
to the fingers' ends. And we sit here, like a spider in a web, drawing
all the world."

"What do they tell you?" asked the girl, absorbedly.

"Everything;--or nearly all. Is a trust in the making? We know of it
here, when we see the ownership of scattered factories change to a
common head. Is prohibition gaining ground in the South? We can tell
by the shut-down endorsements on brewery and distillery policies and by
the increasing losses on saloons whose owners can make no further
profit. Is there a corner in wheat or coffee or cotton? We follow the
moves in the struggle by the ebb and flow of insurance in the big
warehouses and elevators and compresses. Is the automobile market
overstocked? Our rising loss ratio gives the reply. Are hard times
coming? We can tell it when the merchants begin to cut down their
insurance, which means their stocks as well, buying what they need from
day to day. Is the panic over? We learn it by a rush of new dailies,
buildings in course of construction, new and costly machinery
introduced in factories, increased insurance all along the line."

"It sounds almost uncanny," said Helen, slowly. "Can you really learn
all these things in this way?"

"Not all, of course, or at least not always, by any means, for the
Guardian is only one of many companies, and only a small part, a
fraction of one per cent, of the country's business comes to us. But
we learn a great deal; much of it along rather surprising lines. I
learned yesterday, for example, that the scandal which has been
suspected to exist between the fair but probably frail Mazie Dupont and
her manager is undoubtedly a matter of fact."

"How could you find that out?" Helen was amazed to find herself asking.
The actress was a celebrity, to be sure, yet Miss Maitland, in her own
self-analysis, should hardly have evinced curiosity regarding the
details of her private life.

"Ownership of pretty country house up the Hudson transferred from his
name to hers. Endorsement on our policy," replied Smith. "Of course
that's not proof, but its pretty good presumptive evidence. We get
similar cases every day. Here's a millionaire gets caught the wrong
side of the stock