Even Smith, the
youngest man to occupy a place of trust, had been in his present
capacity for quite a while. And the natural result of this was that
new material in the company, or at least material capable of
advancement and development, was painfully scarce.

Bartels was not an underwriter at all, but an accountant, and it was
inconceivable that he would ever be anything else. Wagstaff, who
supervised the Southern and a part of the Western field, was a good
enough machine man, capable in a routine way and within his
limitations, but helpless outside them; he had no initiative, wholly
lacked dash and imagination, and it was out of the question that he be
given charge of the general underwriting of the company, even under
such a chief as Mr. Wintermuth. Cuyler, the head of the local
department, was a city underwriter pure and simple; his knowledge and
his interest stopped short where the jurisdiction of the New York
Exchange ended; he knew no more, nor did he care for anything else.

There remained but one possibility--Smith. And Smith was very young.
There had been few or no cases in the annals of fire insurance where
the underwriting of such a company as the Guardian had been placed in
the hands of a man scarcely turned thirty. Mr. Wintermuth, going over
the situation carefully, began to wish that he had looked a little
farther into the future. A sharp sense of indecision came disagreeably
to him, and very reluctantly he reached the conclusion that he did not
quite know what to do.

By his order a special meeting of the directors had been called for the
next morning, and for the intervening hours he possessed his soul in
what patience he could command. If the reflection occurred to him that
perhaps it would have been wiser to retain O'Connor until his successor
could be selected, he dismissed it at once. The company would have to
go on as best it could without a vice-president until such time as the
proper man could be found.

It was ten-thirty to the minute when Mr. Wintermuth took the chair and
looked about the table at his board. Eleven directors in all,
including the President, were in attendance; and although no one except
Mr. Wintermuth knew why they had been called together, there was an
undercurrent of concern among those present. This was soon
crystallized, for Mr. Wintermuth's opening words wakened the active
interest and lively perturbation of every man.

"Gentlemen," he said, "this meetin