east--endeavoring to secure for himself the Guardian
appointment, but seemed, on the contrary, quite well contented in his
present position, and Mr. Wintermuth settled down to overtures with
almost his customary cheerfulness.

Mr. Samuel Gunterson was, at this period of his highly variegated
underwriting career, some forty-six years of age. A life whose private
character no journal had as yet been tempted to divulge had left no
trace upon the impassive contour of his face nor on the somber dignity
of his bearing. He was of middle height, and somewhat stout, his hair
was iron-gray, and he carried himself with a sort of restrained or
reflective optimism, as though he forced himself to be cheerful and
companionable at the cost of untold anguish to an inner ego that no one
knew. It was an effective carriage, and few people attempted to take
liberties with its possessor.

During his experience in the fire insurance business Mr. Gunterson had
contrived to become connected with and separated from more different
concerns than could be readily computed. He had averaged somewhat
better than one change bi-yearly, and the history of his peregrinations
could never have been written, for no one but himself could have
furnished the necessary material, and on all matters concerning himself
Mr. Gunterson was as cryptic as were the Delphic oracles of old. He
chose to consider himself a victim of an astonishing series of
circumstances, and in a certain sense this was true, although the
circumstances were largely of his own creation. Good companies and
bad, established concerns and promoters' flotations, auspicious
ventures and forlorn hopes--he had been associated with them all, and
from each one he emerged with untroubled calm while the unhappy
machine, its steering gear usually crippled by his hand alone, went
plunging downhill over the cliff into the soundless waters of oblivion.

Mr. Gunterson had been either President or underwriting manager of the
Eureka Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, whose demise scarcely surprised
those who were aware that its remarkable popularity with its agents was
mainly due to the willingness with which it accepted their bad business
in almost unlimited quantities; of the Florida Fire and Marine, whose
annual premium income of about eight times the amount warranted by its
resources attracted the thoughtful attention, although scarcely the
respect, of some of the leading underwriters in New York; of