irms must do business with nearly every office on the Street,
anyway."

"The Salamander will take all the best of the business we get now, or
most of it, and help them out, I suppose, on a lot of tough risks that
I've never been willing to write. O'Connor's a plunger, you know, when
he's got a gambling company back of him. It looks to me as if we'd
only get what he left--targets, and big lines where Jenkinson and
Hammond Dow have enough to go round."

Mr. Cuyler's oldest friend had never seen him more troubled than at
this moment. So deep, in fact, was his gloom that the President put
aside his own concern to try to reassure his old counterman. In this
he succeeded not at all; Mr. Cuyler's dejection was settled.

"What about a branch manager in place of O'Brien?" inquired Mr.
Wintermuth at length, thinking at least to change the subject, and
hoping to touch a brighter theme. Mr. Cuyler's face darkened still
further, if such a thing were possible.

"Nothing doing," he said inelegantly but comprehensively.

"Hasn't Mr. Gunterson--?" the President began, but he stopped short.
"What's that?" he asked sharply. "What were you going to say?"

"I guess I'd better not say it," responded the local underwriter with
deliberation.

"Go ahead," said his chief.

"Well, then," the other answered, "I was going to say 'To hell with
Gunterson!'"

Mr. Wintermuth leaned back in his chair, with his eyes fixed on his
subordinate.

"Cuyler," he said, "Mr. Gunterson is your superior officer, and that
was an entirely improper thing for you to say. But I've known you,
Cuyler, for forty years, and I don't mind telling you that that is
exactly what I have been wanting to say about Mr. Gunterson for the
last three weeks."

A rueful smile broke through the gloom of both.

"Well, I'm glad you feel the same way about it, and I'm glad I got it
out of my system; but I don't see that it helps things much, does it?"
the local underwriter replied.

"I'm not so sure of that," said Mr. Wintermuth. "It helps me, and
possibly the assistance will spread to the whole situation later on."

Meanwhile the gentleman who was thus summarily consigned to the
infernal regions was doing his vague utmost to cope with three
situations at once, any one of which would have been entirely beyond
his capabilities to control. New York, Philadelphia, and the Eastern
field as a whole,--each was a problem in itself, and each was getting
farther and farthe