gled manfully to keep
his head above water, to seem cheerful and optimistic. He came from
his room one morning, and spoke briskly to Smith.

"I notice that some of your clerks leave their hats around loose
instead of hanging them up," he said. "That should not be allowed in a
well-conducted office. Please give the necessary orders."

Smith looked at him. This was the closest Mr. Gunterson had come to
real contact with the vital problems before him. A company in his
charge was disintegrating under his hesitant and futile hand--and he
talked about clerks' hats which should properly be hung up!

"Yes, sir," said Smith, quietly. "I'll speak about it."

The weeks followed one another with intolerable slowness. March began,
and dragged its weary length along, and still the darkness increased in
the Guardian's skies. From Boston the Sternberg, Bloom, and McCoy
losses were beginning to come with the frequency and regularity of the
shots from a rapid-fire gun. The East was thoroughly disorganized, and
even the West, apparently by some subtle psychological influence, was
beginning to experience a sympathetic slump. Philadelphia still hung
on, the local agents not having been able to agree on any plan of
compensation for separating its Conference sheep from their alien goat
associates.

Mr. Wintermuth, silent and noncommittal, had returned to the office,
but took little part in the conduct of his company's underwriting
affairs. And in this manner March wore itself almost out--and it
seemed as though the Guardian's span of life were growing rapidly
shorter.

On the last day of the month there was a meeting of the directors in
the closed room off the President's own. It was a short meeting, and
Mr. Wintermuth did the most of the talking, while Mr. Whitehill, who
had advocated the election of Mr. Gunterson, had little to say. And so
it befell that the directors, after voting him salary in advance for a
liberal term, accepted the resignation from the Guardian of Samuel
Gunterson; and to fill the vacancy so created, there was unanimously
elected to be Vice-President and under-writing manager, Richard Smith.

CHAPTER XVI

Smith took office at nine o'clock on the first business day of April.
The fifteen minutes following were spent by him in patiently listening
to Mr. Wintermuth's diagnosis of the various ills with which the
Guardian was afflicted, related supposedly for his education. When the
first pause w