me will come when some one of our mutual friends, driving past
the Meadow Creek Paresis Club, where Dr. McMullen receives certain
amiable but not entirely responsible persons, will behold you hanging
cheerily by one hand from the pergola roof with a vacuous smile on your
twitching lips, and will say to me sadly: 'Charlie, you knew him,
didn't you, in the old days, when his mind was as keen and bright as an
editor's knife?' And with chastened melancholy I will respond: 'Yes,
George, it is true. And moreover I was with him on the day when his
mind commenced to give way. The day he offered me a full half of the
spoils of my own--what do you call it?--oh, yes, arbalest.'"

Cole laughed, and not altogether pleasantly.

"Well, if you can get John M. to carry insurance, I'll see that you are
not disappointed in the terms of our agreement."

"Do you know, Benny, somehow I'd rather have it in writing. Suppose we
say one third to you and two thirds to me. After all, I need the
money, you see, and you don't."

"Aren't we counting our chickens a good while before they have emerged
from the incubator?" the other suggested.

"Very likely," Wilkinson readily agreed. "But I find that if I ever
indulge in that diverting form of mathematics it has to be before the
hatching. The little yellow rascals never stay around long enough
afterward to permit themselves to be counted."

Bennington Cole slowly picked up a pen and drew toward him a sheet of
paper; more slowly still he wrote what he described as a gentleman's
agreement between Charles Wilkinson and himself. That young man sat
back and studied the face of his associate with shrewd, half-shut eyes.
Presently Cole stopped writing.

"I fancy this will serve," he said.

"Read the Machiavellian document," demanded Wilkinson, placidly. And
Cole read.

"'Agreement between Bennington Cole and Charles Wilkinson. Said
Bennington Cole agrees that if said Charles Wilkinson shall secure
control of the fire insurance of the Massachusetts Light, Heat, and
Traction Company, said Bennington Cole shall handle such account to the
best of his ability and shall pay to said Charles Wilkinson two thirds
of all brokerage commissions received thereby.'"

Said Charles Wilkinson reached for the paper.

"It seems to be in order," he said presently. "Sign it and date it,
Benny, and bring in old Stewpan there to witness it. This is a
business proposition, and I know how such things ought to