o twenty minutes; and not one of them ever got anything at
all for his pains. Better give it up, my boy; you'll save yourself
more or less trouble, and the result will be the same."

The young man laughed.

"There's one point of dissimilarity that I see already," he replied.
"The time of the brightest brokers in Boston is valuable; mine is not.
Really, you're not very encouraging, but I didn't expect you to be. I
know my step-uncle, and I'm prepared for a stiff and extensive
campaign. All I'm asking for is a detonator--something to start the
action, you know, or something novel in the way of an explosive.
Perhaps an adaptation of one of those grenades that the Chinese pirates
throw when they want to drive their victims suffocating into the sea.
I realize that there isn't much use engaging Uncle John with ordinary
Christian weapons; he's practically bomb-proof."

"I am afraid," said Mr. Osgood, slowly, "that I am not very expert in
the manufacture of noxious piratical chemicals. You will have to seek
your inspiration elsewhere."

Smith turned to Wilkinson. Heretofore the representative of the
Guardian had taken no part in the conversation.

"Would you mind stating, without quite so many figures of speech, just
what you want?" he asked quietly.

"Certainly. What I want is something, some handle which will get me
John M. Hurd's attention just long enough to make him listen to me. If
I can get him to listen, I stand a chance."

"You say he carries no fire insurance on any of the trolley
properties?" the New Yorker inquired thoughtfully.

"No," replied Mr. Osgood. "He has a small insurance fund--perhaps
thirty or forty thousand dollars. He pays into this each year a part
of what his insurance would cost him, and out of this fund is paid what
losses the company sustains. And we must confess that so far the
scheme has worked well. His losses have been much less than he would
have paid in premiums to the companies."

"A fund--yes. That is all well and good, unless there is a great
congestion of value at some single point, or at a very few points.
Tell me, how much value is there in that main car barn on Pemberton
Street--the new one next to the power plant?"

"Probably over a half a million dollars--at night, when the cars are
all there," said Cole.

"And with the power house almost a million, then?"

"Almost," Cole agreed.

Smith rose and walked over to the window; the others watched him in
silence