ngularly and flawlessly free. On the contrary he
could, on occasion, summon to his face a congealment and to his eye a
steely gleam which nobody admired but which all respected. Ordinarily
this was either for his inferiors, or for those unfortunates who had
come to cross purposes with him, or for those who had made blunders
costly to him that his most glacial manner was reserved; but every one
about the Salamander office knew of it, either by hearsay or by actual
experience. Mr. O'Connor was removed from all danger of running
counter to the Salamander's leading stockholder, so long as the company
continued to make money. But what might now happen, Mr. O'Connor did
not care to consider--and yet the topic engrossed his attention so
deeply that darkness surprised him still adrift on the waters of this
sea of doubt.

Not until the swift winter nightfall recalled him to himself did he
remember the world around him; and when at last he groped his way down
the long flights of dusky stairs to the street, his was the slow and
inelastic step of a beaten man.

Mr. Murch had spent the holiday and the week-end at the country place
of a fellow financier. To this retired spot news penetrated with
decorum and conservatism. One was in no danger, at Holmdale, of acting
on premature information, for all information which reached this
sequestered Westchester chateau did so in the most leisurely and placid
manner. For this very reason Mr. Murch shunned Holmdale and resorted
to many a subterfuge to avoid the acceptance of divers invitations to
sojourn beneath the medieval roof of its host, who happened to be a man
whom even Mr. Murch hesitated to offend. In the present case, when on
returning to New York early Monday morning he learned that one of the
most terrible losses in fire insurance annals had occurred without his
knowledge, it did not tend to sweeten his temper.

He did not go to his own office, but with a grim face started directly
for the building of the Salamander. Once within its portals he
immediately entered Mr. O'Connor's room. Mr. O'Connor was seated at
his desk, with a pile of daily reports before him.

"How much do we lose in Boston?" the visitor demanded.

The President of the Salamander had been in the building during most of
the past twenty-four hours, taking off the lines in the burned district
on a special bordereau. Neither the Osgood office nor his special
agent could be reached on the long distance t