elephone; and the
newspaper accounts, even thus long after the fire, were still painfully
vague and somewhat rhetorically hysterical. They talked much of the
"devouring element," and the word "lurid" frequently occurred; but no
reporter had been sufficiently practical to bound the burned district
or to state specifically what buildings had or had not been spared.
Still, they told enough. To the meanest intelligence it was patent
that a tremendous catastrophe had taken place, that most of the section
from School Street south to the railroad was leveled, and virtually
everything therein was totally destroyed--except the fireproof
buildings, which were still standing, scorched and shaken, stripped
clean of combustible contents, but not fatally damaged.

O'Connor had the list in his hand. In his heart now was the calm
absence of feeling which marks the man who has abandoned hope.

"I should estimate our net liability in the burned district at about
$700,000," he said unemotionally.

Mr. Murch leaned forward in his chair.

"And the net surplus of the company is--?" he asked menacingly.

"You know what it is. It's half a million, roughly."

"Well, will you tell me what in the devil you mean by putting this
company in a position to lose more money than it has clear?"

O'Connor, beyond caring now, actually smiled.

"Fortunes of war, Mr. Murch. You wanted a leading position in Boston,
if you'll remember. I gave it to you."

"I didn't want any such position as my present one," rejoined Mr.
Murch, in frigid tones.

"I didn't either, if you come to that," retorted O'Connor, promptly.

The financier's irritation was increased by this unexpectedly reckless
attitude on the part of the man who should, he felt, be abased in
sackcloth before him. He regarded the other with surprise, through his
indignation.

"You take this remarkably coolly, I should say," he remarked.

"There's no use in getting excited--the eggs are smashed now. But just
the same," returned O'Connor, with a flash of spirit, "I'm just as sore
about this as if I owned every dollar of Salamander stock there is on
the books."

The mention of the unit of currency reminded his companion of something
else.

"What do you suppose the market is doing?" he said.

"I haven't the slightest idea," replied the other.

Murch lifted the receiver from the telephone at his elbow.

"Hello: give me Broad nine nine seven six. Is this Atwater and
Jenkins? Giv