dian; his second was a similar calculation
for a corporation in which he had no financial interest whatever. He
was engaged in this task when Mr. Wintermuth entered the office.

"Ah, Richard," said his chief, "I'm glad to see you safe. An insurance
man in a fire is like a duck in a pond; but I'm glad to see you here,
just the same. A terrible calamity!--a really terrible calamity! How
much did we get? Wagstaff estimated it at one hundred and forty
thousand, but of course we can't tell how far the fire actually went."

"He was pretty close to my figures," said Smith, with a smile. "It was
a terrible calamity, sir, but not so terrible as if the Guardian had a
half a million loss--instead of $107,500 at the outside limit."

"Are those the figures you have there?" inquired the President,
glancing at the list on his subordinate's desk.

"No. I sent that list with the daily reports to the loss department.
This is another one--even more interesting on some accounts. This is a
list of the lines we didn't get."

"Ah! You mean--?" said Mr. Wintermuth.

"These are the lines that we have lost since we went out of the Osgood
office."

"Indeed! What is the total?" asked the other man, with interest.

"I haven't quite finished, but I should say it would come close to
$350,000."

"Which I suppose the Salamander got. I don't like to rejoice in other
men's misfortunes, Richard, but there is a certain element of justice
in that," said the older man, gravely.

"What interests me is, how much more than that they got," Smith
returned. "Don't forget that Cole is clever, but not the careful
underwriter Mr. Osgood is, and that O'Connor was out to make a record
for premium income. If the Salamander's loss up there is less than
$600,000, I shall be surprised."

"Their surplus isn't as much as that, is it? That will impair them."

"On the first of January their surplus was a little less than half a
million."

"Oh, well," Mr. Wintermuth returned, "I suppose they'll assess their
stockholders. That man Murch will probably get up an underwriting
syndicate to handle it."

"But suppose he doesn't. Suppose they decide to reinsure and quit.
Murch has the reputation of being a bad loser," said Smith, slowly.

His chief looked at him.

"Let them reinsure, then. But how does that affect us?" he said.

"Why shouldn't we reinsure them?" said the Vice-President.

"What!" exclaimed Mr. Wintermuth. "What's that you say?"