Clayton that Rock
Island shares were going to be cornered. Bob saw Fred about it and they
watched Rock Island. Pretty soon they saw it advance. Then Fred ordered
15,000 shares bought for the firm. The next day a man called and asked
them to lend him $10,000 on a good stock worth double that amount. Fred
asked to see the stock. It was K. & T. Fred took the stock to Mr.
Allison for his advice, and the bookkeeper denounced the stock as a
clever forgery. When the man heard that he made a snatch for the paper,
missed it, and then made a break for the door. Fred darted across his
path and upset him near the door. He fell heavily, striking the plate
glass and shattering it.

"I'm a dead man!" he gasped, rolling over on the floor, the blood
spurting from a cut on the side of his head.

CHAPTER IX.--The Doctor and the Young Banker.

When Fred saw the red stream spurt from the man's neck he sprang back
and exclaimed:

"It was the glass!"

Bob ran out from another room. So did the clerk, and Mr. Allison came
around from behind the cashier's desk. Others who heard the glass rattle
down on the sidewalk ran in to see what had happened.

"The man is bleeding to death!" cried some one. "Send for a doctor!"

"Call an ambulance!" said somebody, and both were summoned.

But ere either could get there the man was dead. The broken glass had
cut a jugular vein and his life ebbed away inside of three minutes. A
policeman ran in when he saw the crowd before the bank.

"How did it happen?" he asked.

"He fell against the glass and it cut his neck," replied the clerk.

"Did you see it?"

"Yes."

"Then I want you to go with me and tell the story to the coroner.

"We'll all do that," said Allison.

"Did you see it, too?"

"Yes."

"Then I want you, too."

"Very well."

The doctor who had been summoned came in and examined the wound.

"The jugular is severed," he said. "No power on earth could have saved
him."

"Who was he?" the officer asked.

Nobody answered him.

"Does no one in this crowd recognize him?"

They gazed at the dead man, but none knew him.

"Who sent for me?" the doctor asked, looking around.

No one answered him.

"Who pays my fee?"

"You ought to know who told you about it," said the officer.

"Somebody called up to my window to come quick. I didn't see him."

"Doctor, I'll pay the bill," said Fred, "as long as it happened in
here."

"Very well. Ten dollars, please," and the doctor held