rner, who was supposed to
have an estate somewhere, "boys,"--he laid the tempting slice on
Perner's plate, added a few mushrooms, some brown gravy, and a generous
spoonful of potato, then passing the plate to Perner and beginning to
fill another,--"I've been thinking of--of a--of the--greatest"--pausing
and looking across the table with drowsy, hypnotic eyes--"the greatest
scheme on--_earth_!"

Amid the silence that followed this announcement he served the next
plate. Then Van Dorn, who had been acquainted with him longer than the
others, spoke:

"What is it this time, old man?"

Barrifield turned his gaze on Van Dorn and laughed lazily. He was
handsome, rather stout, and of unfailing good nature. He pushed back his
blond hair and rested his gray, magnetic eyes steadily on the artist.
Then he laughed again and seemed to enjoy it. Van Dorn, who was slender,
impulsive, and wore glasses, laughed, too, and was lost. Barrifield
handed him a filled plate as he said:

"You're just right, Van, to say _this_ time--just right. There have
been--other times; other--times." He was filling the third plate. He
paused and laughed till he shook all over. "Van remembers a pictorial
syndicate he and I once started," he said to Livingstone, as he handed
his plate. "We spent nearly--nearly a thousand dollars and a lot of
time--that is, Van did--getting up some stuff, and then sold one picture
to one paper for three dollars!"

He leaned back in his chair to enjoy a laugh, in which, this time, all
joined.

"And never got the three dollars," added Van Dorn, at last.

"And never got the three dollars," echoed Barrifield. "It was a
beautiful scheme, too; Van knows that--beautiful!" At which statement
all laughed again.

Barrifield began to furnish his own plate now, and became serious.

"This scheme is different," he observed at last; "it's been tried. It's
been tried and it hasn't. The scheme that's been tried"--he helped
himself to the rest of the mushrooms and gravy--"we'll improve on."

The others caught the collective pronoun, and began to feel the pleasant
sense of ownership that comes with the second bottle and a scheme.

"Our scheme will beat it to death." He lowered his voice and shot a
cautious glance at the other tables. "Boys," he whispered, "it's a
_high-class weekly_ at a _low price_!"

He looked from one to the other to note the effect of this startling
announcement. It was hardly manifest. The three seemed to be ea