erstanding that a child could follow its directions
as well as a man, and it had only led him to defeat. He had courted
according to "Courtship"; he had tried to win the affections according
to "How to Win" them, and instead of the "Yes" that Jarby's book led him
to believe he would receive, he had been given a "No." This, then, was
the book whose success he had made his life work! Caesar, when he
saw Brutus draw his dagger, was wounded no more in spirit than Eliph'
Hewlitt was now.

The world seemed to slip from beneath his feet; his firmest foundation
seemed to have crumbled away; his best friend seemed to have turned
false. As he walked toward Doc Weaver's house he decided what he
would do: he would go to his room and tear his sample copy of Jarby's
Encyclopedia of Knowledge and Compendium of Literature, Science and Art
to scraps and throw them out upon the wind; he would write to Jarby &
Goss and resign his commission; he would have Irontail hitched to his
buggy and leave Kilo at once and forever, and from some other town he
would write to G. P. Hicks & Co., and solicit the agency for Hicks'
Facts for the Million, a book he had heretofore hated and despised. All
this he resolved to do, and yet here he was again at Miss Sally's door,
and the sample copy of Jarby's Encyclopedia of Knowledge and Compendium
of Literature, Science and Art was under his arm!

Mrs. Tarbro-Smith, when she saw Eliph' Hewlitt at the door, uttered a
little cry of joy and darted toward him. She put her finger to her lips
and slipped out of the door and drew him to the seat that had once been
a church pew, but was now doing duty as a garden-seat under an apple
tree in the side yard. On Eliph's face was no longer the care-worn
expression of the rejected lover, but the full glow of confidence,
radiating from between his side-whiskers.

Mrs. Smith bent confidentially toward him, and laid one hand on the copy
of Jarby's, which he had placed across his knees. In quick, crowding
words she bade him hope--which wasn't necessary--and told him of the
coming of Guthrie and Skinner, and of their demands. She laid before him
all she knew of the affair of the fire-extinguishers, of the horror of
the threatened legal attack on Miss Sally, and the disgrace that would
overwhelm her should T. J. Jones publish an article mentioning her name.
Eliph' Hewlitt must prevent the publication of the article; he must save
Miss Sally.

The book agent was willing. As the