s point, you must agree with me on
the value of this great work.' Here offer the order form again and say,
'Just put your name and address down here, and in a few days you will be
off on one of these delightful journeys, and every member of your family
can enjoy it with you.'"

"There!" exclaimed Allen, proudly. "Did you ever see a surer thing than
that?"

"Are the books really valuable?" Mrs. Gorham asked.

"That really hasn't a thing to do with the proposition," replied Allen;
"it's the talk you buy, and the books are thrown in."

"But you're not going to take this up, are you, Allen?" Alice inquired,
anxiously.

"Don't you want me to? You know they say Fortune is bald on the back of
her head, and if you let her once slip past you there's nothing left to
grab hold of."

"It isn't what I want, Allen; but what could it lead to?"

"To the Consolidated Companies," he whispered, furtively. "I am bound
and determined to show your father that I am good enough to be annexed,
and to do that I've got to have some experience. Can you think of
anything which would be apt to give a fellow more experience?"

"May I make a suggestion?" Mrs. Gorham asked. "I think it is a very good
idea for Allen to undertake this, now that he has considered it
seriously. He wants to follow your advice, Alice, and do something. Here
is the first opportunity which offers, and I think he ought to embrace
it. I should be glad, however, if he would promise us to try his first
experiment on Mr. Gorham."

"Gee!" ejaculated Allen.

Alice divined Eleanor's real thought instantly. "Splendid!" she cried.
"That shall be the condition. If father falls a victim, your later
success is certain."

"And what if he doesn't?" Allen asked.

"Perhaps you'll go out on three legs," she suggested, mischievously.

X

Covington returned to New York several days before the Gorhams left
Washington. To the casual observer, who might meet him even daily, no
change would have been apparent in the smoothly working accurate human
machine which found its exercise through his personality. His face never
showed an emotion other than that which he wished to have seen there;
the mouth, that most treacherous feature, was protected by his heavy
mustache, which in turn merged its identity in the dark Vandyke beard,
into which all expression retreated at the command of its owner; his
gray eyes, cold in the metallic steelness of their shade, penetrated the
object up