ruptly
with a noncommittal shrug of his shoulders.

"I wouldn't go too far, Flaspoller," said Bojo coldly. "If this was a
mistake, I paid for it too, as you know. You know what I dropped."

"I know nothing," said Flaspoller, recovering his courage with his
anger, and planting himself defiantly in the young fellow's path. "I
know only what you lost--here, and I know too what _we_ lose."

"Good heavens, do you mean to insinuate that I did anything _crooked_?"
said Bojo loudly, yet at the bottom ill at ease.

"Shut up now," said Hauk, as Flaspoller started on another angry tirade.
"Look here, Mr. Crocker, there's no use wasting words. The milk's spilt.
Well, what then?"

"I'm sorry, of course," said Bojo, frowning.

"Of course you understand after what's happened," said Hauk quietly, "it
would be impossible for us to make use of your services any more."

Much as he himself had contemplated breaking off relations, it gave him
quite a shock to hear that he was being dismissed. He caught his breath,
looked from one to another and said:

"Quite right. There I agree with you. I shall be very glad to leave your
office to-day."

He went to his desk in a towering rage, went through his papers blindly,
and rose shortly to go out where he could get hold of himself and decide
on a course of action. The fact was that for the first time he had a
feeling of guilt. He again assured himself that he was perfectly
innocent, that there was nothing in his whole course which could be
objected to. Yet how many would have believed him if they knew that this
very morning he had deposited a check for a quarter of a million? What
would Hauk and Flaspoller have said at the bare announcement?

He wandered into familiar groups, tarrying a moment and then passing on,
parrying the questions that were showered on him by those who knew the
intimacy of his relations with the successful manipulator. In all their
conversations Drake appeared like a demigod. Men went back to the famous
corners of Commodore Vanderbilt for a comparison with the skill and
boldness of the late manipulator. It was freely said that there was no
other man in Wall Street who would have dared so openly to defy the
great powers of the day and force them to terms.

In this chorus of admiration there was no note of censure. He had played
the game as they played it. No one held him responsible for the tragedy
of Forshay and the unwritten losses of those who had been caught.