l
Prentice, and he agreed with me that it would be a good idea to lay the
matter before you."

"I am very much obliged to you," said Montague.

"The matter is a delicate one," continued the other. "It has to do with
life insurance. Are you familiar with the insurance business?"

"Not at all."

"I had supposed not," said the Judge. "There are some conditions which
are not generally known about, but which I may say, to put it mildly,
are not altogether satisfactory. My friend is a large policy-holder in
several companies, and he is not satisfied with the management of them.
The delicacy of the situation, so far as I am concerned, is that the
company with which he has the most fault to find is one in which I
myself am a director. You understand?"

"Perfectly," said Montague. "What company is it?"

"The Fidelity," replied the other--and his companion thought in a flash
of Freddie Vandam, whom he had met at Castle Havens! For the Fidelity
was Freddie's company.

"The first thing that I have to ask you," continued the Judge, "is
that, whether you care to take the case or not, you will consider my
own intervention in the matter absolutely entre nous. My position is
simply this: I have protested at the meetings of the directors of the
company against what I consider an unwise policy--and my protests have
been ignored. And when my friend asked me for advice, I gave it to him;
but at the same time I am not in a position to be publicly quoted in
connexion with the matter. You follow me?"

"Perfectly," said the other. "I will agree to what you ask."

"Very good. Now then, the condition is, in brief, this: the companies
are accumulating an enormous surplus, which, under the law, belongs to
the policy-holders; but the administrations of the various companies
are withholding these dividends, for the sake of the banking-power
which these accumulated funds afford to them and their associates. This
is, as I hold, a very manifest injustice, and a most dangerous
condition of affairs."

"I should say so!" responded Montague. He was amazed at such a
statement, coming from such a source. "How could this continue?" he
asked.

"It has continued for a long time," the Judge answered.

"But why is it not known?"

"It is perfectly well known to every one in the insurance business,"
was the answer. "The matter has never been taken up or published,
simply because the interests involved have such enormous and widely
extended power th