Kirkman opened her book again for a few minutes, and then the
convention adjourned.

* * * * *

"I wish you'd find out, Miss Kirkman," said Hamilton a couple of days
later, "just what firm that young Elkins works for."

"I have already done that. I thought you'd want to know," and she
handed him a card.

"Ah, yes," he said. "I have some business relations with that firm. I
know them very well. Miss Anderson," he called to his stenographer,
"will you kindly take a letter for me. By the way, Miss Kirkman, I
have placed Mr. Aldrich. He will have his appointment in a few days."

"Oh, thank you, Mr. Hamilton; is there anything more I can do for
you?"

"Nothing. Good-morning."

"Good-morning."

A week later in his Ohio home William Elkins was surprised to be
notified by his employers that they were cutting down forces, and
would need his services no longer. He wrote at once to his friend
Gray to know if there was any chance for him in Washington, and
received the answer that Gray could hardly hold his own, as great
pressure was being put upon him to force him to resign.

"I think," wrote Gray, "that the same hand is at the bottom of all our
misfortunes. This is Hamilton's method."

Miss Kirkman and Mr. Aldrich were married two weeks from the day the
convention adjourned. Mr. Gray was removed from his position on
account of inefficiency. He is still trying to get back, but the very
men to whom his case must go are in the hands of Mr. Hamilton.

SILAS JACKSON

I

Silas Jackson was a young man to whom many opportunities had come. Had
he been a less fortunate boy, as his little world looked at it, he
might have spent all his days on the little farm where he was born,
much as many of his fellows did. But no, Fortune had marked him for
her own, and it was destined that he should be known to fame. He was
to know a broader field than the few acres which he and his father
worked together, and where he and several brothers and sisters had
spent their youth.

Mr. Harold Marston was the instrument of Fate in giving Silas his
first introduction to the world. Marston, who prided himself on being,
besides a man of leisure, something of a sportsman, was shooting over
the fields in the vicinity of the Jackson farm. During the week he
spent in the region, needing the services of a likely boy, he came to
know and like Silas. Upon leaving, he said, "It's a pity for a boy as
bright as y