ed short.

Lars Larssen allowed a moment of silence to give weight to his coming
words. He drew out a cheque-book from his breast-pocket and very
deliberately said: "Make yourself out a cheque for a usual month's
wages, and bring it to me to sign. That will be in lieu of notice."

Arthur Dean took the cheque-book with shaking fingers and went to the
adjoining room.

When at length he came back, he found the shipowner making out a
telegram. He stood in silence until the telegram was given into his
hand, open, with an order to send it off to London. His glance fell
involuntarily on the writing, and he could see that the wire was to call
over somebody to replace him.

"I don't think this will be necessary, sir," said Dean, with a tremor in
his voice which told of the mental struggle he had been through in the
adjoining room, when his career lay staked on the issue of a single
decision.

It was not without definite purpose that Lars Larssen had put the
cheque-book into his hands. He knew well the power of suggestion, and
used it with a master-hand. He could almost see the young secretary torn
between the thoughts of a miserable L8 on the one hand, and the
illimitable wealth suggested by a blank cheque-book on the other.

"Understand this," answered Larssen. "Whichever way you decide matters
nothing to me from the business point of view. I can get a dozen, twenty
men to replace you at a moment's notice. If you don't care to go to
Canada, you're perfectly free to say so. Then we part, because you're
useless to me. Aside from the purely business point of view, I should
be sorry. I like you; I see possibilities in you; I could help you up
the business ladder."

"That's very good of you, sir."

"Wait. I want you to see this matter in the proper light. You have an
idea that what that letter represents could get you into trouble with
the law. That's it, isn't it?"

Dean coloured.

"Now see here. I stand behind that letter. My reputation is worth about
ten thousand times yours in hard cash. Would I be mad enough to risk my
reputation unless I had looked at every move on the board?"

"I didn't think of that at the time."

"Exactly. Now you see the other side of the picture. If you want half an
hour to make up your mind once and for all, take it. Consider carefully
what you'd like to be in the future: clerk or business man. Two pound a
week; or six, ten, twenty, fifty a week. That represents the difference
between the