able thing. He enunciated a truth. You know him I think-Hackett by name. He said it was his observation, that no one got rich quick without some one being done."

"Damn Hackett!" exploded Percy, irritated by his uncle's sarcasm.

"With all my heart, or any one else," agreeably responded the elder man.

"He's a radical-a socialist."

"Ah," cheerfully exclaimed Mr. Wiswall, "I had determined that he was a man of unusual intelligence. Well, my dear Percy, you have gotten rich quick. Who it is you have done I shall not stop to inquire. But those very necessary, yet meddling adjuncts to civilization-the newspapers-might. Then that conservator of organized society-worst humbug of all the district attorney, might become inquisitive as to your hypothecation of securities as your own which an old-fashioned regard for meum and tuum would declare not your own. My dear boy, do not exploit your achievement. Wait until you have twenty-five or thirty-millions. What will crudely be called tricky finance in a two million dollar man will be called profound financiering in a multimillionaire.

Percy started to his feet, taunted into retort:

"You are pleased to be more whimsically

humorous than usual this morning. I fail to see that any obligation rests on me to return to Mark Pollock more than I took from him to protect him in the possession of what he then had."

"I am not talking about the obligations of honor, Percy. That is an obsolete term, found only in the ancient dictionaries, no longer consulted by the modern financier. I am discussing the wisdom of secrecy as to methods and performance."

A servant brought the card of a visitor to Mr. Wiswall. Percy took his hat to leave. His uncle accompanied him to the street door, when he said:

"You will pursue your course, Percy, and successfully, because Pollock will be content with any return you may make. However, do not inform Mr. Anstruthers of your operation. Just now he is filled with admiration for your administrative capacity. that, in unhampered control, you have lifted the property to increased value. I'll give you some information as to Edgar. He sails for Europe this week and will not return before October."

He says

CHAPTER XV

AN AMAZING REVELATION

THOUGH disturbed and irritated by his uncle's sarcasm, Percy was not at all shaken in his determination to forward the plans of enrichment he had so carefully made.

Mr. Wiswall had once said of his nephew, that he possessed the great quality for successful achievement, for whatever he earnestly desired to do he could persuade himself it was right to do, and so brought a moral force to his aid often absent from the efforts of competitors. In shutting his mind against any other consideration than that the only obligation resting upon him was to return to Pollock the same number of shares at, approximately, the valuation they had when he received them, that quality was in active operation.

He had gone to his office the morning following his conversation with his uncle with the intention of putting his affairs in such order that he might be absent for some time.

With the exception of occasional trips to Saratoga over Sundays, he had not been away from his office. The necessity of guarding against offensive moves by Edgar had chained him to his desk during the heated days. But now that the financier was departing for Europe for he did not question the accuracy of his uncle's information-he saw his opportunity to relax the tension he had endured. Perhaps there was in a single act of the morning a result or an influence of the talk with his uncle. Having called his secretary, he handed him a paper, saying:

"Frank, I wish you to keep that paper carefully. It is an acknowledgment that among the shares of Universal, apparently standing in my name, are 10,000 which are, in fact, the property of Mark Pollock. I am going away from town for a while, and have taken some precautions against accident. Should anything occur to me, which is not likely, however, you will find in my private box in the safe, in this room, a carefully prepared statement of my affairs as they stand at this moment. The box is not to be opened unless the unexpected occurs. Then you will be governed by it."

Shortly after, Mr. Wiswall made his appearance, and to his nephew's surprise, for a visit from the elder man was a rare occur

rence. Percy wondered if his uncle proposed to follow up his attack of the day previous. By way of greeting he lightly said:

"You honor me by your early call, uncle. The occasion must be one of importance. May I hope to have the pleasure of your announcement that you have discovered the secret of one of the long-lost poisons-the Aqua Tofana, for instance?"

“If it will give you pleasure, my boy, I think that I can make the announcement that I have discovered one of those secrets-a subtile poison-that does its work, leaving no traces by which modern science can determine definitely that poison has been at work. But that is not the purpose of my call. I have come to break a moral law and infract a statute. In other words, I am on a charitable mission. I called at your house last night to find you away."

"Yes, I ran down to the Island to a dinner."

"Ah! The prevailing idea of your home was that you were dining in Brooklyn with the charming widow, Mrs. Hilary Stanford. Thither took I my sixty years of infirmities to find the house closed and dark."

"Mrs. Stanford is at Saratoga and has been since the first of August."

"Um! Thus does patience have its reward,