look over its contents to be assured that there are 10,000 shares there."

"There is if you say so.'

"That is not business, Mark. I mean to require a receipt from you after you are satisfied."

Thus urged, Pollock counted them and gave his receipt.

"Now, then, is the matter between us satisfactorily settled?" asked Percy.

"Of course it is.

And I want you to know that I am very grateful to you and—” "Say no more, Mark,” interrupted Percy, quickly. "But understand this, I pledged you not to sell your shares without notice to

us."

"I would not sell my shares in Universal, Mr. Dunbar, not if they went to nothing.'

Pollock went away with his tin box. Percy threw up his hands in a gesture of relief.

"That's done," he cried. "Let him criticize me who will, I am glad they're out of my hands. So long as they were here they were a temptation.

He caught sight of Pollock's check on his desk and picked it up.

"Well, and why not?" he asked himself.. "It's all in the deal. All I undertook to do was to protect him in the possession of 10,000

last May. mine. understand.

shares at approximately the value they were He has them now. The rest is Beside, I could never have made him And had I tried to I should have been compelled to explain the whole matter, with the risk of the idea getting into his head, as it did into Uncle Wiswall's that one-half of the 43,750 were his. No, it must go.'

He laughed bitterly and aloud asked:

"Shall I report to my uncle that I have grasped the first essential of modern finance and seized all in sight?"

He called Frank Elbert and, on his secretary's. appearance, said:

"Here is a check of Pollock's, which you may deposit to my personal account.”

Then a new thought struck him, as Frank took the check.

"Wait," he said.

He went to the window, his favorite place for deep thinking, and looked out, with his back to Frank. After a little time, during which Frank had waited patiently, he turned and came back to his desk, and said:

"I am about to venture on something in which you are concerned, but about which I shall say nothing until I am certain I shall succeed. If I should, you must hold some

Universal stock. If I fail, it will do you no harm to hold it. So deposit that check to your own account, and I'll give you a check for a like amount."

"I suppose you remember that there is now $10,000 to my account-Pollock's money?" "How do you make that out?”

'When, last May," said Frank, "you sold Pollock's shares, the proceeds, $920,000, were deposited in my name. A few days later, at your orders, I drew a check for $10,000, and deposited it to your account, and you drew a check for a like amount to Pollock's order, which was given him. When, a little laterI do not carry the exact dates in my memory

you bought in again, at your order, I drew $900,000 and deposited it to your account. That left $10,000 to my account.”

"I had forgotten that," replied Percy, thoughtfully, "and yet I settled up everything with Pollock this afternoon-cleared the decks with him. However, I should have discovered the discrepancy in writing up my personal account. Well, then, to straighten out my account, we'll exchange checks for $10,000. Then, with this check deposited to your account, you buy 225 shares of Universal to-morrow morning for yourself. We'll talk later of your payment to me. Perhaps we'll

4

make it by your note running for several years to make it easy for

you."

Frank went away delighted, gratified and full of thanks. Percy with a cynical smile, prepared to make the episode the end of a hard first day after vacation.

CHAPTER XX

A SELF-RELIANT FINANCIER

MATTERS went very well with Percy in the days following his return from Saratoga. With many mental hugs of himself he frequently said: "Things are coming J. Percival Dunbar's way."

On the day following his strategetical move of sending Smith Edgar as his messenger to deliver his letters to C. C. Edgar, Cranshaw, the lawyer, had visited him as Edgar's representative.

Percy listened attentively to the lawyer's representation and said at the end that so long as Edgar did not interfere with him, his interests or what he stood for, he should not use his knowledge, and when Cranshaw hinted at negotiating for possession of the proofs, Percy's reply was terse and final. It was this:

"I will enter into no negotiations with C. C. Edgar. He is a criminal. His word cannot be accepted. His bond is of no value.