"Guess you and me had better talk some. I'm a-lookin' for somebody to
gimme advice about investin'. I got a sight of money to invest
some'eres--a sight of it. Railroad stocks, or suthin'. Calc'late on
makin' myself well off."

"I'm not taking any new clients, Mr. Baines. I'm very busy indeed." He
glanced at Pansy. "But if you are a friend of Miss O'Toole's possibly I
can break my rule.... About how much do you wish to invest?"

"Oh, say fifteen to twenty thousand. Figger on doublin' it up, or mebby
better 'n that. Folks does it. I've read about 'em."

"To be sure they do--if they are properly advised. But one has to know
the stock market--like a book."

"And Mr. Peaney knows it like a book," said Pansy.

Peaney lowered his voice. "I have agents--men in the offices of great
corporations, and they telegraph me secrets. I know when a big stock
manipulation is coming off--and my clients profit by it."

"Don't call to mind none, right now, do you?"

Mr. Peaney looked about him cautiously. "I do," he said, in a low voice.
"My man in the office of the president of the International Utilities
Company wired me to-day that to-morrow they were going to shove the
stock up five points."

"Um!... Don't understand. What's that mean?"