III





TEN DAYS later, Mr. Sellers, still house-bound, asked Waythorn to
call on his way down town.

The senior partner, with his swaddled foot propped up by the fire,
greeted his associate with an air of embarrassment.

"I'm sorry, my dear fellow; I've got to ask you to do an awkward
thing for me."

Waythorn waited, and the other went on, after a pause apparently
given to the arrangement of his phrases: "The fact is, when I was
knocked out I had just gone into a rather complicated piece of
business for--Gus Varick."

"Well?" said Waythorn, with an attempt to put him at his ease.

"Well--it's this way: Varick came to me the day before my attack. He
had evidently had an inside tip from somebody, and had made about a
hundred thousand. He came to me for advice, and I suggested his
going in with Vanderlyn."

"Oh, the deuce!" Waythorn exclaimed. He saw in a flash what had
happened. The investment was an alluring one, but required