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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Best Policy, by Elliott Flower
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Best Policy
+
+Author: Elliott Flower
+
+Illustrator: George Brehm
+
+Release Date: June 12, 2011 [EBook #36393]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BEST POLICY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: “Mrs. Vincent, I have found the insurance policy” _Page
+114_]
+
+
+
+
+                            The Best Policy
+
+                          _By_ ELLIOTT FLOWER
+
+                               Author of
+                “The Spoilsman,” “Policeman Flynn,” etc.
+
+                             Illustrated By
+                              GEORGE BREHM
+
+                          _A. L. BURT COMPANY_
+                      _Publishers        New York_
+
+
+
+
+                             Copyright 1905
+                       The Bobbs-Merrill Company
+
+                                October
+
+
+
+
+                                TO THOSE
+                        FOR WHOSE BENEFIT I HAVE
+                             INSURED MY OWN
+                                  LIFE
+
+
+
+
+         THE BEST POLICY
+
+           INCLUDING
+
+  An Incidental Comedy             1
+  An Incidental Question          25
+  An Incidental Tragedy           47
+  An Incidental Speculation       73
+  An Incidental Favor             99
+  An Incidental Error            123
+  An Incidental Failure          149
+  An Incidental Scheme           167
+  An Incidental Courtship        187
+  An Incidental Sacrifice        207
+  An Incidental Discovery        229
+  An Incidental Grievance        251
+
+
+
+
+THE BEST POLICY
+
+
+
+
+AN INCIDENTAL COMEDY
+
+
+Naturally, when Harry Beckford married he began to take a more serious
+view of life. If there is anything at all of thoughtfulness and
+consideration in a man, marriage brings it out: he begins to plan. He
+has some one dependent upon him, some one for whom he must provide. That
+he should trust to luck before was solely his affair; that he should
+trust to luck now is quite another matter.
+
+In the case of Beckford, as in the cases of most other young men, this
+feeling was of gradual growth. He was optimistic and happy; his future
+looked long and bright; he had ample time in which to accumulate a
+comfortable fortune; but—he wasn’t even beginning. He and his wife so
+enjoyed life that they were spending all he made. It wasn’t a large sum,
+but it was enough to make them comfortable and contented, enough to give
+them all reasonable pleasures. Later—he thought of this only in a hazy,
+general sort of way—they would begin to save. There was plenty of time
+for this, for they were both young, and he had proved himself of
+sufficient value to his employer to make his rapid advancement
+practically certain. The employer was a big corporation, the general
+manager of which had taken a deep personal interest in him, and the
+opportunities were limitless.
+
+But the feeling of responsibility that came to him with marriage
+gradually took practical form, perhaps because the girl who sat opposite
+him at the breakfast-table was so very impractical. She was loving,
+lovable, delightfully whimsical, but also unreasoningly impractical in
+many ways. Before marriage she never had known a care; after marriage
+her cares were much like those of a child with a doll-house—they gave
+zest to life but could be easily put aside. If the maid proved
+recalcitrant, it was annoying, but they could dine at a restaurant and
+go to the theater afterward, and Harry would help her with breakfast the
+next morning. Harry was so awkward, but so willing, that it all became a
+huge joke. Harry had not passed the stage where he would “kiss the cook”
+in these circumstances, and an occasional hour in the kitchen is not so
+bad when there is a fine handsome young man there, to be ordered about
+and told to “behave himself.” So even marriage had not yet awakened
+Isabel Beckford to the stern realities of life.
+
+It was her impracticalness, her delightful dependence, that finally
+brought Harry to the point of serious thought. What would she do, if
+anything happened to him? Her father had been successful but
+improvident: he would leave hardly enough for her mother alone to live
+in modest comfort; and, besides, Harry was not the kind of youth to put
+his responsibilities on another. He began to think seriously about
+cutting expenses and putting something aside, even at this early day.
+The really successful men had begun at the beginning to do this. Then
+there came to his notice the sad case of Mrs. Baird, who was left with
+nothing but a baby. Baird had been a young man of excellent promise and
+a good income, but he had left his widow destitute. He had put nothing
+aside, intending, doubtless, to begin that later.
+
+“Just like me,” thought Harry, as he looked at his girl-wife across the
+table.
+
+“Isn’t it frightful?” she asked, referring to the little tragedy
+contained in the item he had just read to her from the morning paper.
+“Every one thought the Bairds were so prosperous, too.”
+
+“Every one thinks we are prosperous,” he commented thoughtfully.
+
+“Oh, that’s different!” she exclaimed. “You mustn’t talk like that or
+you’ll make me gloomy for the whole day! Why, it sounds as if you were
+expecting to die!”
+
+“Not at all,” he replied, “but neither was Baird.”
+
+“Please don’t!” she pleaded. “I shan’t have another happy minute—until
+I’ve forgotten what you said.”
+
+He laughed at the ingenuousness of this and blew her a kiss across the
+table; but he did not abandon the subject.
+
+“Baird was a young man,” he persisted, “but, with a little care and
+forethought, he could have left things in fair shape.”
+
+“Perhaps we ought to be saving a little,” she admitted in a tone of
+whimsical protest. “I’ll help you do it, if you just won’t make me
+blue.”
+
+“He hadn’t even life insurance,” he remarked, “and neither have I.”
+
+“Oh, not insurance!” she cried. “I wouldn’t like that at all.”
+
+“Why not?” he asked.
+
+“Why—why, think how much you could do with the money you’d be paying to
+the old life insurance company!”
+
+“Wouldn’t it be just the same if you were saving it?” he argued.
+
+“Oh, no; not at all,” she asserted. “Why, you can get money that you’re
+saving whenever you want it, but life insurance money is clear out of
+your reach.”
+
+“A policy has a cash surrender value,” he explained. “Every cent paid in
+premiums adds to its value, if you want to give it up.”
+
+“But then you lose the insurance,” she argued with feminine
+inconsistency.
+
+“Of course,” he admitted, “just as you lose your savings when you spend
+them.”
+
+“Oh, but you can get at your savings easier, and it’s easier to start
+again, if you happen to use them,” she insisted.
+
+“The very reason why life insurance is better for us,” he said. “I want
+to make sure of something for you that we’re certain not to touch while
+I live.”
+
+But she took the unreasonable view of insurance that some young women do
+take, and refused to be convinced.
+
+“If I should die first,” she said, with a little shudder at the very
+thought of death for either of them, “all the money you’d paid the
+company would be wasted.”
+
+“Not necessarily,” he returned. “There might be—”
+
+“Hush!” she interrupted, blushing so prettily that he went over and
+kissed her. Then he dropped the subject temporarily, which was the
+wisest thing he could have done. She had the feminine objection to
+paying out money for which she got no immediate return, but she wanted
+to please her husband. She was capricious, imperious at times and then
+meekly submissive—a spoiled child who surrendered to the emotion of the
+moment, but whose very inconsistencies were captivating. So when she
+decided that victory was hers, she also decided to be generous: to
+please him she would make a concession.
+
+“I’ve changed my mind about insurance,” she told him a few days later.
+As a matter of fact, she had changed her mind, but not her opinions: she
+was not convinced, but she would please him by accepting his plan—with a
+slight modification.
+
+“I knew you would see the wisdom of it!” he exclaimed joyously.
+
+“How much insurance did you plan to get?” she asked, with a pretty
+assumption of business ways.
+
+“Ten thousand dollars,” he replied.
+
+“Well, we’ll divide it,” she said, “and each get five thousand dollars.”
+
+“You mean that you’ll be insured, too?” he asked doubtfully.
+
+“Of course. Isn’t my life worth as much as yours?”
+
+“More! a thousand times more!” he cried, “but—but—”
+
+Her eyes showed her indignation, and he stopped short.
+
+“You don’t want me to be insured!” she exclaimed hotly. “You don’t think
+I’m worth it!”
+
+“Why, dearest,” he protested, “you’re worth all the insurance of all the
+people in the world, but it isn’t necessary in your case. It’s my
+earning capacity that—”
+
+Unfortunate suggestion! There was an inference that she considered
+uncomplimentary.
+
+“Haven’t I any earning capacity?” she demanded. “Don’t I earn every cent
+I get? Isn’t the home as important as the office?”
+
+“Surely, surely, darling, but—”
+
+“Doesn’t a good wife earn half of the income that she shares?” she
+persisted.
+
+“More than half, sweetheart.”
+
+“Don’t say ‘sweetheart’ to me in the same breath that you tell me I’m
+not worth being insured!” she cried. “It’s positively insulting,
+and—and—you always said you loved me.”
+
+Her voice broke a little, and he was beside her in an instant.
+
+“You don’t understand,” he explained. “Insurance has nothing to do with
+your value to me or my value to you, but there is a more worldly value—”
+
+“Oh, you’re of some account in the world and I’m not!” she broke in, her
+indignation driving back the tears.
+
+“Isabel, you’re simply priceless to me!”
+
+“But, if I hadn’t happened to meet you, I suppose I’d be a nonentity!”
+she flashed back at him. “I’m just a piece of property that you happen
+to like, and—why, Harry Beckford, men insure property, don’t they?”
+
+“Of course, but—”
+
+“And I’m not worth insuring, even as property!” she wailed. “Oh, I
+didn’t think you could ever be so cruel, so heartless! You might at
+least let me think I’m worth something.”
+
+The young husband was in despair. He argued, pleaded, explained in vain;
+she could only see that he put a value on his life that he did not put
+on hers, and it hurt her pride. Besides, they were partners in
+everything else, so why not in insurance?
+
+“But I wouldn’t want the insurance on your life,” he urged.
+
+“Do you think I’m any more mercenary than you?” she retorted. “I don’t
+want the insurance, either; I want you—when you’re nice to me.”
+
+“We’ll think it over,” he said wearily.
+
+“I’ve thought,” she returned decisively. “If it’s such a good thing, I
+think you’re mean not to let me share it with you.” Then, with sudden
+cheerfulness: “It would be rather jolly and exciting to go together,
+just as we go to the theater and—and—all other amusements.”
+
+He laughed at her classification of life insurance among the pleasures
+of life, and then he kissed her again. Her unreasoning opposition
+distressed him, but resentment was quite out of the question. There was
+momentary exasperation, and then a little love-making, to bring the
+smiles back to her face. All else could wait.
+
+It is a noteworthy fact, however, that life insurance takes a strong
+hold on a man the moment he really decides he ought to have it, and
+opposition only adds to his determination. He who finds that, because of
+some unsuspected physical failing, he can not get it, immediately is
+possessed with a mania for it. So long as he considered it within his
+reach, he turned the agents away; now he goes to them and lies and
+pleads and tries desperately to gain that which he did not want until he
+found he could not get it.
+
+Thus, in a minor degree, the opposition of Beckford’s wife served only
+to impress on Beckford’s mind the necessity and advantage of some such
+provision for the future. Perhaps the explanation of this is that in
+trying to convince her he had convinced himself. At any rate, the
+subject, at first taken up in a desultory way, became one of supreme
+importance to him, and he went to see Dave Murray. Dave, he was solemnly
+informed by a friend who claimed to know, probably had been christened
+David, but the last syllable of the name had not been able to stand the
+wear and tear of a strenuous life, in addition to which Murray was not
+the kind of man to invite formality. He was “Dave” to every one who got
+past the “Mr. Murray” stage, and it never took long to do that.
+“Anyhow,” his informant concluded, “you have a talk with him. There
+isn’t a better fellow or a more upright man in the city. The only thing
+I’ve got against him is that he’ll insure a fellow while he isn’t
+looking and then make him think he likes it. But if you want insurance,
+go to him.” So Beckford went, and presently he found himself telling
+Murray a great deal more than he had intended to tell him.
+
+“The fact is,” he explained, “my wife was violently opposed to the idea
+at first.”
+
+“Not unusual,” said Murray, and then he added sententiously: “Wives
+don’t care for insurance, but widows do.”
+
+Beckford smiled as he saw the point.
+
+“It doesn’t do a widow much good to care for insurance, if she objected
+to it as a wife,” he suggested.
+
+“It may,” returned Murray. “It isn’t at all necessary that a wife should
+know what’s coming to her when she becomes a widow. She may be provided
+for in spite of herself.”
+
+“That would be rather difficult in my case,” said Beckford, “for my wife
+knows just what my salary is, and we plan our expenditures together.
+It’s a pretty good salary, but we have been living right up to the limit
+of it, so I can’t provide for premiums without her knowledge, although I
+can do it easily with it.”
+
+“That complicates matters a little,” remarked Murray.
+
+“Besides,” Beckford added, “we have been so frank with each other that I
+should be unhappy with such a life-secret, and, if I acted on my own
+judgment and took the policy home to her, she says she would tear it up
+and throw it away.”
+
+“I knew a woman to do that once,” said Murray reflectively. “Her husband
+insured his life before going on the excursion that ended in the
+Ashtabula disaster. A few days later her little boy came in to ask if
+anything could be done about the policy that she had destroyed.”
+
+“I don’t think Isabel would really destroy it,” said the troubled
+Beckford, “but it would distress her very much to have me go so contrary
+to her wishes in a matter that we had discussed.”
+
+“It would distress her very much to be left penniless,” remarked Murray.
+
+“I think,” said Beckford thoughtfully, “I really think, if I had known
+that she was going to take this view of the matter, I would have insured
+myself first and talked to her about it afterward. Then the situation
+wouldn’t be so awkward. But I thought that all women favored life
+insurance.”
+
+“Not at first,” returned Murray, “but usually there comes a change.”
+
+“When?” asked Beckford hopefully.
+
+“When they begin to think of the needs and the future and the possible
+hardships of the first baby,” replied Murray, whereat Beckford blushed a
+little, even as his wife had done a few days before, for young people do
+not consider and discuss prospective family problems with the same
+candor that their elders do.
+
+“Woman, the true woman,” Murray continued, “is essentially unselfish;
+she thinks of others. Careless for her own future, she plans
+painstakingly for those she loves. The insurance premium that is for her
+own benefit she would rather have to spend now, but you never hear her
+object to the investment of any money that is to benefit her husband or
+children, even when she has to make sacrifices to permit it.”
+
+“But that doesn’t help me,” complained Beckford. “I don’t want any
+insurance on her life; I don’t need it, and there is no reason to think
+that I ever shall need it. It’s for her that I am planning, but she
+won’t listen to anything but this dual arrangement.”
+
+“I quite understand the situation,” returned Murray. “What insurance you
+are able to take out must be to protect her.”
+
+“Precisely; and I never knew before that a woman could be so
+unreasoningly wilful in opposition to her own interests.”
+
+“My dear sir,” said Murray, with some feeling, “you have a great deal to
+learn about women. I have more than twenty thousand dollars charged up
+to them in commissions that I have lost, after convincing the men
+interested. But if I can help you to provide for this one perverse
+sample of femininity, in spite of herself, I shall feel that I have
+taken a Christian revenge on the whole sex.” Beckford rather objected to
+this reference to his wife, but there was nothing of disrespect in the
+tone, and somehow the quaintness of the sentiment made him smile.
+
+“I wonder,” Murray went on, “if we could refuse the risk without
+frightening her.”
+
+“I’m afraid not,” returned Beckford, “but”—and a sudden inspiration
+lighted his face, “couldn’t you put in some restrictions that would
+frighten her away?”
+
+Murray leaned back in his chair and gave the matter thoughtful
+consideration. Somehow he had become unusually interested in this young
+man’s effort to do a wise and generous thing for his wife in the face of
+her opposition. If the man had been seeking to gain some benefit for
+himself, Murray would not have listened to even a suggestion of deceit.
+But the aim was entirely unselfish, and Beckford had brought a letter of
+introduction that left no doubt as to his responsibility and integrity.
+Then, too, the situation was amusing. Here were two business men
+plotting—what? Why, the welfare of their opponent, and that only.
+
+“So many women have beaten me,” said Murray at last, “that I should
+really like to beat one of them, especially when it’s for her own good.
+Bring your wife up here, and I’ll see what I can do.”
+
+But here again feminine capriciousness was exemplified. Having
+apparently won her point, Isabel Beckford began to wish she had lost it.
+
+“I’m afraid,” she said. “Suppose I should find that something frightful
+was the matter with me? Those insurance doctors are awfully particular,
+and—and—I’d rather not know it, if I’m going to die very soon.”
+
+“Oh, very well,” acquiesced her husband. “We’ll go back to my original
+plan and put the whole ten thousand dollars on my life.”
+
+“No, no, no!” she protested. “It would be even worse, if I learned that
+there was anything wrong with you. I couldn’t bear it, Harry; I
+couldn’t, really! There wouldn’t be anything left in life for me. Let’s
+not go at all.”
+
+“That’s foolish, Isabel,” he argued. “I’m all right, and the very fact
+that I am accepted as a good risk will remove every doubt.”
+
+“That’s so,” she admitted. “We’ll be sure, then, won’t we?”
+
+“Of course.”
+
+“Then we’ll both go,” she announced, with a sudden reversal of judgment.
+“I hadn’t thought of it that way, but I’ll feel a lot better and
+stronger when I’m insured, because the companies are so particular, and
+it will be comforting to know that you are all right. It’s worth
+something to find that out, isn’t it? And sometimes a family physician
+won’t tell you the truth, because it won’t do any good and he doesn’t
+want to frighten you. We’ll go right away and see about it now.”
+
+“Hardly this evening,” he answered, smiling, although he was sorely
+troubled. “We’ll go to-morrow afternoon.”
+
+“But it’s so long to wait until to-morrow,” she pouted.
+
+He regretted the delay quite as much as she did, for his experience up
+to date led him to think that there might be another change. First she
+had refused to consider the matter at all; then she had insisted they
+should go together; after that she had backed out; next she had demanded
+he should give up the idea, also; and now she was again determined it
+should be a joint affair.
+
+“No man,” he muttered, as he dropped off to sleep, “knows anything about
+a woman until he marries, and then he only learns enough to know that he
+knows nothing at all.”
+
+Then he mentally apologized to his wife for even this mild criticism,
+and dreamed that, through some complication, he had to insure the cook
+and the janitor and the grocer’s boy before he could take out a policy
+on his own life, and that, when he had attended to the rest, he had no
+money left for his own premiums, so he made all the other policies in
+favor of his wife and hoped to thunder that the cook and the janitor and
+the grocer’s boy would die a long time before he did.
+
+However, she was still of the same mind the next day, so they went to
+see Murray.
+
+“Of course,” she said, as they were on the way, “if this thing wrecks
+our happiness by showing that the grave is yawning for either of us, it
+will be all your fault.”
+
+That made him feel nice and comfortable—so nice and comfortable that he
+heartily wished he never had mentioned life insurance. Still, he cheered
+up a little when Murray took charge of matters in a masterly, confident
+way.
+
+“I understand, Mrs. Beckford,” said Murray, “that both you and your
+husband wish to have your lives insured.”
+
+“Yes,” she replied, “and for some reason he has selfishly wanted to put
+all the insurance we can afford on his own life.”
+
+“So he has told me.”
+
+“What right had he to discuss family matters with you?” she demanded
+with asperity.
+
+Thus Murray was jarred out of his air of easy confidence the first
+thing.
+
+“Why—why, he didn’t exactly tell me,” he explained, “but my experience
+enabled me to surmise as much. Most men are like that.”
+
+“I never thought Harry would be,” she said, looking at him
+reproachfully. “But it’s all right now,” she added.
+
+“Yes, it’s all right now,” repeated Murray. He had intended to argue
+first the advisability of accepting her husband’s plan, but he deemed it
+unwise. He had suddenly lost faith in his powers of persuasion, so he
+resorted to guile. “Of course, you understand that life insurance is
+hedged about by many annoying restrictions,” he went on.
+
+“I didn’t know it,” she returned.
+
+“Oh, yes,” he said glibly, with a wink at Beckford. “Do you use gasoline
+at all?”
+
+“Why, I have used it occasionally to take a spot out of a gown,” she
+admitted.
+
+“Barred!” asserted Murray.
+
+“I can’t do even the least little mite of cleaning with gasoline!” she
+exclaimed in dismay.
+
+“None at all! It’s dangerous! Might just as well fool with
+nitroglycerin. People who handle it at all become careless.”
+
+There were indications of a rising temper. That a mean old insurance
+company should have the audacity to tell her what she could or could not
+do was an outrage!
+
+“And you can’t use street-cars,” added Murray.
+
+“Can’t use street-cars!” she cried. “What will Harry do?”
+
+“Oh, that rule doesn’t apply to men,” returned Murray calmly, “for men
+don’t get off the cars backward and all that sort of thing. Street-cars
+are considered, in our business, a danger only for women.”
+
+“Well, it’s a hateful, insulting, unfair business!” she cried, rising in
+her indignation. “I wouldn’t let such a contemptible lot of people
+insure me for anything in the world.”
+
+“But please don’t blame me,” urged Murray insinuatingly. “I want to do
+the best I can for you.”
+
+“Oh, I don’t blame you,” she returned magnanimously.
+
+“I admit that it sounds unfair,” Murray persisted, “but there was a time
+when we wouldn’t take risks on women at all, so, even with the
+restrictions, it’s quite a concession.”
+
+“Oh, very likely, very likely,” she admitted, “but I have too much pride
+to accept any such humiliating conditions. Harry can do as he pleases,”
+with dignity, “but nothing could induce me to be insured now. I’m going
+home.”
+
+Harry took her to a cab, and then returned to Murray’s office.
+
+“Well, it’s settled,” said Murray, with a sigh of relief.
+
+“Yes, it’s settled,” returned Beckford, “but I don’t feel just
+comfortable about it.”
+
+“She sort of bowled me over the first thing,” commented Murray. “I
+haven’t quite recovered yet. But it’s her welfare that we’re
+considering. Better put in your application and take the examination
+before there are any more complications.”
+
+“Perhaps that’s wise,” admitted Beckford gloomily, for he was not at all
+at ease about the matter. She had said he could do as he pleased, but
+there had been something in her tone that was disquieting; she might
+think there was disloyalty in his patronage of a company that had so
+offended her. And this was the first cloud that had appeared in the
+matrimonial sky; in all else there had been mutual concession and
+perfect agreement.
+
+He was thinking of this when he went home—and found her in tears.
+
+“I know what’s the matter,” she wailed. “I didn’t think of it at first,
+but I did afterward, and I’ve been crying ever since. I have heart
+trouble; that’s why he didn’t want to give me a policy.”
+
+“Nonsense!” he protested vigorously.
+
+“Oh, I know it! I know it!” she cried. “He didn’t want to tell me, so he
+put in all that about street-cars and gasoline. But it’s heart trouble
+or consumption! Those insurance men are so quick to see things that no
+one else notices. Why, I could see that he was worried the very first
+thing!”
+
+Beckford got on his knees beside the bed on which she was lying and
+tried to comfort her, but she was inconsolable. He insisted that she was
+the strongest and healthiest woman of her size in the world; that he
+knew it; that Murray himself had commented on it later; that the company
+physician, who happened to be in the outer office as they passed
+through, had spoken of it; that even the clerks were impressed; but he
+failed to shake her conviction that she had some fatal, and hitherto
+unsuspected, malady. Finally, assuring her that he would have that
+matter settled in thirty minutes, he rushed to the nearest cab-stand and
+gave the driver double fare to run his horse all the way to Murray’s
+house.
+
+Murray was just sitting down to dinner, but Beckford insisted that he
+should return with him immediately.
+
+“You’ve got to straighten this matter out!” he told him excitedly.
+“You’ve got to give her all the insurance she wants without any
+restrictions! Make it fifty thousand dollars if she wants it! I’ll pay
+the premiums, if we have to starve!”
+
+“But I can’t give her a policy to-night!” protested Murray.
+
+“You can tell her about it to-night, can’t you?” demanded Beckford. “And
+you can take her application to-night, can’t you? Why, man, she has
+convinced herself that she’s going to die in a week! We can settle the
+details later, but we’ve got to do something to-night.”
+
+“Oh, well, I’ll come immediately after dinner,” said Murray.
+
+“You come now!” cried Beckford. “If you talk dinner to me, I’ll brain
+you! Insurance has made a wreck of me already.”
+
+“I haven’t been getting much joy out of this particular case myself,”
+grumbled Murray, but he went along.
+
+The moment he reached home, Beckford rushed to his wife’s room.
+
+“It’s all a mistake!” he exclaimed joyfully. “You—you mustn’t cry any
+more, dearest, for it’s all right now. Mr. Murray didn’t understand at
+first—thought you were one of these capricious, careless, thoughtless
+women that do all sorts of absurd and foolish things on impulse—but he
+knows better now. There aren’t any more restrictions for you than for
+me, and he’s waiting in the parlor to take your application for all the
+insurance you want.”
+
+“Really?” she asked, as the sobs began to subside.
+
+“Really.”
+
+“And there isn’t anything the matter with me?”
+
+“Of course not, sweetheart.”
+
+“Well,” she said, after a pause, “I can’t see him now, because my eyes
+are all red, but I wish he’d write that out for me. I’d feel so much
+more comfortable.”
+
+“Indeed he will,” asserted Beckford, “and we can fill out the
+application in here, and I’ll take it back to him.”
+
+Hopefully and happily the young husband returned to Murray and told him
+what was wanted. Murray sighed dismally. He had missed his dinner for a
+woman’s whim, and the woman was merely humiliating him. Still, he felt
+in a measure responsible for the trouble; he ought never to have
+resorted to duplicity, even for so laudable a purpose. So he wrote the
+following: “Investigation has convinced me that the restrictions
+mentioned this afternoon are unnecessary in your case, and I shall be
+glad to have your application for insurance on the same terms as your
+husband’s.”
+
+Mrs. Beckford read this over carefully. Then she read the application
+blank with equal care. After that she wrote at the bottom of the note:
+“Insurance has almost given me nervous prostration now, and I don’t want
+to have anything more to do with it. If Harry can stand the strain, let
+him have it all.”
+
+“Give him that, Harry,” she said, “and get rid of him as soon as
+possible, for I want you to come back and comfort me. I’m completely
+upset.”
+
+Murray lit a cigar when he reached the street, and puffed at it
+meditatively as he walked in the direction of the nearest street-car
+line.
+
+“What’s the matter with nervous prostration for me?” he muttered. “One
+more effort to defeat a woman who is fighting against her own interests
+will make me an impossible risk in any company; two more will land me in
+a sanatorium.”
+
+
+
+
+AN INCIDENTAL QUESTION
+
+
+Dave Murray, general agent, leaned back in his chair and looked
+thoughtfully at the young man before him.
+
+“So you have run up against an unanswerable argument?” he remarked.
+
+“It seems so to me,” said the inexperienced Owen Ross.
+
+“My dear boy,” asserted Murray, “in the life insurance business the only
+unanswerable argument is a physician’s report that the applicant is not
+a good risk. What is the particular thing that has put you down and
+out?”
+
+“Faith,” replied the young man; “just plain faith in the Almighty.
+Perhaps, some time in your career, you have run across a religious
+enthusiast who considers it a reflection on the all-seeing wisdom of the
+Almighty to take any measures for his own protection or the protection
+of his family.”
+
+“I have,” admitted Murray, “but generally it has been a woman.”
+
+“This is a man,” said Ross; “a sincere, devout man. If he were a
+hypocrite, it would be different, but it is a matter of religious
+conviction—a principle of faith—with him to trust in the Lord. Life
+insurance he considers almost sacrilegious—an evidence of man’s doubt in
+the wisdom of his Maker, and an attempt, in his puny insignificant way,
+to interfere with the plans of the Great Master. To all arguments he
+replies, ‘The Lord will provide for His children.’”
+
+“And you consider that unanswerable?” asked Murray.
+
+“In his case, yes. Even his wife is unable to move him, although she
+wants insurance as a provision for the future of the children and was
+instrumental in getting me to talk to him. How would you answer such a
+contention as that?”
+
+“I wouldn’t answer it; I would agree with him.”
+
+“And give up?”
+
+“Quite the contrary. While there can be no doubt that he is right as far
+as he goes, he does not go far enough. I would turn his own argument
+against him.” Murray leaned forward in his chair and spoke with earnest
+deliberation. “The Lord provides for His children through human
+instrumentality. Why should not the man be the human instrument through
+which the Lord provides for that man’s family? The Lord does not
+directly intervene—at least, not in these days. If, in the hour of
+extremity, an unexpected legacy should come to relieve the necessities
+of that man’s family, he would say the Lord had provided. But it would
+be through human instrumentality: the legacy, and the method and law by
+which it reached them would be essentially human. If, when poverty
+knocks at the door, some generous philanthropist were moved to come to
+their relief, he would hold again that the Lord had provided; if some
+wealthy relative sought them out, it would be through the intervention
+of the Lord; if, through his own wise action, they are saved from want,
+is he more than the human instrument through which the Lord provides?
+May not an insurance company be the chosen instrument? I say this with
+all due reverence, and it seems to me to answer his objections fully. Is
+it only in unforeseen ways that He cares for His children? Has He
+nothing to do with those cases in which reasonable precautions are taken
+by the children themselves?”
+
+Ross, the young solicitor, looked at his chief with unconcealed
+admiration.
+
+“By George!” he exclaimed, “you’ve got the theory of this business down
+to a science. I’ll try the man again.”
+
+“It’s not a business,” retorted Murray somewhat warmly, for this was a
+point that touched his pride; “it is a profession—at least, it lies with
+the man himself to make it a business or a profession, according to his
+own ability and character. There are small men who make a business of
+the law, and there are great men who make a profession of it; there are
+doctors to whom medicine is a mere commercial pursuit, and there are
+doctors to whom it is a study, a science, a profession. You may make of
+life insurance a cheap business, or you may make of it a dignified
+profession; you may be a mere annoying canvasser, or you may be a man
+who commands respect; but, to be really successful, you must have, or
+acquire, a technical knowledge of the basis of insurance, a knowledge of
+law, and, above all, a knowledge of human nature,—and even that will
+avail little if you are not temperamentally suited to the work. You can
+no more make a good insurance man of unpromising material than you can
+make a good artist.”
+
+Ross caught some of the enthusiasm and earnestness of Murray, and
+unconsciously straightened up.
+
+“You have made me look at the subject from a new point of view,” he
+said. “I confess I was rather ashamed of the soliciting part of the work
+at first—felt a good deal like a cripple selling pencils to support a
+sick wife.”
+
+“And very likely you acted like it,” remarked Murray, “in which case the
+people you approached would so class you. It isn’t necessary to have the
+‘iron nerve,’ so long identified with that branch of the work; it isn’t
+even helpful, for it makes a man unpopular, and the most successful men
+are the most popular ones. You’ve lost ground when you have reached a
+point where any man you know is not glad to see you enter his office. At
+the same time,”—musingly,—“nerve and persistence become forethought and
+wisdom when time proves you were right. I have known of cases where a
+man afterward thanked the solicitor who had once made life a burden to
+him; but it is always better to change a man’s mind without his
+knowledge.”
+
+“Rather difficult,” laughed Ross.
+
+“But it has been done,” said Murray. “As a matter of fact, you are
+working to save men and women from their own selfishness or
+heedlessness. If you think of that, you will be more convincing and will
+raise your work to the dignity of a profession; if you think only of the
+commissions, you will put yourself on the level of the shyster lawyer
+whose interest centers wholly in the fees he is able to get rather than
+in the cases he is to try. There are pot-boilers in every business and
+every profession, but success is not for them: they can’t see beyond the
+needs of the stomach, and the man who works only for his belly never
+amounts to much. He will stoop to small things to gain a temporary
+advantage, never seeing the future harm he is doing; he is the kind of
+man who hopes to rise by pulling others down. Remember, my boy, that
+insinuations as to the instability of a rival company invariably make a
+man suspicious of all: when you have convinced him that the rival’s
+proposition and methods are not based on sound financial and business
+principles, you have more than half convinced him that yours aren’t,
+either, and that very likely there is something radically wrong with the
+whole blame system.”
+
+“I’m glad you spoke of that,” said Ross. “There have been cases where
+insinuations have been made against our company, and I have been tempted
+to fight back the same way. A man is at a disadvantage when he is put on
+the defensive and is called upon to produce evidence of what ought to be
+a self-evident proposition.”
+
+“Never do it, unless the question is put to you directly,” advised
+Murray. “You must defend yourself when attacked, but, in every other
+case, go on the assumption that your company is all right, and that
+everybody knows it is all right. The late John J. Ingalls once said,
+‘When you have to offer evidence that an egg is good, that egg is
+doubtful, and a doubtful egg is always bad.’ It’s worth remembering.
+Many a man is made doubtful of a good proposition by ill-advised efforts
+to prove it is good.”
+
+“If that is invariably true,”—with a troubled scowl,—“I fear I have made
+some mistakes.”
+
+“The man who thinks he makes no mistakes seldom makes anything else.”
+
+Ross brightened perceptibly at this.
+
+“You’ve made them yourself?” he asked.
+
+“Lots of them,” replied Murray, and then he added whimsically: “Once I
+placed a risk that meant a two-hundred-dollar commission for me, and my
+wife and I went right out and ordered two hundred dollars’ worth of
+furniture and clothes. The risk was refused, and I never got the
+commission.”
+
+Ross laughed.
+
+“I’m beginning to develop enthusiasm and pride in the business—I mean
+profession.”
+
+“Oh, call it a business,” returned Murray, “but think of it as a
+profession. It’s the way you regard it yourself that counts, and you
+can’t go far astray in that if you stop to think what is required of a
+good insurance man. Sterling integrity, for one thing, and tact and
+judgment. A man who brings in a good ten-thousand-dollar risk is more
+valuable than the man who brings in one hundred thousand dollars that is
+turned down by the physicians or at the home office. And the first
+requisite for advancement is absolute trustworthiness. There are
+temptations, even for a solicitor—commission rebates to the insured that
+are contrary to the ethics of the business—and there are greater
+temptations higher up. You will learn, as in no other line, that a man
+wants what he can’t get, even if he didn’t want it when he could get it,
+and he will pay a high price for what he wants. Collusion in a local
+office might give it to him, in spite of all precautions taken; such
+collusion might be worth ten thousand dollars to a man who had no record
+of refusal by other companies against him, and ten thousand dollars
+could be split up very nicely between the local agent and the company’s
+physician. So integrity, unswerving integrity, is rated exceptionally
+high, and the least suspicion of trickery or underhand dealing may keep
+a capable man on the lowest rung of the ladder for all time, even if it
+doesn’t put him out of the business entirely. You are paid to protect
+your company, so far as lies in your power, and to get business by all
+honorable means; if you resort to dishonorable means, even in your
+company’s interests, there is always the suspicion that you will use the
+same methods against its interests whenever that may be to your personal
+advantage.”
+
+Owen Ross pondered this deeply on his way home. It gave a new dignity to
+his occupation. He had taken up insurance because it happened to be the
+only available opening at a time when he was out of employment. He had
+been a clerk for a big corporation that had recently combined two branch
+offices, thus materially reducing its office force, and Ross had been
+one of those to suffer. His father, a prosperous merchant, had expressed
+himself, when consulted, in this way:
+
+“I will give you a place here whenever that is necessary to enable you
+to live, but I prefer that you should complete your preliminary business
+training under some one else. No boy can consider himself a success
+until he has proved his independence, and no boy can be sure he has
+proved that until he has made a secure place for himself outside the
+family circle.”
+
+So Ross, being wise enough to see the reason and justice of this,
+endeavored to show his independence by securing a position with Murray.
+And, although fairly successful from the start, he was only just
+beginning to take a real interest in his work. Murray liked him and
+encouraged him: there was, he thought, the making of a good and
+successful man in him, and he frequently went to considerable trouble to
+explain the theory and practice of insurance. Then, too, he knew that
+Ross had married just before he lost his other position, and that he was
+living in a modest little flat on his own earnings, in spite of the fact
+that he had a father who would be much more ready to assist him
+financially than he was to take him into his own office at that
+particular time. In fact, the elder Ross was quite willing that his son
+and his son’s wife should live with him, holding only that the family
+influence should not extend to his first business connections, but Owen
+deemed the flat a necessary evidence of his independence.
+
+“I’ll get that sanctimonious optimist to-morrow,” he mused as he walked
+along. “He can’t answer those arguments that Murray gave me. He is
+content because the Lord will provide, but why may not I be the human
+instrument through which the Lord makes provision? That sounds
+presumptuous, but why not? Hasn’t He provided for others in just this
+way? Hasn’t many a man, convinced against his will, protected the future
+of those he loved barely in time?” He laughed quietly at a thought that
+occurred to him. “If this man should be insured to-morrow and die the
+next day,” he went on, “he would think the Lord had provided, but if he
+has to pay the premiums for twenty years, he’ll think it all very human.
+I’m beginning to understand him.”
+
+He was still smiling at this quaint conceit when he entered his flat and
+was informed by his wife that Mrs. Becker had been there to see him.
+Mrs. Becker was a woman who did washing and occasional cleaning for
+them.
+
+“To see me!” he exclaimed. “Why, her dealings are all with you.”
+
+“It has something to do with insurance,” his wife explained. “She knows
+you’re in that business, of course, and she is in deep distress. She was
+crying when she was here this afternoon, but I couldn’t understand what
+the trouble was. She said she’d come back this evening.”
+
+Ross puzzled over this a good deal during dinner, and even tried to get
+some additional information by questioning his wife closely. Exactly
+what did the woman say? Her words might be “all Greek” to his wife and
+still be intelligible to him, if only she could repeat them.
+
+“But I can’t,” she insisted. “I was so sorry for her and so helpless
+that I really didn’t hear it all, anyway. I only know that it had
+something to do with an application or a premium or a policy, and her
+husband is very sick and she needs money.”
+
+Ross began to speculate. The ignorant have strange ideas of insurance,
+and very likely this woman thought she could insure a dying husband. His
+backbone began to stiffen at once. Of course such a thing was actually,
+as well as ethically, impossible, but it was going to be a very
+difficult matter to explain it to her, and he anticipated a distressing
+scene. His wife was interested in the woman, spoke frequently of her
+hardships and her courage, and had helped her to such trifling extent as
+they could afford. No doubt the woman had some wild notion that he,
+being an insurance man, could do this for her and would do it as a
+matter of charity. Ethical questions do not trouble such people.
+
+When she came, he was prepared for a request that was impossible in
+honor and in fact, and he was ready to refuse it with such gentleness as
+he deemed due to a weary and desperate woman who did not realize what
+she was asking—the gentleness of sympathy coupled with the firmness of
+principle. Ross was a young man, inclined to exaggerate the importance
+and difficulties of problems that confronted him, and he was
+disconcerted when he found he had made an error in the basis from which
+he had reached his conclusion; the woman did not wish to insure a dying
+husband, but to protect insurance he already carried.
+
+“Oh, good Mr. Ross,” she wailed, “you must fix it for me some way. If we
+don’t pay to-morrow, we’ll lose everything. And we haven’t the money,
+Mr. Ross, not enough to pay the doctor even, and it’s worrying Peter
+more than the sickness. But you can fix it for us—of course you can fix
+it for us,”—with appealing hopefulness.
+
+“Sit down, Mrs. Becker, and tell me about it,” he urged. “I don’t
+understand.”
+
+She sank into a chair, and looked at him with anxious, tearful doubt and
+hope. Worn out with work and watching, she was a prey to conflicting
+emotions. Never doubting that he could help her, she feared he might
+refuse. Her anxiety was pitiable, and it was some time before he could
+get the details of the story from her. Finally, however, he learned that
+in more prosperous days her husband had insured his life for five
+thousand dollars, and, even in adversity, had succeeded in keeping up
+the payments, until stricken by this last illness. The sum he had saved
+up for the next premium—the one due the following day—had been used for
+medicines and other necessaries, and now he was near death. The doctor
+held out no hope; he might live a few days, but hardly more than that,
+for he was slowly but surely sinking. Until the previous night, when
+there came a turn for the worse, his recovery had been confidently
+expected, and his wife had worried little about the premium; the
+insurance company would be glad to take it when he was well.
+
+“But _he_ worried,” she said with unconscious pathos; “he worried and
+asked about it until—he couldn’t any more. He’s too sick to know now.
+But,”—hopefully,—“he’ll understand when I tell him it’s all right.”
+
+Ross was as much distressed as the woman, but he could give her little
+comfort. He could protect the insurance only by paying the premium
+himself, and he was not able to do that. Still, almost all policies
+provided for the payment of something proportionate to the amount paid
+in, even when the premiums were not kept up, so—He paused uncomfortably
+at this point, for the woman’s attitude and expression had changed from
+tearful anxiety to dull, sullen suspicion. She did not believe him; like
+all insurance men, he was ready to seize any opportunity to defraud her;
+she was helpless, and a rich company would take advantage of her
+helplessness.
+
+“You can get the money, Owen,” his wife urged, almost in tears herself.
+
+[Illustration: “Perhaps I can arrange it,” he said at last. “In what
+company is he insured?”]
+
+“I’ll pay it back to you—when he dies!” cried the woman, and Ross gave
+her a quick glance. It seemed heartless, but he saw it was not. The
+woman was tried beyond her endurance; she, with her two children, faced
+a future that was absolutely devoid of hope; she was sick, wretched,
+despairing, and the husband she had striven so hard to keep with her was
+already beyond recall. She spoke of his approaching death merely as
+something certain, that could not be prevented, and that force of
+circumstances compelled her to consider. She had to think for herself
+and children, plan for herself and children, even at this fearful time,
+for there was no one to do it for her, no one to relieve her of any part
+of the burden. The problem of the larder and the problem of burial would
+confront her simultaneously; she had to face these cold, hard, brutal
+facts, in spite of the grief and sorrow of the moment.
+
+All this Ross saw and appreciated, and he gave his attention to various
+possible ways of raising the necessary money.
+
+“Perhaps I can arrange it,” he said at last. “In what company is he
+insured?”
+
+It proved to be his own company. Instantly, his talk with Murray flashed
+through his mind. “You are paid to protect your company, so far as lies
+in your power,” Murray had said. Absolute loyalty to its interests was
+imperative. Would it be honorable for him to enter into any arrangement
+with this woman that would cost his company money? Had he any right to
+do more than the company would do itself? What would be thought of an
+employee in any other line of business who advanced money that was to be
+used to the financial disadvantage of his employer, however proper it
+might be in the case of some one else?
+
+“I can do nothing,” he announced shortly.
+
+“Oh, Owen!” cried his wife reproachfully.
+
+“It is impossible!” he insisted. “If it were a proper thing to do,
+Murray would do it for her himself.”
+
+“Mr. Murray doesn’t understand the situation,” urged his wife.
+
+“Murray would understand my situation and his,” he returned. “We are
+taking money from this company, we are its trusted agents, and we can
+not do anything that would be to its disadvantage. It is a matter of
+business integrity.”
+
+The woman did not weep now, but the look she gave him haunted him all
+that night. And his wife’s entreaties and reproaches added to his
+unhappiness.
+
+“Why, Jennie,” he explained, “I stand alone between the company and a
+loss of over four thousand dollars. I know that this man is dying; I
+know that, if I pay this premium, the company will have to pay out the
+full amount of the insurance within a few days; I know that the premiums
+paid to date amount to only about five hundred or six hundred dollars,
+which, under the terms of the policy, the woman will not wholly lose.
+For me, an employee, to conspire to get the rest of the money for her
+would be like taking it from the cash drawer. I won’t do it; I can’t do
+it after Murray’s talk to me to-day about business integrity!”
+
+“The company can afford it,” persisted Mrs. Ross, “and the woman needs
+it so badly.”
+
+“There are lots of companies and individuals who could afford to let the
+woman have five thousand dollars,” replied Ross.
+
+Still, Mrs. Ross could not understand. If he had been willing to pay the
+premium to another company, why not to his own?
+
+“Resign and pay it!” she exclaimed suddenly, feeling that she had solved
+the problem; but that was a greater sacrifice than he was prepared to
+make. He was sincerely sorry for the woman; the case was on his mind all
+the following morning; but Murray’s talk had made a deep impression.
+This was one of the severe temptations of the business—the more severe
+because there was no question of corruption, but only of sympathy, in
+it. Such, he had read, were the temptations that led men of the best
+intentions astray in many of the affairs of life.
+
+He was thinking of this when he called to see the “sanctimonious
+optimist”; he was thinking of it when he advanced the arguments Murray
+had given him; he was still thinking of it when the man said he was
+almost convinced and would telephone him after talking with his wife.
+Consequently, this success failed to elate him.
+
+“The law of humanity,” he told himself, “is higher and more sacred than
+the law of business.”
+
+He had walked unconsciously in the direction of his father’s office,
+and, still arguing with himself, he went in.
+
+“Father,” he said, “I want to borrow a hundred dollars.” The premium was
+a little more than that, but he could supply the remainder.
+
+“For what?” asked the senior Ross.
+
+“There is something I may wish to do,” was the enigmatical reply. “I
+will repay it as rapidly as possible.”
+
+“Commissions few and small?” laughed the senior Ross. “Well, a young man
+never finds out exactly what he’s worth, while working for a relative or
+a friend, so this experience ought to be valuable.”
+
+Still undecided, but with the money in his pocket, Ross left his
+father’s office and went to his own. He wanted to pay that premium, but
+it seemed to him a very serious matter, ethically and actually. The
+woman faced a future of privation; he faced what seemed to him a crisis
+in his business career. He revolted at the thought of being false to his
+employer, but to let the woman suffer would be heartless.
+
+“A letter for you, Ross,” said one of the clerks, as he entered the
+office. “Your wife left it.”
+
+He opened it with nervous haste, and a notice of a premium due dropped
+out.
+
+“You must find some way to help this woman, Owen,” his wife wrote. “I
+went to see her to-day, and the situation is pitiable. She has used up
+every cent she had and is in debt. Her husband is conscious at
+intervals, and he looks at you so wistfully, so anxiously, that it makes
+your heart bleed. Oh! if I could only tell him that the insurance is all
+right! It would give him peace for the little time that is left to him
+on this earth. _Owen! resign, if necessary, but do what I ask!_”
+
+Ross crumpled the note in his hand and walked into Murray’s private
+office.
+
+“Mr. Murray,” he said, “please accept my verbal resignation.”
+
+“What’s the matter?” asked Murray.
+
+“I have no time to explain now,” said Ross. “I want to be released from
+my obligations to the company at once.”
+
+“You’re excited,” said Murray. “Sit down! Now, what’s the matter?”
+
+Ross hesitated a moment, and then blurted out the whole story.
+
+“You wish to pay this premium?” asked Murray.
+
+“I’m going to pay it!” said Ross defiantly. “It will stick the company
+for more than four thousand dollars, but I’m going to pay it!”
+
+“And you wish to resign to do it honorably?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Pay it!” said Murray. “But your resignation is not accepted. I wouldn’t
+lose such a man as you for ten times four thousand dollars.”
+
+“It is all right?” asked Ross, bewildered.
+
+“Of course it’s all right,” asserted Murray. “As a matter of sympathy
+and justice, it is not only right but highly commendable; as a matter of
+financial profit to you, it would be despicable. Pay that premium, and I
+tell you now that the company will never pay a death benefit with less
+hesitation than it will pay this one. What is one risk more or less? We
+do business on the general average, and any sum is well invested that
+uncovers so conscientious an employee. Pay it, and come back to me.”
+
+Three minutes later, Ross, with the receipt in his pocket, was at the
+telephone.
+
+“It’s all right,” he told his wife. “The premium is paid.”
+
+“Oh, Owen!” exclaimed Mrs. Ross, and her voice broke a little, “you
+don’t know what comfort you have given a dying man! If you could only
+see—”
+
+“Get a cab!” he broke in. “He doesn’t know it yet, and you must tell
+him. Get a cab and drive like—”
+
+He stopped short, but his wife knew what he almost said, and she forgave
+him without even a preliminary reproach.
+
+His eyes were bright and his heart was light when he went back to
+Murray. Mrs. Becker’s situation was sad enough, but surely he had
+lessened the gloom of it by removing one great source of anxiety. He
+felt that he had done something worthy of a man, and it was a joy that
+he could do this without transcending the rules of business integrity
+and loyalty.
+
+“I want you,” said Murray, and there was something of admiration in his
+tone; “I want you so much that I am going to put you in the way of
+making more money. You have a great deal to learn about the insurance
+business before you will cease making unnecessary problems for yourself,
+but you have one quality that makes you valuable to me.” He paused and
+smiled a little at the recollection of what had passed. “I would
+suggest,” he went on, “that you bear this in mind: life insurance is not
+for one life only or for one generation only, but for the centuries.
+Otherwise, we could not do business on the present plan. We exist by
+reducing the laws of chance to a science that makes us secure in the
+long run, although, on the basis of a single year, there may be
+considerable losses. And a good company will no more stoop to shabby
+tricks than you will; nor will it seek to escape obligations through
+technicalities or petty subterfuges. That’s why I told you to pay that
+premium, and I respect you for doing it.”
+
+Murray picked up a memorandum on his desk.
+
+“By the way,” he added, glancing at it, “you must have made good use of
+the arguments I gave you, for your sanctimonious optimist telephoned
+that, if you would call this afternoon or to-morrow, he would arrange
+with you for a ten-thousand-dollar policy.”
+
+Grateful as Murray’s praise was to his ears, the greeting from his wife
+gave Ross the most joy.
+
+“He was conscious for a moment and understood,” she said, as she put her
+arms around her husband’s neck, “and there was such an expression of
+restful peace on his face that it made me happy, in spite of the shadow
+of death hovering over. It made him a little better, the doctor said,
+but nothing can save him. And I’m so proud of you, Owen!”
+
+“To tell the truth, dearest,” he replied tenderly, “I’m almost proud of
+myself.”
+
+
+
+
+AN INCIDENTAL TRAGEDY
+
+
+Dave Murray stretched his legs comfortably under the table, blew rings
+of smoke toward the ceiling, and waited for Stanley Wentworth to speak.
+
+Having his full share of worldly wisdom, Murray knew that there was a
+reason for Wentworth’s most urgent invitation to lunch with him at his
+club. While they had been friends for years and had lunched together on
+many previous occasions, there was a formality about this invitation
+that presaged something of importance. So, when they reached the cigars,
+Murray smoked and waited.
+
+“You win, Dave,” Wentworth announced at last.
+
+“I knew I would—when you married,” returned Murray. “It was only a
+question of time then.”
+
+“Especially after you got the ear of my wife,” said Wentworth. “You
+worked that very nicely, Dave. Do you remember the story you told her
+about the man who couldn’t give any time to life insurance during the
+busy season and who was on his death-bed when the date he had set for
+his examination arrived?”
+
+“It was true, too,” asserted Murray. “The man was a good risk when I
+went after him, and there would have been ten thousand dollars for his
+wife if he hadn’t procrastinated. There’s no money in the policy that a
+man was just going to take out, Stanley.”
+
+“Well, you win, anyway,” said Wentworth. “We’ve been jollying each other
+on this insurance business for six or eight years, and I’ve stood you
+off pretty well, but I can’t stand against the little woman at home. I
+was lost, Dave, the day I took you up to the house and introduced you to
+her.”
+
+“I guess I played the cards pretty well,” laughed Murray. “I told you at
+the beginning that I was going to insure you before I got through, and a
+good insurance man doesn’t let a little matter like the personal
+inclinations of his subject interfere with his plans. Why, I’ve been
+known to put a man in a trance, have him examined, and abstract the
+first premium from his pocket before he waked up. But you were the
+hardest proposition I ever tackled. You ought to have taken out a policy
+ten years ago.”
+
+“I couldn’t see any reason for it,” explained Wentworth. “I thought I
+was a confirmed bachelor: had no family and never expected to have one.
+That was at twenty-five, and at thirty I considered the matter
+absolutely settled, but at thirty-five the little woman just quietly
+reached out and took me into camp—and I’m glad of it. Never knew what
+real life was before. Still, I hate like thunder to surrender to you
+after our long, harmonious and entertaining fight, Dave; I wouldn’t do
+it if you hadn’t taken advantage of my hospitality to load my wife up
+with insurance ghost stories. If you want to be fair, you’ll pay her
+half the commission.”
+
+“I’ll do it!” exclaimed Murray; “not in cash, of course, but I’ll make
+her a present that will cover it—something nice for the house. You won’t
+be jealous, will you?”
+
+“Jealous!” returned Wentworth with a hearty laugh. “Well, I guess not!
+Why, I’ll help out by making the policy worth while: I’ll take out one
+for twenty-five thousand. I tell you, Dave, I’m not going to run any
+risk of leaving the little woman unprovided for, and I lost four
+thousand in the last month.”
+
+The conversation had been jocular, with an undercurrent of seriousness
+in it, but Wentworth became really serious with the last remark. Murray
+saw that this loss had had more to do with the decision than any
+arguments that had been advanced, and he, too, dropped his bantering
+tone.
+
+“I never could see,” Wentworth went on, “why insurance was any better
+than an investment in good stock—”
+
+“A little more certain,” suggested Murray, “so far as your wife is
+concerned. No stock is safe while a man lives and continues in business.
+It is too convenient as collateral and can be reached too easily in the
+case of failure. You will take risks with stock that you will not take
+with insurance, even when you can; you will sell stock to get ready cash
+for a business venture that may prove disastrous, but it’s like robbing
+your own widow to touch life insurance money. No man ever raised money
+on his policy without feeling meaner than a yellow dog, for he is
+gambling with the future of the one he loves, or at least should love.
+He has taken money that he promised her; money that she will sadly need
+in case of his unexpected death. That she consented to it does not ease
+his conscience, if he is any sort of a man, for no woman ever freely
+consents to jeopardizing any part of her husband’s life insurance money;
+she is led to do it, against her better judgment, by love and faith, and
+he knows that he has demanded of her what may prove to be a great
+sacrifice. That is why insurance is a better investment than stocks for
+the purpose you have in mind, Stanley; whatever your business needs, you
+never can ask your wife to join you in hypothecating the policy without
+feeling like a mean heartless sneak.”
+
+“I never looked at in that way,” returned Wentworth thoughtfully, “but
+you’re right, Dave. The policy will have a sacredness that no stock can
+possess. To touch it, to risk any part of it in business, would seem
+like taking money out of the baby’s bank. Still,” he added whimsically,
+“a game in which you have to die to win never did appeal to me very
+strongly.”
+
+“A game in which you are sure to win when you die is better than a game
+in which you are likely to lose twice,” retorted Murray, “or one in
+which you have to live to win, so long as life is something over which
+you have no jurisdiction. With insurance you win when you lose, but with
+stocks you may lose both ways and leave nothing but a reputation for
+selfish improvidence. Of course, I am looking at it from the family,
+rather than the personal, point of view.”
+
+“Surely,” acquiesced Wentworth. “I am thinking of the little woman and
+the baby.” He settled back in his chair and smoked dreamily for a few
+moments, his thoughts evidently wandering to the home that had given him
+so much of happiness during the last eighteen months. And Murray was
+silent, too. The affair was as much one of friendship as of business
+with him. It had been largely a joke when he had first declared that he
+would write a policy on Wentworth’s life, although he believed
+implicitly that every man should have insurance and should get it when
+he is young enough to secure a favorable rate. At that time Wentworth
+had no one dependent upon him, but Murray had kept at him in a bantering
+way, telling him that he would surely have need of insurance later and
+that he had better prepare for it while the opportunity offered. Then,
+when celibacy seemed to have become a permanent condition with him, he
+had married, and thereafter, while still treating the subject lightly
+and humorously, Murray had conducted a campaign that was really founded
+on friendship. No one knows better than a man who has been long in the
+insurance business of the tragedies resulting from procrastination and
+neglect; no one can better appreciate how great a risk of such a tragedy
+a friend may be running. So Murray, jolly but insinuating, was actuated
+by something more than purely business interest when he made whimsical
+references to his long campaign in the presence of Mrs. Wentworth and
+incidentally, apparently only to tease her husband, described some of
+the sad little dramas of life that had come to his notice. And he had
+won at last.
+
+“Get the application ready,” said Wentworth, suddenly rousing himself,
+“and let me know when your doctor wants to see me.”
+
+That evening Wentworth told his wife that he had arranged to take out a
+twenty-five-thousand-dollar policy, and she put her arms around his neck
+and looked up at him in an anxious, troubled way.
+
+“You don’t think I’m mercenary, do you, Stanley?”
+
+“Indeed, I don’t, little woman,” he replied, as he kissed her; “I think
+you are only wise.”
+
+“It seems so sort of heartless,” she went on, “but you know I’m planning
+only for the baby. There is something sure about life insurance, and
+everything else is so uncertain. Some of the stories Mr. Murray told
+were very sad.”
+
+“Oh, Murray was after business,” he said with a laugh. “He told me long
+ago that he intended to insure me, and it’s been a sort of friendly duel
+with us ever since. But he has convinced me that he is right in holding
+that every married man should carry life insurance, and, aside from
+that, I would cheerfully pay double premiums to relieve you of any cause
+for worry. The insurance company is going to get the best of me, though:
+I’ll live long enough to pay in more than it will have to pay out.”
+
+“Of course you will!” she exclaimed confidently. “You’re so big and
+strong it seems foolish—except for the baby. That’s why we mustn’t take
+any chances.”
+
+So cheerful and confident was Wentworth that he failed to notice the
+solemnity of the physician who examined him the next day. The doctor
+began with a joke, but he ended with a perplexed scowl.
+
+“You certainly look as strong as a horse,” he said. “But you’re not,” he
+added under his breath.
+
+Then he made his report to Murray.
+
+“Heart trouble,” he explained. “The man may live twenty or thirty years
+or he may die to-morrow. My personal opinion is that he will die within
+two years.”
+
+Murray was startled and distressed. Wentworth was his close personal
+friend, and to refuse his application after he had striven so hard to
+get it seemed heartless and cruel, especially as the refusal would have
+to be accompanied by an explanation that would be much like a
+death-warrant. Of course, he was in no way responsible for the
+conditions, but it would seem as if he were putting a limit on his
+friend’s life.
+
+“Are you sure?” he asked.
+
+“Positive,” replied the physician. “It is an impossible risk.”
+
+“Did you tell him?”
+
+“No.”
+
+“And I am to dine with him and his wife to-night,” said Murray. “They
+will be sure to ask about the policy.”
+
+Murray was tempted to send word that he could not come, but it was
+rather late for that. Besides, the information would have to be given
+some time, so what advantage could there be in procrastinating? But it
+came to him as a shock. The news of actual death would hardly have
+affected him more seriously, for it seemed like a calamity with which he
+was personally identified and for which he was largely responsible. He
+knew that he was not, but he could not banish the disquieting feeling
+that he was. He closed his desk and walked slowly and thoughtfully to
+Wentworth’s house, wishing, for once, that he had been less successful
+in the “friendly duel.”
+
+It was a long walk; he could easily have put in another half-hour at the
+office had he chosen to take the elevated; but he was in no humor for
+business and he preferred to walk. It gave him additional time for
+thought. He must decide when and how he would tell Wentworth, and it is
+no easy task to tell a friend that his hold upon life is too slight to
+make him a possible insurance risk.
+
+He would not do it to-night. It would be nothing short of brutal so to
+spoil a pleasant evening. Wentworth would have the knowledge soon
+enough, even with this respite, and he was entitled to as much of
+joyousness and pleasure as could be given him.
+
+Murray was noticeably dispirited. He tried to be as jovial as usual, but
+he found himself looking at his friend much as he would have looked at a
+condemned man. There was sympathy and pity in his face. He wondered when
+the hour of fate would arrive. Might it not be that very evening? A
+moment of temporary excitement might be fatal; anything in the nature of
+a shock might mean the end. Indeed, the very information he had to give
+might be the one thing needed to snap the cord of life. If so, he would
+feel that he had really killed his friend, and yet he had no choice in
+the matter: he must refuse and he must explain why he refused. If it had
+been his own personal risk, he would have taken it cheerfully, but even
+had he so desired, he could not take it for the company in the face of
+the doctor’s report.
+
+“What makes you so solemn?” asked Mrs. Wentworth. “You look as if you
+had lost your best friend.”
+
+“I feel as if I had,” Murray replied thoughtlessly, and then he hastened
+to explain that some business affairs disturbed and worried him.
+
+“But your victory over Stanley ought to make you cheerful,” she
+insisted. “Think of finally winning after so long a fight!”
+
+“When shall I get the policy?” asked Wentworth.
+
+“Policies are written at the home office,” answered Murray evasively.
+
+“But the insurance becomes effective when the application is accepted
+and the first premium paid, doesn’t it?” asked Wentworth.
+
+“Yes,” answered Murray.
+
+“Well, now that I am at last converted to insurance I am an enthusiast,”
+laughed Wentworth. “We won’t waste any time at all. Get out your little
+check-book, Helen, and give Murray a check for the first premium. I’ll
+make it good to you to-morrow.”
+
+“I don’t believe I could accept it now,” said Murray hesitatingly.
+“There are certain forms, you know—”
+
+“Oh, well, I’ll send you a check the first thing in the morning,”
+interrupted Wentworth. “Perhaps it isn’t just the thing to turn a little
+family dinner into a business conference.”
+
+“Better wait till you hear from me,” advised Murray, and his face showed
+his distress. He wished to avoid anything unpleasant at this time, but
+he was being driven into a corner.
+
+“Is—is anything wrong?” asked Mrs. Wentworth anxiously.
+
+“There is an extraordinary amount of red tape to the insurance
+business,” explained Murray, and the fact that he was very ill at ease
+did not escape the notice of Wentworth. The latter said nothing, but he
+lost his jovial air and he watched Murray as closely as Murray had
+previously watched him. It did not take him long to discover that Murray
+was abstracted and uncomfortable; that he was a prey to painful thoughts
+and kept track of the conversation only by a strong effort of will.
+
+Mrs. Wentworth, too, discovered that something was wrong, and when the
+men retired to the library to smoke she went to her own room in a very
+unhappy frame of mind. She was sure that Murray had some bad news for
+her husband, but it did not occur to her that it concerned the insurance
+policy; it probably related to some business venture, she thought, for
+she knew that her husband had recently lost money and had still more
+invested in a speculative enterprise. Well, he would get the news from
+Murray, and she would get it from him.
+
+Murray did not remain long, and he went out very quietly. Usually the
+two men laughed and joked at parting, but there was something subdued
+about them this time. As they paused for a moment at the door, she heard
+her husband say, “That’s all right, old man; it isn’t your fault.” Then,
+instead of coming to her, he put on his hat and left the house almost
+immediately after Murray had gone.
+
+It was late when he came back, but she was waiting for him, and his face
+frightened her. He seemed to have aged twenty years in a few hours; he
+was haggard and pale and there was something of fear in his eyes.
+
+“What’s the matter?” she asked. “You look sick.”
+
+“A little tired,” he answered with an attempt at carelessness. “I’ll be
+all right to-morrow.”
+
+“Mr. Murray was troubled, too,” she persisted. “What’s it all about?”
+
+“Oh, Murray has been unfortunate in a little business affair,” he
+explained.
+
+“And you’re concerned in it, too,” she said.
+
+“Yes,” he admitted. “But it’s all right, so don’t worry.”
+
+More he refused to say, but later in the night, waking suddenly, she
+heard him in the library, and, stealing down stairs, found him pacing
+the floor in his dressing-gown and slippers. He meekly went back to bed
+when she gently chid him, but he was restless and slept little.
+
+The next morning he held her in his arms several minutes before leaving
+for the office, and he knelt for some time beside the baby’s crib. It
+was such a leave-taking as might have been expected if he were going on
+a long journey. And she knew that he was withholding something from her.
+
+At the office he shut himself up for nearly the whole morning.
+
+“It must be a mistake,” he kept muttering. “That doctor is a fool. I’ll
+try another company.”
+
+In the afternoon he put in an application and suggested that, as a
+matter of business convenience, he would like to be examined at once.
+Two days later he was politely informed that the company, on the advice
+of its physician, felt constrained to decline the risk. But the man who
+is condemned to death does not give up hope: he appeals to a higher
+court, holding to the last that an error of law or of fact will be
+discovered. Wentworth appealed his case, but the verdict of the
+specialist he consulted was the same: he might live many years, but he
+might die at any moment.
+
+“I would advise you,” said the physician, “to give up active business
+and to get your financial affairs in the best possible shape. If you are
+to live, you must take unusual precautions to avoid excitement and
+worry.”
+
+Avoid worry! What a mockery, when he was deprived of the opportunities
+to make proper provision for the little woman and the baby! He was
+well-to-do, but only so long as he continued to live and make money.
+Some investments he had, but they were neither numerous nor large, and
+not of a character that would be considered absolutely safe. He had
+invested to make money rather than to save it in most instances, so the
+amount that he had in really first-class securities was comparatively
+trifling.
+
+“If I continue in business, how long can I expect to live, Doctor?” he
+asked.
+
+“It is problematical,” was the reply. “Frankly, I don’t think I would
+give you more than two or three years of active business life, with the
+possibility of death at any moment during that time. Still, if you are
+careful, you ought to last two years.”
+
+Wentworth shuddered. He had told the physician to speak frankly, but it
+was horrible to have the limit of life set in this way.
+
+“Retire from business,” the doctor added, “go to some quiet place, and
+you _may_ live as long as any other.”
+
+“But I can’t!” cried Wentworth. “I haven’t the money, and I must provide
+for the little woman and the baby. My God! how helpless they would be
+without me!”
+
+Wentworth went from the doctor’s office to the safe-deposit vaults where
+he kept his securities. He was a desperate man now—a man who had
+deliberately decided to sacrifice his life for those he loved. He would
+continue in business another year—two years, if necessary and the Lord
+permitted—and he would bend every energy to making provision for his
+little family. It might—nay, probably would—kill him, but what matter?
+To buy life at the expense of their future would be supremely selfish.
+And he might succeed before the fatal summons came: he might get his
+affairs in such shape in a year that he could retire with almost as good
+a chance of life as he had now—if he could stand the strain so long. But
+in his heart he felt he was pronouncing his own doom. He might put the
+optimistic view of the situation in words, but he did not believe the
+words. A great fear—a fear that was almost a certainty—gripped hard at
+his heart.
+
+“_Hic jacet!_” he said to himself, as he went over the securities and
+estimated the amount of available cash he could command. He had
+speculated before and had been reasonably successful in most instances;
+he must speculate again, for in no other way could he bring his
+resources up to the point desired within the time limitations. The
+moment he reached this point he would put everything in stocks or bonds
+that would be absolutely safe. Indeed, he would do this as fast as he
+got a little ahead of the game.
+
+Wentworth had speculated previously only with money that he could afford
+to lose; but he was speculating now with his entire surplus. It had been
+a divertisement before; it was a business now. He had to win—and he
+lost. No one could be more careful than he, but his judgment was wrong.
+When he had given the markets no particular attention he had taken an
+occasional “flier” with success; when he made a study of conditions and
+discussed the situation with friendly authorities he found himself
+almost invariably in error.
+
+There was something pathetic and disquieting in the affection and
+consideration he displayed for his wife and child during this time. He
+endeavored to conceal his own distress, but morning after morning his
+wife clung to him and looked anxiously into his face. He spoke
+cheeringly, but he grew daily more haggard, and she knew he was
+concealing something. Once she asked for news about the life insurance
+policy.
+
+“Oh, that’s all settled,” he replied, but he did not tell her how it was
+settled.
+
+Finally she went to see Murray. He had brought the news that had made
+this great change in her husband, and he could tell her what was
+worrying him. Murray had not called since that evening. While in no
+sense responsible for it, he had been so closely identified with this
+blow that had fallen on his friend that he felt his presence, for a time
+at least, would be only an unpleasant reminder.
+
+“I must know this secret,” she told Murray with earnest directness of
+speech. “It is killing Stanley. He is worried and anxious, and he is
+working himself to death in an effort to straighten out some
+complication.”
+
+“He mustn’t do that!” exclaimed Murray quickly. “Work and worry are the
+two things for him to avoid.”
+
+“Why?” demanded Mrs. Wentworth.
+
+Murray hesitated. He knew why Wentworth had kept this from his wife, but
+was it wise? The man was deliberately walking to his grave. Ought not
+his wife to be informed in order that she might take the necessary steps
+to save him? It would be a breach of confidence, but did not the
+circumstances justify it? Wentworth was his friend, and he had a sincere
+regard for Mrs. Wentworth. Surely he ought not to stand idly by and
+witness a tragedy that he might prevent.
+
+[Illustration: “You—you didn’t insure him?” she said inquiringly]
+
+“Mrs. Wentworth,” he said at last, “the thing that is worrying Stanley
+is the fact that we had to decline him as a risk.“
+
+“You—you didn’t insure him?” she said inquiringly, as if she did not
+quite comprehend.
+
+“No.”
+
+“He let me think you had.”
+
+“Because he did not wish to distress you, and I assure you, Mrs.
+Wentworth, I would not tell you this myself, were it not for the fact
+that Stanley is doing the most unwise thing possible.”
+
+“I am very glad you did tell me,” she said quietly. She was not an
+emotional woman, but the pallor of her face and something of anxious
+fright in her eyes told how deeply she felt. “What must I do?”
+
+“Get him out of business and away from excitement,” replied Murray
+promptly. “In a quiet place, if he takes care of himself, he may live as
+long as any of us.”
+
+When Wentworth reached home that evening, the little woman, always
+affectionate, greeted him with unusual tenderness. She said nothing of
+her visit to Murray, but later she brought up the subject of moving to
+the country.
+
+“I’m dreadfully worried about you, Stanley,” she said. “You must take a
+vacation.”
+
+“I can’t,” he replied.
+
+“But you must,” she insisted. “You’ve been working too hard lately.”
+
+“Next year,” he said, “I hope to get out of this city turmoil and take
+you away to some quiet place, where we can live for each other and the
+baby.”
+
+She went over and knelt beside him, as he leaned wearily back in his big
+arm-chair.
+
+“Why not now?” she pleaded.
+
+“My God! I can’t, Helen!” he cried. “I want to, but I can’t! If you only
+knew—”
+
+“I only know that you will break down, if you don’t take a rest,” she
+interrupted hastily. It would only add to his distress to learn that she
+knew his secret. “Don’t you suppose I can see how you are overtaxing
+your strength? We must go away for a time, anyway.”
+
+“Little woman,” he said, putting an arm round her, “it’s a question of
+finance, and you never could understand that very well. When I get
+things in shape we will go, but not yet. I have some investments to
+watch, and,”—wearily,—“things have gone rather against me lately. There
+are lots of things to be done before I can take any extended vacation,
+and it is even a more serious matter to retire permanently. My earning
+capacity is about all we have to live on now.”
+
+“I thought you had money invested,” she remarked.
+
+“I had,” he replied, “but it was not enough, and in trying to make it
+enough I made some wrong guesses on the market.”
+
+“Never mind,” she said cheerily. “We’ll make the best of what’s left. We
+won’t need much if we get away from this fearful life. It isn’t money
+that the baby and I want, it’s you; and we don’t want you to die for us,
+but to live for us.”
+
+Wentworth gave his wife a quick glance, for this was hitting very close
+to his secret; but he saw in her only the very natural anxiety of a
+loving wife, who knew that her husband was overtaxing his strength.
+
+“You mean well,” he said, “but you don’t know.”
+
+Mrs. Wentworth was not a business woman, and she knew little of her
+husband’s affairs, but she had a feeling that this question of life
+insurance was all that stood in the way of the precautions that he ought
+to take. He could get something for his interest in the business, if he
+retired, but not enough to make proper provision for her. He could take
+up some quiet pursuit and continue to make a little money as long as he
+lived, but he could leave only the most trifling income. And, in his
+efforts to improve matters, he had only made them worse. She understood
+so much.
+
+There was an undercurrent of sadness, but still something beautiful, in
+the life that followed this conversation. All the little sympathetic
+attentions that love can suggest, each gave to the other, while each
+worried in secret, seeking only to make life a little easier and more
+cheerful for the other.
+
+But Mrs. Wentworth was becoming as desperate as her husband, and even
+more unreasoning. Was not her husband’s life worth all the money of all
+the insurance companies? And were they not condemning him to death by
+their action? It was more than a risk that depended upon life; it was a
+life that depended upon the risk. In a little time she convinced herself
+that the insurance companies could save him and would not, failing
+utterly to appreciate the fact that, even with the greatest precautions,
+the chances were against him; that there was only a possibility that he
+might live longer than a few years, the probability being quite the
+reverse.
+
+Murray was shocked when she called to see him again. The change in her
+husband was no greater than the change in her. Was not the man she loved
+committing suicide before her eyes? And was he not doing this for love
+of her and the baby? Would not such a condition of affairs make any
+woman desperate and unreasoning?
+
+“Mr. Murray,” she said, “if you are as good a friend to my husband as he
+has always been to you, you will save his life.”
+
+“I will do anything in my power, Mrs. Wentworth,” replied Murray.
+“Nothing in life ever has so distressed me as this.”
+
+“Then give him the policy he wants.”
+
+“Impossible! Why, the doctor—”
+
+“You can fix it with the doctor; you know you can! Or you can get
+another doctor to pass him! Oh, Mr. Murray! I am not asking for money; I
+am asking for life—for his life! It’s suicide—murder! I want to get him
+away! I must get him away! But I can’t while he fears for our future—the
+baby’s and mine! He must provide for us, and he’s losing the little he
+had! He can’t stand it a month longer! Give him the policy, Mr. Murray,
+and I’ll swear to you never to present it for payment! It’s only for him
+that I ask it! You can give him life—give your friend life! Won’t you do
+it?”
+
+The tears were running down the little woman’s cheeks, and Murray could
+not trust himself to speak for a moment.
+
+“Mrs. Wentworth,” he said at last, “every cent I have is at your
+husband’s disposal, if he needs it, but what you ask is utterly
+impossible. The risk would be refused at the home office, even if I
+passed it, for the fact that he has been refused by two other companies
+would be reported there.”
+
+In the case of another, Murray would have said more, but he knew that
+Mrs. Wentworth was quite beside herself and did not really appreciate
+that she was asking him to be dishonest with the company that employed
+him.
+
+“He wouldn’t touch a cent of the money of such a friend!” she exclaimed
+with sudden anger. “He’s not a beggar, and neither am I! All I seek for
+him is the tranquility that means life; all I ask is the removal of the
+anxiety that means death. And this little you will not do for a friend!”
+She was beside herself with desperation.
+
+It was bitter, it was harsh, it was unjustifiable, but Murray had
+forgiven her before she had ceased speaking. The depth of her feeling
+and the excitement under which she was laboring were sufficient to
+excuse her. But he felt as if he really were condemning his friend to
+death. Yet what could he do? He would cheerfully give a thousand dollars
+out of his own pocket to make things easier for the two suffering ones,
+but it was not a matter of ready cash. Wentworth had enough of that.
+
+In the deepest distress Murray was pacing back and forth when the door
+opened and Wentworth himself staggered in. Murray was at his side in a
+moment and guided him to a chair.
+
+“What’s the matter, old man?”
+
+“Lost everything,” Wentworth gasped. “Tried to protect—margined to
+limit—all gone!”
+
+“But your interest in the business?”
+
+“Sold it—to protect deal.” He seemed almost at the point of collapse,
+but he rallied for a moment. “Insurance!” he cried. “I must have it!
+Damn the company! You must put it through for me! You hear, Murray!” The
+man was almost crazy, and he spoke fiercely. “You’ve got to do it—for
+humanity’s sake! Can’t leave them penniless!”
+
+“We’ll talk about it to-morrow,” said Murray soothingly.
+
+“You lie, Murray!” the excited man cried. “You won’t do it at all;
+you’ll see them starve first, you—you dog! I’ll kill you, if you don’t—”
+
+Wentworth had risen in frenzied fury, as he pictured the future of his
+loved ones; he swayed for an instant, and Murray caught him as he fell.
+He was dead before Murray could get him back into the chair.
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+Murray did all that anyone could do for the bereaved woman, and more
+than any one else would have done, for the next day he sent her this
+letter:
+
+  Dear Mrs. Wentworth: After a conference with our physician we decided
+  that a small risk on Mr. Wentworth would be justified, and the matter
+  was closed up yesterday afternoon just previous to his death. As a
+  result of my close personal relations with him, I know that he left
+  his affairs in rather a complicated condition, so, as it will take a
+  little time to file the necessary proofs and get the money from the
+  company, I am taking the liberty of sending you my personal check for
+  the amount of the policy, one thousand dollars, and I hope that you
+  will not hesitate to call on me for any service that is in my power to
+  render. With the deepest sympathy, I am,
+
+                                                 Very sincerely yours,
+                                                         David Murray.
+
+“A lie,” he muttered, referring to the insurance item; “a cold,
+deliberate lie, but I feel better for telling it.”
+
+
+
+
+AN INCIDENTAL SPECULATION
+
+
+Just when the Interurban Traction Company thought the successful
+culmination of its plans in sight it woke up to the fact that there had
+been a miscalculation or an oversight somewhere. It had the absolute or
+prospective control of all the principal lines embraced in its elaborate
+scheme of connecting various towns and cities by trolley, which means
+that it had bought a good deal of the necessary stock and had options on
+most of the rest; but there was one insignificant little road that it
+had left to the last. This road had been a losing venture from its
+inception, and its stock was quoted far below par, with no buyers. As a
+matter of business policy, the more successful roads should be secured
+first, for the moment the secret was out their stocks would soar. They
+represented the larger investments, and their stock-holders could hold
+on, if they saw the advisability of it, without making any financial
+sacrifice; they were in a position to “hold up” the new company in the
+most approved modern style. But the Bington road was weak and
+unprofitable, valuable only as a connecting link in the chain.
+
+“Of course,” said Colonel Babington, who was at the head of the new
+venture, “we’re sure to be held up somewhere on the line, and these
+people can hold us up for less than any of the others. They haven’t much
+as a basis for a hold-up, and they can’t afford to go on losing money.
+We can buy their road cheap the first thing, but the discovery of the
+purchase will give our plans away and add a million dollars to the cost
+of carrying them out. Any fool would know that we were not buying that
+road for itself alone. Why, the mere rumor that negotiations were opened
+would add fifty or a hundred per cent. to the value of the other stocks
+we want. We can’t afford even to wink at that road until we get control
+of the others.”
+
+So they went about their work very secretly, hoping so to conceal their
+design that they would be able to get the last link at the bed-rock
+price; but, when the time came, entirely unexpected difficulties were
+encountered. The stock-holders might have been tractable enough, but the
+stock-holders themselves had been fooled.
+
+“Why, there was a young fellow here last week,” they explained, “and he
+got a sixty-day option on enough stock to control the road.”
+
+“Who was he?” asked the startled Colonel Babington.
+
+“His name is Horace Lake,” they told him.
+
+“I’ll have to look Horace up,” remarked the colonel thoughtfully.
+
+Meanwhile, Horace was congratulating himself on having done a good
+stroke of business, and further amusing himself by figuring his possible
+profit.
+
+“I’ve been looking for just such a chance as this,” he told Dave Murray,
+the insurance man.
+
+“Have you got the money to carry it through?” asked the practical
+Murray.
+
+“I had enough to put up a small forfeit to bind the option and convince
+them that I mean business, and I don’t need any more,” returned Lake.
+
+“Once in a great while,” said Murray, “a man makes a good lot of money
+on a bluff, but even then he usually has some backing. It takes money to
+make money, as a general rule. You will find that most successful men,
+even those who are noted for their nervy financiering, got the basis of
+their fortunes by hard work and rigid economy. Wind may be helpful, but
+it makes a poor foundation.”
+
+“This is one of the times when it is about all that is necessary,”
+laughed Lake. “I got a little inside information about the Interurban
+Traction Company’s plans in time to secure an option on one link in its
+chain of roads, and it has simply got to do business with me before it
+can make its line complete. For twenty thousand dollars, paid any time
+within sixty days, I can control the blooming little line, and the
+option to buy at that price is going to cost the traction company just
+twenty-five thousand dollars, which will be clear profit for me.”
+
+“It sounds nice,” admitted Murray, “but, if I were in your place, I’d
+feel a good deal better if I had the money to make good. If they don’t
+buy, you lose your forfeit, which represents every cent you could scrape
+up.”
+
+“They will buy,” asserted Lake confidently.
+
+“They may think it cheaper to parallel your line,” suggested Murray.
+
+“I’m not worrying,” returned Lake confidently. “I’m just waiting for
+them to come and see me, and they’ll come.”
+
+Lake’s prophecy proved correct. They came—at least Colonel Babington
+came, he being the active manager of the company’s affairs. But Colonel
+Babington first took the precaution to learn all he could of Horace
+Lake’s financial standing and resources. This convinced him that it was
+what he termed a “hold-up,” but, even so, it was better to pay a
+reasonable bonus than to have a fight.
+
+“We will give you,” said Colonel Babington, “a thousand dollars for your
+option on the majority stock of the Bington road.”
+
+“The price,” replied Lake, “is twenty-five thousand dollars.”
+
+“My dear young man,” exclaimed the colonel, when he had recovered his
+breath, “you ought to see a specialist in mental disorders. You are
+clearly not right in your mind.”
+
+“The price,” repeated Lake, “is twenty-five thousand dollars now, and,
+if I am put to any trouble or annoyance in the matter, the price will go
+up.”
+
+“A bluff,” said the colonel, “is of use only when the opposing party
+does not know it is a bluff. We happen to know it. You haven’t the money
+to buy that road, and you can’t get it.”
+
+“You speak with extraordinary certainty,” returned Lake with dignified
+sarcasm.
+
+“The road,” asserted the colonel, “is valuable only to us, and we can
+parallel it, if necessary. No conservative capitalist is going to
+advance you the money to buy it in the face of such a risk as that, so
+we have only to wait until your option expires to get it from the men
+who now own it, and I may add that we have taken a second option at a
+slightly higher price. Therefore, your only chance to get out of the
+deal with a profit is to let us acquire the road under the first option
+at something less than the second option price. To avoid any unnecessary
+delay, we might be willing to pay you a bonus of two thousand dollars.”
+
+“The price,” said Lake, “is now twenty-six thousand.”
+
+“Sixty days—less than fifty now, as a matter of fact—is not such a long
+time,” remarked the colonel. “We will wait.”
+
+Lake told Murray later that he “had them in a corner,” but Murray was
+inclined to be doubtful; fighting real money with wind, he said, was
+always a risky undertaking, and the Interurban Traction Company had
+plenty of real money. Lake, however, being in the “bluffing” line
+himself, was inclined to think all others were doing business on the
+same basis, and he confidently expected the colonel to return in a few
+days. But the colonel came not.
+
+Then Lake made another trip to Bington, to look the ground over, and he
+was disturbed to find that the colonel had been sounding the people on a
+proposition to put a line through the town on another street. This was
+only a tentative plan, to be adopted in case of failure to get the
+existing line, but it showed that the company was not disposed to be
+held up without a fight. Fortunately, the people did not take kindly to
+the idea. The principal shops were on the line of the trolley now, and
+the proprietors did not wish to have travel diverted to another street.
+
+Lake devoted several days to missionary work in Bington, pointing out
+the great depreciation of property that would follow such a move, and he
+finally left with a feeling that the company would have an extremely
+difficult time getting the necessary legislation from the town
+officials. Still, he was not entirely at ease, for officials are
+sometimes “induced” to act contrary to the wishes of the people they are
+supposed to represent. But he believed he had made the situation such
+that Babington would come back to him. Surely, it would be cheaper to
+deal with him than to buy an entire town board.
+
+Thirty of the sixty days slipped away, and Lake grew really anxious. The
+Interurban Traction Company could not be a success without a connecting
+link between the two main stretches of its line, and Lake had not
+believed that it would dare to proceed with its plans until this was
+assured. Consequently, he had expected all work to stop, pending
+negotiations with him. But work did not stop. There were two or three
+trifling gaps at other places, and the company was laying the rails to
+bridge them, in addition to improving the road-beds of the lines it had
+bought. It even began to build a half-mile of track to reach one
+terminus of his little road. Clearly, there was no anticipation of
+trouble in ultimately beating him.
+
+“It’s my lack of money,” he soliloquized. “I’ve got the basis of a good
+thing, if I only had the money to make it good, but I haven’t, and they
+know it. Murray was right.”
+
+His thoughts being thus turned to Murray, he went to see him, in the
+faint hope that he might interest him in the plan. Murray had money to
+invest. But Murray deemed the risk too great in this instance.
+
+“They can beat you,” said Murray. “They have unlimited resources, and
+they’ll certainly get through Bington on another street, if you persist
+in making your terms too stiff. Very likely, they would have given you
+three thousand or possibly even five thousand for your option when they
+first came to you, and they may do it now.”
+
+“I tell you, it’s a good thing,” insisted Lake.
+
+“If it’s really as good a thing as you think it is,” said Murray, “you
+will have no difficulty in getting somebody with money to take it off
+your hands at a good margin of profit to you, but I can’t see it.”
+
+In this emergency, Lake recalled a man of considerable wealth who had
+known him as a boy and had taken an interest in him. It was humiliating
+not to be able to put the scheme through himself, after all his planning
+and confident talk, but it was better to turn it over to some one else
+than to fail entirely. So he went to see Andrew Belden.
+
+“There is a remote chance of success,” declared Belden, “but I would not
+care to risk twenty thousand on it.”
+
+“The company can’t get through Bington, except on that franchise,”
+insisted Lake.
+
+“That may be so,” admitted Belden, “but I have learned not to be too
+confident in forecasting the action of public officials and
+corporations. The company could make a strong point by threatening to
+cut out Bington entirely and carry its line to one side of it.”
+
+“That would make a loop in their road that would be costly in building
+and in the delays it would occasion,” argued Lake. “They can’t make any
+circuits, if they are to do the business.”
+
+“Nevertheless,” returned Belden, “their actions show that they are very
+sure of their ground.”
+
+“Simply because I haven’t the ready cash,” said Lake bitterly. “Will you
+loan it to me, Mr. Belden? If you won’t go into the deal yourself, will
+you loan me the money to put it through? I’ll give you the stock as
+security, and I think you know me well enough to know that I’ll repay
+every cent of it as rapidly as possible.”
+
+“My dear Horace,” exclaimed Belden with frank friendliness, “I haven’t
+the least doubt of your integrity, but I have very serious doubts of
+your ability to repay any such sum, and it is more than I care to lose.
+You never have had a thousand dollars at one time in your life, and I
+may say, without intending to be unkind, that it isn’t likely you ever
+will. As for the security, its value depends entirely on the success of
+your plans: if you fail, it won’t be worth ten cents. Now, if you had
+any real security, upon which I could realize in case anything happened
+to you, I would cheerfully let you have the money for as long a time as
+you wish. Although your plan does not appeal to me, I am sincerely
+anxious to be of assistance to you as far as possible, but I can’t make
+you a gift of twenty thousand dollars. Convince me that it will be
+repaid ultimately—no matter in how long a time—and I will let you have
+it.”
+
+Lake departed, discouraged. He had no security of any sort to offer, and
+had only asked for the loan as a desperate last resort, without the
+slightest expectation that he would get it. The company, he decided, had
+beaten him, just because no one else was clear-headed enough to see the
+opportunity, and he might as well get what little profit he could while
+there was still time. With this object in view, he went to see the
+colonel.
+
+“I have decided,” he said, “to let you have the road for a bonus of five
+thousand dollars.”
+
+“That is very kind of you,” returned the colonel, “but we can get it
+cheaper. You see,” he explained, with the disagreeable frankness of one
+who thinks he holds the winning hand, “the minority stock-holders were a
+little disgruntled when they learned of your deal—thought they had been
+left out in the cold—and they were ready to make very favorable terms
+with us. As we have a second option on the majority stock, at a somewhat
+higher figure, we have only to wait until your option expires and then
+take the little we need to give us control.”
+
+“I’ll let you have my option for the two thousand you offered a month
+ago,” said Lake in desperation.
+
+“It’s not worth that to us now.”
+
+“One thousand dollars.”
+
+“Why, frankly, Mr. Lake,” said the colonel still pleasantly, “we men of
+some experience and standing in the business world don’t like to have
+half-baked financiers interfering with our plans, and we aim to
+discourage them as effectually as possible whenever possible.” Then,
+with a sudden change of tone: “We won’t give you a damn cent for your
+option. You were too greedy.”
+
+“Of course, you men of money and high finance are not greedy at all,”
+retorted Lake sarcastically.
+
+Lake was too depressed to see it at the moment, but later it began to
+dawn on him that the colonel, usually astute, had made a grievous
+mistake. In his anxiety to impress upon the young man the futility of
+his avaricious schemes, in the face of such wise and resourceful
+opposition, he had mentioned the fact that the minority stock had been
+brought within their reach. Had they already bought it, or had they only
+secured options on it? If already purchased, the purchase price would
+prove a dead loss, unless they were able to get enough more to secure
+control. To parallel the road would be to kill a company in which they
+were financially interested, in addition to incurring the considerable
+expense necessary for a new connecting link.
+
+Lake went to Bington that afternoon, and returned the following morning.
+The game was his, if he could raise the money; they had bought most of
+the minority stock outright, being unable to get options on it. He was
+sure of victory now, if he could raise the money. He no longer wished to
+turn the deal over to any one else on any terms: he wished to carry it
+to the conclusion himself. But the money, the money!
+
+He tried Belden again, but Belden still considered the security utterly
+inadequate for a loan of twenty thousand dollars. In truth, although
+Belden considered the outlook a little more promising now, he doubted
+the young man’s ability to handle such a deal, and it would take very
+little to upset all calculations. The company’s investment was not
+sufficient to prevent the abandonment of the road in some very possible
+circumstances, although it was ample evidence of a present plan to use
+it. Murray took the same view of the situation.
+
+“It begins to look like a good speculation,” said Murray, “but I haven’t
+the money to invest in it, and I never was much of a speculator, anyway.
+I have discovered that, as a general thing, when the possible profit
+begins to climb very much over the legal rate of interest, the
+probability of loss increases with it. However, if you want to take the
+risk, that’s your affair, provided you have the money.”
+
+“But I haven’t,” complained Lake; “that’s the trouble.”
+
+“Too bad you’re not carrying enough insurance to be of some use,”
+remarked Murray.
+
+“What good would that do?” asked Lake.
+
+“Why, then you’d only have to convince your wife that you have a safe
+investment, and it’s always easier to convince your wife than it is to
+convince some coldblooded capitalist. Insurance ranks high as security,
+but of course the beneficiary has to consent to its use.”
+
+“I never had thought of insurance as a factor in financiering,” said
+Lake. “I had regarded it more as a family matter.”
+
+“It plays an important part in the business world,” explained Murray,
+“and it might even play a part in speculation. There is partnership
+insurance, you know.”
+
+“I may have heard of it, but I never gave it any consideration.”
+
+“It’s not a speculation, but a business precaution,” said Murray. “The
+partners are insured in favor of the firm. If one of them dies, it gives
+the firm the ready cash to buy his interest from the widow, without
+infringing on the business capital. Partnership insurance may sometimes
+prevent a failure; it may prevent several. Many interests may depend
+temporarily upon the operation of one man, and his sudden death might
+spell ruin for a number of people, unless they were protected by
+insurance. The policy is playing a more important part in the business
+world every day. There are lots of strange things that can be done when
+you fully understand it.”
+
+“But that doesn’t help me,” asserted Lake impatiently.
+
+“No,” returned Murray, “I don’t see how insurance could help you just
+now, unless you were to die. A policy won’t be accepted as security for
+a sum in excess of the premiums paid, for you might default.”
+
+“I’m not the kind of man who dies to win,” said Lake rather sharply.
+
+“Of course not,” replied Murray. “I was merely considering the financial
+possibilities of policies.” All insurance questions being of absorbing
+interest to Murray, he straightway forgot all about Lake’s predicament,
+and busied his mind with his own speculations. “There is so much that
+can be done with insurance,” he went on, “but I guess it’s just as well
+the public doesn’t know it all. Do you remember the case of Rankin, the
+banker who committed suicide?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Well, Rankin couldn’t have done anything with our company, because the
+element of premeditation is assumed if death by suicide occurs within
+two years from the time the policy is issued. After that the manner of
+death cuts no figure, for the courts have held that an insurance company
+takes a risk on the mind as well as the body of a policy-holder, and,
+anyway, competition has cut out the old suicide restrictions. But there
+are companies that issue policies incontestable after the date of issue.
+Suppose Rankin, when he found his affairs in such shape that he no
+longer dared to face the world, had gone to one or more of these
+companies. A hundred thousand dollars—very likely less—would have
+protected his bank and provided for his family. He had already decided
+to kill himself, for his operations had been such that he could not hope
+to escape the penitentiary when discovery came, but he was ostensibly
+still a prosperous man. Many men of his standing insure themselves for
+extraordinarily large sums, to protect legitimately their business
+interests as well as their families.
+
+“Not so very long ago we issued a paid-up policy for fifty thousand
+dollars on the life of one man, who died within three years, and we
+thought nothing of it. He was taking a risk on his own life then, for he
+thought he was going to live long enough to make a paid-up policy
+cheaper than the aggregate of annual payments, whereas there would have
+been a saving to his estate of a good many thousands of dollars if he
+had followed the other plan. However, that has nothing to do with this
+case; I mention it only to show that a man of Rankin’s apparent standing
+could have got insurance to any amount without creating comment. And,
+with an incontestable-after-date-of-issue policy, he could have
+protected his business associates and his family by the very culmination
+of his overwhelming disgrace. Why, a defaulter could use part of his
+stolen money in this way to provide for his family when the moment of
+discovery and death shall come, or a dishonest business man, facing
+ruin, could use his creditors’ money to make such provision, for
+insurance money is something sacred, that can not be reached like the
+rest of an estate. Oh, there are great dramatic possibilities in this
+business, Lake—tragedies and comedies and dramas of which the public
+knows nothing.”
+
+“How does that help me?” demanded Lake gloomily, and the question
+brought Murray back to the realities of the moment.
+
+“It doesn’t help you,” Murray replied, “but it’s an intensely
+interesting subject to one who gives it a little time and thought.”
+
+Yet it did help Lake, although not at that moment. It was a new field,
+and Lake liked to explore new fields. A novelty that taxed his ingenuity
+appealed to him especially. True, he had enough to occupy his mind
+without entering upon idle speculation, but, when every other avenue to
+success seemed closed, his thoughts would revert to insurance.
+
+“If it holds out such opportunities for others, why not for me?” he
+asked. “If others have entirely overlooked the possibilities, why may
+not I be doing the same thing?”
+
+He met the colonel on the street occasionally, and the way the colonel
+smiled at him was maddening. There could be no doubt that the colonel
+considered the game won, but he was not a man to take chances: he had
+Lake watched, and the latter’s every move was reported to him. Even when
+Lake made another trip to Bington and endeavored to arrange a shrewd
+deal with some of the majority stock-holders, the colonel promptly heard
+of it.
+
+“Accept my notes in payment for the stock,” Lake urged on that occasion,
+“and I’ll let you in on the profits of the deal. The traction company
+has got to get this road, but you can’t hold it up for a big price,
+because you were foolish enough to give it a second option. I can do it,
+however. Let me have the stock, and you can divide up among yourselves
+half of all I get in excess of the option price. My notes will be paid,
+and you will have a bonus of twelve or fifteen thousand dollars.”
+
+But the stock-holders were conservative and cautious men, and the very
+fact that Lake could not command the money that he needed made them
+suspicious. As matters stood, they were sure of getting out of a losing
+venture with a small profit—at least, so it seemed to them—and they
+preferred that to the risk of losing everything in an effort to secure a
+larger profit. Furthermore, they were now on the side of the colonel,
+for his option was at a larger price. And the colonel was very
+confident—so confident that work was being rushed on details that would
+prove valueless without the Bington road. This was what made Lake
+desperately angry; it was humiliating to be treated as a helpless
+weakling.
+
+As valuable time passed, his mind reverted again to the insurance field.
+His opportunity—the opportunity of a lifetime—was almost lost. The
+colonel, wishing to lose no time, had arranged for a meeting with
+certain of the majority stock-holders the day the first option expired.
+The option expired at noon, and the colonel would be ready to take over
+what stock he needed at one minute after the noon hour. This would not
+be very much, in view of the minority stock he already held, but the
+sanguine stock-holders did not know this: they expected him to take all
+of it.
+
+“Some of them are going to find they’re tricked, just as I am,” Lake
+grumbled. “If I could only convince Belden of the ultimate absolute
+security of a loan! He wants to help me; he’s ready to be convinced;
+but—”
+
+People passing saw this moody, depressed young man stop short in the
+street and his eye light with sudden hope.
+
+“By thunder!” he exclaimed. “Of course, I can protect him against
+unforeseen disaster, if he has confidence in my integrity!”
+
+He was almost jubilant when he entered Belden’s office.
+
+“Got the money?” asked Belden.
+
+“No; but I know how to get it,” replied Lake. “You believe in my
+honesty, don’t you?”
+
+“Implicitly.”
+
+“You merely doubt my ability?”
+
+“Your financial ability,” explained Belden. “You will do what you agree
+to do—if you can. I have no earthly doubt of your willingness, even
+anxiety, to repay every obligation you may incur, but, added to other
+risks, there is the possibility of accident.”
+
+“If I eliminate that?”
+
+“You may have the money.”
+
+“On long time?”
+
+“The time and the terms are immaterial.”
+
+“I’ll come for it later,” announced Lake, and he departed, leaving
+Belden puzzled and curious.
+
+Once outside, Lake stopped to do a little mental figuring before taking
+up the other details of his plan.
+
+“I advanced five hundred to bind the option,” he reflected. “That leaves
+nineteen thousand five hundred necessary to put the deal through. Twenty
+thousand from Belden will give me just the margin I need.”
+
+Murray was as much puzzled and surprised by the change in the man as
+Belden had been, and Murray, like Belden, was anxious to help him in any
+reasonably safe way.
+
+“Am I good for five hundred for thirty days, if I give you my positive
+assurance that I know exactly how I am going to pay it in that time?”
+asked Lake.
+
+“Why, yes,” replied Murray. “On short-time figuring you’re a pretty safe
+man.”
+
+“Draw me a check for it, and I’ll give you my thirty-day note,” said
+Lake, “and my verbal assurance that it’s a cinch.”
+
+Murray noted the confidence of Lake’s tone and manner, and drew the
+check.
+
+“What are you going to do with it?” he asked.
+
+“Pay a life insurance premium,” laughed Lake. “Give me an application
+blank and round up a medical examiner. I want a twenty-year endowment
+policy for twenty thousand dollars, and I want it put through like a
+limited express that’s trying to make up time.”
+
+“I suppose you know what you’re doing,” said Murray doubtfully.
+
+“You bet I do!” Lake spoke confidently.
+
+“Oh, very well,” remarked Murray. “I don’t see how I can refuse business
+for the company, even if I stand to lose.”
+
+“You won’t lose,” declared Lake with joyous enthusiasm. “I’m going to
+show you a new trick in the line of insurance financiering.”
+
+After that, Lake haunted Murray’s office, and grew daily more anxious.
+He was a good risk, but certain formalities were necessary, and these
+took time, although Murray did his utmost to shorten the routine. Lake’s
+nervousness increased; he had Murray telegraph the home office; he grew
+haggard, for he had not counted on this delay; but finally, in the
+moment of almost utter despair, the policy was delivered to him. An hour
+later he was in Belden’s office.
+
+“I want twenty thousand at four per cent., payable at the rate of one
+thousand a year, with interest!” he cried. “I’ll pay it, to a certainty,
+within sixty days, but I’m trying to make it look more reasonable, to
+satisfy you. You believe I can pay one thousand a year, don’t you?”
+
+“If you live.”
+
+“If I don’t,” exclaimed Lake, “there is insurance for twenty thousand in
+my wife’s favor, and duly assigned to you,” and he banged the policy
+down on the desk in front of the astonished Belden. “You can trust me to
+take care of the premiums, can’t you?”
+
+“Your integrity I never doubted,” replied Belden, “and that obligation
+should be within your means.”
+
+“My rule of life shall be: the premiums first, the payments on the note
+next,” declared Lake. “If I fall behind in the latter, the security will
+still be good. I only ask that anything in excess of what may be due
+you, in case of my death, shall go to my wife, and she, of course,
+becomes the sole beneficiary the moment you are paid. But, for the love
+of heaven, hurry!”
+
+Instead of hurrying, Belden leaned back in his chair and looked at the
+young man with bewildered admiration.
+
+“Such ingenuity,” he said at last, “ought not to go unrewarded. As a
+strict business proposition, your plan would hardly find favor with a
+conservative banker, but, as a matter of friendship and confidence—” He
+reached for his check-book. “Such a head as yours is worth a risk,” he
+added a moment later.
+
+Lake reached the office of the Bington road at 11:30 on the day his
+option expired. The colonel was already there, waiting. So were some of
+the majority stock-holders. The colonel was confident and unusually
+loquacious.
+
+“Now that the matter is practically settled,” he remarked with the
+cheerful frankness of a man who has won, “I may admit that the young man
+had us up a tree. He succeeded in putting the other route through
+Bington practically beyond our reach, and forced us to take the risk of
+doing business with the minority stock-holders at a possible dead loss.
+But we knew he didn’t have the money, so we went ahead with our plans
+and our work without delay. A little ready cash—”
+
+It was then that Lake entered and deposited a small satchel on the long
+table.
+
+“I will take the stock under my option,” he announced briefly to such of
+the majority stock-holders as were present. “I think I have got all I
+need, with the exception of what is represented by you gentlemen. It has
+been a pretty busy morning for me.” He emptied the stock certificates
+already acquired and some bundles of bank-notes on the table. “Colonel,”
+he said with a joyous and triumphant laugh, “you’d better sit up and
+begin to take notice.”
+
+The colonel’s attitude and air of easy confidence already had changed,
+and his look of amazement and dismay was almost laughable.
+
+“Quick, gentlemen,” cautioned Lake, with a glance at the clock. “I’ve
+tendered the money in time, but I’ll feel a little more comfortable when
+I have the rest of the needed stock.”
+
+Like one in a dream the colonel leaned over the table and watched the
+transaction.
+
+“Do—do you want to sell some of that stock?” he asked at last.
+
+“No,” replied Lake; “I don’t want to sell some of it; I want to sell all
+of it.”
+
+“We don’t need all of it,” said the colonel.
+
+“Well, I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” returned Lake magnanimously. “I’ll
+sell you all or any part of it for fifty thousand dollars.”
+
+“On the basis of fifty thousand for your entire holdings?” asked the
+colonel.
+
+“No; at the set price of fifty thousand for whatever you take.”
+
+“Too much,” said the colonel.
+
+“As you please,” said Lake carelessly. “The price of the control of the
+Bington road goes up one thousand dollars a day. It’s dirt cheap at
+fifty thousand now, but, of course, if you don’t need it, Colonel, the
+bargain price doesn’t interest you.”
+
+The colonel did need it; in fact, the company, in its sublime
+confidence, had put itself in a position where failure to get it meant a
+considerable loss.
+
+“On second thought,” remarked Lake, “I’ll have to add a thousand to
+compensate me for the indignity of being called a half-baked financier.
+Do you remember that, Colonel?”
+
+“We’ll take it,” said the colonel resignedly. Then he added
+reflectively: “You’ve made a pretty good thing out of this, Lake.”
+
+“Fair, fair,” replied Lake. “After I’ve repaid the twenty thousand five
+hundred that I borrowed, I’ll have thirty thousand five hundred left,
+not to mention an insurance policy for twenty thousand in favor of my
+wife, with the first premium paid. You ought to study the insurance
+question, Colonel. There are wonderful financial possibilities in it,
+and some day, perhaps, you will wake up to the fact that insurance beat
+you in this deal.”
+
+
+
+
+AN INCIDENTAL FAVOR
+
+
+On the same day two women called to see Dave Murray in regard to the
+same matter, and that was the beginning of the trouble.
+
+The first was Mrs. Albert Vincent. The obituary columns of the morning
+papers had given a few lines to the death of Albert Vincent, but Murray
+had not expected to hear from his widow so promptly, and she was a
+little too businesslike to meet his idea as to the proprieties of the
+occasion. In fact, there was no indication of either outward mourning or
+inward grief.
+
+“Perhaps you will recall,” she said, without the slightest trace of
+emotion, “that I wrote to you some time ago to ask if the premiums on my
+husband’s insurance had been fully paid.”
+
+“I recall it,” replied Murray.
+
+“And you answered that they had been paid.”
+
+“I recall that also,” said Murray.
+
+“Well, he died last night,” explained the widow, “and I would like to
+know when I can get the insurance money.”
+
+Murray looked at her in amazement. He had had to deal with many people
+whom necessity made importunate, but never before had he met such
+cold-bloodedness as this woman displayed in tone and manner. Apparently,
+it was no more to her than a business investment, upon which she was now
+about to realize.
+
+“There are certain formalities necessary,” he said, “but there will be
+little delay after proper proof of death has been filed. You will, of
+course, have the attending physician—”
+
+“I don’t know who he is,” interrupted the woman.
+
+“You don’t know who he is!” repeated Murray in astonishment.
+
+“No. But I will find out and see him at once. It is important that there
+shall be as little delay as possible.”
+
+Previous experiences made Murray quick at jumping to conclusions in such
+cases, and he now thought he had the explanation of this unusually
+prompt call. The woman was stylishly dressed, but that was no proof that
+she had the ready cash essential at such a time.
+
+“I think I understand,” said Murray delicately. “You can not meet the
+expenses incident to—”
+
+“I have nothing to do with any expenses,” the woman again interrupted
+coldly. “_She_ looked after him in life, and she can look after him
+now.”
+
+“She!” exclaimed Murray. “Who?”
+
+“The nurse,” replied the woman scornfully. “But she can’t have the
+insurance—not a cent of it. And that’s what she has been after.”
+
+“Let me understand this,” said Murray thoughtfully. “You and your
+husband have not been living together?”
+
+“Not for five years.”
+
+“And this other woman?”
+
+“She was an old flame, and she went to him when he became ill.”
+
+“Did he send for you?”
+
+“No. He knew better than to do that. But the insurance is in my name,
+and I’m going to have it—all of it. That’s my right, isn’t it?”
+
+“Yes,” replied Murray slowly; “I’m sorry to say that is your absolute
+right.” The supreme selfishness and heartlessness of the woman were
+revolting to Murray. “The policy names you as beneficiary, and when it
+is presented, with proof of death, the money will have to be paid to
+you.”
+
+“How am I to get the policy?” asked the woman. “He had it put away
+somewhere.”
+
+“That is a matter upon which I can not undertake to advise you,” replied
+Murray.
+
+“Anyhow,” declared the woman defiantly, for Murray’s words and
+expression showed his disapprobation, “I want to serve notice on you
+that not one cent of the money is to be paid to any one else. It would
+be just like that nurse to try to get it.”
+
+“You shall have every cent to which you are entitled,” replied Murray
+with frigid courtesy, “but nothing is to be gained by further
+discussion.”
+
+“I suppose,” exclaimed the woman with sharp resentfulness, “that your
+sympathies are with that shameless nurse.”
+
+“I don’t know,” returned Murray quietly. “I’m not at all sure that your
+husband was not the one who was most entitled to sympathy.”
+
+It was unlike Murray to speak thus brutally, but the woman irritated
+him. Many were the examples of selfishness that had come to his notice,
+but this seemed to him a little worse than any of the others. That she
+had been living apart from her husband might be due to no fault of hers,
+but she impressed him as being a vain, vindictive, mercenary woman, with
+no thought above the rather gaudy clothes she wore—just the kind to
+demand everything and give nothing. Certainly her actions showed that
+she lacked all the finer sensibilities that one naturally associates
+with true women. No matter what might lie back of it all, common decency
+should have prevented her from making such a display of her own small
+soul at such a time. At least, so Murray thought.
+
+“She is the kind of woman who marries a man’s bank account,” he mused,
+“and considers the inability to supply her with all the money she wants
+as the first evidence of incompatibility of temper. Some women think
+they want a husband when they really only want an accommodating banker.”
+
+Murray was still musing in this strain when the second woman called.
+Unlike the first, this woman gave some evidence of grief and mourning:
+her eyes showed that she had been weeping, and her attire, although not
+the regulation mourning, was as near to it as a scanty wardrobe would
+permit on short notice. But she was self-possessed, and spoke with
+patient resignation.
+
+“Necessity,” she explained, “has compelled me to come to see you at this
+time about Albert Vincent’s life insurance policy.”
+
+“Oh!” exclaimed Murray thoughtlessly, “you are the nurse!”
+
+“Yes,” she replied quietly, after one startled look, “I am the nurse. I
+infer that Mrs. Vincent has been here.”
+
+“She has just left,” said Murray.
+
+“Her attentions,” said the nurse bitterly, “have been confined to an
+effort to get prompt news of her husband’s death.”
+
+Murray knew instinctively that a little drama of life was opening before
+him, but his duty was clear.
+
+“Nevertheless,” he said, “the policy is in her name.”
+
+“In her name!” cried the nurse. “Why, he told me—” Then she stopped
+short. She would not betray his perfidy, even if he had been false to
+her.
+
+“What did he tell you?” asked Murray kindly.
+
+“No matter,” answered the nurse. “I—I only wanted enough to defray
+the—the necessary expenses. That’s why I came. There isn’t a cent—not a
+cent. Even the little money I had has been used, and there are debts—But
+she’ll pay, of course.”
+
+Murray was deeply distressed. Mrs. Albert Vincent was so bitter—possibly
+with justification, although he did not like to believe it—that she
+would do nothing; her feeling was simply one of deep resentment that
+even death could not allay. But he hesitated to say so.
+
+“Let me understand this matter a little better,” he said at last. “I am
+sincerely anxious to be of any assistance possible, but the
+circumstances are unusual.”
+
+The nurse fought a brief battle with herself in silence. To bare the
+details of the story was like uncovering her heart to the world, but she
+saw the sympathy in Murray’s eyes, and she was personally helpless in a
+most trying emergency. She sorely needed a guiding hand.
+
+“Albert and I were engaged to be married,” she said at last, with simple
+frankness. “We had some trifling quarrel, and then this woman came
+between us. He was not rich, but he had some property and excellent
+prospects, and—well, they were married. It was an elopement—a matter of
+momentary pique, he told me afterward. God knows I never tried to
+interfere with their married life, and she had no reason to be jealous
+of me. I did not even see either of them, except at rare intervals, for
+a long time, but she could not forget or forgive the fact that we had
+been a great deal to each other. And she was selfish and extravagant. I
+am merely repeating the judgment of her own friends in this, for I do
+not wish to be unjust to her, even now. After I had forsaken society and
+become a trained nurse I heard something of their troubles: they were
+living beyond his income, and his income did not increase according to
+expectations. Perhaps the worry of such conditions made him less capable
+of improving his opportunities. At any rate, her extravagance created a
+great deal of comment, and he has told me since that they quarreled
+frequently over financial matters. Then I heard that they had separated
+and that he had given her nearly all of the little he had left. I was
+not trying to keep track of them or pry into their affairs, but there
+were mutual friends, and I could not help hearing what was common
+gossip. But I studiously avoided any chance of meeting either of
+them—until I heard that he was sick and alone. Then I went to him and
+cared for him. It was not proper, you will say? Perhaps not. It put me
+in a false position and invited scandal? Perhaps it did. But I went, and
+I would go again; I was there to soothe his last moments; I was with him
+when all others had forsaken him, and there is nothing in this life that
+I would not sacrifice for the glory of that memory!”
+
+The light of self-sacrificing love shone in her eyes as she made this
+final declaration, and Murray did not trust himself to speak for a
+moment or two. The story had been told so quietly, so simply, that the
+sudden emphasis at the conclusion was almost irresistible in the
+sublimity of its self-denying love. The great contrast between the two
+women made it all the stronger.
+
+“I shall consider it my personal privilege,” replied Murray, “to see
+that everything possible is done.”
+
+“Thank you,” said the nurse.
+
+“But there are still some points that will have to be cleared up,”
+continued Murray. “What made you think the policy was in your name?”
+
+“He told me he would have it changed, so that I could pay all the bills
+in case of his death,” said the nurse.
+
+“Possibly,” remarked Murray, “he thought he could, but to permit a
+change in the beneficiary without the consent of the original
+beneficiary would be a blow at the very structure of life insurance. It
+would put a true and devoted wife at the absolute mercy of an
+unscrupulous or thoughtless husband: he could change the policy without
+her knowledge; he could sell it for the cash-surrender value; he could
+transfer it to a loan-shark to meet his personal or business needs—in
+fact, it would be no more than so much stock that could be reached by
+any creditor, and the trusting wife might find herself penniless. In
+this particular case the inability to make such a change may work
+injustice, but the ability to make it would work far greater injustice
+in practically all other instances. Mr. Vincent may have thought he
+could do this, and it is the very exceptional case when I most heartily
+wish it had been possible, but he doubtless made inquiries and found
+that it was not. When the beneficiary can be deprived of her interest
+without her knowledge and consent the value of insurance will be gone.”
+
+“Then that is what he learned,” she remarked, as if a question had been
+answered. “He was dreadfully worried before he became too ill to give
+much thought to business matters,” she added by way of explanation. “I
+thought it was because I was using my own little hoard to pay expenses,
+and, on the doctor’s advice, I went with him twice in a cab to see about
+some things that were worrying him, although even then he had no
+business to leave his bed. It was the lesser of two evils, the doctor
+said, for his mental distress was affecting his physical condition
+seriously. He said he never could rest until he had provided for those
+who had been good to him in adversity. But he didn’t mean me!” she
+exclaimed quickly. “He meant the doctor and some others who had been
+generous in the matter of credit. He knew why I—” She paused a moment,
+and then added: “But he wanted the others paid, and there was no one
+else he could trust.”
+
+“I quite understand,” said Murray encouragingly.
+
+“He made me stay in the cab both times,” she went on, “and the second
+time—when he had me sign his wife’s name—he seemed—”
+
+“Had you sign his wife’s name!” exclaimed Murray. “To what?”
+
+“I don’t know,” she answered. “It was a formality, he said, to
+straighten out some tangle, so I did it. I would have done anything to
+ease his mind and get him back to bed.”
+
+Murray gave a low whistle. He was beginning to understand the situation.
+
+“Pardon me, Miss—” he said.
+
+“Miss Bronson—Amy Bronson,” she explained.
+
+Murray had heard of Miss Bronson some years before. She had suddenly
+given up society to become a trained nurse, and there had been vague
+rumors of an unhappy love affair. Later, her father’s death had left her
+dependent upon her own resources, and society had commented on what a
+fortunate thing it was that she had already chosen an occupation and
+fitted herself for it. He never had known her, and only a bare
+suggestion of the story had come to his notice, but it was sufficient to
+make him more than ever her champion now.
+
+“Miss Bronson,” he said, “I fear there are greater complications here
+than I had supposed. Did Mr. Vincent get any money on either of those
+trips?”
+
+“Yes. On the second he told me that he closed up an old deal, and he was
+more contented after that. After the first he was so dreadfully
+disturbed, that I never dared ask him any questions.”
+
+“Do you know where the insurance policy is?”
+
+“No. I searched for it before coming here, but could find no trace of
+it.”
+
+Murray was as considerate as the circumstances would permit, but he had
+become suddenly business-like. Aside from the question of sympathy, the
+matter was now one to interest him deeply. He had been groping blindly
+before, but with light came the possibility of action.
+
+“You are alone?” he asked.
+
+“Entirely so.”
+
+“If you will go back,” said Murray, reaching for his desk telephone,
+“Mrs. Murray will be there as soon as a cab can carry her. I would go
+myself, but I think I can be of better service to you for the moment by
+remaining here.”
+
+As soon as she had gone and he had telephoned to his wife, Murray made
+some inquiries of the clerks in the outer office and learned of a sick
+man who had asked about the possibility of changing the beneficiary of a
+policy. The visit had been made some time before, but the man was so
+evidently ill and in such deep distress that the circumstances had been
+impressed on the mind of the clerk who had answered his questions.
+
+“That accounts for one trip,” mused Murray. “Now for the loan-shark that
+he saw on the other. We’ll hear from him pretty soon, and then there
+will be some lively times.”
+
+Murray had had experience with the ways of loan-sharks before, and he
+was confident that he now had the whole story. Vincent was out of money
+and desperate; he knew that Miss Bronson had been using her own money,
+and that not one cent of it would his wife pay back; he had tried to
+have the beneficiary of the policy changed, and had failed. Then,
+determined to get something out of the policy, he had gone to a
+loan-shark. The unscrupulous money-lender, getting an exorbitant rate of
+interest, could afford to be less particular about the wife’s signature.
+He would run the risk of forgery, confident that the policy would be
+redeemed to prevent a scandal, no matter what happened. Indeed, in some
+cases a loan-shark would a little rather have a forgery than the genuine
+signature, for it gives him an additional hold on the interested parties
+and lessens the likelihood of a resort to law over the question of
+usurious interest.
+
+“The scoundrel will come,” said Murray, and the scoundrel came by
+invitation. A formal notification that he held an assignment of the
+policy arrived first, and that gave his name and address and enabled
+Murray to telephone him. A loan-shark does not lose much time in matters
+of this sort. Neither did Murray in this case, for his invitation to
+call was prompt and imperative, even to setting the exact time for the
+call. And a message was sent to Mrs. Albert Vincent, also.
+
+“What’s your interest in that policy?” asked Murray.
+
+“A thousand dollars,” replied the money-lender.
+
+“A thousand dollars!” ejaculated the startled Murray. “What the devil
+did he do with the money?”
+
+“That is something that does not concern me,” said the money-lender
+carelessly.
+
+The confidence and carelessness of the reply recalled Murray to a
+consciousness of the situation. He had a sharp and hard game to play
+with a clever and unscrupulous man.
+
+“How much did you loan him?” he demanded.
+
+“The note is for a thousand dollars,” was the prompt reply.
+
+“How much did you loan him, Shylock?” repeated Murray, and the
+money-lender was startled out of his complacent confidence.
+
+“I didn’t come here to be insulted!” he exclaimed. “I hold the policy
+and the assignment of it as security. If you can’t talk business, as man
+to man, I’ll quit and leave the matter to a lawyer.”
+
+“If you put one foot outside of that door,” retorted Murray, “we’ll
+fight this matter to a finish, Shylock, and we’ll get some points on
+your business methods. Come back and sit down.”
+
+The money-lender had made a pretense of leaving, but he paused and met
+the cold, hard look of Murray. Then he came back.
+
+“Of course, we take risks,” he said apologetically.
+
+“Mighty few,” commented Murray uncompromisingly.
+
+“If a man has security that is good at the bank he won’t come to us,”
+persisted the money-lender. “We have to protect ourselves for the
+additional risk.”
+
+“By getting a man to put himself in the shadow of the penitentiary,”
+said Murray. “I know all about you people, Shylock. How much did you
+loan?”
+
+The money-lender was angered almost to the point of defiance—but not
+quite. Loan-sharks do not easily reach that point: the very nature of
+their business makes it inadvisable, except when some poor devil is in
+their power.
+
+“Oh, of course, if it’s a personal matter with you,” he said, “I might
+scale it a little. The note is for a thousand dollars, with various
+incidental charges that make it now a thousand and eighty dollars. I
+might knock off a hundred from that.”
+
+“How much did you loan him, Shylock?” repeated Murray.
+
+“Nine hundred dollars,” answered the money-lender in desperation.
+
+“Shylock,” said Murray with cold deliberation, “I know you people. If I
+didn’t, I might ask to see the canceled check, but that would prove
+nothing. You give a check for the full amount, but the man has to put up
+a cash bonus when he gets it. How much did you loan him?”
+
+“I’ll stand on the note,” declared the money-lender angrily. “I know my
+rights, and I can be as ugly as you. The note is signed by himself and
+his wife, and you’ll have a hard time going back of it.”
+
+Murray touched a bell and a boy answered.
+
+“Ask Mrs. Vincent to step in here,” said Murray.
+
+The money-lender was plainly disconcerted, but he was not unaccustomed
+to hard battles, so he nerved himself to bluff the thing through, it
+being too late to do anything else.
+
+“Mrs. Vincent,” said Murray, when the woman appeared, “I have found the
+insurance policy.”
+
+“Where is it?” she asked eagerly.
+
+“Mr. Shylock,”—with a motion toward the money-lender,—“holds it.”
+
+“Give it to me, Mr. Shylock,” demanded Mrs. Vincent, who was not a woman
+to grasp the bitter insult of the name, and her innocent repetition of
+it added to the anger of the man. Still, the habit of never letting his
+personal feelings interfere with business was strong within him.
+
+“I must be paid first,” he said.
+
+“Paid!” she cried. “What is there to pay? The insurance money is mine!”
+
+“I hold a note,” insisted the money-lender.
+
+“What’s that to me?” she retorted. “Do you think I’m going to pay his
+debts? I didn’t contract them; I wasn’t with him; he left me years ago!
+Let _her_ look out for the debts! Give me the policy or I’ll have you
+arrested!”
+
+The woman was wildly and covetously excited: she would not rest easy
+until the actual possession of the money assured her that there was no
+possibility of a slip. The money-lender, too, was anxious. Murray alone
+seemed to be taking the matter quietly, for these two were now playing
+the game for him, although the details required his close attention. A
+very slight miscalculation might carry it beyond his control.
+
+“It’s assigned to me,” said the money-lender with a pretense of
+confidence. “I have your signature.”
+
+“It’s a lie!” she cried.
+
+“Oh, no,” interrupted Murray quietly; “it’s a forgery.”
+
+“That woman!” exclaimed Mrs. Vincent. “She stole my name as well as my
+husband!”
+
+“That man,” corrected Murray. “He did it for the woman who did so much
+for him. He would have given her all, if he could.”
+
+Murray had reason to know that it was the nurse, but he lied cheerfully
+in what he considered a good cause. They were getting to the critical
+and dangerous point in the game he was playing: the widow would be
+merciless to the nurse.
+
+“It’s a forgery, anyway!” declared Mrs. Vincent. “I won’t pay a cent!”
+
+“I’ll sue,” said the money-lender threateningly.
+
+“Well, sue!” she cried. “What do I care? You can’t get anything on a
+forgery. I guess I know that much.”
+
+“It will make a scandal,” said the money-lender insinuatingly.
+
+“Let it,” she retorted angrily.
+
+They were again making points for Murray, each showing the weakness of
+the other’s position, so Murray merely watched and waited.
+
+“If there is another woman in the case,” persisted the money-lender, who
+had been quick to grasp the significance of the previous remarks, “the
+shame and disgrace—”
+
+“What do I care?” she interrupted. “The disgrace is for her.”
+
+“And for him,” said the money-lender. “I can make him out a forger.”
+
+“It won’t give you the money,” she argued.
+
+“It will make you the widow of a criminal,” he threatened. “How would
+you like the disgrace of that? And the other things! If I have to go to
+court the whole scandal will be revealed and the very name you bear will
+be a shame! The widow of a forger! A woman who could not hold her
+husband! An object of pitying contempt, so small that she would not pay
+an honest debt to protect the name that is hers!” In his anxiety not to
+lose, the money-lender became almost eloquent in picturing possible
+conditions. No other sentiment or emotion could have given him this
+power. And he saw that the effect was not lost upon the woman, for no
+one knew better than she the harm the exploitation of the whole
+miserable story would do. Even a blameless woman can not entirely escape
+the obloquy that attaches to the name she bears, and there had been
+enough already to make it difficult for Mrs. Vincent to retain a
+position on the fringe of society. “Of course,” he went on, “if you’d
+rather stand this than pay, there is nothing for me to do but leave and
+put the matter in the hands of a lawyer.”
+
+“Wait a minute, Shylock,” interrupted Murray. “Mrs. Vincent is going to
+pay—something.”
+
+“Pay money that he got for _her_!” she exclaimed with sudden
+resentfulness. “She’s the forger, anyway; I know it!”
+
+“Did you ever see her, Shylock?” asked Murray.
+
+“He came alone,” replied the money-lender, “with the assignment of
+policy ready, and he swore to it.”
+
+“That settles that,” said Murray with apparent conviction. “It would be
+a thankless task to try to prove that any one else forged the signature,
+and neither one of you is in a position to seek any court notoriety.
+Now, Shylock, after deducting the bonus and all trumped-up charges, how
+much did you loan?”
+
+“Nine hundred dollars,” said the money-lender desperately.
+
+“Try again, Shylock,” urged Murray. “You never loaned any such sum under
+any such circumstances.”
+
+“If you don’t stop insulting me,” exclaimed the money-lender angrily,
+“I’ll quit right now and take my chances with the law.”
+
+“You haven’t any chances with the law, Shylock,” retorted Murray. “You
+can make a scandal, but you can’t get a damn cent. That’s why you’re
+going to be reasonable. How much did you loan? You’d better be honest
+with me, for it’s your only chance.”
+
+“I’ll take eight hundred dollars, with the interest charges.”
+
+“You’ll take an even seven hundred dollars,” said Murray.
+
+“But the interest!” cried the money-lender. “Don’t I get any interest?”
+
+“Aha!” exclaimed Murray. “I guessed it right, didn’t I? That’s just what
+you loaned. You see, others have hypothecated policies with you people,
+and I’ve learned something of the business. There are more peculiar
+deals tried with insurance policies than with any other form of
+security. But you don’t get any interest, Shylock: you get your
+principal back, and you’re lucky to get that.”
+
+“It’s robbery!” complained the money-lender.
+
+“It’s generosity,” said Murray. “You ought to lose it all.”
+
+“I won’t pay it!” declared Mrs. Vincent, and Murray turned sharply to
+her.
+
+“Mrs. Vincent,” he said, “you will pay this sum to Shylock out of the
+policy, and you will pay all the bills, including the cost of the
+funeral, which I advanced. You will not do this as a matter of
+generosity, or even of justice, but from purely selfish motives. If you,
+being able to prevent it, permitted this scandal to come to light, you
+would be eternally disgraced: doors would be closed to you everywhere.
+God knows it is bad enough as it is, but this would make it infinitely
+worse. Even where no real blame attaches to her, there is always
+criticism and contempt for the woman who lets another take her husband
+from her, and a repudiation of the expenses of his last illness or any
+other bills, when you are getting the insurance, would condemn you
+absolutely in the eyes of all people who knew the circumstances. For
+this reason, you are going to do what I say, and you are going to make
+the necessary arrangements now. For similar selfish reasons, Shylock is
+going to do what I say, and he is going to make the necessary
+arrangements now. If either of you balk at the terms, I’ll drop the
+whole matter and let you fight it out, to your mutual trouble and loss.”
+
+Neither dared take the risk, for each feared that, without Murray, the
+other would gain the advantage. Neither was in a position to defy the
+other, and Murray had forced concessions from each that the other could
+not. He was clearly master of the situation.
+
+“Do you accept the terms?” he demanded. “If not, get out!”
+
+“It’s brutal, outrageous!” declared the woman.
+
+“A swindle!” exclaimed the man.
+
+“That will do, Shylock,” cautioned Murray. “There is nothing to be said
+except ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and only thirty seconds in which to say that. I’ve
+reached the limit of my patience.”
+
+He took out his watch and began to count the seconds.
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+When they were gone Murray sent for Amy Bronson, the nurse.
+
+“I was just coming to see you,” she explained when she arrived. “I
+finally found a note hidden away among Albert’s effects. It contained
+five one hundred-dollar bills and the scribbled line, ‘I have tried to
+do more for you, but can not.’”
+
+“I didn’t see how he could have spent all the money,” mused Murray.
+
+“Now I can pay the bills,” she said.
+
+“No,” said Murray. “A memorandum of all that he owed is to be sent to
+me. Mrs. Vincent will pay everything.”
+
+“Mrs. Vincent!” cried the nurse. “Impossible! I couldn’t have so
+misjudged her.”
+
+“I don’t think you misjudged her,” returned Murray,
+“but,”—whimsically,—“I’m a wonder at argument. You ought to hear me
+argue. Mrs. Vincent decided to take my view of the matter with the
+insurance.”
+
+“But the five hundred dollars!” said Miss Bronson.
+
+“Keep it,” said Murray. “He intended it for you, and it is little
+enough. I’m only sorry that the ten-thousand-dollar policy is not for
+you, also, but it is one of the incidental hardships that arise from an
+ordinarily wise provision of the law.”
+
+The nurse’s lip quivered and the tears came to her eyes.
+
+“I was an entire stranger to you, Mr. Murray,” she said, “but you have
+been very good to me when I most needed a friend. I—I don’t know how I
+can—”
+
+“I have been amply repaid for all I have done,” said Murray.
+
+“How?” she asked in surprise.
+
+“I have had the royal satisfaction,” he answered, “of compelling an
+unscrupulous man and a selfish woman to do a fairly creditable thing; I
+have had the joy of showing my contempt for them in my very method of
+doing this.”
+
+She did not quite understand, her gratitude making her blind to all else
+at the moment.
+
+“And also,” added Murray to himself, when she had gone, “the great
+satisfaction of saving a devoted woman from the consequences of at least
+one of her acts of devotion. Forgery is a serious matter, regardless of
+the circumstances.”
+
+
+
+
+AN INCIDENTAL ERROR
+
+
+“It’s mighty awkward,” said Owen Ross, the insurance solicitor.
+
+“It is,” admitted Dave Murray.
+
+“I’ve been after him for over six months,” persisted Ross, “and now,
+after urging him persistently to take out a policy, I have got to tell
+him that we won’t give him one. That would be hard enough if he had
+sought us out, and it’s ten times as hard when we have sought him. Why,
+it looks as if we were playing a heartless practical joke on him.”
+
+“But it can’t be helped,” said Murray. “It’s one of the disagreeable
+features of the business. We convince a man that it’s to his interest to
+carry life insurance, and then we tell him he can’t have any. Naturally,
+from his prejudiced viewpoint, we seem to be contemptibly insincere and
+deceitful.”
+
+“Of course, we are in no sense shortening his life,” remarked Ross, “but
+it seems like pronouncing a sentence of death, just the same. He is sure
+to make an awful row about it.”
+
+“One man,” said Murray reminiscently, “fell dead in this office when his
+application was refused. The shock killed him, but there was no way to
+avoid giving him the shock. However, that was an exceptional case: I
+never knew of another to succumb, although it must be admitted that the
+news that one is destined not to live long is distressing and
+depressing.”
+
+“What’s the reason for refusing Tucker?” asked Ross.
+
+“There are several reasons,” replied Murray. “The physician reports
+heart murmur, which indicates some latent trouble that is almost certain
+to develop into a serious affection.”
+
+“May not the physician be wrong?”
+
+“He is paid to be right, but, of course, we are all liable to make
+mistakes, and it can’t be denied that heart murmur is deceptive. I’ve
+known men to be the subject of unfavorable reports at one hour of the
+day and most favorable ones at another. The occupation immediately
+preceding the examination may develop symptoms that are normally absent.
+However, I would not feel justified in accepting this application, even
+if the report were favorable.”
+
+“Why not?” demanded Ross.
+
+“The amount of insurance he wishes to carry would make him worth more
+dead than alive, which is a condition of affairs that an insurance
+company dislikes.” Murray became reminiscent again. “I recall one such
+risk,” he went on. “The man found the premiums a greater burden than he
+could carry, so he died.”
+
+“Suicide!” exclaimed Ross.
+
+“Oh, no,” replied Murray, with a peculiar smile; “merely a mistake. But,
+if you will put yourself in that man’s place, you will see how the
+mistake could happen. He was carrying twenty-five thousand dollars of
+insurance, and he wasn’t worth twenty-five cents at the time, owing to
+some recent reverses. He was ill, but was not considered dangerously
+ill. Still, he was depressed, believing apparently that he would not
+recover and knowing that he had not the money for the next premium. If
+he died before a certain date there would be twenty-five thousand
+dollars for his wife and children; if he died after that date there
+would be comparatively little. Now, in imagination, just assume the
+problem that confronted that man on a certain night: twenty-four hours
+of life for him meant a future of privation for his wife, if he did not
+recover and prosper, while immediate death for him meant comfort for
+those he loved. Picture yourself contemplating that prospect while lying
+weak and discouraged in the sick-room, with various bottles—one labeled
+‘Poison’—within reach. A poison may have medicinal value when properly
+used, you know, but what more natural than that you should make a
+mistake in the gloom of the night while the tired nurse is dozing? It is
+so easy to get the wrong bottle—to take the poison instead of the
+tonic—and it solves a most distressing problem. A drop of the poison is
+beneficial; a teaspoonful is death; and the tonic is to be taken in
+large doses.” Murray paused a moment to let the terrible nature of the
+situation impress itself on Ross. Then he added quietly: “We paid the
+insurance, although the timeliness of the accident did not escape
+comment. The same mistake twenty-four hours later would not have had the
+same financial result. Now, do you understand why I would not care to
+put fifty thousand dollars on the life of Tucker, even if he were
+physically satisfactory? Unexpected reverses may make any man worth more
+dead than alive, but we seldom contribute knowingly to such a condition
+of affairs. It isn’t prudent. While the average man is not disposed to
+shorten his life to beat an insurance company, it isn’t wise to put the
+temptation in his way unless you are very sure of your man.”
+
+“Well, we needn’t explain that to Tucker,” said Ross.
+
+“No,” returned Murray. “We can put the whole thing on the basis of the
+physician’s report.”
+
+“I wish you would break the news to him,” urged Ross. “You can do it
+with better grace, for you were not instrumental in getting him to put
+in his application. He’ll be up here to-day.”
+
+“Oh, very well,” returned Murray. “I’ll see him when he comes.”
+
+Though the task was far from pleasant, Murray had been long enough in
+the business to take matters philosophically. One must accustom oneself
+to the disagreeable features of any occupation, for there is none that
+is entirely pleasurable.
+
+Tucker, however, did not make this interview disagreeable in the way
+that was expected: instead of becoming discouraged and depressed, he
+became indignant.
+
+“What’s that?” he cried. “You don’t consider me a good risk?”
+
+“I am sorry to say,” returned Murray, “that our physician does not
+report favorably on you.”
+
+“Oh, he doesn’t!” exclaimed Tucker. “Well, that’s a good joke on the
+doctor, isn’t it?”
+
+“What!”
+
+“You’d better discharge him and get a man with some sense.”
+
+“I thought,” said Murray dubiously, “that it might seem rather hard on
+you.”
+
+“Hard on me!” ejaculated Tucker. “Hard on the company, you mean! You’re
+letting a little two-by-four doctor steer you away from a good thing.
+Why, say! I’m good for as long a life as an elephant!”
+
+“I’m sure I hope so.”
+
+“It’s robbery—plain robbery—for that doctor to take a fee from you for
+making such a report on me. I’ll show him up!”
+
+“How?” asked Murray curiously.
+
+“By living!” declared Tucker. “It’s going to give me infinite pleasure
+to report to you from time to time and show you one of the healthiest
+men that ever was turned down by an insurance company. He can’t scare me
+into a decline—not any! And, say! he looks to me like a young man.”
+
+“He is.”
+
+“A young man in fine physical condition.”
+
+“He is.”
+
+“Well, I’ll go to his funeral, and I’ll be in prime condition when he’s
+put away! You tell him that, will you? I’ll be walking when he has to be
+carried.”
+
+Now, this was rather annoying to Murray. It was preferable to the
+despair that overwhelmed some men in similar circumstances, but it
+seemed to him that Tucker was overdoing it.
+
+“Anyhow,” said Murray resentfully, “we would not care to put fifty
+thousand dollars on your life, for it’s more than a man in your position
+ought to carry. You’ll never be worth as much alive as you would be
+dead, with that insurance.”
+
+“Oh, I won’t!” retorted Tucker sarcastically. “Well, now, instead of
+making the girl I am to marry a present of a policy on my life, I’ll
+just make her a present of your whole blamed company in a few years. You
+watch what I do with the money you might have had!”
+
+“You are about to marry?” asked Murray with interest. “It’s a serious
+matter, in view of the physician’s report.”
+
+“Marriage is always a serious matter,” asserted Tucker. “I don’t have to
+have a doctor tell me that. But he can’t scare me out with flubdub about
+heart murmur, for I know the heart was murmuring, and the prospective
+Mrs. Tucker does, too. She’ll interpret that murmur for him any time he
+wants a little enlightenment.”
+
+Murray laughed when Tucker had gone. The man’s indignation had been
+momentarily irritating, but there was something amusing about it, too.
+
+“He’s going to live to a green old age, just to spite the company,”
+mused Murray. “It’s a matter of no great personal interest to him, but
+he’d like to make the company feel bad. If a man could order his life as
+he can his business affairs, there would be mighty little chance for
+us.”
+
+Meanwhile, Tucker was hastening to the home of Miss Frances Greer.
+
+“I’ve come to release you,” he announced cheerfully.
+
+“But I don’t want to be released,” she returned.
+
+“Of course not,” he said. “I didn’t suppose you would. But you might
+just as well know that you’re getting a poor risk.”
+
+“What do you mean?” she asked.
+
+“Why, I wanted to put fifty thousand dollars on my life, as a precaution
+for the future, and the fool of an insurance doctor turned me down.”
+
+“What do I care about the doctor!” she exclaimed.
+
+“Not a thing, of course.”
+
+“Or insurance!”
+
+“Still less.”
+
+“And,” she said happily, “you’re a good enough risk for me.”
+
+Then they went into executive session and decided that insurance doctors
+didn’t know anything, anyway. But they did not forget Dave Murray, and
+they did not let Dave Murray forget them: he heard from them indirectly
+in the most annoying ways. His wife informed him less than a week later
+that she had met Miss Greer at a reception.
+
+“A most extraordinary girl!” his wife remarked. “I can’t understand her
+at all. She asked me in a most ingenuous way if I ever had noticed any
+indications of heart murmur about you.
+
+“‘Never,’ said I.
+
+“‘Not even in the engagement days when he was making love?’ she
+insisted.
+
+“‘Not even then,’ I answered, bewildered.
+
+“‘He couldn’t have been much of a lover,’ she remarked.”
+
+Murray laughed and explained the situation to his wife. But Murray would
+have been better pleased if the two women had not met, for he had no
+desire to have this case perpetually present in the more intimate
+associations of life. However, he had to make the best of it, even when
+he was invited to the wedding, to which his wife insisted that he should
+go. She had discovered that the bride was related to an intimate friend
+of her own girlhood days, and the bride further showed flattering
+gratification in this discovery. She was especially gracious to Murray.
+
+“I want to ask you a question,” she told him.
+
+Thereupon Murray made heroic efforts to escape before she could find a
+suitable opportunity, but she beckoned him back whenever he got near the
+door.
+
+“Mama,” she said finally, for this happened during the wedding
+reception, and her mother stood near her, “I wish you would take charge
+of Mr. Murray and see that he doesn’t run away. I have something very
+important to say to him before Ralph and I leave.”
+
+Thus the unhappy Murray was held until the bride and groom were ready to
+depart, when the bride finally succeeded in getting him alone for a
+minute.
+
+“I wanted to ask you, as a particular favor to me,” she said
+appealingly, “to let Ralph live a little while—that is, if your doctor
+won’t make too big a row about it.”
+
+Then she laughed merrily. There could be no doubt at all that Mrs. Ralph
+Tucker refused absolutely to worry about the health of Mr. Ralph Tucker;
+she had simply put the doctor down as an ignoramus. And Mr. Ralph
+Tucker’s appearance certainly was not that of a man in poor physical
+condition. However, Murray knew how deceptive appearances may be, and,
+while no physician is infallible, it is necessary to rely on their
+judgment. Nor was it a joking matter, in his opinion. He was glad that
+the young people could look at the future without misgivings, but a
+really serious matter ought not to be treated so lightly.
+
+It was about a week later that a note came to Murray from Mrs. Tucker.
+
+“So grateful to you for sparing Ralph so long,” it read.
+
+Murray crumpled it up and, with some rather warm remarks, threw it in
+the waste-basket.
+
+“Why did I relieve Ross of his disagreeable task?” he grumbled.
+
+Then he began to count the days that would precede their return from the
+bridal trip, for he was sure they would call on him. There could be no
+doubt that Mrs. Tucker had deliberately planned to make things as
+uncomfortable for him as possible, and there was every reason to believe
+that Tucker himself was aiding and abetting her.
+
+“It isn’t fair,” he muttered, “to make it appear that this is a personal
+matter with me. The Lord knows I haven’t anything to do with his lease
+of life.”
+
+This was just after he had received a telegram to the effect that “the
+patient is doing as well as can be expected,” and Ross, who happened in
+the office at the time, noticed that his chief looked at him
+reproachfully.
+
+“What’s the matter?” asked Ross.
+
+“Hereafter,” returned Murray morosely, “my solicitors have got to carry
+their own burdens. If Tucker and his wife put me in an insane asylum,
+the administrator of my estate will surely sue you for big damages. I
+never thought I was getting a life sentence when I let you unload on
+me.”
+
+The physician also noticed a growing coolness and was moved to ask what
+was wrong.
+
+“Didn’t you make a mistake in the Tucker case?” Murray inquired by way
+of reply. “I don’t wish Tucker any harm, but I’m doomed to an early
+death if he isn’t.”
+
+“I don’t see what his life has to do with yours,” retorted the doctor.
+
+“That’s because you don’t know Mrs. Tucker,” replied Murray.
+
+“He was an impossible risk,” asserted the doctor. “The indications of
+serious trouble may entirely disappear, under favorable conditions of
+life, but they were there when I made the examination. Ours is not yet
+an exact science, and the human system frequently fools us. You recall
+the Denton case, don’t you?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“At twenty the doctors, including his family physician, gave him not
+more than two or three years to live, and at twenty-five he was
+considered a good risk for any insurance company. He is nearly
+thirty-five now, has one policy in this company, and we would be glad to
+let him have another.”
+
+“Oh, you’re all right, Doctor, of course,” returned Murray. “We must be
+careful to err on the safe side, if we err at all, in this business. But
+I wish the Tuckers would transfer their attentions to you. I’ll be
+tempted to jump out of the window when I see them coming in the door.”
+
+The Tuckers, however, were not to be escaped. After an interval of about
+three weeks they sent him another telegram, which read: “If we retire to
+a ranch, will you lengthen the lease of life a little?” Then they came
+back and called on him.
+
+“So kind of you to let us have this trip,” said Mrs. Tucker with every
+evidence of deep gratitude. “Poor Ralph appreciates it.”
+
+Poor Ralph was looking as big and strong and happy as it was possible
+for a man to look, and Murray was correspondingly uncomfortable.
+
+“The premiums on fifty thousand dollars would have been pretty heavy,”
+remarked Tucker with a cheerful grin.
+
+“Yes,” admitted Murray weakly.
+
+“I had a tidy little sum put aside to care for them,” Tucker explained.
+“We thought it would interest your company to know that we put that
+money into a small ranch out west, so it is entirely out of reach now.
+You don’t mind my choosing a restful place for my early demise, do you?”
+
+“Now, see here!” cried Murray, but Mrs. Tucker interrupted him.
+
+“Oh, he wouldn’t be so cruel as that!” she exclaimed. “Show him what the
+doctor said, Ralph.”
+
+Tucker spread a sheet of paper on the desk before Murray, and the latter
+read: “This is to certify that I have made a careful examination of
+Ralph Tucker, and I believe him to be in excellent physical condition. I
+attach slight importance to the indications of incipient heart trouble,
+which, with reasonable care and proper treatment, should disappear
+entirely.” This was signed by a noted specialist.
+
+“And the next,” said Mrs. Tucker.
+
+Thereupon Tucker laid this before Murray: “The heart murmur noted I
+believe to be due to temporary causes and not to any permanent
+affection. On the occasion of one examination there were no indications
+of it at all.” This also was signed by a well-known physician.
+
+“Poor Ralph!” sighed Mrs. Tucker, and Murray felt that the burden of
+this case was greater than he could bear.
+
+“They don’t agree entirely,” he asserted aggressively.
+
+“No,” admitted Tucker, “but I understand that’s not unusual in such
+cases.”
+
+“And they don’t agree with your doctor at all,” added Mrs. Tucker. “But,
+of course, your doctor is right. Poor Ralph!”
+
+“Please don’t do that,” pleaded Murray.
+
+“Poor Ralph!” sighed Mrs. Tucker again. “The doctors don’t think he’ll
+live more than a lifetime.”
+
+“Put in another application and take another examination,” urged Murray
+in despair. “The doctor may have been misled by some trifling temporary
+trouble.”
+
+“What would be the use?” asked Tucker. “I’ve already invested the
+premium money in a small ranch.”
+
+“It’s too bad,” remarked Mrs. Tucker lugubriously. “That money would
+have done the company so much good.”
+
+“This has ceased to be a joke!” declared Murray earnestly.
+
+“A joke!” exclaimed Mrs. Tucker. “Has it ever been a joke with you?”
+
+“No, it hasn’t,” said Murray.
+
+“I didn’t think you could be so heartless,” asserted Mrs. Tucker. “One
+has only to look at poor Ralph—”
+
+“Don’t, don’t!” cried Murray. “On what terms will you quit this?”
+
+“Oh, if you want to get down to business,” put in Tucker, “I’d like to
+begin delivering this company to Frances. You know I said I was going to
+do it. I don’t care for policies, but I might take some stock.”
+
+“You said you had no money.”
+
+“No premium money,” corrected Tucker. “I invested that in the ranch, but
+I was notified this morning of a legacy from a bachelor uncle that will
+give me some ready cash.”
+
+“The stock of this company gets on the market very seldom,” explained
+Murray. “I have a little myself, but I don’t care to part with it.”
+
+“Oh, very well,” replied Tucker in careless tones; “it’s quite
+immaterial to us for the moment. In fact, I’d be in no hurry about it at
+all if I only had a longer time to live.”
+
+“Poor Ralph!” sighed Mrs. Tucker, as they departed.
+
+When they had gone, Murray rang for his office-boy.
+
+“You tell Mr. Ross,” he said to the boy, “to keep out of my way for a
+few days. I’m not in a mental condition to stand the sight of the man
+who loaded this trouble on me.”
+
+For the next three days Murray saw as little of his office as he
+possibly could, fearing another call from Mr. and Mrs. Tucker. Then he
+learned that they had left again for the West, and he breathed more
+freely. But, shortly thereafter, a stock-broker called upon him.
+
+“I am commissioned,” said the broker, “to buy some stock in your
+company, and I thought possibly you might know of some that is for
+sale.”
+
+“I do not,” replied Murray. “As you know, it is not a speculative stock,
+but is held, for the most part, by conservative investors. A little gets
+on the market occasionally, when some estate is being settled or some
+holder becomes financially embarrassed, but that is about your only
+chance.”
+
+“So my client informed me,” said the broker, “but he also informed me
+that he was sure he could get some himself, and he wished me to use
+every effort to add to his prospective holdings.”
+
+“Mr. Tucker, your client, tried to buy some from me before he left for
+the West,” said Murray, for he had no doubt as to the identity of the
+man who wanted the stock.
+
+“Indeed!” returned the broker. “I didn’t know that. He explained his
+anxiety for prompt action by the rather extraordinary statement that he
+wished to get the stock before somebody foreclosed on his life!”
+
+“By thunder!” cried Murray, “somebody _will_ foreclose on his life, and
+take the Limited west to do it, if he keeps this thing up!”
+
+In some amazement, the broker apologized and retired, and Murray began
+to wonder what would happen to him if Mrs. Tucker ever did get enough of
+the stock to make her influence felt. Of course, there was little chance
+of that, but even a small stock-holder could be annoying when so
+disposed. He began to dream about the Tucker case, and an incidental
+mention of it in the office would make the atmosphere unpleasant for the
+day. Every clerk and solicitor understood that it was a dangerous topic.
+Once the name “Tucker” was mentioned in the ordinary course of business,
+and Murray had things at a fever heat before it could be explained to
+him that it was another Tucker. Then came a letter from the West, with a
+Tucker return card on the envelop. A council of war was held before it
+was delivered to Murray, and even then a time was chosen when he was
+absent to lay it on his desk. It was very brief—just an announcement
+that “the patient” had rallied splendidly after the fatigue of the
+journey and exhibited “really wonderful vitality for a sick man.” No one
+cared to go near Murray all the rest of that day.
+
+Soon after the first of the following month another missive arrived—a
+mere formal affidavit, headed “Certificate of Life,” and solemnly
+averring that “Ralph Tucker’s heart has not ceased to murmur along in
+the land of the living.” This was followed a month later by a
+certificate from a physician to the effect that “a restful ranch life is
+especially conducive to longevity, and Mr. Tucker’s health continues to
+show all the improvement that can be expected in a man who had nothing
+the matter with him in the first place.”
+
+These facetious reports continued to arrive at monthly intervals for a
+period of nearly a year. Usually they were brief, but occasionally the
+doctor, who seemed to enter into the spirit of the affair, would go into
+such details as weight, endurance, appetite, lifting power, respiration
+and—heart murmur. “The heart,” he wrote at one time, “seems to be too
+well satisfied to murmur now, and the patient was able to sit up and eat
+a large steak to-day, after which a little gentle exercise—about twenty
+miles on horseback—seemed to do him some good.”
+
+Murray promptly turned this over to the company doctor, and the latter
+sighed. Almost the only satisfaction in life that Murray had during this
+time arose from his ability to make the doctor miserable.
+
+“He was not a good risk when I examined him,” the doctor insisted, “but
+he may be a good one now. We can’t be certain of results in such a case,
+and the law of probabilities frequently works out wrong. He could not
+have done a better thing, under the circumstances, than to go in for a
+simple, outdoor life. The basis of trouble was there, in my judgment,
+but it may have been overcome.”
+
+“The basis of trouble is still there,” declared Murray; “not only the
+basis of trouble, but the whole blame structure, and it’s resting on us.
+I can feel the weight.”
+
+“So can I,” replied the doctor disconsolately.
+
+Less than a week after this Tucker telegraphed to know if Murray had
+changed his mind about disposing of any stock.
+
+“No,” was the reply sent back.
+
+“All right,” Tucker answered. “I just wanted to give Mrs. Tucker another
+slice of your company. She has a little of it already.”
+
+Investigation showed that the broker had succeeded in picking up a few
+shares, but hardly enough to exert any considerable influence. Still, it
+was disquieting to find the Tuckers so persistent.
+
+“I’ll bet,” said Murray, “that mental worry has put me where you
+wouldn’t pass me for a risk.”
+
+“If your wife,” returned the doctor, “is anything like Mrs. Tucker I’d
+pass you for any kind of risk rather than incur her displeasure. They’ll
+begin to take a stock-holder’s interest in the affairs of this
+particular office pretty soon.”
+
+“The affairs are in good shape,” declared Murray.
+
+“But a real determined stock-holder can stir up a devil of a rumpus over
+nothing,” asserted the doctor. “If she should send all those physicians’
+reports to headquarters, they would rather offset my report on which he
+was turned down, and the company would feel that it had lost a good
+thing. The company will not stop to think that my report may have been
+justified by conditions at the time.”
+
+“And the risk that I thought too big for him then may not seem too big
+for him now,” commented Murray ruefully.
+
+“I’d like to examine him again,” said the doctor.
+
+“I don’t think it would be safe,” returned Murray, “unless you were
+searched for weapons first.”
+
+So the doctor and Murray settled down to await, with some anxiety, the
+next move in the game, and their patience was rewarded by the receipt of
+five certificates of health from as many different physicians, each
+certificate having a message of some sort scribbled across the top. “The
+patient had to ride a hundred miles to get these,” Mrs. Tucker had
+written on the first. “There were a few shares of this stock in my late
+lamented uncle’s estate,” appeared in Tucker’s handwriting on the
+second. “The president of your company is rusticating a few miles from
+here,” Mrs. Tucker asserted on the third. “Better come out here for a
+few days,” Tucker urged on the fourth. “Poor Ralph!” was Mrs. Tucker’s
+comment on the fifth.
+
+“Poor Dave Murray!” grumbled Murray, and he and the doctor started West
+the next day. “Might as well get this thing settled,” he said. “You and
+I have got to be on harmonious terms with the stock-holders. Besides,
+there’s an early grave yawning for me if I don’t succeed in making peace
+with Mrs. Tucker. I tell you, Doctor, when a woman decides to make
+things uncomfortable for a man,—well, the man might just as well resign
+himself to being perpetually uncomfortable.”
+
+And yet, no one could have greeted them more graciously than did Mrs.
+Tucker.
+
+“I’m so glad you’ve come,” she said, “and brought the doctor. It is
+particularly pleasing to have the doctor here, for I want him to see if
+something can’t be done for poor Ralph. I’m sure I don’t know what’s
+going to become of the poor fellow. He doesn’t sleep any better than a
+baby, and he can’t ride over a hundred miles without getting tired. His
+muscles aren’t a bit harder than iron, either, and his heart beats all
+the time.”
+
+“Mrs. Tucker,” said Murray appealingly, “what can we do to make peace
+with you?”
+
+“Without even seeing your husband again,” added the doctor, “I am
+willing to concede that he will live to be three thousand years old.”
+
+“We are beaten,” asserted Murray. “You have humbled our business and
+professional pride. We give Mr. Tucker none of the credit; it all
+belongs to you. We claim to be the equals of any man, but of no woman.
+Now, on what terms can we have peace?”
+
+“I did want your insurance company for a sort of belated wedding
+present,” said Mrs. Tucker thoughtfully.
+
+“I’d give it to you if I could,” said Murray with the utmost sincerity.
+“I assure you, that company has been nothing but an annoyance to me ever
+since you cast longing eyes on the stock.”
+
+“Oh, I’ve become more modest in my expectations,” replied Mrs. Tucker
+cheerfully. “I don’t expect much more than we’ve got now.”
+
+“How much have you got?” asked Murray.
+
+“Well, our broker picked up a few shares, and there were some more in
+the estate of Ralph’s uncle, and the president of the company kindly
+arranged it so that we could get a little more. Such a delightful man he
+is, too! It was when I heard he had a place in this vicinity, where he
+came for an outing every year, that I insisted upon Ralph’s buying this
+ranch. I thought it would be nice to be near him—and it was. We’re great
+friends now, although he’s only here for a little while in the spring
+and fall.”
+
+“Did—did you tell him about the insurance?” asked Murray.
+
+“What insurance?” asked Mrs. Tucker blandly. “We haven’t any insurance.
+Poor Ralph—”
+
+“Mrs. Tucker,” interrupted Murray, “if you say ‘Poor Ralph’ again, you
+will see a driveling idiot making streaks across the prairie. I have
+reached the limit of endurance. All I want is peace, peace, peace, and
+I’ll pay the price for it. Do you want some of my stock?”
+
+“Oh, dear, no,” she replied. “We’ve got it fixed now so that Ralph is
+pretty sure to be a director next year. We talked it over with the
+president.”
+
+“Does Mr. Tucker still want a policy?” asked Murray.
+
+“Certainly not,” said Mrs. Tucker. “If he’s going to die so soon, it
+would be beating the company, and we’re part of the company now, so we—”
+
+“Stop it! stop it!” pleaded Murray. “I’ll bet you couldn’t kill him with
+an ax!”
+
+“Sir!”
+
+“I beg your pardon, but this is the climax of a year of torment that I
+didn’t suppose was possible this side of the infernal regions,”
+explained Murray dismally, “and I’m just naturally wondering why you
+brought me out here.”
+
+“Oh, I didn’t tell you that, did I?” returned Mrs. Tucker ingenuously.
+“I just wanted to tell you that, now that we’re stock-holders to a
+reasonable amount—Ralph retained a few shares, you know, and holds a
+proxy for mine—we look at the matter from an entirely different
+viewpoint, and we think that every reasonable precaution should be taken
+to avoid poor risks, as you call them. We are highly gratified by the
+evidence of caution that has inadvertently come under our notice, even
+if there was an incidental error that baffled human foresight.”
+
+The sudden and startling changes of position by this young woman were
+too much for both Murray and the doctor; they could only look at her in
+amazement as she calmly commended their course.
+
+“You have brought us all this distance to tell us that!” ejaculated
+Murray at last.
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Well, it’s worth the trip!” he announced, as he recalled the events of
+the last year.
+
+Then Tucker appeared, big, strong, bronzed, hearty, and shook hands with
+them. Never a weakling in appearance, his year of outdoor life had made
+him the embodiment of health. He beamed upon his guests with hearty good
+nature as he gave them each a grip that made them wince. His wife
+regarded him critically for a moment.
+
+“Poor Ralph!” she said mischievously, and then she hastily assured them
+that this was really the last of the joke.
+
+
+
+
+AN INCIDENTAL FAILURE
+
+
+Adolph Schlimmer’s wink was of the self-satisfied variety that plainly
+says to the person at whom it is directed, “They’re mostly fools in this
+world—except you and me, and I’m not quite sure about you.” Adolph
+Schlimmer was a small man, but he thought he had enough worldly wisdom
+and sharpness for a giant. “You bet you, I don’t get fooled very much,”
+he boasted.
+
+Just now his wink was directed at Carroll Brown, an insurance solicitor.
+
+“How much iss there in it for you?” he asked.
+
+“Oh, I get my commission, of course,” replied Brown.
+
+“Sure, sure,”—and again Adolph winked. “You don’t need it all, maybe.”
+
+“Why not?” asked Brown with disconcerting frankness. “I’m entitled to
+what I earn.”
+
+“Sure, sure,” admitted Adolph, somewhat annoyed. “It’s vorth something
+to you to make the money, ain’t it, yes? I gif you the chance. It might
+be vorth something to me, perhaps, maybe.”
+
+“Oh, if you want me to divide my commission with you,” exclaimed Brown,
+“we might as well quit talking right here. It would cost me my job, if
+anybody found it out.”
+
+“Who iss to find it out? I bet you, if people could find out things,
+we’d haf more people in jail than out. Some big men, vorth millions,
+would haf to live a century to serf their time out. The boss discharges
+hiss clerk for doin’ what he iss doin’ himself.”
+
+“It’s against the law,” argued Brown. “It’s a rebate on premiums and is
+prohibited.”
+
+“Sure, sure,” conceded Adolph again. “But you got to do something to
+make business, ain’t it? I gif premiums and I get discounts. There don’t
+nobody fool me very much.”
+
+“Well, I’m taking no chances with either my job or the law,” announced
+Brown, “even if I wanted to sacrifice part of my legitimate commission.
+I’m offering you a policy in a first-class company on the same terms
+that we give them to all others, and that’s the best I can do. If you’re
+looking for an advantage over your neighbors, you’ll have to go
+elsewhere. The very first rule of straight business is to treat all
+alike.”
+
+“Sure it iss,” returned Adolph. “Look at the railroads and the big
+shippers.” Again he winked wisely. “I bet you, your boss ain’t such a
+fool as you. Make the big money when you can, but don’t run avay from
+the little money. I gif you a chance for the little money because I’m
+smart; some other feller let you haf it all because he issn’t.”
+
+Therein lay the measure of Adolph. It was beyond his comprehension that
+any man should treat all fairly: some one surely was “on the inside,”
+and his first thought in any transaction was to make a quiet “deal” with
+some interested party that would give him a trifling advantage over
+others. He was shrewd in a small and near-sighted way, and he had an
+idea that all men, except fools, looked at things as he did. He believed
+there was “graft” in everything. That being the case, it was the duty of
+a sharp man to get a share of it, even if, as in this instance, it only
+lessened his own expense somewhat. So Adolph Schlimmer went to see
+Brown’s boss, who happened to be Dave Murray.
+
+“I get me some insurance,” he announced.
+
+“All right,” returned Murray agreeably. “You look like a good risk.”
+
+“Risk?” repeated Adolph. “No, _nein_. I’m a sure thing.”
+
+Murray laughed.
+
+“That’s bad,” he said banteringly. “Sure things are what men go broke on
+in this world; they’re the biggest risks of all.” Then, explanatorily:
+“I mean you seem to be in good physical condition, so that our physician
+is likely to pass you.”
+
+“You bet you,” returned Adolph, “but it’s my vife what counts. If I die,
+I leaf her the money; if she die, she leaf me nothing.”
+
+“Oh, you want to get a policy on your wife’s life,” said Murray
+thoughtfully, not favorably impressed with the other’s commercial tone.
+“How much?”
+
+“_Zwei_ t’ousand dollars.”
+
+“Not very much,” commented Murray. “A man of sense would prefer a good
+wife to two thousand dollars any day. Is she a worker?”
+
+“You bet you, yes,” replied Adolph earnestly. “If she die, I looss money
+on her at that price. I figger it all out. She safe me the wages uf a
+clerk and a cook and some other things. I count up what she safe me and
+what she cost me and she’s vorth fifteen dollars a week easy in work and
+ten dollars a week in saving. I can’t afford to looss that. I insure the
+store and the stock, and now I insure this. I watch out for myself
+pretty close.”
+
+Murray was both disgusted and amused. Such a character as this was new
+to his experience, but the risk might be, and probably was, a perfectly
+good and legitimate one.
+
+“Well, you bring your wife in,” he said after a moment of thought, “and
+I’ll talk to her.”
+
+“Sure,” said Adolph. Then he winked in his wise way. “I safe you the
+commission. What iss there in it for me?”
+
+“What?” exclaimed Murray.
+
+“I haf a talk with Brown,” explained Adolph. “It’s vorth something to
+him to get the business, but he don’t make it vorth nothing to me to
+give it.”
+
+“If he did we’d discharge him.”
+
+“Sure, sure,” returned the imperturbable Adolph. “We got to watch the
+boys or there won’t be nothing left for us. So I safe the commission for
+you. What iss there in it for me?”
+
+“Not a damn thing!”
+
+“You play it that way with the fool,” advised Adolph complacently. “It’s
+a bully bluff for the feller that don’t know how things was done in
+business. Then we go splits, yes?”
+
+The ignorance and effrontery of the man so amazed Murray that he forgot
+his indignation for a moment and undertook to explain.
+
+“There is no commission on business that comes to the office,” he said.
+
+“Sure!” laughed Adolph, again resorting to that sagacious wink. “You let
+the company make it, yes? I stay home, you send man to tell me get
+insured, I say yes, man get paid—ain’t it so? I come here to get
+insured, and you give that man’s pay to the company, the men vorth
+millions—oh, yes, sure!” Adolph laughed at the absurdity of the thing.
+“Iss there anything in my eye?” he asked suddenly.
+
+“You sit down there!” ordered Murray, for Adolph was now leaning
+familiarly over Murray’s desk. “I ought to kick you out, but I’m going
+to tell you a few things. Sit down and keep still. I’m several sizes
+bigger than you are and it’s my turn.” Murray spoke so aggressively that
+Adolph promptly returned to his seat. “Now, to begin with, you make a
+mistake in judging everybody else by yourself; there are a lot of decent
+people in this world. A good many may worship the almighty dollar, and
+that’s bad enough, but God help the few who get down to worshiping the
+almighty cent. A good many keep a lookout for graft, but you are the
+first one I ever saw who seemed to think everybody was crooked.”
+
+“No, _nein_; only business—”
+
+“Keep still! You insult everybody you try to do business with by acting
+on the assumption that he is in your class. You have absorbed some of
+the tricky commercialism that is prevalent these days, and you’ve got
+the idea that there isn’t anything else—not even common sense. You would
+break the law for a trifle. What you propose is morally wrong, but we
+won’t discuss that, because you can’t understand it.”
+
+“I don’t like—”
+
+“Keep still! I’m doing you a favor, but I’ve got to tell you first what
+a libel you are on the average human being. The law that you want to
+break was made for the protection of just such financially insignificant
+people as you. It prohibits giving rebates in any form on insurance
+premiums and provides that the acceptance of such a rebate by the
+policy-holder shall invalidate his policy, and that the giving of such a
+rebate by a company or any of its agents shall subject the company to a
+fine. Do you understand?”
+
+“Sure; but who iss to know?”
+
+Murray was discouraged, but he had set out to drive a lesson home to
+this dull-witted fellow who thought he was smart, and he valiantly held
+to his task. He could feel nothing but contempt for the man, but he had
+become rather interested in convincing him how foolish he was. Besides,
+Murray was a bitter opponent of the rebate evil in all lines of
+business—every one knows how it fosters monopoly—and he attacked it
+whenever and wherever he could.
+
+“If rebates on insurance premiums were not unlawful,” he asked, “do you
+think people of your kind are the ones who would get them? Well, hardly.
+The millionaires, the rich men, the men who take out the big policies,
+would get them, and you little fellows would pay the full price, just as
+you do wherever else the rebate evil exists. This law was made to
+protect you, and you want to break it down. Well, I suppose there are
+others just as bad. The men for whose benefit a law is made frequently
+insist upon playing with it until they drop it and break it, and then
+they wonder why the splinters won’t do them as much good as the original
+law.” Having warmed up to a subject that interested him, Murray was
+talking for himself now. Adolph could understand in a general way what
+he meant, but many of the remarks were entirely beyond his
+comprehension. “Look at it in another way,” Murray went on. “As a
+speculation, the insurance rebate is a mistake. The man who gets or
+accepts a rebate is taking a risk. ‘Well,’ he argues, ‘so is the man who
+buys wheat or stocks or undeveloped real estate of problematical future
+value.’ Quite right; but when you speculate you want to be sure that
+your probable or possible profits bear a fair proportion to the risk and
+your possible losses. It’s all right to make a secured loan of one
+thousand dollars at five per cent., but when you put your thousand into
+a scheme where there is a chance of losing every cent of it, you also
+want a chance of making a good deal more than the legal rate of
+interest. Russell Sage is said to look as closely after the small
+profits as the large, but Russell would shy away from an investment—a
+real safe _investment_—that promised only a ten cent profit on five
+dollars; and if it were a _speculation_, where he might lose the whole
+five, he would want to see a possibility of winning at least half as
+much. The man who accepts an insurance premium rebate is going into a
+speculation—a flimsy, cheap speculation, with a chance of loss so
+entirely out of proportion to the slight advantage he gains over other
+policy-holders that no man with a grain of sense would consider it for a
+moment. To secure a discount on his premium he risks his whole policy.
+Why, in your case you would put a two-thousand-dollar policy in danger
+to save a few miserable dollars. It isn’t cleverness, it isn’t
+shrewdness, it isn’t business, it isn’t sense; it isn’t anything but
+damn foolishness. Do you understand?”
+
+“Sure,” answered Adolph. “If we iss found out, I looss the policy and
+you looss a fine. We both looss.”
+
+“That’s it exactly.”
+
+“Vell, if we both looss by telling, who iss going to find it out?”
+demanded Adolph triumphantly. “You bet you, I take the chance. Go ahead
+with her.”
+
+Murray leaned wearily back in his chair.
+
+“You’d better get out of here,” he said. “This company wouldn’t issue a
+policy in which you had any sort of interest on any terms. I was curious
+to discover if I could not stir up just a glimmer of business sense in
+you, and my curiosity is satisfied. You seem to me like a man who would
+risk all his money to win a fly-speck, if he thought he was going to win
+it by some underhand deal. Get out as quick as you can! But I tell you
+again, don’t fool with rebates!”
+
+Adolph stopped in the doorway.
+
+“You got to haf the whole commission, yes?” he remarked with accusing
+bitterness. “I take you for a hog.”
+
+Then he disappeared very suddenly, for he feared Murray would pursue.
+
+Here again was the measure of Adolph. In spite of Murray’s explanation,
+he could see nothing except a chance to win by saving a part of the
+commission. He could not comprehend that he was running any unusual risk
+or doing anything that another would not do, if the other had the sense
+to see the chance. In fact, he was fully convinced in his own mind that
+Murray was merely talking for effect and really desired the whole
+commission for himself. This made him the more determined to gain this
+small advantage for himself—partly because his little business world was
+made up of such devious methods, and partly because it would be an
+evidence of his own cleverness.
+
+Now, occasionally a solicitor for a company of high standing, acting on
+his own responsibility, will divide his commission in order to get some
+one to take out a policy. If he is trying to make a record, the
+temptation is considerable. If the policy is large, his half of this
+commission may be more than his whole commission in most other cases. He
+does this secretly, but he is inviting three kinds of trouble: his own
+discharge, a fine for his company, and a loss for the policy-holder.
+These three things will follow discovery, but he takes the chance. And
+there are irresponsible or unscrupulous companies or agencies (so it is
+said) that will tacitly approve such a course in some instances, taking
+the necessary risk in order to get business. Of course, no first-class
+or reliable company will sanction or even tolerate such methods.
+
+Nevertheless, Adolph, the shrewd fool, finally found the man for whom he
+was searching. A man may nearly always find trouble if he searches for
+it industriously, and Adolph was industrious. Unfortunately for him,
+however, he treated several other solicitors to his knowing wink before
+he met the one who agreed to his proposition, and, when it was learned
+that Adolph was taking out a policy on his wife’s life, they were quick
+to reach conclusions. But it was none of their business, and they said
+nothing. What they knew merely made it easier to prove the case, if the
+question should ever arise. The solicitor who finally entered into the
+deal was one who had done the same thing before. He was “broke” a good
+part of the time, and, when in that condition, he did not question
+closely the ethics of any proposition that promised an early, even
+though small, cash return. He was an outcast among such of the many
+conscientious men of the fraternity as knew him, but the local agent of
+the company that employed him was not particular, and there were rumors
+that the company itself might have been more strict.
+
+Anyhow, Adolph got the policy he wanted. His wife was disposed to object
+at first, for she had not been consulted until Adolph had made his
+bargain. There was no use, he argued, in telling her about it until he
+knew what he was going to do.
+
+“I buy you a policy,” he finally told her in the tone that a man—another
+man—might tell his wife he would buy her a sealskin coat.
+
+“What’s that?” she asked.
+
+“It pays _zwei_ t’ousand dollars,” he explained.
+
+Mrs. Schlimmer was not enthusiastic.
+
+“When?” she asked.
+
+[Illustration: “What’s the use to me?” she persisted]
+
+“When you are in the grafe,” he answered after a pause.
+
+“What’s the use to me?” she persisted.
+
+“My dear,” he said, with such gallantry as he could command, “it shows
+what you iss vorth.”
+
+Somehow, she was not flattered. She was a good wife, who worked hard,
+and she herself thought she was worth it, but she was selfish enough to
+think she ought to realize on her own value.
+
+“No, _nein_,” he argued, “it ain’t the vay it’s done. You got yourself,
+ain’t it, yes? When you ain’t got yourself, you ain’t here, but I am.
+You don’t looss yourself when you die, but I looss you, and you’re vorth
+a lot.”
+
+“There’s other women,” she retorted.
+
+“But they ain’t vorth what you are by _zwei_ t’ousand dollars,” he
+insisted, and this delicate bit of flattery won the day. After all, it
+made no difference to her. She rebelled a little at going to the
+insurance office to be examined, however.
+
+“You tell ’em I’m all right,” she urged. “You know.”
+
+But a new gown—a cheap one—gained this point, and she went.
+
+Adolph prided himself very much on this stroke of business. His great
+aim in life was to pay a little less than the market price for
+everything, and he was never convinced that he was really doing this
+unless the deal had to be carried out in some underhand way. When he
+could buy for less than others he was making so much more money, and it
+was his experience that the biggest profit lay in shady transactions. In
+others he had made, or saved, much more than in this, but the
+difficulties he encountered in this instance convinced him that it was
+an especially notable achievement. He was proud of his success.
+
+“You bet you, they don’t fool me very much,” he asserted frequently.
+
+And, in time, he told how clever he was. Not at first, however; he was
+very cautious at first, for Murray’s words had made an impression on
+him. But, after he had paid a few premiums, the lapse of time gave him a
+feeling of security, and one day, in boasting of his business
+shrewdness, he mentioned that he was even sharp enough to get life
+insurance at a bargain. After that, it was easier to speak of it again,
+and he finally told the story. The news spread in his own little circle.
+It was quite a feat, and he was held to have demonstrated remarkable
+cleverness. When another told of some sharp business deal, some one
+would remark, “Yes, that was clever, but you never got life insurance at
+a bargain.” And, in the course of time—six months or more from the time
+the story was first breathed—it came to the ears of one Daniel Grady.
+This was unfortunate, for Daniel at once jumped to the conclusion that
+he had been cheated. Daniel had a small policy in the same company, and
+this policy was costing him the full premium without rebate of any kind
+from any insurance solicitor or anybody else. Daniel did not like this,
+and neither did he like Adolph; in fact, he would have been willing to
+pay a little higher premium for the privilege of making trouble for
+Adolph. Failing that, Daniel would like to get on even terms with him.
+
+“It’s th’ divil iv a note,” said Daniel, “that I sh’u’d be payin’ more
+than that little shrimp, an’ me only thryin’ to take care iv Maggie an’
+th’ childhern. I’ll go down to th’ office an’ push th’ face iv th’ man
+in if he don’t give me th’ same rate, I will so.”
+
+But Daniel wisely did nothing of the kind, for he recalled that there
+were a number of clerks in the office and a police station not far away,
+and he had no wish to add a fine to his expenses. Instead, after
+pondering the matter a few weeks and growing steadily more indignant, he
+went to see a little lawyer who had an office over a saloon, next to a
+justice of the peace. Daniel planned only to get his premiums reduced,
+but the lawyer saw other opportunities.
+
+“It’s a great chance,” said the lawyer. “You’re a policy-holder—”
+
+“Who says so?” demanded Daniel, for this sounded to him like an
+accusation.
+
+“I mean,” explained the lawyer, “that you are insured in the company.”
+
+“What iv it?” asked Daniel.
+
+“Why, the other policy-holders are the ones discriminated against in a
+case like this,” said the lawyer, “and any one of them can file a
+complaint.”
+
+“I’m not the kind iv a man to do much complainin’,” declared Daniel. “I
+niver see that it did much good. If I c’u’d give Schlimmer a bad turn—”
+
+“That’s it; that’s it exactly. You can knock his insurance sky-high and
+get some money yourself.”
+
+“Say that wanst more,” urged Daniel. “Me hearin’ seems to be playin’
+thricks.”
+
+“The law,” said the lawyer slowly, “fines a company for doing that—”
+
+“How much?”
+
+“I’ll have to look it up. Pretty stiff fine, though, and the informer—”
+
+“I don’t like th’ word.”
+
+“Well, the man who makes the complaint gets half the fine. Do you
+understand that? Let me take charge of the matter for you, and we’ll
+divide the money.”
+
+“Will it hurt me own insurance?” asked Daniel.
+
+“Not a bit.”
+
+“I’m not lukkin’ to l’ave Maggie an’ th’ childhern without money whin I
+die, jist to land a dollar-twinty f’r me own pocket now. That’s a
+Schlimmer thrick.”
+
+“Your insurance will be just as good as it ever was,” the lawyer
+asserted.
+
+“Will there be twinty dollars in it f’r me?” Daniel persisted.
+
+“There’ll be a good deal more than that—exactly how much I can’t say.”
+
+“Go ahead,” instructed Daniel. “Put the little divil through.”
+
+The lawyer investigated and found his task comparatively easy, for
+Adolph had now personally told the story to several people. Indeed, by
+the exercise of a little ingenuity, the lawyer got him to tell it to
+him. Then he acted.
+
+When the news reached the local agency of the company there was no
+indecision as to what should be done. Unnecessary publicity in a matter
+of that kind was the very last thing sought. The solicitor was called
+in, put on the rack, and promptly confessed. Then he was discharged
+without further questioning. Perhaps the local agent was afraid he might
+learn of other similar instances if he pressed the matter too far, and
+he was quite content to remain in ignorance of anything else of that
+nature, so long as the public also remained in ignorance. The company
+promptly acknowledged its fault, showed that it had cleared itself
+morally by discharging the offending agent, and proceeded to clear
+itself legally by paying the necessary fine.
+
+When the news came to Adolph, however, there was wailing prolonged, for
+his policy was annulled.
+
+“I bet you,” said Adolph, “that feller Murray put up the job. He iss a
+great hog; he iss like those mono_pol_ists that puts smaller people out
+of business and gobbles it all.”
+
+Then Adolph got a pencil and a sheet of paper and began to figure his
+losses.
+
+“_Zwei_ t’ousand dollar insurance,” he groaned, “and maybe she wouldn’t
+lif long. And I gif her a dress, too—a new dress. _Ach, Himmel!_ it’s
+hard when a man’s vife beats him. A new dress for nothing at all but to
+looss money. That law iss a shame. It iss a—what you call
+it?—restriction of business.”
+
+Thereafter, for some time, the sight of the new gown would make Adolph
+morose and gloomy, and his friends found him unusually modest and
+unobtrusive.
+
+
+
+
+AN INCIDENTAL SCHEME
+
+
+There came to Dave Murray one day a young man who was looking for a job.
+He was a bright young fellow and seemed to be very earnest.
+
+“I have been a clerk,” he explained, “but there is little prospect for
+the future where I am now, and I want to get something that has some
+promise in it. In fact, I must do so. I am making barely enough to
+support my mother and myself, and I may want to marry, you know.”
+
+Murray readily admitted that young men frequently were attacked by the
+matrimonial bacillus and that, there being no sure antidote, the disease
+had to run its course. “Which is a good thing for the world,” he added,
+“so you are quite right to prepare yourself for the attack. But are you
+sure that insurance is your field?”
+
+“I have given the subject a good deal of thought,” was the reply, “and
+insurance interests me.”
+
+“That’s a good sign,” commented Murray. “Success is for the man who is
+interested in his work, and not merely in the financial results of that
+work.”
+
+“Oh, I want to make money, too,” said the young man frankly.
+
+“We all do,” returned Murray, “but the man who has no other aim than
+that would better stick to business and let the professions alone. Life
+insurance has become a profession, like banking. Time was when anybody
+with money could be a banker, but now it is conceded to require special
+gifts and a special training. I place life insurance right up in the
+front rank of the professions, for it is semi-philanthropic. We are not
+in it for our health, of course, but, if we are conscientious and
+earnest, we may reasonably flatter ourselves that we are doing a vast
+amount of good in line with our work. The life insurance solicitor has
+been the butt of many jokes. Perhaps he himself has been responsible for
+this, but times have changed and so have methods. If I ever caught one
+of my men slipping into an office with an apologetic air, like a
+second-rate book-canvasser, I’d discharge him on the spot. The insurance
+solicitor of to-day wants to consider himself a business man with a
+business proposition to make; he must have self-respect and show it. The
+best men plan their work carefully, do not attempt to hurry matters, and
+usually meet those that they expect to interest in their proposition by
+appointment, instead of trying to force the thing upon them by pure
+nerve. When a fellow becomes a nuisance he is hurting himself, his
+company and all others in his line. Do you still think insurance the
+line for you?”
+
+“I can begin,” said the young man, by way of reply, “with an application
+from my present employer. I’ve been talking insurance to him for
+practice, and he has agreed to take out a policy. He’s a pretty good
+fellow. He says I’m worth more than he can afford to pay me and he wants
+to help me along.”
+
+“I guess you’re all right,” laughed Murray. “At any rate, you impress me
+as being the kind of man I want. Leave your references and come in again
+tomorrow.”
+
+Murray was unusually particular as to the character of the men he
+employed. It was not enough for him that a man could get business, but
+he had his own ideas as to the way business should be secured. Absolute
+integrity and the most painstaking care to state a proposition fairly,
+without exaggeration, were points upon which he insisted.
+
+“A dissatisfied policy-holder,” he said, “is a dead weight to carry; a
+satisfied policy-holder is an advertisement. If a man finds he is
+getting a little more than he expected, he is so much better pleased; if
+he finds he is getting a little less, he feels he has been tricked.
+Insurance is a good enough proposition, so that you don’t have to gild
+it.”
+
+Murray himself, in his younger days, had once secured an application for
+a large policy by refusing to expatiate on the merits of the particular
+form of insurance he was advocating.
+
+“Well, let’s hear what a beautiful thing it is,” the man had said.
+
+“My dear sir,” Murray had replied, “it is a straight business
+proposition, with no frills or twists of any kind. You have the facts
+and the figures. If you, with your business training, can’t see the
+merit of it, it would be a waste of time for me to attempt any
+elucidation. I have not the egotism to think I can _talk_ you into
+taking out a policy. As a matter of fact, this proposition doesn’t need
+any argument, and it would be a reflection on the plain merit of the
+proposition for me to attempt one.”
+
+Different methods for different men. This man never before had seen an
+insurance solicitor who would not talk for an hour, if he had the
+chance, and he was impressed and pleased. This was business,—straight
+business and nothing else. He straightway took out a large policy.
+
+Something of this Murray told the young man when he came back the next
+day, for he was anxious to impress upon him the fact that life insurance
+was not like a mining scheme, which has to be painted with all the
+glories of the sunset in order to float the stock, and that the man who
+overstated his case would inevitably suffer from the reaction.
+
+Murray had been favorably impressed with the young man—Max Mays was the
+name he gave—and the employer of Mays had spoken well of him. He was
+rather a peculiar fellow, according to the employer—always busy with
+figures or financial stories and seemingly deeply interested in the
+details of the large business affairs that were discussed in the
+newspapers and the magazines. Aside from this, he was about like the
+average clerk who hopes for and seeks better opportunities, and
+meanwhile makes the best of what he has—reasonably industrious and yet
+far from forsaking the pleasures of this life.
+
+All in all, Mays seemed like good material from which to make a life
+insurance man, and the fact that he did not propose to desert his
+present employer without notice was in his favor. Possibly the fact that
+he was getting his first commission through the latter had something to
+do with this, but, anyhow, he planned to continue where he was until a
+successor had been secured; and too many young men, contemplating such a
+change, would have let their enthusiasm lead them to quit without notice
+when they found the new place open to them. This is mentioned merely as
+one of the things that led Murray to think he had secured a thoroughly
+conscientious, as well as an ambitious, employee.
+
+When he finally reported for duty Murray gave him certain general
+instructions, principal among which was this: “Never make a statement
+that will require explanation or modification later. Any time you decide
+that the proposition you are making is not good enough to stand squarely
+on its merits, without exaggeration or deception, direct or inferential,
+come into the office and resign. Any time you find yourself saying
+anything that you yourself do not believe implicitly, it is time for you
+to quit. When you have to explain what you really meant by some certain
+statement, you are creating doubt and distrust, for the unadulterated
+truth, of course, does not have to be explained.”
+
+For a time Murray watched Mays rather closely—not in the expectation of
+finding anything wrong, but rather with the idea of giving him helpful
+suggestions—but the young man seemed to be unusually capable and
+unusually successful for a beginner. He seemed to be working a
+comparatively new field—a field that turned up no large policies but
+that seemed to be prolific of small ones. This, however, was quite
+natural. Every new man works first among those he happens to know, and
+Mays was doing business with his old associates. In time, Murray ceased
+to give him any particular attention, except to note the regularity with
+which he turned in applications for small policies, and there probably
+would have been no deviation from the customary routine had it not been
+for an unexpected and apparently trivial incident.
+
+An application for a small policy had come in through one of the other
+solicitors. Mays happened to be in the office when the applicant called
+for his physical examination, but they exchanged no greetings.
+Apparently they were strangers. Yet Mays slipped out into the hall and
+intercepted the other as he came from the doctor’s office. Murray,
+emerging suddenly from his own room, saw them talking together and
+caught this question and answer:
+
+“Is it all right?”
+
+“Of course. I’m a bully good risk, as you call it.”
+
+Then, seeing Murray, they hastily separated and went their ways.
+
+Now, why should a friend of Mays apply for insurance through another
+solicitor? Well, he might have been ignorant, when he made his
+application, of the fact that Mays was in the insurance business. But
+why did they give no sign of recognition when they met in the main
+office? It was quite natural that Mays should be anxious to learn how
+his friend came out with the physician, but why should he sneak out into
+the hall to ask the question?
+
+Any evidence of secrecy and underhand work always annoyed Murray. He did
+not like this, although he could see nothing in it to cause him any
+anxiety. Nevertheless, he looked up the papers of the man who had just
+been examined and found that his name was John Tainter and that he lived
+near Mays. He was a good risk, however, and he got his policy. There was
+no earthly reason why it should be refused. But Murray watched Mays more
+carefully and gave painstaking attention to the risks he brought in.
+
+The applicants were generally small tradesmen—usually foreigners—but
+there was nothing in the least suspicious in any case. Indeed, it was
+difficult to see how there could be anything wrong, for the safeguards
+made it practically impossible for a mere solicitor to put up any
+successful scheme to beat the company, and certainly it would not be
+tried with any trifling policy. But it annoyed Murray to find that a man
+he had believed so frank and straightforward was tricky, and he could
+not, try as he would, find any reason for this trickiness.
+
+Then, one day, while he was waiting in a hotel office for his card to be
+taken up to the room of a man with whom he had some business, he heard a
+strangely familiar voice near him making a strangely familiar assertion.
+
+“You bet you, they don’t fool me very much,” said the voice.
+
+Murray turned to see who it was, but a big square column was in the way.
+Murray’s chair was backed up to one side of this, and the speaker was on
+the other.
+
+“I can’t just place that voice,” mused Murray, “but I have heard it
+somewhere.” There was silence for an instant.
+
+“It’s going to be vorth something, ain’t it, yes?” inquired the voice at
+last.
+
+“It looks like a big thing and no mistake,” was the reply.
+
+“By George!” muttered Murray, “it’s that Adolph Schlimmer who tried to
+get a rebate on his policy, and the fellow with him is Max Mays.”
+
+Just then word came that Murray’s man would see him, and he had to
+leave. He was careful, however, to keep the column between him and the
+two he had found in conversation. It was just as well not to let them
+know of his presence, for he preferred not to have their suspicions
+aroused.
+
+There was now little doubt in his mind that some scheme was being worked
+out. But what? What could these two men, neither of whom was versed in
+the theory and details of life insurance, do that would be in any way
+hurtful to the company or advantageous to them? Of course, it was only a
+surmise that their confidential business concerned him in any way, but
+association with Schlimmer would be sufficient to make Murray uneasy
+about any of his men, and the strange action of Mays in the Tainter
+matter added to his uneasiness.
+
+His first move was to investigate Mays thoroughly, and, to his
+astonishment, he discovered that, far from having a mother to support,
+Mays was living with a married brother and had no one to look after but
+himself. He had told the truth about his business record, but he had
+lied about his personal responsibilities. That lie had been an artistic
+one, however, for it had helped materially to get him a position with
+Murray.
+
+Further investigation showed that there was a light-headed, frivolous
+young girl, to whom he was devoted and with whom he attended
+Saturday-night dances in various public halls, but it had to be
+admitted, to his credit, that he never let these interfere with business
+and was always on hand with a clear head. At the same time, it threw an
+entirely new light on his character, and showed him to be not at all the
+sort of fellow his business record had indicated.
+
+Murray was tempted to discharge him at once, but he refrained for two
+reasons: first, his action would be dictated by his own disappointment
+in the man rather than by anything he knew that was definitely
+derogatory, aside from his falsehood about his mother; second, he wanted
+a chance to investigate further the association with Schlimmer, and the
+only way to do this was to pretend to be entirely unsuspicious and
+entirely satisfied. If there was any kind of scheme that could be put up
+by two such men, he was interested in finding it out, especially if they
+had already taken any action. Until the thing was clear, he wished to
+have Mays within reach.
+
+Mays was shadowed for a few days, but nothing was learned except that he
+unquestionably had business relations with the unscrupulous Schlimmer,
+and that they occasionally met in the office of a lawyer in that
+district.
+
+“A lawyer!” mused Murray. “Now, what the devil do they need of a lawyer?
+I can’t see where he comes in.”
+
+“Tainter was with them once,” replied the “shadow.”
+
+“I certainly never had anything puzzle me like this,” remarked Murray.
+“The separate incidents are so trifling that it seems absurd to attach
+any importance to them, and yet, taking them all together, I am
+convinced there is something wrong. I’d like to hear what they have to
+say to each other.”
+
+“That,” said the shadow, “can be easily arranged, for they are to meet
+next Sunday afternoon, and I can get the janitor easily to let us into
+the adjoining office.”
+
+“I’ll be there,” said Murray.
+
+Now, Murray, in spite of his good nature, was a dignified man, but he
+knew when to sacrifice his dignity. He was an “office man,” but he
+rather enjoyed an excuse for getting outside and occupying himself in
+some unusual way. In fact, Murray had the making of a “strenuous” man in
+him, if fate had not decreed that he should devote his energies to the
+less exciting task of directing the destinies of a life insurance
+agency. So he rather enjoyed the mild excitement of getting into the
+adjoining office unobserved and lying prone on his stomach to get his
+ear close to the crack under the door. But the reward was not great. The
+lawyer—a big blustering fellow—was there, and so were Schlimmer, Tainter
+and Mays, but the meeting seemed to be one for jubilation rather than
+for planning.
+
+“I got the papers all ready,” said the lawyer. “Sign ’em, Tainter, and
+then we’re ready to go ahead the moment Mays gives the word. We want to
+land all we can.”
+
+And that was the only business transacted. The rest of the time was
+given to gloating over some scheme that was not put in words.
+
+“You bet you, I make that Murray sit up and take notice, yes?” remarked
+Schlimmer. “I gif him his chance once and I get the vorst of it, but I
+even up now.”
+
+“It’s great,” commented the lawyer. “You’ve got a great head on you,
+Schlimmer. Not one man in a thousand would have thought of it. We’ll all
+even up, but they would have been mighty suspicious if I had let
+Tainter’s application go in through Mays. That’s where you get the
+advantage of having a lawyer in the deal.”
+
+And more to the same effect, but no definite explanation of the scheme.
+
+Murray was at his office unusually early Monday morning, and the first
+thing he did was to have a clerk look up the Schlimmer case. Some
+company, he knew, had got into trouble over a Schlimmer policy, and he
+wanted to know all about it. He learned that Schlimmer had taken out a
+policy on his wife’s life, had demanded and secured a rebate from the
+solicitor, and that another policy-holder had taken action that resulted
+in nullifying the policy and imposing a fine on the company.
+
+“I think I understand it now,” mused Murray, “but it looks to me as if
+pretty prompt action might be necessary.”
+
+All doubt, all hesitation had disappeared. Murray was wide awake and
+active. He called in his private messenger.
+
+“When Mr. Mays reports,” he said, “he is to wait until I have had a talk
+with him before going out. I shall send for him when I am ready.” Then,
+giving the boy a slip of paper with a name and an address on it, “I want
+to see that man here at once. Take a cab and bring him. Tell him the
+validity of his life insurance depends upon it.”
+
+While the boy was gone, Murray slipped out himself, and, when he
+returned, a stranger accompanied him. The stranger was secreted in a
+room adjoining, and then Murray took up the routine of his regular work.
+The only interruption came when a clerk informed him that Mays was
+waiting.
+
+“Let him wait,” said Murray. “I’m not quite ready for him yet. If he
+tries to leave, jump on his back and hold him.”
+
+After a time the messenger returned with the man for whom he had been
+sent, and Murray immediately took him into his private office and shut
+the door.
+
+“Mr. Leckster,” he said abruptly, “how much of a rebate did Mays give
+you on the policy you took out with us?”
+
+Leckster was plainly mystified and frightened.
+
+“Out with it!” commanded Murray. “Your policy isn’t worth the paper it’s
+written on unless the matter is straightened out mighty quick. How much
+was the rebate?”
+
+“I don’t understand,” said Leckster, already nearly terror-stricken.
+
+“How much of his commission did he give to you to get you to take out a
+policy?”
+
+“Oh, he give me a half.”
+
+“Leckster,” said Murray, “that was against the law. If any other
+policy-holder hears of it and wants to go into court, he can nullify
+your policy and get half of the fine that will be assessed against us
+for the act of our agent. If you want to make your policy unassailable,
+you must refund that rebate. Now, go home and think it over.”
+
+Then he sent word to Mays that he was ready to see him.
+
+“Mays,” he said abruptly, “what was your scheme?”
+
+“Sir!” exclaimed Mays.
+
+“What was your scheme?”
+
+“Surely you must be joking, sir,” protested Mays. “I have no scheme.”
+
+“Why did Tainter,” replied Murray in deliberate tones, “a friend of
+yours, put in his application through another solicitor?”
+
+“He didn’t know I was in the insurance business until he came up here to
+be examined.”
+
+“Then why did you fail to recognize each other until you got out in the
+hall where you thought you were unobserved?”
+
+Mays did not even hesitate. Evidently he had prepared himself for this.
+
+“Another man had got his application,” he said, “and I was afraid it
+would look as if I were trying to interfere in some way. I did nod to
+him, but very likely it wasn’t noticed.”
+
+“What are your relations with Schlimmer?” persisted Murray.
+
+“Oh, I got into a little business deal with him, for which I am
+sincerely sorry. I’m trying to get out now.”
+
+“Insurance?” asked Murray.
+
+“No, sir; it had nothing whatever to do with insurance.”
+
+Murray was thoughtful and silent for several minutes.
+
+“Mays,” he said at last, speaking slowly, “I don’t know whether you’re
+worth saving or not. You’ve got in with a bad crowd and you’re mixed up
+in a bad deal. But you impressed me favorably when you came here, and I
+think you are capable of being legitimately successful. Of course, you
+lied to me about your mother—”
+
+“I was very anxious for the job, sir.”
+
+“I quite appreciate that, although your motive for wanting the job will
+hardly bear close scrutiny. Still, you are young and I am anxious to
+give you another chance. Now, tell me the whole story.”
+
+“There is nothing to tell, sir,” Mays replied with an ingenuous air.
+“Your words and insinuations are a deep mystery to me.”
+
+“Think again,” advised Murray. “I know the story pretty well myself.”
+
+“I shall be glad to have you tell it, sir,” said Mays. “Your earnestness
+leads me to think it must be interesting.”
+
+“If I tell it,” said Murray, “it removes your last chance of escaping
+any of the consequences.”
+
+“Go ahead,” said Mays.
+
+At least, he had magnificent nerve.
+
+“Schlimmer,” said Murray, fixing his eyes sharply on Mays, “was once
+mixed up in a little trouble over rebates, which are unlawful. He tried
+to get me to give him a rebate on a policy, but I refused, and he seems
+to have got the idea that I was directly responsible for the failure of
+his scheme elsewhere. He learned, however, that the informer gets half
+of the fine assessed against the company in each case, but that only
+another policy-holder is empowered to make the necessary complaint. It
+occurred to Schlimmer that, if he could find enough rebate cases, there
+would be a good bit of money in it on the division of the fines. Being a
+man of low cunning, it occurred to Schlimmer that these cases might be
+manufactured, if he could get hold of a complaisant insurance solicitor,
+for the company is held responsible for the act of the agent, and the
+easiest way to get hold of a complaisant solicitor was to make one. So
+he went to a young man who was absorbed in the study of tricky finance
+and who couldn’t see why he couldn’t do that sort of thing himself, and
+the young man got a job in this office. The young man, Max Mays by name,
+immediately began preparing rebate cases for future use. He worked among
+a class of people who knew little of insurance or insurance laws and who
+are in the habit of figuring very closely, and this rebate proposition
+looked pretty good to them.
+
+“Next, Schlimmer and Mays got a lawyer into the scheme, because they
+would need him when it came to the later proceedings, and they further
+prepared for their _coup_ by having a confederate, named Tainter, take
+out a policy in the company, so that he would be in a position to make
+the necessary complaint. In order to avert suspicion, when the time for
+action came, Tainter applied for his policy through another solicitor. I
+think that is about all, Mays, except that you were ready to spring your
+surprise as soon as the policies had been issued on two or three
+applications now under consideration. I was in the next room to you when
+you held your meeting yesterday, Mays.”
+
+Mays had grown very white during this recital, but he still kept his
+nerve, although he now showed it in a different way.
+
+“Yes,” he said, “that is about all. There are some details lacking, but
+the story is practically correct. What do you intend to do with me?”
+
+Then Mays was suddenly conscious of the fact that a man, a stranger, was
+standing beside him. The man had emerged quietly from the room in which
+he had been concealed.
+
+“There are the warrants for the whole crowd, including this man,” said
+Murray, handing the stranger a number of documents. “The charge is
+conspiracy, and, if they could have secured half the fine in each of the
+cases they prepared so carefully, they would have made a pretty good
+thing. Now, I’ve got the job of straightening this matter out so that
+both the policies and the company will be unassailable under the rebate
+law. But, at any rate, Schlimmer has got his second lesson, and it’s a
+good one. Look out for him especially, officer. If you keep this man
+away from the telephone, you’ll have no difficulty in getting Schlimmer
+and all the others.”
+
+
+
+
+AN INCIDENTAL COURTSHIP
+
+
+Harry Renway was the kind of man that people refer to as “a simple
+soul.” He might feel deeply, but he did not think that way. As a matter
+of fact, it was stretching things a little to call him a man, for he was
+hardly more than a boy—a youth in years, but a boy in everything else.
+Nevertheless, it is worth recording that he was a reasonably thrifty
+boy, although his earning capacity had not permitted him to put aside
+anything resembling a fortune.
+
+Love, however, visits the poor as well as the wealthy, the simple as
+well as the wise. Indeed, sometimes it seems as if Love rather avoids
+the wealthy and wise and chooses the companionship of less-favored
+mortals. So, perhaps, it is not at all extraordinary that Harry Renway
+was in love, and the object of his affections was one of the most
+tantalizing specimens of femininity that ever annoyed and delighted man.
+
+She said frankly that she was mercenary, but it is probable she
+exaggerated. She had been poor all her life, but she had no dreams of
+great wealth and no ambition for it: she merely wanted to be assured
+reasonable comfort—that is, what seemed to her reasonable comfort. A
+really mercenary girl would have deemed it poverty and hardship.
+Somehow, when one has been poor and has suffered some privations, one
+learns to give some thought to worldly affairs, and it is to the credit
+of Alice Jennings that she did not grade men more exactly by the money
+standard. Harry’s modest salary would be sufficient to meet her
+requirements, but Harry had nothing but his salary. A larger salary
+might give something of luxury, in addition to comfort, but, assured the
+comfort and freedom from privation, she would be guided by the
+inclinations of her heart. So, perhaps, she was wise rather than
+mercenary. Love needs a little of the fostering care of money, although
+too much of this tends to idleness and scandal.
+
+“But if anything should happen to you,” argued Alice, when Harry tried
+to tell her how hard he would work for her.
+
+“What’s going to happen to me?” he demanded.
+
+“I don’t know,” she answered lightly. “You’re a dear, good boy, Harry,
+and I like you, but I’ve had all the poverty I want.”
+
+“Who’s talking about poverty?” persisted Harry stoutly. “I’ve got more
+than two hundred dollars saved up, and I’ll have a bigger salary pretty
+soon.”
+
+“What’s two hundred dollars!” she returned. “We’d use that to begin
+housekeeping. Then, if anything should happen to you—Why, Harry, I’d be
+worse off than I am now. I don’t want much, but I’ve learned to look
+ahead—a little. I’ve neither the disposition nor the training to be a
+wage-earner, and I’ll never go back home after I marry. Dad has a hard
+enough time of it, anyhow.” There was raillery in her tone, but there
+was also something of earnestness in it. “Now, Tom Nelson has over two
+thousand dollars,” she added.
+
+“Oh, if you’re going to sell yourself!” exclaimed Harry bitterly.
+
+“I didn’t say I’d marry him,” she retorted teasingly, “but, if I did and
+anything happened to him—”
+
+“You’d probably find he’d lost it in some scheme,” put in Harry.
+
+“He might,” admitted Alice thoughtfully, “but he’s pretty careful.”
+
+“And too old for you,” added Harry angrily. “Still, if it’s only money—”
+
+“It isn’t,” she interrupted more seriously; “it’s caution. I’ve had
+enough to make me just a little cautious. You don’t know how hard it has
+been, Harry, or you’d understand. If you knew more of the
+disappointments and heartaches of some of the girls who are deemed
+mercenary, you wouldn’t blame them for sacrificing sentiment to a
+certain degree of worldliness. ’I just want to be sure I’ll never have
+to go through this again,’ says the girl, and she tries to make sure. It
+isn’t a question of the amount of money she can get by marriage, nor of
+silks or satins, but rather of peace and security after some years of
+privation and anxiety. She learns to think of the future, if only in a
+modest way—that is, some girls do. I’m one of them. What could I
+do—alone?”
+
+“Then you won’t marry me?”
+
+“I didn’t say that.”
+
+“Then you will marry me?”
+
+“I didn’t say that, either. There’s no hurry.”
+
+Thus she tantalized him always. It was unfair, of course—unless she
+intended to accept him eventually. In that case, it was merely unwise.
+It is accepted as a girl’s privilege to be thus perverse and
+inconsistent in her treatment of the man she intends to marry, but
+sometimes she goes too far and loses him. However, Alice Jennings was
+herself uncertain. She had known Harry a long time, and she liked him.
+She had known Tom Nelson a shorter time, and she liked him also. It may
+be said, however, that she did not love either of them. Love is
+self-sacrificing and gives no thought to worldly affairs. Alice Jennings
+might have been capable of love, if she could have afforded the luxury,
+but circumstances had convinced her that she could not afford it, so she
+did not try. She would not sell herself solely for money, and her
+standard of comfort was not high, but she was trying hard to “like” the
+most promising man well enough to marry him. As far as possible, she was
+disposed to follow the advice of the man who said, “Marry for love, my
+son, marry for love and not for money, but, if you can love a girl with
+money, for heaven’s sake do so.”
+
+As a natural result of her desire to make sure of escaping for all time
+the thraldom of poverty that was so galling to her, she was irresolute
+and capricious. She dressed unusually well for a girl in her position,
+but this was because she had taste and had learned to make her own
+clothes, so the money available for her gowns could be put almost
+entirely into the material alone. She was a capable housekeeper, because
+necessity had compelled her to give a good deal of time to housework in
+her own home. She had no thought of escaping all these duties, irksome
+as they were, but she did not wish to be bound down to them. A
+comfortable flat, with a maid-of-all-work to do the cooking and
+cleaning, and a sewing girl for a week once or twice a year, was her
+idea of luxury. This, even though there was still much for her to do,
+would give her freedom, and this, with reasonably careful management,
+either of the men could give her. But she looked beyond, and hesitated;
+she had schooled herself to go rather deeply into the future.
+
+Tom Nelson found her quite as unreasonable and bewildering as did Harry.
+Tom was older and more resourceful than Harry, but he was not so steady
+and persistent. Harry was content to let his money accumulate in a
+savings’ bank, but Tom deemed this too slow and was willing to take
+risks in the hope of larger profits. He made more, but he also spent
+more, and, all else aside, it was a question as to whether Harry would
+not be able to provide the better home. Then, too, Tom occasionally lost
+money, while nothing but a bank failure could endanger Harry’s modest
+capital. So Tom had his own troubles with the girl. He knew her dread of
+poverty—amounting almost to a mania—and he made frequent incidental
+reference to his capital.
+
+“But that isn’t much,” she said lightly. Her self-confessed
+mercenariness was always brought out in a whimsical, half-jocular way
+that seemed to have nothing of worldly hardness in it. “And there’s no
+telling whether you’ll have it six months from now,” she added. “As long
+as I had you to take care of me, it would be all right, but—”
+
+She always came back to the same point. Yet one of these two she
+intended to marry, her personal preference being for Harry, and her
+judgment commending Tom. The former would plod; the latter might be
+worth twenty thousand in a few years, or he might be in debt. Harry
+never would have much; Tom might have a great deal—enough to make the
+future secure, no matter what happened.
+
+“Will you invest the money for me?” she asked.
+
+“Why, no,—I must use it to make more.”
+
+Thus she flirtatiously, laughingly, but with an undertone of
+seriousness, kept them both uncertain, while she impressed upon them her
+one great fear of being left helpless. Yet even in this her ambition was
+modest: no income for life, but only something for her temporary needs
+until she could adjust herself to new conditions, if that became
+necessary. Anything more than that was too remote for serious thought.
+
+Harry finally told his troubles to a friend, when these exasperating
+conditions had continued for some time. He wanted consolation; he got
+advice.
+
+“A little too worldly to suit me,” commented the friend. “Still, it
+might be better if some of the girls who marry hastily had just a little
+of such worldliness. There would be fewer helpless and wretched women
+and children.”
+
+“That’s just it,” returned Harry. “She knows what it means, and that two
+thousand of Tom Nelson’s looks awful big to her. If I had as much I’d
+invest it for her outright, and that would settle it.”
+
+“Doesn’t want it to spend, as I understand it?” queried the friend.
+
+“Oh, no—just to know that she has something in case anything happens.”
+
+“Why don’t you try life insurance?” asked the friend.
+
+It took Harry a moment or two to grasp this. Then his face lighted up.
+
+“By thunder! I never thought of that!” he cried.
+
+“That’s the trouble with lots of men,” remarked the friend dryly.
+“Marriage is considered a dual arrangement when it should be a
+triple—man, woman and life insurance. That’s the only really safe
+combination. The thoughtful lover will see that the life insurance agent
+and the minister are interviewed about the same time.”
+
+“Where did you learn all that?” asked the astonished Harry.
+
+“Oh, it’s not original with me,” was the reply. “I heard Dave Murray
+talk about insurance once. He’s an enthusiast. He claims that the best
+possible wedding gift is a paid-up life insurance policy, and I guess
+he’s right. It would be a mighty appropriate gift from the groom’s
+father to the bride—a blame sight better than a check or a diamond
+necklace. A paid-up policy for five thousand would look just as big as a
+five-thousand-dollar check, and it wouldn’t cost nearly as much—unless
+the old man plans to sneak back the check before it can be cashed. And
+what a lot of good it might do at a time when the need may be the
+greatest! If the bride is the one to be considered in selecting a
+wedding gift, as I understand to be the case, what better than this?”
+
+“I guess Dave Murray is the man for me,” said Harry in admiration of the
+originality of this idea.
+
+“Of course he is,” asserted the friend. “And if you want to make the
+argument stronger for your wavering girl, get an accident insurance
+policy, with a sick benefit clause, also, and then take out a little old
+age insurance. There ought to be no trouble about giving her all the
+assurance necessary to allay her fears.”
+
+Harry was a good risk, and he had no difficulty in getting a policy. He
+saw Murray personally, but, as he did not explain his purpose or
+situation, their conference was brief: Murray merely asked if he thought
+a thousand-dollar policy was all he could afford.
+
+“Because,” said Murray, “when you go after a good thing it’s wise to
+take all you can of it. There ought to be enough so that something can
+be found after your estate is settled.”
+
+“I’d make it five hundred if I could,” said Harry.
+
+“Most of the good companies,” said Murray, “wisely protect a man from
+his own economical folly by refusing to issue a policy for less than a
+thousand.”
+
+“It’s an experiment. A fellow doesn’t want to put too much money into an
+experiment.”
+
+Murray, the resourceful Murray, was bewildered. Life insurance an
+experiment! Surely he could not mean that.
+
+“Well,” he said, “your widow will be pretty sure to think the experiment
+a success.”
+
+“I haven’t got a widow,” asserted Harry.
+
+“Of course not; but you may have.”
+
+“How can I have a widow when I am dead?” asked Harry. “How can I have
+anything when I am dead?”
+
+“You can’t tell by the looks of an electric wire how highly it is
+charged,” mused Murray. “I guess I touched this one too recklessly.”
+Then to Harry: “But there may be _a_ widow.”
+
+“There may,” returned Harry.
+
+“Well, she’ll be sorry you didn’t experiment on a larger scale, because
+it really isn’t an experiment at all. There’s only one thing surer than
+insurance.”
+
+“What’s that?” asked Harry with interest.
+
+“Death; and, with the popular gold bonds or any limited payment policy,
+you have a chance to beat death by some years. But suit yourself.”
+
+So Harry took the physical examination and got the policy, payable to
+his estate. Then he promptly assigned it to Alice.
+
+“There’s one thousand dollars sure, if anything should happen to me,” he
+said. “That beats any old elusive two thousand that Tom Nelson may
+have.”
+
+“You’re a dear, good, faithful boy, Harry,” she said impulsively, and
+she gave him a kiss.
+
+That was happiness enough for that day and the next, but on the third he
+began to get down to earth again and deemed the time propitious.
+
+“You’ll marry me?” he suggested.
+
+“Perhaps,” was her reply.
+
+“Perhaps!” he cried. “It’s always perhaps.”
+
+“Perhaps it won’t be always perhaps,” she returned.
+
+In truth, she had wavered so long that she found it difficult to make up
+her mind. Besides, Tom was prospering, Tom was devoted, and Tom was a
+nice fellow. True, he was twenty-six while she was only eighteen, and
+Harry, at twenty, was nearer her own age, but—well, aside from any
+question of the future, it was rather nice to have two men so devotedly
+attentive. Then, too, Tom spent his money more freely, and she derived
+the benefit in present pleasures. There was no hurry; the future was now
+brighter, whichever she chose, and, things being so nearly equal, there
+was even less reason for haste. Alice, in addition to her dread of
+poverty, was a natural flirt: she enjoyed the power she exerted over
+these two men. But she said nothing to Tom of Harry’s latest move;
+perhaps she thought it would be unfair, or perhaps she was a trifle
+truer to Harry than to Tom.
+
+Harry, in his “simple” way, misinterpreted this irresolution. He was too
+devoted to criticize; he had begun to understand her dread and to think
+that she was quite right in taking such a very worldly view of the
+situation. Why should she not, so far as possible, endeavor to make her
+future secure? It was for him to convince her of his thoughtfulness and
+his ability to provide for her. Thereupon he got an accident insurance
+policy.
+
+“You’re awfully thoughtful, Harry,” she said. “I like you.”
+
+“I don’t want you to worry,” said Harry, flattered and pleased.
+
+“I’m not worrying,” she told him.
+
+“But I am,” he retorted ruefully.
+
+“Men,” she asserted, “are _so_ impatient.”
+
+Harry could not quite agree to this—he thought he had been wonderfully
+patient. In his straightforward way he began to ponder the matter
+deeply. It had seemed to him he was doing a wonderfully clever thing
+that ought to settle the matter definitely. Had he made a mistake? If
+so, what was necessary to rectify it? Incidentally, he heard that some
+of Tom Nelson’s little speculations had turned out favorably, and Tom
+was still quite as devoted as ever and seemed to be received with as
+much favor. Then to Harry came an idea—a really brilliant idea, he
+thought.
+
+“Perhaps,” he told himself, “I ought not to have assigned that policy to
+her; perhaps I ought to have kept it in my control so that a wedding
+would be necessary to give her the benefit of it. As it is now, she has
+the policy, no matter whom she marries. I don’t think she would—”
+
+Without finishing the sentence, Harry knitted his brow and shook his
+head. It was not a pleasant thought—he told himself it was an unjust
+thought—but, as he had gone in to win, he might as well take every
+precaution. If the conditions were a little different, it might put an
+end to her flirtatious mood and compel a more serious consideration of
+his suit; it might have a tendency to emphasize his point and “wake her
+up,” as he expressed it. Possibly, it was just the argument needed.
+
+With this in mind, he again called upon Murray.
+
+“I’m in a little trouble,” he explained. “I ought to have had that
+policy made out to my wife.”
+
+“It makes no difference, unless the estate is involved in some way,”
+explained Murray. “She’ll get it through—”
+
+“It makes a big difference,” interrupted Harry. “You see, I’ve got to
+get the wife.”
+
+“What!” ejaculated Murray. “Say that again, please.”
+
+“Why, if I had an insurance policy in favor of my wife, it would make it
+easier to get the wife, wouldn’t it?”
+
+“Thunder!” exclaimed Murray. “I thought I was pretty well up on
+insurance financiering, but this beats me. Are you hanging an insurance
+policy up as a sort of prize package?”
+
+“That’s it, that’s it!” cried Harry, pleased to find the situation so
+quickly comprehended. “The other fellow is worth more, but insurance
+looks bigger than anything else I can buy for the money, and I want to
+show her how much safer she will be with me than with him.”
+
+“You’re all right,” laughed Murray, “but I’m afraid you’ll have to marry
+first. We can’t very well make a policy payable to a person who doesn’t
+exist, and you have no wife now. When you have one, bring the policy
+back if you’re not satisfied to have it payable to the estate, and—”
+
+“But she’s got it.”
+
+“Who?”
+
+“The girl. I assigned it to her, so she doesn’t have to marry me to get
+the benefit. That wasn’t good business.”
+
+Murray leaned back in his chair and looked at the youth with amusement
+and curiosity.
+
+“No,” he said at last, “that may have been good sentiment, but it wasn’t
+good business. And,” he added jokingly, “I don’t know that this
+transaction is quite legal.”
+
+“Why not?” asked Harry anxiously.
+
+“Well, we’re not allowed to give prizes, and, if a girl goes with the
+policy, it looks a good deal like a prize-package affair. I’m not sure
+that that wouldn’t be considered worse than giving rebates on premiums.”
+
+“You’ve got the wrong idea,” argued Harry with solemn earnestness. “The
+girl doesn’t go with the policy, but the policy goes with me. At least,
+that’s what I intended.”
+
+“Better try it again with another policy,” suggested Murray. “Make it
+payable to your estate, and then hang on to it until you get the girl.
+Let me give you a word of advice, too, although it’s not exactly to my
+interest.”
+
+“Well?”
+
+“Well, the policy that you gave to her doesn’t amount to much if you
+stop paying premiums on it. You might suggest that to her.”
+
+“By George! I never thought of that!” exclaimed the youth. “I guess I
+haven’t much of a financial head.”
+
+“Oh, you’re all right,” returned Murray. “You’re the first fellow I ever
+knew who made a matrimonial bureau of an insurance office. I’ve got
+something to learn about this business yet.”
+
+With his second policy in his pocket, Harry reverted quite casually to
+the subject of insurance, although he had first taken the precaution to
+have a lot of insurance literature sent to Alice. From this she learned
+that nothing could quite equal it in making the future secure.
+
+“I have decided,” said Harry in an offhand way, “that the best
+investment for a young man who has any one dependent upon him is life
+insurance. I have just taken out another policy for a thousand dollars.”
+
+“How thoughtful of you!” exclaimed Alice.
+
+“It’s on the twenty-year endowment plan,” explained Harry. “At the end
+of twenty years the whole sum may be drawn down or it may be left to
+accumulate. As provision for the future, I guess that makes any two or
+three thousand in the bank look like thirty cents.”
+
+“You’re awfully good to me,” said Alice, for this apparent evidence of
+unselfish devotion, in addition to what had preceded it, really made her
+reproach herself for her capriciousness. But it was such jolly fun to
+keep two men anxious!
+
+“The insurance,” Harry went on, “is payable to my estate.”
+
+“What does that mean, Harry?” she asked.
+
+“It means,” replied Harry, “that a girl has got to marry me to get a
+chance at it.”
+
+“I always did like you, Harry.”
+
+“Yes?”
+
+“But you’re so impatient.”
+
+Harry was beginning to develop a little strategical ingenuity.
+
+“There is no need,” he said, “to make a secret of this. I’m not ashamed
+to have all the girls know that I am making proper provision for the one
+who becomes my wife.”
+
+“Harry Renway,” exclaimed Alice, “if you make our private affairs a
+subject of public gossip I’ll never speak to you again as long as I
+live.”
+
+Thereupon Harry demonstrated that he was not as “simple” as he was
+supposed to be, for he promptly returned the kiss that she had given him
+on a previous occasion. There could be no misinterpreting “our” private
+affairs.
+
+“When?” he asked.
+
+“Oh, pretty soon,” she replied, for the flirtatious instinct was still
+in evidence. Besides, under the circumstances, too much haste might be
+in poor taste. However, their friends were told of the engagement, and
+that was something. Tom Nelson was angry and disgusted.
+
+“The fool!” he exclaimed. “A live man wants to have the use of his
+money, and he has tied himself up with insurance. That isn’t my way.”
+
+“But he got the girl,” some one suggested.
+
+“Not yet,” retorted Tom, “and you never can tell.”
+
+In truth, it seemed as if Tom’s insinuation was almost prophetic, for
+Alice procrastinated and postponed in a most tormenting way, and Harry
+took it all in good part for two or three months. There was no
+particular reason for this delay, as the preliminaries of such a wedding
+as they would have could be arranged very quickly, and in time it tried
+the patience even of Harry.
+
+“The semi-annual premium on that first policy is due the day after
+to-morrow,” he remarked one evening.
+
+“Well?” she returned inquiringly.
+
+“If the premium isn’t paid the policy lapses,” he went on.
+
+“But you’ll pay it?”
+
+“For my wife I will.”
+
+She gave him a quick look and knew that he was not going to be swayed
+this time by her little cajoleries.
+
+“But, Harry,” she protested, “that’s so—so soon.”
+
+“I have the license in my pocket,” he said; “there’s a church within two
+blocks, and I saw a light in the pastor’s study as I came by. I guess
+we’ve waited long enough. Let’s go out for a little stroll.”
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was six months later that Harry again met Dave Murray, but Murray
+remembered him.
+
+“Did you get the prize with your policy?” asked Murray.
+
+“Sure,” replied Harry.
+
+“Was it a good prize?”
+
+“Bully!” said Harry. “A little hard to handle just at first, but you can
+do almost anything with insurance.”
+
+“You certainly have made good use of it,” laughed Murray.
+
+“You bet I have,” answered Harry with some pride. “Why, say! an
+insurance policy is the greatest thing in the world for family
+discipline.”
+
+“For what!” exclaimed Murray.
+
+“Family discipline. The first time we had a little rumpus she had me
+going seven ways for Sunday until I thought of the insurance policies.
+‘Well,’ said I, ‘if I’m not the head of the house there’s no reason why
+I should be paying insurance premiums, and I’ll default on the next one.
+The head of the house looks after things of that sort,’ I told her, and
+that settled it. I’m the head of the house, and, if I don’t play it too
+strong, I’ve got the thing to maintain discipline.”
+
+“Don’t you want another policy?” laughed Murray.
+
+“Well,” returned Harry thoughtfully, “if I could get the same kind of
+prize with another, and if it wasn’t against the law, I rather think I
+might be tempted to do it. Anyhow, there can’t anybody tell me there’s
+nothing in insurance, for I know better.”
+
+
+
+
+AN INCIDENTAL SACRIFICE
+
+
+“I guess it’s all up with us,” said Sidney Kalin despairingly.
+
+“It looks that way,” admitted his brother, Albert Kalin.
+
+The father, Jonas Kalin, sat at his desk with his head half-buried in
+his hands.
+
+“There is no chance for an extension, of course,” he said wearily.
+
+“I should say not,” returned Sidney. “Telmer bought up the mortgage for
+just one purpose, and his only hope of success lies in foreclosing. He
+wants to get his hands on the invention.”
+
+“Will he take an interest in the business?” asked Jonas.
+
+“Why should he, when he can get the only thing he wants without?”
+returned Sidney.
+
+“What does Dempsey say?” persisted the senior Kalin.
+
+“It’s out of his line,” answered Albert, to whom the question was
+addressed. “If five thousand would straighten the thing out, he might
+risk it, but he wouldn’t put up a cent more than that, and he’d want a
+twenty-five per cent. interest in the business for that sum.”
+
+“And, if we can save it, the thing is worth a fortune,” groaned Jonas.
+“We’ve got a start already, and there’s almost no limit to the
+possibilities. It ought to be worth fifty thousand a year inside of
+three years. He doesn’t want much.”
+
+“Well, he’s out of the question, anyway,” said Sidney. “We’ve got to
+have twenty-five thousand, and we’ve got to have it mighty soon.”
+
+“My life insurance is more than that,” mused Jonas.
+
+“What good does that do?” retorted Sidney rather sharply. “Even if you
+wanted to surrender it, the cash surrender value is less than ten
+thousand at the present time.”
+
+“That would help,” argued Jonas.
+
+“Nothing will help that doesn’t put the full sum needed within our
+reach,” asserted Albert. “We’re about due to begin life over again with
+a little less than nothing.”
+
+“I’ll think it over,” said Jonas, rising and wearily reaching for his
+hat. “I’ve always weathered the storms before. Perhaps I’ll find a way
+to weather this one.”
+
+Jonas Kalin once had been accounted a successful real estate man, but he
+had lost a good deal of money in speculation, and the time and thought
+he gave to speculation had had an injurious effect upon his business.
+One of the sons had been for a time in the employ of a manufacturer of
+fountain pens. Later the elder Kalin had started both boys, as an
+independent firm, in that line of business, their pen differing
+sufficiently from others to avoid any infringement of patents on
+patented features. They had made no great amount of money, indeed barely
+a living income, but they had kept out of debt until Sidney invented a
+machine for finishing the shell or case of the pen.
+
+His experiments had been rather costly, and the machine had been costly
+to construct, but he had convinced his father that it was a good thing,
+and Jonas had given up his dwindling real estate business and put what
+money he had left into his sons’ firm, becoming a partner in the
+enterprise. Even then it had been found necessary to borrow twenty-five
+thousand dollars in order to establish the business on the new and
+larger basis, giving a mortgage on the entire plant, which included the
+new machine, and this mortgage had passed into the hands of a more
+prosperous business rival at a time when the value of the invention was
+just becoming apparent. This invention largely reduced the cost of
+production, but the exploiting so far done, although expensive and
+reasonably successful, had not enabled the Kalins to accumulate anything
+to meet their obligation. Indeed, believing they would have no
+difficulty in securing an extension, they had not worried about this
+until they found themselves in the power of a rival.
+
+The machine had not been patented, for reasons that most successful
+inventors will readily understand. While a patent is supposed to protect
+the inventor, it does not do so in many instances; on the contrary, it
+frequently gives a rival just the information he needs to duplicate the
+device with technical variations that will at least make the question of
+infringement a difficult one to decide. The inventor of limited means,
+opposed by a company with almost unlimited capital, is at a serious
+disadvantage when he gets into the courts, and there are cases where the
+value of an invention has been largely destroyed by having the market
+flooded with the article before the legal rights can be definitely
+determined. There is hardly a single patented device of great value that
+has not been the basis of long and costly litigation, involving either
+the unauthorized use or manufacture of the device as it is or the use or
+manufacture of a device suggested by the original and differing from it
+only enough to give technical plausibility to the plea that it is not an
+infringement. Even the great Edison is reported to have said that he has
+made practically no money on his patents, but has had to enter the
+manufacturing business to get any material benefit from his inventions.
+
+“When you patent an invention,” the Kalins had been informed by a man of
+experience in such matters, “you are furnishing ammunition to the enemy.
+You are giving him your secret, and he will put some smart men at work
+to discover some method of using it himself. Edison is still busy with
+inventions, but you don’t see his name in the patent reports any more.
+He has become too wise for that. Secrecy is the best protection,
+provided you have something that can be kept secret.”
+
+All this Jonas Kalin reviewed as he walked slowly and with bowed head
+toward his club. They had kept their invention secret, they had
+advertised extensively, and now, just as they were beginning to get
+returns on their investment, the dream was shattered. They had tried to
+interest various capitalists, but capitalists could not see the future
+as they saw it. Capital is exceptionally conservative when there is a
+question of investing in inventions that it does not understand, for
+inventors are proverbially optimistic and not infrequently cost capital
+a good deal of money.
+
+“Thirty thousand dollars of life insurance!” muttered Jonas, as he
+settled himself in a corner of the reading-room. “If we could have the
+use of that money for a year we would be all right.”
+
+Jonas was a widower, but his wife had been living when he had taken out
+this insurance. Now it would go to the sons eventually, if they survived
+him, but, meanwhile, they would lose a fortune. Since the death of his
+wife, Jonas had given his every thought to the boys and their future. He
+reproached himself for the speculations that had deprived him of the
+power of helping them as he had planned in earlier days; he felt that
+somehow he had defrauded them. So deeply did he feel this that from the
+day he gave up his real estate business he never had put one dollar into
+a speculation of any kind, except so far as his investment in their
+business was a speculation.
+
+“If we could make that go,” he mused, as he crouched miserably in the
+big chair, “I should be content. I owe it to the boys to see them fairly
+started. I was in a position to do it once and I lost the money
+foolishly—their money, by rights, for I had put it aside for them. And
+here am I, almost useless—a business wreck—too old to begin again as an
+employee and lacking the capital to be an employer or to do business of
+any sort for myself. Instead of helping my boys, I am to be a burden to
+them—until I die. I am of value only in the grave.” He shuddered and
+seemed to sink still lower in the chair. “It is my duty to do what I can
+for them,” he added. “I am useless, but life is before them—a
+continuation of my life. I must be a success through my sons.”
+
+Benson, a friend, stopped near him.
+
+“What’s the matter, Kalin?” asked Benson. “You look blue.”
+
+Kalin looked up at Benson in a dazed way, and for a moment seemed to be
+unable to grasp the fact that he had been addressed.
+
+“Benson,” he said at last, his eyes wandering dreamily about the room,
+“is a man ever justified in committing suicide?”
+
+Benson was startled, but he replied promptly and emphatically, “Never.”
+
+“Suppose,” Kalin went on, “that your life intervened between those you
+love and happiness; suppose that your life meant misery and failure for
+them, while your death meant success and—and comfort.”
+
+Benson drew up a chair and placed his hand on Kalin’s arm as if to
+emphasize his words.
+
+“_The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away_,” he quoted earnestly.
+“Life is God’s gift and should be treasured as such. You may not return
+it until He calls, unless you would doubt His wisdom.”
+
+Kalin nodded his head thoughtfully.
+
+“Men have gone to certain death for those they love and been glorified
+for so doing,” he argued.
+
+“A man may _give_ his own life to save the life of another and be a
+hero,” returned Benson, “but he may not _take_ his own life for any
+cause and be aught but a coward.”
+
+“What matters it whether he takes it or gives it, so long as the purpose
+is the same?” asked Kalin.
+
+Benson gripped the arm on which his hand lay and shook Kalin.
+
+“Wake up!” he commanded sharply. “What’s the matter with you to-day?”
+
+Kalin roused himself, as if from a dream, and laughed in a forced,
+dreary way.
+
+“Nothing is the matter with me,” he replied. “I must have been reading
+something that gave my thoughts a morbid turn. Still, your reasoning
+seems to be that of a man who never has been tested. Your view has been
+my view, but I can see how a man’s views may change when he is
+confronted by the actual conditions concerning which he has previously
+only theorized. I don’t think you’re right.”
+
+“It’s a disagreeable subject, even for abstract consideration,” asserted
+Benson. “Let’s drop it.”
+
+“All right,” said Kalin. “I’m going in to lunch.”
+
+In the dining-room he got into an obscure corner and the waiter had to
+joggle his elbow to rouse him from the reverie into which he immediately
+fell. Then, after barely tasting the lunch he ordered, he went to the
+office of the club and asked that all charges against him be footed up.
+
+“There’s nothing against me at all now?” he said inquiringly as he paid
+the bill.
+
+“Nothing at all, sir,” replied the clerk.
+
+“I’d hate to leave any club debts,” he remarked, as if talking aloud to
+himself.
+
+At his office he found his sons still gloomily discussing the situation.
+
+“I think,” he said, “that I have found a way to save the business.”
+
+“How?” they asked eagerly.
+
+“The details are not quite clear in my mind yet,” he replied. “I would
+like to give them a little more thought before explaining the matter.
+But, if I succeed in pulling you through, you boys must be mighty
+careful in the future. A concern doesn’t get out of this kind of hole
+twice, and I’m going to turn it all over to you.”
+
+“Why?” asked Albert in surprise.
+
+“I ruined one business,” was the reply. “One is enough. Be cautious. Go
+slow. You’ve got a good thing—a fortune—if you handle your finances
+properly and don’t try to spread out too fast.”
+
+He shook hands with both the boys, to their great bewilderment.
+
+“Where are you going?” asked Sidney. “One would think you were starting
+on a long journey.”
+
+“I’m taking leave of the business,” he answered, with a laugh that had
+something of pathos in it. “I’m going to shut myself up for a day or so
+until I get my little scheme elaborated, and then you shall have the
+benefit of it, but I am out of active business.”
+
+Sidney and Albert were silent for some time after he had left. Jonas
+Kalin always had been a rather eccentric man, and they were accustomed
+to letting his whims and peculiarities of word and action pass without
+comment, but there was something in this parting that made them feel
+uncomfortable.
+
+“I don’t like it,” remarked Sidney. “I wonder if the worry and
+disappointment have been too much for him.”
+
+“It is a hard blow to him—not for himself, but for us,” returned Albert.
+“However, we’ll see him this evening.”
+
+Mrs. Albert Kalin was the housekeeper for the three men. Sidney, being a
+bachelor, had always lived with his father, but Albert had married and
+moved away from the parental roof. Then, when his mother died, Jonas had
+called him back and practically turned the house over to him and his
+wife, reserving only one large room for himself. In this he had his own
+little library, and to this he frequently retired for long evenings of
+solitude, for, while not a recluse, he was a man who really needed no
+other companionship than his own thoughts and often seemed to avoid the
+society of others.
+
+He was not at home, however, when his sons arrived for dinner. Mrs.
+Albert Kalin said he had brought home two or three bundles early in the
+afternoon, had gone directly to his room, where he remained for about an
+hour, and had then appeared with a valise.
+
+“I never saw him look so haggard and distressed,” she explained. “He
+kissed me most affectionately and said he had some business to attend to
+and would not be home to-night.”
+
+Late that evening Sidney Kalin went to his father’s club, where he saw
+Benson and learned enough to send him to police headquarters. There was
+no publicity, but a search for the missing man was begun at once. The
+circumstances were, to say the least, disquieting.
+
+At the moment this search was begun Jonas Kalin was crossing Lake
+Michigan on one of the large steamers, and his actions were such as to
+attract the attention of some of the other passengers. It was a Friday
+night boat and was crowded with excursionists bound for a Saturday and
+Sunday outing in Michigan. Jonas had a state-room, but he merely put his
+valise in it, and then paced the deck, occasionally stopping to lean
+over the rail and look down at the water. Once or twice he sought a
+secluded corner and sat for a time buried in thought, but he moved away
+the moment others stopped near him. About eleven o’clock, as he passed
+through the main cabin, he saw a woman putting a little boy to bed on a
+sofa, and he offered her his state-room.
+
+“I’m very grateful to you, sir,” she replied, “but we couldn’t think of
+taking it. You’ll need it yourself.”
+
+“I shall not sleep to-night,” he said. “It will be vacant unless you
+take it. Shove the valise into a corner somewhere and I’ll get it in the
+morning.”
+
+He dropped the state-room key on a chair and disappeared through a door
+leading to the deck before she could make further protest, but his face
+haunted her all that night. In the morning, after some search, she found
+him huddled up on a camp-stool against the rail of the forward deck, and
+she thanked him again.
+
+“You don’t look well,” she ventured. “Can I do anything for you?”
+
+“It’s not a question of what any one can do for me,” he answered, “but
+of what I can do for others.”
+
+“I don’t understand you, sir,” she said.
+
+“It’s a good thing you don’t,” he returned, and, fearing that she had to
+deal with a crazy man, she left him.
+
+After landing, he went directly to a hotel, engaged a room, and shut
+himself up in it until afternoon. Then he went to the dock and wandered
+nervously back and forth, looking out over the water and occasionally
+down into it. The dock men watched him curiously, and one of them
+loosened a life-preserver that hung near, but he went back to the hotel
+without giving them an opportunity to use it.
+
+He kept close to his room at the hotel, and was so unobtrusive that the
+clerks and the other guests hardly realized he was there, and, being
+registered under an assumed name, not one of them recognized him as the
+Jonas Kalin who was described in the Sunday papers as being missing.
+For, the secret search Friday night and Saturday failing to reveal any
+trace of him, his sons had decided to try the effect of publicity.
+
+It was not until he had surrendered his room Sunday night that his
+identity was established. On the table was found a letter, sealed,
+addressed to Sidney Kalin.
+
+“Kalin!” cried the clerk, when the letter was brought to him. “Good
+Lord! that’s the man who disappeared. And there’s a reward for
+information. I remember, too, he had all the Sunday papers sent to his
+room, and then kept out of the way until the moment he left.”
+
+The clerk looked at the letter, uncertain as to what he ought to do.
+Finally, he decided to get the Chicago police department on the
+long-distance telephone.
+
+“Jonas Kalin has been here for two days under an assumed name,” he
+reported, “but his identity was discovered only after he had taken the
+night boat back to Chicago. He left a letter. It is sealed and addressed
+to Sidney Kalin.”
+
+“We’ll notify Kalin and meet the boat,” was the prompt reply. “Hold the
+letter until you hear from Kalin.”
+
+A little later Kalin called up the hotel and instructed that the letter
+be mailed to him at once. As Jonas was already on his way back, nothing
+would be gained by having its contents transmitted by telephone. He was
+beyond reach until the boat arrived.
+
+It was an anxious little crowd that waited at the wharf for the arrival
+of the boat. There were Albert and Sidney Kalin, two detectives and some
+newspaper men. The news of Jonas Kalin’s sojourn across the lake was
+already in the morning papers, having come by telegraph, and there was
+natural curiosity to learn the reason for this strange procedure. In
+addition, there was an undefined and unexpressed feeling that there
+might be a tragedy back of it. In any event, there was a mystery.
+
+The boat reached its dock before five o’clock, but the state-room
+passengers had the privilege of sleeping until seven, so only the
+excursionists who had been obliged to sit up all night left the boat at
+once. There were many of these, however—a weary and disheveled lot of
+individuals, groups and couples straggling along to the dock. They were
+talking of something that had happened during the night, or was supposed
+to have happened. Something or some one certainly had gone over the
+rail, for the splash was distinctly heard, and an excitable passenger
+had raised the cry of “Man overboard!” The boat had been stopped, but
+investigation had failed to discover an actual witness to any such
+accident, although two people were sure they had seen something in the
+water just after the splash. The captain, however, insisted that it was
+all the result of some nervous person’s imagination.
+
+To Albert and Sidney Kalin these rumors brought sinking hearts and a
+great dread. It took them a little time to locate the state-room that
+had been occupied by their father, but a description of him, coupled
+with the name he had used at the hotel, enabled them to do it.
+
+His valise alone was found.
+
+Several people remembered the haggard man who had tramped the deck so
+restlessly. He seemed to be in great mental distress, anxious only to
+keep away from all companionship, and no one could recall having seen
+him after the cry of “Man overboard!” Even the captain had finally to
+admit that it was probable he had lost a passenger, although, of course,
+no blame whatever attached to him or to any of the boat’s crew.
+
+Then came the letter that had been forwarded from the hotel. It was
+pathetically brief and to the point, as follows:
+
+  “My Dear Sons: The insurance money will pull you through. It is all
+  that I can give you. Your success is dearer to me than anything else
+  in the world. Your affectionate father,
+
+                                                          Jonas Kalin.
+
+Of course, Dave Murray read the story in the papers—all but the letter.
+That was brought to him later by Albert Kalin.
+
+“We wish to give you all the facts, without reservation,” Albert
+explained. “Father did this for us to save the firm, to save an almost
+priceless invention.” The young man choked a little. “We have hoped
+against hope that his letter might prove to be capable of some other
+interpretation, or that he may have changed his mind after writing it,
+and we have left no stone unturned—”
+
+“Neither have we,” said Murray quietly. “Perhaps we know more than you.”
+
+“Have you got trace of him?” asked Albert quickly, and his face showed a
+dawn of hope that could not be misunderstood: he actually believed his
+father dead and would welcome any evidence to the contrary. It was not
+the expression of a man who was principally interested in the payment of
+the insurance money, although he was naturally presenting his and his
+brother’s claim.
+
+“I am sorry to say we have not,” replied Murray, “but neither have we
+any proof of death.”
+
+Albert plainly showed his disappointment at Murray’s first statement,
+and it was a moment or two before he replied to the second.
+
+“I do not know your rules or aims,” he said, “but it is possible—indeed
+almost probable, under the circumstances—that there never will be any
+absolute proof of death. It—it happened in mid-lake, you know.”
+
+“Our aim,” returned Murray, “is to pay every claim that we are convinced
+is just, without resorting to any quibbling or technical evasions, but
+we have to be careful. In saying this, I am merely stating a general
+proposition, without particular reference to this affair. Indeed, I
+concede that the presumption of death is unusually strong in this case.
+I shall be glad to have any facts bearing on it that you can give me.”
+
+Albert fully reviewed the circumstances as he knew them, to all of which
+Murray listened attentively.
+
+“I shall make a complete report to the home office,” said Murray at the
+conclusion of the recital. “Of course, after the lapse of a certain
+period there is a legal presumption of death, anyhow, but it is possible
+that the circumstantial evidence may be deemed strong enough to warrant
+an earlier settlement. Knowing the ostensible motive, I appreciate the
+value of time to you, and I assure you the company has no desire to
+delay matters longer than is necessary to assure itself of the justice
+of the claim.”
+
+After Albert had departed, Murray went over the case carefully, and the
+evidence seemed quite convincing. In the first place, there could be no
+question as to a very strong motive. There was the certainty of ruin,
+which the death of Jonas alone could avert, and, after a lapse of two
+years from the date of the policy, suicide did not invalidate it.
+Therefore, by his own sacrifice, he could purchase a bright future for
+his sons. Then there could be no doubt that he had been depressed and
+worried for some time, and latterly unquestionably had brooded on the
+subject of self-destruction. In a talk with one man he had spoken of it
+as “self-elimination,” but he had spoken more bluntly to Benson at the
+club. There could be no doubt now that he contemplated such action at
+that time, and that he had reference to it when he told his sons he had
+discovered a way to raise the necessary money. Everything indicated that
+his troubles had made him temporarily insane.
+
+Then there was the evidence of the woman to whom he had resigned his
+state-room on the boat, and of various other passengers who had noted
+his restlessness and his misery. One woman even asserted that she had
+said to a companion at the time that there was a man who contemplated
+some desperate act. It seemed probable that he had planned to jump
+overboard that first night, but had been deterred, either by lack of a
+favorable opportunity or because his courage failed him. His actions at
+the hotel, and especially at the dock, were wholly consistent with this
+theory, and the blunt note he left was further evidence of mental
+derangement. Although his purpose in no way affected his policy, a man
+in his right mind would hardly have stated it so frankly; indeed, a sane
+man probably would have tried to give the appearance of accident to his
+death. Finally, he had boarded the return boat and was missing when the
+boat reached Chicago, although his strange actions had directed
+particular attention to him during the early part of the trip.
+
+After a brief delay the company paid the policy. The circumstantial
+evidence could hardly be more convincing, and the body of a man who
+drowned himself in mid-lake might never be recovered.
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was several years later that Albert Kalin called upon Murray and
+introduced himself a second time.
+
+“We have just heard from father,” he said.
+
+“What!” cried Murray.
+
+“He died in South America,” explained Albert; “died there miserably—not
+because of any poverty, but because he was an exile and felt that he was
+a swindler. He left a letter which was forwarded to us. His life, he
+said, had been one long torture since that night on the boat, and he had
+a thousand times regretted that he did not actually throw himself into
+the lake. I fear,” added Albert sadly, “that he really did commit
+suicide finally. He made one dying request. I would like to read it to
+you.”
+
+Albert took a letter from his pocket and read this paragraph:
+
+“My life as an exiled swindler has been hell, but I have seen the
+Chicago papers and I know that I saved the firm and the invention and
+that you have prospered. That has been my only consolation. It would
+have been some relief if I could have communicated with you, but I would
+not make you a party to my crime. Now, at last, I ask you to do
+something for the old man: Refund to the insurance company every cent
+you received, less the premiums I actually paid. Refund it all, if
+necessary, but make my record clear. That was the only dishonest act of
+a long business career, and God only knows how I have suffered for it.
+You have prospered, you can do this, and I know you will. It is that
+alone that gives me consolation as my period of punishment at last draws
+to a close.”
+
+“How did he do it?” asked Murray, before Albert could speak.
+
+“He purchased and took with him a second-hand suit of clothes and a
+wig,” explained Albert. “He cut off his whiskers and mustache, so that
+he appeared as a man who had neglected to shave for a week—a pretty good
+disguise in itself, for father was always neat and clean. The clothes he
+had worn went overboard with a weight attached, which accounts for the
+splash, and he himself raised the cry of ‘Man overboard!’ After that he
+kept out of the light, and he had little difficulty in slipping ashore
+while we were hunting his state-room. His mental distress was real, for
+he was leaving all he held dear and condemning himself to exile.”
+
+“Well,” commented Murray, “I guess the circumstances would have fooled
+any one, for his whole previous life made him about the last man who
+would be suspected of anything of that sort.”
+
+“And now,” said Albert, “my brother and I are prepared to make a cash
+settlement with you on any basis that you deem satisfactory.”
+
+
+
+
+AN INCIDENTAL DISCOVERY
+
+
+The applicant for insurance was nervous and ill at ease, but that alone
+was not sufficient to make Dave Murray suspicious. A man taking out his
+first policy is very often nervous—he dreads the physical examination in
+many instances. He may think he is all right, but he fears the
+possibility of some serious latent trouble. If there is anything
+radically and incurably wrong with the average man, he prefers not to
+know it. He may not say so, but he does. He goes before the medical
+examiner with the fear that he may learn something disagreeable.
+
+“I’m fairly contented now,” he says to himself, if he happens to be
+practical enough to put his thoughts into words, “but life will be a
+haunting hell to me if I learn that I am not a good risk. That will mean
+at least the probability of an early death. It will not change
+conditions, but it will seem to bring death nearer.”
+
+These thoughts do not come to the very young man, but they do come to
+the man who has passed, or is passing, the optimism of youth. In the
+words of Dave Murray, “One of the great annoyances of the life insurance
+business is that the very young man is too well and strong to want to be
+insured, and the man of middle age is afraid of learning that he is not
+as well and strong as he thinks he is. We have to fight optimism first
+and cowardice later. Theoretically, the ‘risk’ ought to be caught young,
+but, practically, it is easier to catch him when he has begun to
+appreciate the responsibilities of life. The optimism is more difficult
+to overcome than the cowardice.”
+
+Nevertheless, the man who has neglected to take out insurance when he
+could get the best rate is likely to be nervous when he applies for it
+later, however hard he may try to conceal the fact. And Elmer Harkness
+was nervous. He was a year short of forty, apparently in the best
+physical condition, but he was unusually nervous. He hesitated over his
+answers to the most ordinary questions, he corrected himself once or
+twice, and he betrayed a strong desire to get through with the ordeal in
+the quickest possible time. When, at last, he was able to leave, the
+physician having completed his examination, he gave a very audible sigh
+of relief.
+
+“There’s something about this I don’t like,” commented Murray a little
+later.
+
+“What?” asked the doctor.
+
+“That’s the trouble,” returned Murray. “I can’t say exactly what it is,
+but I have a feeling that something is wrong. We’ve had nervous men here
+before. Remember the fellow who was brought up by his wife and who would
+have ducked and run if he could have got the chance? He was nervous
+enough, but not in the same way. He was afraid he would find he was
+going to die next week, but this fellow was shifty. How does he stand
+physically, doctor?”
+
+“Fine,” answered the doctor. “You couldn’t ask a better risk.”
+
+“Well, he doesn’t get the policy until I’ve made a pretty thorough
+investigation, in addition to the usual investigation from
+headquarters,” announced Murray.
+
+It took a good deal really to disturb Murray, but this case disturbed
+him before he got through with it. His first discovery was that Elmer
+Harkness had been refused insurance by another company some years
+previous. This information came from the home office, which had secured
+it through the “clearing-house.”
+
+“The risk was refused,” said the report, “on the advice of the company’s
+physician.”
+
+“Must be another Harkness,” said the doctor, when Murray told him about
+it. “This man was in splendid physical condition.”
+
+“The Elmer Harkness refused,” said Murray, consulting the papers before
+him, “was born at Madison, Indiana, January twentieth, 1866, and that is
+the place and date of birth given by the man who applied to us. You
+don’t suppose there were twins, do you?”
+
+“Might look it up,” suggested the doctor.
+
+“Of course, I’ll look it up,” returned Murray. “It’s mighty funny that a
+man who was refused on physical grounds five years ago should be a
+superb risk now.”
+
+“There’s one satisfaction,” remarked the doctor. “With the safeguards
+thrown around the business in these modern days, a man can’t very well
+beat us.”
+
+“There’s no game that can’t be beaten,” asserted Murray emphatically.
+“There is no burglar-proof safe. With improvements in safes there has
+come a corresponding improvement in cracksmen’s methods. No man is so
+much superior to all other men that he can devise a thing so perfect
+that some other can not find the flaw that makes it temporarily
+worthless. The burglar-proof safes have to be watched to keep burglars
+away from them. The insurance system is as good as we now know how to
+make it, but it has to be watched to keep swindlers from punching holes
+in it. When we further improve the system they will further improve
+their methods, and we’ll have to keep on watching. The business concern
+that thinks it has an infallible system to protect itself from loss is
+then in the greatest danger.”
+
+“Do you think this case a swindle?” asked the doctor.
+
+“It’s better to get facts before reaching conclusions,” replied Murray.
+“It may be only an extraordinary coincidence. The man who was refused
+insurance was not then living where the man who applied to us is now
+living. That’s worth considering.”
+
+But investigation only made the case the more puzzling. From Madison,
+Indiana, a report was received that Elmer Harkness was born there on the
+date given, and that nothing was known of any second Elmer Harkness. The
+father of the Elmer born at Madison had been Abner Harkness, who was now
+dead. The name of the father of the man who had applied to Murray was
+given as Abner, and that also was the name of the father of the man
+whose application had been previously refused. Elmer, after the death of
+his parents, had left Madison, and nothing had been heard of him since,
+although he was supposed to be in Chicago.
+
+“Strange!” commented Murray. “This Madison Harkness is our Harkness,
+beyond question, and he also corresponds, except physically, to the
+Harkness who was refused.”
+
+So far as was known at Madison, Harkness was physically sound and well.
+He certainly had been considered a strong, healthy man.
+
+“That,” said Murray, “answers the description of the man who was here,
+but it really means nothing, as far as the other refusal is concerned.
+Heart trouble was the cause of that refusal, and there hardly would have
+been any indication of that to the casual observer. This Madison
+Harkness may well have been the man who was refused or the man who
+applied to us, but he can hardly be both—unless you have made a mistake,
+Doctor.”
+
+“I’ll examine him again,” said the doctor.
+
+So he sent for Harkness again, on the plea that he had mislaid the
+record of the previous examination, and this time he gave particular
+attention to the heart.
+
+“Normal and strong,” he reported. “No trouble there. It’s possible he
+had some slight temporary affection when he was examined for the other
+company. The heart is sometimes most deceptive, and there are
+occasionally apparent evidences of a serious malady where none really
+exists. In some cases I’ve discovered symptoms of heart trouble at one
+examination and found them absolutely lacking a little later. This man
+is all right.”
+
+Nevertheless, Murray questioned Harkness closely.
+
+“Are you sure,” he asked, the question having been previously answered
+when the application was made, “that you never were refused by any other
+company?”
+
+“I never applied for insurance before,” replied Harkness, but there was
+the same shifty look in his eyes.
+
+“Did you ever know another Harkness at Madison, Indiana?”
+
+Harkness looked frightened, but he answered promptly in the negative.
+
+“Where have you been since you left Madison?”
+
+Harkness told briefly of his movements.
+
+“Did you ever live at 1176 Wabash Avenue?”
+
+“No.”
+
+The case became even more mystifying. There was a record of only one
+Elmer Harkness at Madison, but it was evident that two had applied for
+insurance, for the Harkness who had been refused had given his address
+as 1176 Wabash Avenue.
+
+“I am tempted,” said Murray later, “to make a strong adverse report. At
+the same time I don’t want to do an injustice and refuse a man who is
+rightfully entitled to insurance. My refusal, coupled with the
+mystifying record, would make it practically impossible to get insurance
+anywhere at any time, and he may be all right.”
+
+“If there’s a fraud in it anywhere,” remarked the doctor, “there are
+some clever and experienced people behind it.”
+
+“Quite the contrary,” returned Murray. “The experienced people are the
+people we catch, because they do things the way one naturally expects.
+As a general thing, you will find that the police are fooled, not by the
+professional criminal, but by the novice who is ignorant of the ways of
+the crook, and the same rule applies to insurance swindles. If there is
+anything wrong here our difficulty lies in the fact that this fellow and
+those behind him are not experienced and are not going at the thing the
+way an experienced swindler would.”
+
+An attempt to identify the Harkness who had applied for insurance as the
+Harkness who had lived at 1176 Wabash Avenue failed utterly, owing to
+the fact that the woman who had formerly conducted a boarding-house at
+that number had moved and it was impossible to find her. It was a simple
+matter, however, to verify other statements made by Harkness. He was now
+living at 2313 Wesson Street, and was employed by a large wholesale
+grocery firm. His employer spoke highly of him, but knew nothing of his
+personal affairs. He might or might not be married. The employer had
+been under the impression that he was a bachelor, but could not recall
+that Harkness ever had said so. This confusion was partly explained at
+the Wesson Street boarding-house, for Harkness had recently told the
+landlady that he expected his wife to join him soon. He explained that
+she had been visiting relatives during the six months he had been at
+this house, but that they were planning to take a small flat. They had
+previously had a flat, the address of which he gave, and the agent for
+the building remembered that Elmer Harkness had been among his tenants
+for two years. He knew very little about them, except that Harkness had
+paid his rent promptly and had been a model tenant.
+
+“And there you are!” grumbled Murray. “He’s all right, and I wouldn’t
+hesitate a minute, except for this other Harkness who hailed from the
+same place, lived in Wabash Avenue, and was refused insurance. Who was
+he? How can there be two Elmers from a town that produced only one?”
+
+“Possibly it is the same Elmer,” suggested the doctor. “Possibly he was
+refused owing to some temporary trouble that deceived the first
+physician. Possibly he did live at the Wabash Avenue place, but thought
+his chance of getting insurance would be better if he denied that he
+ever had been refused, and, having once told that story, he has had to
+stick to it. Of course, he had no means of knowing our facilities for
+getting information.”
+
+“I don’t see,” returned Murray, “that our facilities have succeeded in
+doing more than confuse us in this case. However, I’ll submit the whole
+matter to the home office.”
+
+After taking some time for consideration, the home office decided that
+there was no reason for refusing the risk.
+
+“If you are sure this man is physically all right,” was the reply
+received, “and that he is the man he represents himself to be, there
+would seem to be no reason for refusing the risk. There may have been
+some attempt at fraud, with which he had nothing to do, in the other
+case, and none in this. In any event, if the man who applied to you is a
+good risk physically, and a man of good reputation, as your report
+indicates, we are willing to give him the policy.”
+
+In these circumstances there was no reason for refusal. Harkness was a
+man of good reputation. Because of the other apparently mythical
+Harkness, he had been investigated more thoroughly than was usually
+deemed necessary, and his references had proved to be good. The
+inquiries had been made cautiously and circumspectly, to avoid giving
+offense, and the replies had been generally satisfactory. Nevertheless,
+Murray had another talk with him before delivering the policy.
+
+Harkness told whom and when he married, and the truthfulness of this
+statement was capable of easy verification. His wife, he said, had been
+away for some time, but was now returning.
+
+“We shall take a small flat again,” he explained. “I have already
+selected one in Englewood—on Sixty-fourth Street. A fellow can get more
+for his money out there than he can nearer the city.”
+
+Then Harkness got his policy, and a little later he notified the company
+that he had moved to the Sixty-fourth Street flat. Murray puzzled his
+head a little over the mysterious Harkness, and once took the trouble to
+learn that the Harkness he had insured was still employed by the
+wholesale grocery firm. Then other matters claimed his attention, and
+the Harkness case was forgotten. There seemed to be no doubt that it was
+a good risk, even if there was a mystery back of it somewhere.
+
+It was six months later that he was notified of the sudden death at the
+Sixty-fourth Street flat of Elmer Harkness, who had a policy in his
+company. Instantly the details of the case, and his misgivings at the
+time, returned to him. Yet the proof of death, signed by a reputable and
+well-known physician, was flawless. A latent heart trouble had developed
+suddenly, and Harkness had died within forty-eight hours after he was
+stricken. The physician who had attended him never had been called for
+Harkness before, but he had been at the flat a number of times to
+prescribe for the trifling ailments of Mrs. Harkness, and he had become
+well acquainted with the husband. They had moved into the neighborhood
+about six months before.
+
+“It all fits in with what we know of the case,” commented Murray,
+“except the heart trouble. That sounds like the mysterious Harkness.
+Could you have possibly made any mistake in your examination, Doctor?”
+
+“Certainly I could,” admitted the company’s physician ruefully. “None of
+us is infallible, but I’ll swear there were no indications of any heart
+trouble when I examined him. Still, the heart is a mighty deceptive
+organ. There may be trouble without any indications of it and there may
+be indications without any trouble. I once knew of a man whose heart
+seemed to skip a beat once in so often, but the best of medical talent
+was unable to discover the cause of it, and the man lived to a good old
+age. I don’t claim infallibility, but I never examined a man who seemed
+freer from any indications of heart trouble.”
+
+“I wonder,” said Murray thoughtfully, “if Harkness’ employer has heard
+of his death.”
+
+An insurance company is merciless in following up evidence of attempted
+fraud, but, lacking such evidence, it is wise to conduct investigations
+with extreme delicacy. A reputation for unnecessary intrusion or
+harshness, for a lack of sympathy with the bereaved, for any action that
+implies a suspicion of dishonesty when the proof is lacking, may do a
+great deal of harm. Every reputable company is anxious to pay all honest
+claims with as little inconvenience to the beneficiaries as is
+compatible with safety. Such investigation as may be necessary in some
+exceptional case is conducted as unobtrusively as possible.
+
+In this instance, the ordinary proof of death would have been accepted
+without question were it not for the mystery of the “heart trouble” that
+was supposed not to exist. This, combined with the report on the other
+Harkness, was annoying, and, to satisfy himself, Murray sent a man to
+the wholesale house where Harkness had been employed. The result was
+reassuring, so far as any question of fraud was concerned. The other
+clerks were then taking up a subscription to send some flowers to the
+funeral, and his illness and death had been reported promptly to the
+head of the department in which Harkness had worked. Furthermore, he was
+registered as living at the Sixty-fourth Street flat, to which place he
+had moved from 2313 Wesson Street.
+
+“It seems to be all right,” remarked Murray. “This is the man we insured
+on the strength of your report, Doctor, and I guess the only thing we
+can do is to charge you up with an error of judgment. Fortunately, it’s
+only a three-thousand-dollar policy.”
+
+“I don’t understand it,” said the doctor gloomily. “I wish we could
+demand an autopsy.”
+
+“Hardly justifiable, in view of the circumstances,” returned Murray. “We
+have the affidavit of a first-class physician, and we know that it’s the
+same man, so the autopsy would be only to satisfy your curiosity. My own
+curiosity deals with the Wabash Avenue man who was refused. I wish we
+could locate him, although I don’t see that it would have any bearing on
+this case. He seems to have disappeared utterly. Perhaps he’s dead.”
+
+Before dismissing the matter from his mind, Murray reviewed the facts
+carefully. There had been an application to another company from a man
+living at 1176 Wabash Avenue, which had been refused because of heart
+trouble, but the city directory for that year gave no Harkness at that
+address. It did give an Elmer Harkness at another address, however,
+which coincided with the story told by the Harkness he had insured.
+
+“Somebody,” mused Murray, “must have been trying to beat the other
+company. That’s the best I can make out of it, although I can’t see why
+he should have assumed this Elmer’s name and antecedents. It’s a most
+extraordinary case.”
+
+The latest city directory gave Elmer Harkness as living at 2313 Wesson
+Street, which certainly was his address at the time the directory was
+issued. So much Murray had looked up before. Now, further to satisfy
+himself, he went through all the directories for the interval between
+the two years, and he was rewarded by finding the name of Elmer Harkness
+twice in one of them. Both were clerks, the addresses of the employers
+not being given, and the residence of one of them was put down as the
+address of the Harkness who had secured insurance.
+
+“Then there are, or at least there were, two,” thought Murray, “but only
+one came from Madison. And what has become of the missing Harkness? Why
+is he in only one directory? The fact that there were two helps to clear
+up the record of the one I insured, so far as that Wabash Avenue address
+is concerned, but how did both happen to give the same place and date of
+birth? And did both have heart trouble?”
+
+Murray straightened up suddenly and sent for the clerk who had made the
+previous inquiries for him.
+
+“Harry,” he said, “I want you to go to the funeral of Elmer Harkness
+to-morrow. Go early, and get a look at him, if possible. If not, get a
+description of him from some of the neighbors.”
+
+Murray reproached himself for not having searched all the directories
+before, although it would have made little difference. The fact that
+another Harkness had lived in Chicago would have had no bearing on the
+case, so long as the record of the one who applied for insurance was
+clear. In fact, it would have explained everything, except the
+coincidence of the alleged birth records. Still, it would have given a
+new line of investigation, which might have cleared up the mystery.
+
+Harry reported promptly the next day, and almost his first words aroused
+Murray.
+
+“I couldn’t get a glimpse of the late lamented,” he said flippantly,
+“for the casket was closed, but I learned that he had hair slightly
+tinged with gray and—”
+
+“Gray!” exclaimed Murray. “Does a man get gray hair in six months? The
+man we insured hadn’t a gray hair in his head.”
+
+“He was rather stout—”
+
+“Our man was not.”
+
+“I couldn’t learn much else—”
+
+“You’ve learned enough.”
+
+“—except that when he was stricken his wife’s first thought seemed to be
+to get a message to some mysterious man, who responded in person, had a
+short talk with the wife, and then disappeared. A neighbor who had come
+in was somewhat impressed by this, because she called him ‘Elmer,’ which
+was her husband’s name.”
+
+“What!” cried Murray, startled out of his usual imperturbability by the
+evidence thus unexpectedly accumulating. Then, more calmly, “Harry, you
+didn’t get the address to which she sent, did you?”
+
+“The messenger,” said Harry, proud of his success, “was a neighbor’s
+boy. I found him. Here is the address.”
+
+Murray took the slip of paper, looked at the address, and then sent for
+the company’s physician.
+
+“We’ll make identification sure,” he said, “for we both know the man,
+and we’ll take an officer and a warrant along with us.”
+
+Elmer Harkness was sitting on his trunk, waiting for an expressman, when
+the party appeared at the door of his room in a little out-of-the-way
+boarding-house.
+
+“I thought you were dead,” said Murray.
+
+“I wish I was,” said Harkness. He had almost fainted at the first sight
+of Murray, but had recovered himself quickly, and, having once decided
+that the case was hopeless, he resigned himself to the inevitable and
+spoke with a frank carelessness that had been entirely lacking when he
+was playing a part and trying to stick to the details of a prepared
+story.
+
+“Any weapons?” asked the policeman, making a quick search.
+
+“No weapons,” replied Harkness. “I’m not that kind.”
+
+“I don’t see,” said Murray, “why you waited here to be arrested.”
+
+“Why, I had a little interest in that insurance,” explained Harkness,
+“and I rather wanted to get it before leaving. However, waiting here was
+a little trying to the nerves, even if everything did seem to be going
+all right, and I was just about to slip up to Milwaukee until the case
+was settled. I ought to have gone the day Elmer was stricken.”
+
+“What Elmer?” demanded Murray.
+
+“Elmer Harkness, my cousin,” the other replied promptly.
+
+“And who are you?”
+
+“I’m Elmer Harkness, his cousin,” he returned with equal promptness.
+
+“Which of you was born at Madison, Indiana?” pursued Murray.
+
+“He was,” replied Harkness, and added, “I was born at Matteson,
+Illinois.”
+
+“There’s a nice pair of names for a tangle,” commented Murray as the
+possibilities of the situation began to dawn on him. “No wonder my
+inquiries failed to untangle it. Would you mind telling me how you
+happened to try this thing?”
+
+“No trouble at all,” returned Harkness. “It was my cousin’s scheme. He
+had tried to get insurance when he was living on Wabash Avenue and had
+failed. He had a heart trouble that was likely to culminate fatally
+almost any time. Still, I don’t think it occurred to him to try to beat
+an insurance company until we happened to be thrown together about a
+year ago. We were cousins, although we never had met before, and the
+similarity of names seemed to make a great impression on him. He had
+just returned to Chicago after a year or more in St. Louis, and he
+already had had one heart attack, with a warning from his doctor that
+the next would almost certainly be fatal. He was also told that the next
+was not likely to be long delayed. Now, I suppose you’ll think I’m
+lying, but I did not take kindly to his scheme, and the money alone
+would not have tempted me to go into it. I was sorry for his wife. He
+had been able to make only a bare living; he could leave her absolutely
+nothing. She never had had to support herself and there seemed to be
+mighty little chance that she could do it. I finally agreed to go into
+it for her sake. It looked easy and I was glad to make the try on her
+account.”
+
+“But you wouldn’t refuse a little something for yourself on the side, so
+to speak,” suggested Murray sarcastically.
+
+“No, I wouldn’t,” Harkness frankly admitted. “To carry out the plan it
+would be necessary for me to give up my job, change my name and make a
+fresh start somewhere else. The job was not such an all-fired good one,
+but it might be some time before I got another as good, and I would need
+something for expenses while I was losing myself. I was to get five
+hundred of the three thousand dollars insurance. The rest was to go to
+the widow.”
+
+“That wouldn’t last her very long,” remarked Murray.
+
+“It would help a little,” said Harkness, “and we thought we would stand
+a better chance if we didn’t ask for too big a sum.”
+
+“An insurance company,” said Murray, “has to be as particular with a
+small risk as with a large one, and it will follow up a suspicious case
+as closely in one instance as in the other. It’s a matter of principle.”
+
+“I think I understand that now,” remarked Harkness regretfully.
+
+“But I am curious to know,” persisted Murray, “how in the world you
+arranged such a mystifying record.”
+
+“It was easy,” replied Harkness. “I gave you my cousin’s place and date
+of birth, his parents, his marriage and his life up to the time he left
+Madison. Then I gave you my record up to the finish, with the exception
+of one year, when he was in the Chicago directory. We put that year in
+so you could get trace of the wife in case you made any investigation. I
+have no wife, and it was rather important, of course, that there should
+be a record of a wife somewhere.”
+
+“It was a wise provision,” admitted Murray. “We got trace of the wife at
+that flat.”
+
+“It was after leaving there,” Harkness continued, “that my cousin went
+to St. Louis. When he returned we met and a little later fixed up the
+job. As soon as I got the policy I rented the Sixty-fourth Street flat,
+and my cousin and his wife moved in. That’s all, I think, except that
+you ought to be a little easy on me, I think, for giving you such an
+entertaining story.”
+
+Murray turned to the doctor with a pardonable air of triumph.
+
+“Was I right, Doctor,” he asked, “in saying that it takes the novice to
+devise the really confusing scheme?”
+
+“You were right,” said the doctor.
+
+
+
+
+AN INCIDENTAL GRIEVANCE
+
+
+Jane Moffat, widow, was sore distressed.
+
+“Without Tom,” she said, “I don’t know what I’ll do. Tom was a good man,
+but unlucky. There was better providers than Tom, but he was better than
+none.”
+
+This apparent reflection on her late husband did not mean that Mrs.
+Moffat confined herself to the financial point of view, for she had been
+a true and devoted wife, but her present need was great and her present
+resources were nothing. Furthermore, Tom Moffat certainly had been
+either unlucky or incapable. Mrs. Moffat, out of her affection for him,
+chose to attribute their misfortunes to ill luck; another, less
+considerate, might have said that Tom lacked ability and stability; no
+one, however, could have said that he was neglectful or indifferent—he
+did the best he could, and his family always had all he could provide.
+Nevertheless, Tom Moffat had drifted from one thing to another, and his
+wife and two children had drifted with him. He had worked at many
+things, and in many places, and there had been times when he lacked work
+entirely. So he left Mrs. Moffat practically nothing when he died.
+
+“The neighbors was good,” continued Mrs. Moffat, “an’ I’ve got some
+sewing to do. I was pretty good at that in my younger days, but the
+children don’t give me time to earn much, even if the pay was what it
+should be. I had to sell some furniture already, an’ I don’t know what
+I’ll do. We’ve been going from bad to worse.”
+
+“Didn’t he have no insurance?” asked the sympathetic Mrs. Crimmins,
+whose husband was a member of one of the fraternal organizations.
+
+“Not when he died,” answered Mrs. Moffat. “Didn’t I say he was unlucky?
+He had insurance when it didn’t mean anything but paying out money, but
+there ain’t any when the time comes for getting it back.”
+
+“They can’t take your money an’ not give you nothing for it,” declared
+Mrs. Crimmins.
+
+“Sure they can!” said Mrs. Moffat.
+
+“I say they can’t,” insisted Mrs. Crimmins. “There can’t nobody do that,
+if you got the sense to fight. There was a lawyer once told my man so.”
+
+“Well, Tom paid the money, an’ it ain’t come back to me, has it?”
+demanded Mrs. Moffat, as if that settled the question.
+
+“You ain’t tried to get it, that’s why!” retorted Mrs. Crimmins. “You go
+see a lawyer. He’ll make ’em pay, an’ he won’t charge you a cent if he
+don’t get the money. Some might, but I’ll tell you one that won’t.”
+
+Mrs. Moffat was not in a position to overlook even a slight chance to
+get any money, especially if it cost nothing to make the attempt. She
+knew less about insurance than Mrs. Crimmins, and Mrs. Crimmins had only
+wild, weird, second-hand notions. Still, Mrs. Crimmins talked
+confidently, and Mrs. Moffat finally took the address of the lawyer
+recommended to her. This, of course, was a mistake—it would have been
+better to go direct to the insurance company. But the impression
+prevails in some quarters that insurance companies are ready to take
+advantage of any technicality to escape the payment of claims, and that
+a lawyer’s services are necessary to compel them to pay anything that
+can possibly be questioned. Some lawyers, for their own purposes,
+encourage this idea. Isaac Hinse, to whom Mrs. Moffat went, was one of
+this class.
+
+“You did well to come to me,” he said pompously, as soon as she had
+stated her errand. “What chance has a woman, with no knowledge of the
+law, against a great corporation that has big lawyers engaged for the
+sole purpose of bulldozing or fooling the ignorant? Fortunately, I know
+how to deal with them. Now, where is this policy?”
+
+“Tore up,” answered Mrs. Moffat.
+
+“What!” cried Hinse.
+
+“Tom tore it up when he couldn’t pay any more on it. I ain’t looking for
+the whole thousand dollars, but only to get back what he paid in. Mrs.
+Crimmins said I could do that.”
+
+Hinse leaned back in his chair and looked at the ceiling thoughtfully.
+
+“Well,” he said at last, “that makes more trouble, of course. An
+insurance company can’t escape its obligations because the policy has
+been destroyed, but it makes it more difficult to prove the claim. Do
+you know what kind of policy it was?”
+
+“How should I?” returned Mrs. Moffat. “I’m no lawyer nor no insurance
+man. I come to you to learn my rights.”
+
+“Quite right, quite right,” conceded Hinse; “but I must know something
+of the circumstances. When was this policy taken out?”
+
+“Fifteen or sixteen years ago,” answered Mrs. Moffat. “We was doing
+pretty well then. Tom’s aunt left him a bit of money, an’ Tom was
+workin’ steady an’ I got some money a little later. But Tom was always
+unlucky. He didn’t seem to hold on well, an’ we kept movin’ an’ movin’
+an’ gettin’ harder up—”
+
+“And he finally let the policy lapse,” suggested Hinse.
+
+“Lapse!” exclaimed Mrs. Moffat, as if she had made an important
+discovery unexpectedly. “That’s it; that’s what he said when he tore it
+up an’ threw it in the fire. I only knew he didn’t think it was good,
+but Mrs. Crimmins says they got to pay back what he paid them.”
+
+“That depends on the policy and circumstances,” said Hinse in his most
+impressive way—and Hinse prided himself upon being impressive. “How long
+did he pay premiums?”
+
+“Eight or ten years.”
+
+“Ha!” exclaimed Hinse. “There is a chance, but it is a desperate
+chance—so desperate that I really can’t afford to take this on my usual
+contingent fee.”
+
+“What’s that?” asked Mrs. Moffat.
+
+“I mean,” explained Hinse, “that I’ll get the money for you if any one
+can, but I’ll have to charge five dollars in advance.”
+
+Mrs. Moffat hesitated.
+
+“I got it,” she said, “but it’s rent money.”
+
+“There’s more than rent in this,” declared Hinse, “but why should I take
+all the risk? It is a hard case and will take a great deal of my time,
+but I know these people, and I think I can work it out of them. You
+happened to come to just the right man.”
+
+Mrs. Moffat was sitting on the opposite side of the desk from Hinse,
+which she deemed fortunate at this critical moment.
+
+“There ain’t any safe place to leave money at home,” she explained
+apologetically, “an’ a woman don’t have safe pockets like a man.”
+
+She made a dive down behind the desk, there was a sound of moving
+skirts, and she straightened up with three bills in her hand—a five and
+two ones. She handed the five to Hinse, who promptly tucked it away in
+his vest pocket.
+
+“I don’t know what I’ll do about the rent,” she sighed.
+
+“Think of the insurance,” suggested Hinse, “and remember that you’ve got
+the best man cheap. I’ll see these insurance people to-day.”
+
+Hinse was a large pompous man, who wore a long rusty frock coat, because
+he thought that kind of coat properly impressed his police-court
+clients. His speeches also were for his clients, rather than for the
+judge—he wanted to show them he was not afraid of the court. He talked
+loud and aggressively. His whole life being what is popularly termed a
+“bluff,” it naturally followed that he considered bluffing the main
+element of success.
+
+That is where he made his mistake when he went to see Dave Murray about
+Mrs. Moffat’s claim. Murray was not in particularly good humor that day.
+A friend had been arguing to him that corporations are notoriously
+ungrateful for services rendered, and another friend had endeavored to
+demonstrate that life insurance companies had a way of forcing a man to
+the limit of his endurance, of squeezing all the life and energy out of
+him in a few years, and then dropping him.
+
+The worst of it was that some of the cases cited Murray knew to be true:
+men were “forced” and then left to seek other avenues of employment when
+insurance had got the best that was in them. He had argued that it was
+the universal business rule of “the survival of the fittest”; that the
+man who had the ability to get near the top need have no fear, and that
+men who could stand the pace prospered wherever they might be in the
+great system. But an unexpected and rather harsh criticism from
+headquarters had given him a more pessimistic view of the situation: it
+could not be denied that comparatively few men grew old in the service.
+Then there was a gloomy outlook for a promotion he had expected, to add
+to his annoyance, and—well, Murray, the energetic and enthusiastic
+Murray, was momentarily dissatisfied. He was in no humor to be “bluffed”
+by a pompous shyster lawyer.
+
+“I am representing Mrs. Jane Moffat,” announced Hinse.
+
+“What about her?” asked Murray shortly.
+
+“She has a claim against your company.”
+
+“Policy?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Let’s see it.”
+
+“There will be time enough for that,” said Hinse in his most impressive
+tones, “when we have settled what is to be paid on it.” Hinse was so
+constituted morally that he could not possibly be frank and
+straightforward. “It is a policy for a thousand dollars on the life of
+her late husband, Thomas Moffat. He failed to pay some of the last
+premiums, but there is a value to it.”
+
+“Is there?”
+
+“There is. Will you look it up and see how the matter stands, or shall I
+take legal proceedings to force a settlement?”
+
+“Better sue,” said Murray. “Good day.”
+
+“You will regret this interview,” announced Hinse.
+
+“I regret it already,” returned Murray. Then, his professional instinct
+overcoming his dislike of the man, he added: “If premiums have not been
+paid, the policy may have lapsed, or it may be non-forfeitable. I must
+see the policy and know the details. I never heard of Thomas Moffat that
+I recall. Give me the facts.”
+
+“Ah,” said Hinse, settling himself comfortably in a chair, “I thought
+you would see the wisdom of being reasonable.”
+
+“Reasonable!” exploded Murray. “Damn it! I’m having trouble enough being
+patient. Who was he, where did he live, and when did he die?”
+
+There was something in the way this was said that led Hinse to change
+his tactics, and he partly explained the situation in a confidential
+way. Premiums had been paid on the policy for at least eight years, he
+said, but the widow had supposed that everything was forfeited when her
+husband failed to pay the later premiums: she knew nothing about cash
+surrender values or non-forfeitable clauses.
+
+“She’ll do what I say,” he said significantly in conclusion. “She’ll
+compromise for any figure that I say is right.”
+
+He waited for Murray to reach for this bait, but Murray was merely
+fighting an impulse to throw the man out of the office.
+
+“Oh, she will!” said Murray at last. “Well, you’ll talk more frankly
+than you have, if you want to do business with me. Where’s the proof of
+death and the proof of identity? Where’s the policy?”
+
+Hinse ignored the last question. He wished to find out certain things
+about that policy himself before he admitted that it had been destroyed,
+and he thought he was handling the matter with consummate skill.
+
+“There will be no trouble about the proof of death,” he said. “In fact,
+I have that with me. But Moffat and his family moved many times during
+the years that have elapsed since he stopped paying premiums, living in
+two or three different cities, and they were not always known to their
+neighbors.”
+
+“I thought so,” remarked Murray sarcastically. “Somebody died, and you
+want me to take it on faith that he was the Thomas Moffat who once was
+insured in this company. Although I haven’t looked it up, I have no
+doubt that a Thomas Moffat did take out a policy, for I don’t believe
+even you would have the nerve to come to me without at least that much
+foundation for your claim. Perhaps it was the same Thomas Moffat who
+died; perhaps it was a man who was merely given that name in the
+certificate of death. Perhaps he left a widow; perhaps you are
+representing that widow, but perhaps you are representing a woman who
+merely claims to be that widow. She has moved so often that she can’t
+produce any satisfactory evidence of her identity. Doesn’t it strike you
+that you are telling a rather fishy story? Doesn’t it occur to you that
+you ought to have ingenuity enough to concoct something more plausible?”
+
+“This insult, sir—” Hinse shifted again to his pompous manner, but
+Murray interrupted him.
+
+“Insult!” exclaimed Murray. “That wasn’t an insult, but I’ll give you
+one. I think you’re a tricky scoundrel. You have virtually offered to
+sell out your alleged client. I think you’re a swindler. I don’t believe
+you have or can produce any such policy.”
+
+“The loss of a policy, sir—”
+
+“I knew it!” broke in Murray. “Policy lost, of course! In other words,
+your client hasn’t a policy and never did have one. She’s an impostor!
+You or she learned that there had been such a man and such a policy, and
+you thought there was a chance to get some money. You must think
+insurance companies are easy.”
+
+“I shall take this matter to court!” declared Hinse.
+
+“Do!” advised Murray. “Take it anywhere, so long as you take it out of
+this office.”
+
+“You shall hear from me again!” said Hinse at the door.
+
+“I’d rather hear from you than see you,” retorted Murray. “You annoy
+me.”
+
+Nevertheless, when Hinse had departed, Murray had the matter looked up,
+and found that such a policy actually had been issued, that it was
+non-forfeitable after three years, and that about four hundred dollars
+was due on it as a result of the premiums that had been paid. Murray was
+eminently a just man—he wished to take unfair advantage of no one. There
+might be merit in the claim advanced, and some woman, entitled to the
+money, might be in great want. Still, it was not his business to seek
+for ways of disbursing the company’s funds. He reported the matter to
+the home office, and was advised to give it no further attention unless
+suit actually was brought. Then it should be fought. Insurance companies
+do not like lawsuits, but they like still less to pay out money when
+there is doubt as to the justice of a claim. When one of them goes into
+court, however, it fights bitterly. Hinse knew this, and he had not the
+slightest intention of bringing suit.
+
+If Mrs. Moffat had had any more money, so that there would have been a
+chance to exact further fees, he might have sued for the mere sake of
+getting the fees, but she could not even advance court costs. So Murray
+waited in vain for the threatened suit, but the possibility of it kept
+the case in his mind. The claim probably was fraudulent, but, if not,
+the woman unquestionably was poor and unfortunate: the very fact that
+she had taken the case to such a shyster as Hinse was proof of that.
+Somehow, the well-to-do people do not get into the hands of shysters.
+Murray believed it was a fraud, but he always came back to the
+possibility of being mistaken in this. And injustice—the injustice of
+passivity as well as of activity—was abhorrent to him.
+
+The day Murray ran across a newspaper item to the effect that a Mrs.
+Thomas Moffat had been evicted for the non-payment of rent, he disobeyed
+the instructions from the home office and looked her up. In theory it
+was all right to wait for a beneficiary to bring in the necessary
+proofs; in practice it was horrible to think of taking advantage of the
+ignorance or helplessness of a woman in trouble.
+
+Murray found Mrs. Moffat and her two children in a little back room near
+the somewhat larger apartment from which she had just been evicted. She
+was trying to sew and care for the children at the same time. It was
+evident, however, that she had long since overtaxed her strength and was
+near the point of physical collapse.
+
+“The neighbors has been good to me,” she explained, “but they got their
+own troubles an’ they can’t do much.”
+
+Murray had primed himself with such facts as to Thomas Moffat as the
+books of the company and the old insurance application gave, and, after
+explaining his errand, he asked when and where Thomas Moffat was born.
+The weary woman, too long inured to disappointment to be really hopeful
+now, brought out a little old Bible and showed him the entries relating
+to birth and marriage. They corresponded with the dates he had. Murray
+took up the little Bible reverently, and he then and there decided that
+this woman was the widow of the Thomas Moffat who had been insured in
+his company. Even her maiden name, as given in the Bible, corresponded
+with the name he had taken from the books. Nevertheless, he questioned
+her closely on all the other details that he could verify. She gave the
+address at which they were living when the policy was taken out, and
+also told of the various changes of residence during the time that the
+premiums were being paid.
+
+“He kep’ the big paper with the seals on it for ‘most three years after
+he quit paying,” she said. “Then he tore it up an’ burned it. He said it
+wasn’t no more use, for he’d lost it all when he quit paying. It seemed
+mighty hard, but I thought he knew.”
+
+“There isn’t even a scrap of it left?” queried Murray.
+
+“No, sir. He burned the scraps. I saw him do it.”
+
+“That’s unfortunate,” said Murray. “If there was barely enough to
+identify the policy it would help. It would be annoying to have it turn
+up after we had settled the matter, for the custom is to surrender the
+policy to the company when the payment is made.”
+
+“You needn’t to worry over that,” Mrs. Moffat assured him anxiously. “It
+was burned to the very last piece. I saw it myself.”
+
+“I don’t doubt it,” returned Murray. “Have you your marriage
+certificate?”
+
+“Have I!” exclaimed Mrs. Moffat in surprise. “You didn’t never know an
+honest married woman who would lose that, did you? A man don’t think
+much of it, but a woman does. It’s the proof she’s respectable.”
+
+Mrs. Moffat produced the certificate, but Murray merely glanced at the
+names.
+
+“I think you may rely on getting the money, Mrs. Moffat,” he said. “It
+isn’t much, but—”
+
+“I got a chance to start a little school store if I had a bit of money,”
+she interrupted eagerly. “I don’t need only two hundred or two hundred
+and fifty, an’ it’s better than sewing.”
+
+“I am so confident that this is all right,” said Murray, ignoring the
+interruption, “that I am going to advance you a little money now. I
+imagine you need it.”
+
+“Indeed I do!” exclaimed the grateful and now hopeful woman. “The lawyer
+got most of the rent money.”
+
+“Damn the lawyer!” ejaculated Murray. “If he hears that you’ve got
+anything he’ll probably put in another claim, but you’re not to pay him
+a cent. Do you understand that? Send him to me. I’ll settle with him.”
+
+“Yes, sir,” returned Mrs. Moffat meekly. “He helped me—”
+
+“Helped you! He did more to hurt you than any other ten men could have
+done. He ought to be made to pay damages.”
+
+Then Murray laughed at his own heat and gave Mrs. Moffat a twenty-dollar
+bill.
+
+“When we get the matter settled,” he said, “you can repay this.”
+
+“Indeed I will!”
+
+Murray noted that there were tears in her eyes, and, disliking a scene
+of any description, he picked up his hat and hastily withdrew.
+
+The matter, however, was not settled as easily as he expected. He stated
+frankly what he had done, and the officials at headquarters seemed to
+think he had taken unnecessary pains to make trouble. It was not that
+they objected to paying any just claim against the company, but they
+held that he had put life into a slumbering claim that was at least open
+to suspicion. Such evidence as she produced might have fallen into the
+hands of an impostor, and there was a considerable interval during which
+the connection between the real beneficiary and the present claimant was
+lost, the only explanation being that they had made frequent changes of
+residence and had been among strangers. In brief, the company did not
+consider the claims satisfactorily established and criticized the whole
+affair as being irregular.
+
+Murray was disappointed and annoyed. He was entirely satisfied in his
+own mind, and he resented the criticism. Nevertheless, he sought for
+further evidence, and Mrs. Moffat was finally able to supply it in the
+shape of a receipt for the last premium paid. This, it seemed, had not
+been destroyed with the policy. Mrs. Moffat had discovered it among some
+old papers. This Murray also reported.
+
+“We are not satisfied with the evidence produced,” was the reply that
+came back.
+
+“I am satisfied,” was Murray’s answer, as he recalled the woman’s tears
+of gratitude, “and I have settled the claim and paid the money. Is my
+action to be upheld or is my resignation desired?”
+
+There was a long interval of silence on the part of the officials at
+headquarters. This Murray understood to be an evidence of their
+displeasure. Having thus made their displeasure very apparent, the
+report was finally returned with the single word, “Approved,” written
+across it.
+
+“Nevertheless,” mused Murray, “I fear I am not long for this business—at
+least with this company. Either I am becoming both headstrong and
+sensitive or else my superiors are becoming inconsiderate and
+dissatisfied.”
+
+That evening he took a long street-car ride, at the end of which he
+entered a little store opposite one of the big public schools. He wanted
+to see the result of his work.
+
+When he reappeared, a little woman followed him to the door, and there
+was a quaver in her voice as she said, “You’ve been so good to us, Mr.
+Murray, and we’re so happy.”
+
+“Well,” returned Murray with a smile, “I’m happy myself. And,” he added,
+as he was returning home, “it’s worth all that it ever can cost me.”
+
+
+
+
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+"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" >
+<head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
+    <meta content="The Best Policy" name="DC.Title"/>
+    <meta content="Elliott Flower" name="DC.Creator"/>
+    <meta content="en" name="DC.Language"/>
+    <meta content="1905" name="DC.Created"/>
+    <meta name="generator" content="ppgen (1.12) generated Jun 11, 2011 09:15 PM" />
+    <title>The Best Policy</title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+        body                    {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%;}
+        p                       {margin-top:1ex; margin-bottom:0; text-align:justify;}
+        .pagenum                {display:inline; font-size:x-small; text-align:right; text-indent:0;
+                                 position:absolute; right:2%; padding:1px 3px; font-style:normal;
+                                 font-variant:normal; font-weight:normal; text-decoration:none;
+                                 background-color:inherit; border:1px solid #eee;}
+        .pncolor                {color:silver;}
+        h1                      {text-align:center; font-weight:normal;}
+        h2                      {text-align:left; font-weight:normal;}
+        h1                      {font-size:1.4em; margin-top:4em; margin-bottom:2em;}
+        h2                      {font-size:1.2em; margin-top:4em; margin-bottom:2em;}
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+        div.center>:first-child      {margin: .5em auto 0 auto;text-align:center;}
+        div.center p            {margin: 0 auto; text-align:center;}
+        .toc                    {font-size:larger; text-align:center; margin-bottom:.5em;}
+        hr.tb                   {border:none; border-bottom: 1px solid black; margin: 20px auto; width:35%}
+        td.c1                   {padding-right:3em;}
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+</head>
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Best Policy, by Elliott Flower
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Best Policy
+
+Author: Elliott Flower
+
+Illustrator: George Brehm
+
+Release Date: June 12, 2011 [EBook #36393]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BEST POLICY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<div class='figcenter' style='padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='i001' id='i001'></a>
+<img src="images/illus-fpc.jpg" alt="“Mrs. Vincent, I have found the insurance policy” Page 114" title=""/><br />
+<span class='caption'>“Mrs. Vincent, I have found the insurance<br/>policy” <em>Page 114</em></span>
+</div>
+<p>
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+</p>
+<div class='center'>
+<p><span style='font-size:1.4em;'>The Best Policy</span></p>
+<p>&#160;</p>
+<p><em>By</em> ELLIOTT FLOWER</p>
+<p>&#160;</p>
+<p><span style='font-size:smaller;'><span class='sc'>Author of</span></span></p>
+<p><span style='font-size:smaller;'>“The Spoilsman,” “Policeman Flynn,” etc.</span></p>
+<p>&#160;</p>
+<p><span class='sc'>Illustrated By</span></p>
+<p>GEORGE BREHM</p>
+<p>&#160;</p>
+<p><em>A. L. BURT COMPANY</em></p>
+<p><em>Publishers&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;New York</em></p>
+</div>
+<p>
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+</p>
+<div class='center'>
+<p><span class='sc'>Copyright 1905</span></p>
+<p><span class='sc'>The Bobbs-Merrill Company</span></p>
+<p>&#160;</p>
+<p><span class='sc'>October</span></p>
+</div>
+<p>
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+</p>
+<div class='center'>
+<p>TO THOSE</p>
+<p>FOR WHOSE BENEFIT I HAVE</p>
+<p>INSURED MY OWN</p>
+<p>LIFE</p>
+</div>
+<p>
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+</p>
+<p class='toc'>THE BEST POLICY<br />INCLUDING</p>
+
+<table summary='toc' style='margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;'>
+<tr><td class='c1'>An Incidental Comedy</td><td align='right'><a href='#c1'>1</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='c1'>An Incidental Question</td><td align='right'><a href='#c2'>25</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='c1'>An Incidental Tragedy</td><td align='right'><a href='#c3'>47</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='c1'>An Incidental Speculation</td><td align='right'><a href='#c4'>73</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='c1'>An Incidental Favor</td><td align='right'><a href='#c5'>99</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='c1'>An Incidental Error</td><td align='right'><a href='#c6'>123</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='c1'>An Incidental Failure</td><td align='right'><a href='#c7'>149</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='c1'>An Incidental Scheme</td><td align='right'><a href='#c8'>167</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='c1'>An Incidental Courtship</td><td align='right'><a href='#c9'>187</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='c1'>An Incidental Sacrifice</td><td align='right'><a href='#c10'>207</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='c1'>An Incidental Discovery</td><td align='right'><a href='#c11'>229</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='c1'>An Incidental Grievance</td><td align='right'><a href='#c12'>251</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+<p>
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+</p>
+<h1><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_1'></a>1</span>THE BEST POLICY</h1>
+<h2><a name='c1' id='c1'></a>AN INCIDENTAL COMEDY</h2>
+<p>
+Naturally, when Harry Beckford married he began
+to take a more serious view of life. If there is
+anything at all of thoughtfulness and consideration
+in a man, marriage brings it out: he begins to plan.
+He has some one dependent upon him, some one for
+whom he must provide. That he should trust to luck
+before was solely his affair; that he should trust to
+luck now is quite another matter.
+</p>
+<p>
+In the case of Beckford, as in the cases of most
+other young men, this feeling was of gradual growth.
+He was optimistic and happy; his future looked long
+and bright; he had ample time in which to accumulate
+a comfortable fortune; but—he wasn’t even beginning.
+He and his wife so enjoyed life that they were
+spending all he made. It wasn’t a large sum, but it
+was enough to make them comfortable and contented,
+enough to give them all reasonable pleasures. Later—he
+thought of this only in a hazy, general sort of
+way—they would begin to save. There was plenty of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_2'></a>2</span>
+time for this, for they were both young, and he had
+proved himself of sufficient value to his employer to
+make his rapid advancement practically certain. The
+employer was a big corporation, the general manager
+of which had taken a deep personal interest in him,
+and the opportunities were limitless.
+</p>
+<p>
+But the feeling of responsibility that came to him
+with marriage gradually took practical form, perhaps
+because the girl who sat opposite him at the breakfast-table
+was so very impractical. She was loving, lovable,
+delightfully whimsical, but also unreasoningly impractical
+in many ways. Before marriage she never
+had known a care; after marriage her cares were much
+like those of a child with a doll-house—they gave zest
+to life but could be easily put aside. If the maid
+proved recalcitrant, it was annoying, but they could
+dine at a restaurant and go to the theater afterward,
+and Harry would help her with breakfast the next
+morning. Harry was so awkward, but so willing, that
+it all became a huge joke. Harry had not passed the
+stage where he would “kiss the cook” in these circumstances,
+and an occasional hour in the kitchen is not so
+bad when there is a fine handsome young man there,
+to be ordered about and told to “behave himself.” So
+even marriage had not yet awakened Isabel Beckford
+to the stern realities of life.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_3'></a>3</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+It was her impracticalness, her delightful dependence,
+that finally brought Harry to the point of serious
+thought. What would she do, if anything happened
+to him? Her father had been successful but
+improvident: he would leave hardly enough for her
+mother alone to live in modest comfort; and, besides,
+Harry was not the kind of youth to put his responsibilities
+on another. He began to think seriously about
+cutting expenses and putting something aside, even
+at this early day. The really successful men had begun
+at the beginning to do this. Then there came to
+his notice the sad case of Mrs. Baird, who was left
+with nothing but a baby. Baird had been a young
+man of excellent promise and a good income, but he
+had left his widow destitute. He had put nothing
+aside, intending, doubtless, to begin that later.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Just like me,” thought Harry, as he looked at his
+girl-wife across the table.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Isn’t it frightful?” she asked, referring to the
+little tragedy contained in the item he had just read
+to her from the morning paper. “Every one thought
+the Bairds were so prosperous, too.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Every one thinks we are prosperous,” he commented
+thoughtfully.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, that’s different!” she exclaimed. “You
+mustn’t talk like that or you’ll make me gloomy for
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_4'></a>4</span>
+the whole day! Why, it sounds as if you were expecting
+to die!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Not at all,” he replied, “but neither was Baird.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Please don’t!” she pleaded. “I shan’t have another
+happy minute—until I’ve forgotten what you
+said.”
+</p>
+<p>
+He laughed at the ingenuousness of this and blew
+her a kiss across the table; but he did not abandon the
+subject.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Baird was a young man,” he persisted, “but, with
+a little care and forethought, he could have left things
+in fair shape.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Perhaps we ought to be saving a little,” she admitted
+in a tone of whimsical protest. “I’ll help you
+do it, if you just won’t make me blue.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“He hadn’t even life insurance,” he remarked, “and
+neither have I.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, not insurance!” she cried. “I wouldn’t like
+that at all.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why not?” he asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why—why, think how much you could do with
+the money you’d be paying to the old life insurance
+company!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Wouldn’t it be just the same if you were saving
+it?” he argued.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, no; not at all,” she asserted. “Why, you can
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_5'></a>5</span>
+get money that you’re saving whenever you want it,
+but life insurance money is clear out of your reach.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“A policy has a cash surrender value,” he explained.
+“Every cent paid in premiums adds to its
+value, if you want to give it up.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But then you lose the insurance,” she argued with
+feminine inconsistency.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course,” he admitted, “just as you lose your
+savings when you spend them.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, but you can get at your savings easier, and
+it’s easier to start again, if you happen to use them,”
+she insisted.
+</p>
+<p>
+“The very reason why life insurance is better for
+us,” he said. “I want to make sure of something for
+you that we’re certain not to touch while I live.”
+</p>
+<p>
+But she took the unreasonable view of insurance
+that some young women do take, and refused to be
+convinced.
+</p>
+<p>
+“If I should die first,” she said, with a little shudder
+at the very thought of death for either of them,
+“all the money you’d paid the company would be
+wasted.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Not necessarily,” he returned. “There might
+be—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Hush!” she interrupted, blushing so prettily that
+he went over and kissed her. Then he dropped the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_6'></a>6</span>
+subject temporarily, which was the wisest thing he
+could have done. She had the feminine objection to
+paying out money for which she got no immediate return,
+but she wanted to please her husband. She was
+capricious, imperious at times and then meekly submissive—a
+spoiled child who surrendered to the emotion
+of the moment, but whose very inconsistencies
+were captivating. So when she decided that victory
+was hers, she also decided to be generous: to please
+him she would make a concession.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’ve changed my mind about insurance,” she told
+him a few days later. As a matter of fact, she had
+changed her mind, but not her opinions: she was not
+convinced, but she would please him by accepting his
+plan—with a slight modification.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I knew you would see the wisdom of it!” he exclaimed
+joyously.
+</p>
+<p>
+“How much insurance did you plan to get?” she
+asked, with a pretty assumption of business ways.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Ten thousand dollars,” he replied.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, we’ll divide it,” she said, “and each get five
+thousand dollars.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You mean that you’ll be insured, too?” he asked
+doubtfully.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course. Isn’t my life worth as much as
+yours?”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_7'></a>7</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“More! a thousand times more!” he cried, “but—but—”
+</p>
+<p>
+Her eyes showed her indignation, and he stopped
+short.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You don’t want me to be insured!” she exclaimed
+hotly. “You don’t think I’m worth it!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why, dearest,” he protested, “you’re worth all the
+insurance of all the people in the world, but it isn’t
+necessary in your case. It’s my earning capacity
+that—”
+</p>
+<p>
+Unfortunate suggestion! There was an inference
+that she considered uncomplimentary.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Haven’t I any earning capacity?” she demanded.
+“Don’t I earn every cent I get? Isn’t the home as important
+as the office?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Surely, surely, darling, but—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Doesn’t a good wife earn half of the income that
+she shares?” she persisted.
+</p>
+<p>
+“More than half, sweetheart.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Don’t say ‘sweetheart’ to me in the same breath
+that you tell me I’m not worth being insured!” she
+cried. “It’s positively insulting, and—and—you always
+said you loved me.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Her voice broke a little, and he was beside her in
+an instant.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You don’t understand,” he explained. “Insurance
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_8'></a>8</span>
+has nothing to do with your value to me or my value
+to you, but there is a more worldly value—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, you’re of some account in the world and I’m
+not!” she broke in, her indignation driving back the
+tears.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Isabel, you’re simply priceless to me!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But, if I hadn’t happened to meet you, I suppose
+I’d be a nonentity!” she flashed back at him. “I’m
+just a piece of property that you happen to like, and—why,
+Harry Beckford, men insure property, don’t
+they?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course, but—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And I’m not worth insuring, even as property!”
+she wailed. “Oh, I didn’t think you could ever be so
+cruel, so heartless! You might at least let me think
+I’m worth something.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The young husband was in despair. He argued,
+pleaded, explained in vain; she could only see that he
+put a value on his life that he did not put on hers,
+and it hurt her pride. Besides, they were partners in
+everything else, so why not in insurance?
+</p>
+<p>
+“But I wouldn’t want the insurance on your life,”
+he urged.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do you think I’m any more mercenary than you?”
+she retorted. “I don’t want the insurance, either; I
+want you—when you’re nice to me.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_9'></a>9</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“We’ll think it over,” he said wearily.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’ve thought,” she returned decisively. “If it’s
+such a good thing, I think you’re mean not to let me
+share it with you.” Then, with sudden cheerfulness:
+“It would be rather jolly and exciting to go together,
+just as we go to the theater and—and—all other
+amusements.”
+</p>
+<p>
+He laughed at her classification of life insurance
+among the pleasures of life, and then he kissed her
+again. Her unreasoning opposition distressed him,
+but resentment was quite out of the question. There
+was momentary exasperation, and then a little love-making,
+to bring the smiles back to her face. All else
+could wait.
+</p>
+<p>
+It is a noteworthy fact, however, that life insurance
+takes a strong hold on a man the moment he really decides
+he ought to have it, and opposition only adds to
+his determination. He who finds that, because of some
+unsuspected physical failing, he can not get it, immediately
+is possessed with a mania for it. So long
+as he considered it within his reach, he turned the
+agents away; now he goes to them and lies and pleads
+and tries desperately to gain that which he did not
+want until he found he could not get it.
+</p>
+<p>
+Thus, in a minor degree, the opposition of Beckford’s
+wife served only to impress on Beckford’s mind
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_10'></a>10</span>
+the necessity and advantage of some such provision
+for the future. Perhaps the explanation of this is that
+in trying to convince her he had convinced himself.
+At any rate, the subject, at first taken up in a desultory
+way, became one of supreme importance to
+him, and he went to see Dave Murray. Dave, he was
+solemnly informed by a friend who claimed to know,
+probably had been christened David, but the last syllable
+of the name had not been able to stand the wear
+and tear of a strenuous life, in addition to which Murray
+was not the kind of man to invite formality. He
+was “Dave” to every one who got past the “Mr. Murray”
+stage, and it never took long to do that. “Anyhow,”
+his informant concluded, “you have a talk with
+him. There isn’t a better fellow or a more upright
+man in the city. The only thing I’ve got against him
+is that he’ll insure a fellow while he isn’t looking and
+then make him think he likes it. But if you want insurance,
+go to him.” So Beckford went, and presently
+he found himself telling Murray a great deal more
+than he had intended to tell him.
+</p>
+<p>
+“The fact is,” he explained, “my wife was violently
+opposed to the idea at first.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Not unusual,” said Murray, and then he added
+sententiously: “Wives don’t care for insurance, but
+widows do.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_11'></a>11</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Beckford smiled as he saw the point.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It doesn’t do a widow much good to care for insurance,
+if she objected to it as a wife,” he suggested.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It may,” returned Murray. “It isn’t at all necessary
+that a wife should know what’s coming to her
+when she becomes a widow. She may be provided for
+in spite of herself.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That would be rather difficult in my case,” said
+Beckford, “for my wife knows just what my salary is,
+and we plan our expenditures together. It’s a pretty
+good salary, but we have been living right up to the
+limit of it, so I can’t provide for premiums without
+her knowledge, although I can do it easily with it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That complicates matters a little,” remarked Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Besides,” Beckford added, “we have been so frank
+with each other that I should be unhappy with such
+a life-secret, and, if I acted on my own judgment and
+took the policy home to her, she says she would tear
+it up and throw it away.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I knew a woman to do that once,” said Murray reflectively.
+“Her husband insured his life before going
+on the excursion that ended in the Ashtabula disaster.
+A few days later her little boy came in to ask if anything
+could be done about the policy that she had destroyed.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_12'></a>12</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t think Isabel would really destroy it,” said
+the troubled Beckford, “but it would distress her very
+much to have me go so contrary to her wishes in a
+matter that we had discussed.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It would distress her very much to be left penniless,”
+remarked Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I think,” said Beckford thoughtfully, “I really
+think, if I had known that she was going to take this
+view of the matter, I would have insured myself first
+and talked to her about it afterward. Then the situation
+wouldn’t be so awkward. But I thought that all
+women favored life insurance.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Not at first,” returned Murray, “but usually there
+comes a change.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“When?” asked Beckford hopefully.
+</p>
+<p>
+“When they begin to think of the needs and the
+future and the possible hardships of the first baby,”
+replied Murray, whereat Beckford blushed a little,
+even as his wife had done a few days before, for
+young people do not consider and discuss prospective
+family problems with the same candor that their elders
+do.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Woman, the true woman,” Murray continued, “is
+essentially unselfish; she thinks of others. Careless for
+her own future, she plans painstakingly for those she
+loves. The insurance premium that is for her own
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_13'></a>13</span>
+benefit she would rather have to spend now, but you
+never hear her object to the investment of any money
+that is to benefit her husband or children, even when
+she has to make sacrifices to permit it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But that doesn’t help me,” complained Beckford.
+“I don’t want any insurance on her life; I don’t need
+it, and there is no reason to think that I ever shall
+need it. It’s for her that I am planning, but she won’t
+listen to anything but this dual arrangement.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I quite understand the situation,” returned Murray.
+“What insurance you are able to take out must
+be to protect her.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Precisely; and I never knew before that a woman
+could be so unreasoningly wilful in opposition to her
+own interests.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“My dear sir,” said Murray, with some feeling,
+“you have a great deal to learn about women. I have
+more than twenty thousand dollars charged up to
+them in commissions that I have lost, after convincing
+the men interested. But if I can help you to provide
+for this one perverse sample of femininity, in spite
+of herself, I shall feel that I have taken a Christian
+revenge on the whole sex.” Beckford rather objected
+to this reference to his wife, but there was nothing of
+disrespect in the tone, and somehow the quaintness of
+the sentiment made him smile.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_14'></a>14</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“I wonder,” Murray went on, “if we could refuse
+the risk without frightening her.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’m afraid not,” returned Beckford, “but”—and
+a sudden inspiration lighted his face, “couldn’t you
+put in some restrictions that would frighten her
+away?”
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray leaned back in his chair and gave the
+matter thoughtful consideration. Somehow he had
+become unusually interested in this young man’s effort
+to do a wise and generous thing for his wife in
+the face of her opposition. If the man had been seeking
+to gain some benefit for himself, Murray would
+not have listened to even a suggestion of deceit. But
+the aim was entirely unselfish, and Beckford had
+brought a letter of introduction that left no doubt
+as to his responsibility and integrity. Then, too, the
+situation was amusing. Here were two business men
+plotting—what? Why, the welfare of their opponent,
+and that only.
+</p>
+<p>
+“So many women have beaten me,” said Murray
+at last, “that I should really like to beat one of them,
+especially when it’s for her own good. Bring your
+wife up here, and I’ll see what I can do.”
+</p>
+<p>
+But here again feminine capriciousness was exemplified.
+Having apparently won her point, Isabel
+Beckford began to wish she had lost it.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_15'></a>15</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’m afraid,” she said. “Suppose I should find
+that something frightful was the matter with me?
+Those insurance doctors are awfully particular, and—and—I’d
+rather not know it, if I’m going to die
+very soon.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, very well,” acquiesced her husband. “We’ll
+go back to my original plan and put the whole ten
+thousand dollars on my life.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, no, no!” she protested. “It would be even
+worse, if I learned that there was anything wrong
+with you. I couldn’t bear it, Harry; I couldn’t, really!
+There wouldn’t be anything left in life for me.
+Let’s not go at all.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That’s foolish, Isabel,” he argued. “I’m all right,
+and the very fact that I am accepted as a good risk
+will remove every doubt.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That’s so,” she admitted. “We’ll be sure, then,
+won’t we?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Then we’ll both go,” she announced, with a sudden
+reversal of judgment. “I hadn’t thought of it
+that way, but I’ll feel a lot better and stronger when
+I’m insured, because the companies are so particular,
+and it will be comforting to know that you are all
+right. It’s worth something to find that out, isn’t it?
+And sometimes a family physician won’t tell you the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_16'></a>16</span>
+truth, because it won’t do any good and he doesn’t
+want to frighten you. We’ll go right away and see
+about it now.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Hardly this evening,” he answered, smiling, although
+he was sorely troubled. “We’ll go to-morrow
+afternoon.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But it’s so long to wait until to-morrow,” she
+pouted.
+</p>
+<p>
+He regretted the delay quite as much as she did,
+for his experience up to date led him to think that
+there might be another change. First she had refused
+to consider the matter at all; then she had insisted
+they should go together; after that she had backed
+out; next she had demanded he should give up the
+idea, also; and now she was again determined it should
+be a joint affair.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No man,” he muttered, as he dropped off to sleep,
+“knows anything about a woman until he marries, and
+then he only learns enough to know that he knows
+nothing at all.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Then he mentally apologized to his wife for even
+this mild criticism, and dreamed that, through some
+complication, he had to insure the cook and the janitor
+and the grocer’s boy before he could take out a policy
+on his own life, and that, when he had attended to
+the rest, he had no money left for his own premiums,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_17'></a>17</span>
+so he made all the other policies in favor of his wife
+and hoped to thunder that the cook and the janitor
+and the grocer’s boy would die a long time before he
+did.
+</p>
+<p>
+However, she was still of the same mind the next
+day, so they went to see Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course,” she said, as they were on the way, “if
+this thing wrecks our happiness by showing that the
+grave is yawning for either of us, it will be all your
+fault.”
+</p>
+<p>
+That made him feel nice and comfortable—so nice
+and comfortable that he heartily wished he never had
+mentioned life insurance. Still, he cheered up a little
+when Murray took charge of matters in a masterly,
+confident way.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I understand, Mrs. Beckford,” said Murray, “that
+both you and your husband wish to have your lives
+insured.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes,” she replied, “and for some reason he has
+selfishly wanted to put all the insurance we can afford
+on his own life.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“So he has told me.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What right had he to discuss family matters with
+you?” she demanded with asperity.
+</p>
+<p>
+Thus Murray was jarred out of his air of easy
+confidence the first thing.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_18'></a>18</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why—why, he didn’t exactly tell me,” he explained,
+“but my experience enabled me to surmise
+as much. Most men are like that.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I never thought Harry would be,” she said, looking
+at him reproachfully. “But it’s all right now,”
+she added.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, it’s all right now,” repeated Murray. He had
+intended to argue first the advisability of accepting
+her husband’s plan, but he deemed it unwise. He had
+suddenly lost faith in his powers of persuasion, so he
+resorted to guile. “Of course, you understand that
+life insurance is hedged about by many annoying restrictions,”
+he went on.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I didn’t know it,” she returned.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, yes,” he said glibly, with a wink at Beckford.
+“Do you use gasoline at all?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why, I have used it occasionally to take a spot
+out of a gown,” she admitted.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Barred!” asserted Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I can’t do even the least little mite of cleaning with
+gasoline!” she exclaimed in dismay.
+</p>
+<p>
+“None at all! It’s dangerous! Might just as well
+fool with nitroglycerin. People who handle it at all
+become careless.”
+</p>
+<p>
+There were indications of a rising temper. That a
+mean old insurance company should have the audacity
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_19'></a>19</span>
+to tell her what she could or could not do was an outrage!
+</p>
+<p>
+“And you can’t use street-cars,” added Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Can’t use street-cars!” she cried. “What will
+Harry do?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, that rule doesn’t apply to men,” returned
+Murray calmly, “for men don’t get off the cars backward
+and all that sort of thing. Street-cars are considered,
+in our business, a danger only for women.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, it’s a hateful, insulting, unfair business!”
+she cried, rising in her indignation. “I wouldn’t let
+such a contemptible lot of people insure me for anything
+in the world.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But please don’t blame me,” urged Murray insinuatingly.
+“I want to do the best I can for you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, I don’t blame you,” she returned magnanimously.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I admit that it sounds unfair,” Murray persisted,
+“but there was a time when we wouldn’t take risks on
+women at all, so, even with the restrictions, it’s quite
+a concession.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, very likely, very likely,” she admitted, “but
+I have too much pride to accept any such humiliating
+conditions. Harry can do as he pleases,” with
+dignity, “but nothing could induce me to be insured
+now. I’m going home.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_20'></a>20</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Harry took her to a cab, and then returned to Murray’s
+office.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, it’s settled,” said Murray, with a sigh of
+relief.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, it’s settled,” returned Beckford, “but I don’t
+feel just comfortable about it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“She sort of bowled me over the first thing,” commented
+Murray. “I haven’t quite recovered yet. But
+it’s her welfare that we’re considering. Better put in
+your application and take the examination before
+there are any more complications.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Perhaps that’s wise,” admitted Beckford gloomily,
+for he was not at all at ease about the matter. She
+had said he could do as he pleased, but there had
+been something in her tone that was disquieting; she
+might think there was disloyalty in his patronage of
+a company that had so offended her. And this was
+the first cloud that had appeared in the matrimonial
+sky; in all else there had been mutual concession and
+perfect agreement.
+</p>
+<p>
+He was thinking of this when he went home—and
+found her in tears.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I know what’s the matter,” she wailed. “I didn’t
+think of it at first, but I did afterward, and I’ve been
+crying ever since. I have heart trouble; that’s why
+he didn’t want to give me a policy.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_21'></a>21</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Nonsense!” he protested vigorously.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, I know it! I know it!” she cried. “He didn’t
+want to tell me, so he put in all that about street-cars
+and gasoline. But it’s heart trouble or consumption!
+Those insurance men are so quick to see things that no
+one else notices. Why, I could see that he was worried
+the very first thing!”
+</p>
+<p>
+Beckford got on his knees beside the bed on which
+she was lying and tried to comfort her, but she was
+inconsolable. He insisted that she was the strongest
+and healthiest woman of her size in the world; that
+he knew it; that Murray himself had commented on
+it later; that the company physician, who happened
+to be in the outer office as they passed through, had
+spoken of it; that even the clerks were impressed; but
+he failed to shake her conviction that she had some
+fatal, and hitherto unsuspected, malady. Finally, assuring
+her that he would have that matter settled in
+thirty minutes, he rushed to the nearest cab-stand and
+gave the driver double fare to run his horse all the
+way to Murray’s house.
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray was just sitting down to dinner, but Beckford
+insisted that he should return with him immediately.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You’ve got to straighten this matter out!” he told
+him excitedly. “You’ve got to give her all the insurance
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_22'></a>22</span>
+she wants without any restrictions! Make it fifty
+thousand dollars if she wants it! I’ll pay the premiums,
+if we have to starve!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But I can’t give her a policy to-night!” protested
+Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You can tell her about it to-night, can’t you?”
+demanded Beckford. “And you can take her application
+to-night, can’t you? Why, man, she has convinced
+herself that she’s going to die in a week! We
+can settle the details later, but we’ve got to do something
+to-night.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, well, I’ll come immediately after dinner,” said
+Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You come now!” cried Beckford. “If you talk
+dinner to me, I’ll brain you! Insurance has made a
+wreck of me already.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I haven’t been getting much joy out of this particular
+case myself,” grumbled Murray, but he went
+along.
+</p>
+<p>
+The moment he reached home, Beckford rushed to
+his wife’s room.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s all a mistake!” he exclaimed joyfully. “You—you
+mustn’t cry any more, dearest, for it’s all
+right now. Mr. Murray didn’t understand at first—thought
+you were one of these capricious, careless,
+thoughtless women that do all sorts of absurd and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_23'></a>23</span>
+foolish things on impulse—but he knows better now.
+There aren’t any more restrictions for you than for
+me, and he’s waiting in the parlor to take your application
+for all the insurance you want.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Really?” she asked, as the sobs began to subside.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Really.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And there isn’t anything the matter with me?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course not, sweetheart.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well,” she said, after a pause, “I can’t see him
+now, because my eyes are all red, but I wish he’d write
+that out for me. I’d feel so much more comfortable.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Indeed he will,” asserted Beckford, “and we can
+fill out the application in here, and I’ll take it back to
+him.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Hopefully and happily the young husband returned
+to Murray and told him what was wanted.
+Murray sighed dismally. He had missed his dinner
+for a woman’s whim, and the woman was merely humiliating
+him. Still, he felt in a measure responsible
+for the trouble; he ought never to have resorted to
+duplicity, even for so laudable a purpose. So he
+wrote the following: “Investigation has convinced
+me that the restrictions mentioned this afternoon are
+unnecessary in your case, and I shall be glad to have
+your application for insurance on the same terms as
+your husband’s.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_24'></a>24</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Beckford read this over carefully. Then she
+read the application blank with equal care. After that
+she wrote at the bottom of the note: “Insurance has
+almost given me nervous prostration now, and I don’t
+want to have anything more to do with it. If Harry
+can stand the strain, let him have it all.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Give him that, Harry,” she said, “and get rid of
+him as soon as possible, for I want you to come back
+and comfort me. I’m completely upset.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray lit a cigar when he reached the street, and
+puffed at it meditatively as he walked in the direction
+of the nearest street-car line.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What’s the matter with nervous prostration for
+me?” he muttered. “One more effort to defeat a
+woman who is fighting against her own interests will
+make me an impossible risk in any company; two more
+will land me in a sanatorium.”
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_25'></a>25</span><a name='c2' id='c2'></a>AN INCIDENTAL QUESTION</h2>
+<p>
+Dave Murray, general agent, leaned back in his
+chair and looked thoughtfully at the young man before
+him.
+</p>
+<p>
+“So you have run up against an unanswerable argument?”
+he remarked.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It seems so to me,” said the inexperienced Owen
+Ross.
+</p>
+<p>
+“My dear boy,” asserted Murray, “in the life insurance
+business the only unanswerable argument is a
+physician’s report that the applicant is not a good
+risk. What is the particular thing that has put you
+down and out?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Faith,” replied the young man; “just plain faith
+in the Almighty. Perhaps, some time in your career,
+you have run across a religious enthusiast who considers
+it a reflection on the all-seeing wisdom of the
+Almighty to take any measures for his own protection
+or the protection of his family.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I have,” admitted Murray, “but generally it has
+been a woman.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“This is a man,” said Ross; “a sincere, devout man.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_26'></a>26</span>
+If he were a hypocrite, it would be different, but it is
+a matter of religious conviction—a principle of faith—with
+him to trust in the Lord. Life insurance he
+considers almost sacrilegious—an evidence of man’s
+doubt in the wisdom of his Maker, and an attempt, in
+his puny insignificant way, to interfere with the plans
+of the Great Master. To all arguments he replies,
+‘The Lord will provide for His children.’”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And you consider that unanswerable?” asked Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“In his case, yes. Even his wife is unable to move
+him, although she wants insurance as a provision for
+the future of the children and was instrumental in
+getting me to talk to him. How would you answer
+such a contention as that?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I wouldn’t answer it; I would agree with him.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And give up?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Quite the contrary. While there can be no doubt
+that he is right as far as he goes, he does not go far
+enough. I would turn his own argument against him.”
+Murray leaned forward in his chair and spoke with
+earnest deliberation. “The Lord provides for His
+children through human instrumentality. Why should
+not the man be the human instrument through which
+the Lord provides for that man’s family? The Lord
+does not directly intervene—at least, not in these
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_27'></a>27</span>
+days. If, in the hour of extremity, an unexpected
+legacy should come to relieve the necessities of that
+man’s family, he would say the Lord had provided.
+But it would be through human instrumentality: the
+legacy, and the method and law by which it reached
+them would be essentially human. If, when poverty
+knocks at the door, some generous philanthropist were
+moved to come to their relief, he would hold again that
+the Lord had provided; if some wealthy relative
+sought them out, it would be through the intervention
+of the Lord; if, through his own wise action, they are
+saved from want, is he more than the human instrument
+through which the Lord provides? May not an
+insurance company be the chosen instrument? I say
+this with all due reverence, and it seems to me to answer
+his objections fully. Is it only in unforeseen
+ways that He cares for His children? Has He nothing
+to do with those cases in which reasonable precautions
+are taken by the children themselves?”
+</p>
+<p>
+Ross, the young solicitor, looked at his chief with
+unconcealed admiration.
+</p>
+<p>
+“By George!” he exclaimed, “you’ve got the theory
+of this business down to a science. I’ll try the man
+again.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s not a business,” retorted Murray somewhat
+warmly, for this was a point that touched his pride;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_28'></a>28</span>
+“it is a profession—at least, it lies with the man himself
+to make it a business or a profession, according to
+his own ability and character. There are small men
+who make a business of the law, and there are great
+men who make a profession of it; there are doctors to
+whom medicine is a mere commercial pursuit, and
+there are doctors to whom it is a study, a science, a
+profession. You may make of life insurance a cheap
+business, or you may make of it a dignified profession;
+you may be a mere annoying canvasser, or you may
+be a man who commands respect; but, to be really
+successful, you must have, or acquire, a technical
+knowledge of the basis of insurance, a knowledge of
+law, and, above all, a knowledge of human nature,—and
+even that will avail little if you are not temperamentally
+suited to the work. You can no more make
+a good insurance man of unpromising material than
+you can make a good artist.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Ross caught some of the enthusiasm and earnestness
+of Murray, and unconsciously straightened up.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You have made me look at the subject from a new
+point of view,” he said. “I confess I was rather
+ashamed of the soliciting part of the work at first—felt
+a good deal like a cripple selling pencils to support
+a sick wife.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And very likely you acted like it,” remarked Murray,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_29'></a>29</span>
+“in which case the people you approached would
+so class you. It isn’t necessary to have the ‘iron nerve,’
+so long identified with that branch of the work; it
+isn’t even helpful, for it makes a man unpopular, and
+the most successful men are the most popular ones.
+You’ve lost ground when you have reached a point
+where any man you know is not glad to see you enter
+his office. At the same time,”—musingly,—“nerve
+and persistence become forethought and wisdom when
+time proves you were right. I have known of cases
+where a man afterward thanked the solicitor who had
+once made life a burden to him; but it is always better
+to change a man’s mind without his knowledge.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Rather difficult,” laughed Ross.
+</p>
+<p>
+“But it has been done,” said Murray. “As a matter
+of fact, you are working to save men and women from
+their own selfishness or heedlessness. If you think of
+that, you will be more convincing and will raise your
+work to the dignity of a profession; if you think only
+of the commissions, you will put yourself on the level
+of the shyster lawyer whose interest centers wholly in
+the fees he is able to get rather than in the cases he is
+to try. There are pot-boilers in every business and
+every profession, but success is not for them: they
+can’t see beyond the needs of the stomach, and the
+man who works only for his belly never amounts to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_30'></a>30</span>
+much. He will stoop to small things to gain a temporary
+advantage, never seeing the future harm he
+is doing; he is the kind of man who hopes to rise by
+pulling others down. Remember, my boy, that insinuations
+as to the instability of a rival company invariably
+make a man suspicious of all: when you have
+convinced him that the rival’s proposition and methods
+are not based on sound financial and business principles,
+you have more than half convinced him that
+yours aren’t, either, and that very likely there is something
+radically wrong with the whole blame system.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’m glad you spoke of that,” said Ross. “There
+have been cases where insinuations have been made
+against our company, and I have been tempted to
+fight back the same way. A man is at a disadvantage
+when he is put on the defensive and is called upon to
+produce evidence of what ought to be a self-evident
+proposition.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Never do it, unless the question is put to you
+directly,” advised Murray. “You must defend yourself
+when attacked, but, in every other case, go on the
+assumption that your company is all right, and that
+everybody knows it is all right. The late John J.
+Ingalls once said, ‘When you have to offer evidence
+that an egg is good, that egg is doubtful, and a doubtful
+egg is always bad.’ It’s worth remembering.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_31'></a>31</span>
+Many a man is made doubtful of a good proposition
+by ill-advised efforts to prove it is good.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“If that is invariably true,”—with a troubled scowl,—“I
+fear I have made some mistakes.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“The man who thinks he makes no mistakes seldom
+makes anything else.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Ross brightened perceptibly at this.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You’ve made them yourself?” he asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Lots of them,” replied Murray, and then he added
+whimsically: “Once I placed a risk that meant a two-hundred-dollar
+commission for me, and my wife and
+I went right out and ordered two hundred dollars’
+worth of furniture and clothes. The risk was refused,
+and I never got the commission.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Ross laughed.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’m beginning to develop enthusiasm and pride in
+the business—I mean profession.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, call it a business,” returned Murray, “but
+think of it as a profession. It’s the way you regard it
+yourself that counts, and you can’t go far astray in
+that if you stop to think what is required of a good
+insurance man. Sterling integrity, for one thing, and
+tact and judgment. A man who brings in a good ten-thousand-dollar
+risk is more valuable than the man
+who brings in one hundred thousand dollars that is
+turned down by the physicians or at the home office.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_32'></a>32</span>
+And the first requisite for advancement is absolute
+trustworthiness. There are temptations, even for a
+solicitor—commission rebates to the insured that are
+contrary to the ethics of the business—and there are
+greater temptations higher up. You will learn, as in
+no other line, that a man wants what he can’t get,
+even if he didn’t want it when he could get it, and he
+will pay a high price for what he wants. Collusion
+in a local office might give it to him, in spite of all
+precautions taken; such collusion might be worth ten
+thousand dollars to a man who had no record of refusal
+by other companies against him, and ten thousand
+dollars could be split up very nicely between the
+local agent and the company’s physician. So integrity,
+unswerving integrity, is rated exceptionally
+high, and the least suspicion of trickery or underhand
+dealing may keep a capable man on the lowest
+rung of the ladder for all time, even if it doesn’t put
+him out of the business entirely. You are paid to protect
+your company, so far as lies in your power, and
+to get business by all honorable means; if you resort
+to dishonorable means, even in your company’s interests,
+there is always the suspicion that you will use
+the same methods against its interests whenever that
+may be to your personal advantage.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Owen Ross pondered this deeply on his way home.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_33'></a>33</span>
+It gave a new dignity to his occupation. He had
+taken up insurance because it happened to be the only
+available opening at a time when he was out of employment.
+He had been a clerk for a big corporation
+that had recently combined two branch offices, thus
+materially reducing its office force, and Ross had been
+one of those to suffer. His father, a prosperous merchant,
+had expressed himself, when consulted, in this
+way:
+</p>
+<p>
+“I will give you a place here whenever that is necessary
+to enable you to live, but I prefer that you
+should complete your preliminary business training
+under some one else. No boy can consider himself a
+success until he has proved his independence, and no
+boy can be sure he has proved that until he has made
+a secure place for himself outside the family circle.”
+</p>
+<p>
+So Ross, being wise enough to see the reason and
+justice of this, endeavored to show his independence
+by securing a position with Murray. And, although
+fairly successful from the start, he was only just beginning
+to take a real interest in his work. Murray
+liked him and encouraged him: there was, he thought,
+the making of a good and successful man in him, and
+he frequently went to considerable trouble to explain
+the theory and practice of insurance. Then, too, he
+knew that Ross had married just before he lost his
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_34'></a>34</span>
+other position, and that he was living in a modest
+little flat on his own earnings, in spite of the fact that
+he had a father who would be much more ready to
+assist him financially than he was to take him into his
+own office at that particular time. In fact, the elder
+Ross was quite willing that his son and his son’s wife
+should live with him, holding only that the family
+influence should not extend to his first business connections,
+but Owen deemed the flat a necessary evidence
+of his independence.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’ll get that sanctimonious optimist to-morrow,”
+he mused as he walked along. “He can’t answer those
+arguments that Murray gave me. He is content because
+the Lord will provide, but why may not I be the
+human instrument through which the Lord makes provision?
+That sounds presumptuous, but why not?
+Hasn’t He provided for others in just this way?
+Hasn’t many a man, convinced against his will, protected
+the future of those he loved barely in time?”
+He laughed quietly at a thought that occurred to him.
+“If this man should be insured to-morrow and die the
+next day,” he went on, “he would think the Lord had
+provided, but if he has to pay the premiums for
+twenty years, he’ll think it all very human. I’m beginning
+to understand him.”
+</p>
+<p>
+He was still smiling at this quaint conceit when he
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_35'></a>35</span>
+entered his flat and was informed by his wife that Mrs.
+Becker had been there to see him. Mrs. Becker was
+a woman who did washing and occasional cleaning for
+them.
+</p>
+<p>
+“To see me!” he exclaimed. “Why, her dealings
+are all with you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It has something to do with insurance,” his wife
+explained. “She knows you’re in that business, of
+course, and she is in deep distress. She was crying
+when she was here this afternoon, but I couldn’t understand
+what the trouble was. She said she’d come
+back this evening.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Ross puzzled over this a good deal during dinner,
+and even tried to get some additional information by
+questioning his wife closely. Exactly what did the
+woman say? Her words might be “all Greek” to his
+wife and still be intelligible to him, if only she could
+repeat them.
+</p>
+<p>
+“But I can’t,” she insisted. “I was so sorry for her
+and so helpless that I really didn’t hear it all, anyway.
+I only know that it had something to do with an application
+or a premium or a policy, and her husband
+is very sick and she needs money.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Ross began to speculate. The ignorant have
+strange ideas of insurance, and very likely this woman
+thought she could insure a dying husband. His backbone
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_36'></a>36</span>
+began to stiffen at once. Of course such a thing
+was actually, as well as ethically, impossible, but it
+was going to be a very difficult matter to explain it
+to her, and he anticipated a distressing scene. His
+wife was interested in the woman, spoke frequently
+of her hardships and her courage, and had helped her
+to such trifling extent as they could afford. No doubt
+the woman had some wild notion that he, being an insurance
+man, could do this for her and would do it as
+a matter of charity. Ethical questions do not trouble
+such people.
+</p>
+<p>
+When she came, he was prepared for a request that
+was impossible in honor and in fact, and he was ready
+to refuse it with such gentleness as he deemed due to
+a weary and desperate woman who did not realize what
+she was asking—the gentleness of sympathy coupled
+with the firmness of principle. Ross was a young man,
+inclined to exaggerate the importance and difficulties
+of problems that confronted him, and he was disconcerted
+when he found he had made an error in the
+basis from which he had reached his conclusion; the
+woman did not wish to insure a dying husband, but
+to protect insurance he already carried.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, good Mr. Ross,” she wailed, “you must fix it
+for me some way. If we don’t pay to-morrow, we’ll
+lose everything. And we haven’t the money, Mr. Ross,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_37'></a>37</span>
+not enough to pay the doctor even, and it’s worrying
+Peter more than the sickness. But you can fix it for
+us—of course you can fix it for us,”—with appealing
+hopefulness.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Sit down, Mrs. Becker, and tell me about it,” he
+urged. “I don’t understand.”
+</p>
+<p>
+She sank into a chair, and looked at him with
+anxious, tearful doubt and hope. Worn out with work
+and watching, she was a prey to conflicting emotions.
+Never doubting that he could help her, she feared he
+might refuse. Her anxiety was pitiable, and it was
+some time before he could get the details of the story
+from her. Finally, however, he learned that in more
+prosperous days her husband had insured his life for
+five thousand dollars, and, even in adversity, had succeeded
+in keeping up the payments, until stricken by
+this last illness. The sum he had saved up for the
+next premium—the one due the following day—had
+been used for medicines and other necessaries, and now
+he was near death. The doctor held out no hope; he
+might live a few days, but hardly more than that, for
+he was slowly but surely sinking. Until the previous
+night, when there came a turn for the worse, his recovery
+had been confidently expected, and his wife
+had worried little about the premium; the insurance
+company would be glad to take it when he was well.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_38'></a>38</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“But <em>he</em> worried,” she said with unconscious pathos;
+“he worried and asked about it until—he couldn’t any
+more. He’s too sick to know now. But,”—hopefully,—“he’ll
+understand when I tell him it’s all right.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Ross was as much distressed as the woman, but he
+could give her little comfort. He could protect the
+insurance only by paying the premium himself, and
+he was not able to do that. Still, almost all policies
+provided for the payment of something proportionate
+to the amount paid in, even when the premiums were
+not kept up, so—He paused uncomfortably at this
+point, for the woman’s attitude and expression had
+changed from tearful anxiety to dull, sullen suspicion.
+She did not believe him; like all insurance men, he was
+ready to seize any opportunity to defraud her; she
+was helpless, and a rich company would take advantage
+of her helplessness.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You can get the money, Owen,” his wife urged,
+almost in tears herself.
+</p>
+<div class='figcenter' style='padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='i002' id='i002'></a>
+<img src="images/illus-038.jpg" alt="“Perhaps I can arrange it,” he said at last. “In what company is he insured?”" title=""/><br />
+<span class='caption'>“Perhaps I can arrange it,” he said at<br/>last. “In what company is he insured?”</span>
+</div>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_39'></a>39</span></div>
+<p>
+“I’ll pay it back to you—when he dies!” cried the
+woman, and Ross gave her a quick glance. It seemed
+heartless, but he saw it was not. The woman was tried
+beyond her endurance; she, with her two children,
+faced a future that was absolutely devoid of hope; she
+was sick, wretched, despairing, and the husband she
+had striven so hard to keep with her was already
+beyond recall. She spoke of his approaching death
+merely as something certain, that could not be prevented,
+and that force of circumstances compelled her
+to consider. She had to think for herself and children,
+plan for herself and children, even at this fearful time,
+for there was no one to do it for her, no one to relieve
+her of any part of the burden. The problem of the
+larder and the problem of burial would confront her
+simultaneously; she had to face these cold, hard,
+brutal facts, in spite of the grief and sorrow of the
+moment.
+</p>
+<p>
+All this Ross saw and appreciated, and he gave his
+attention to various possible ways of raising the necessary
+money.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Perhaps I can arrange it,” he said at last. “In
+what company is he insured?”
+</p>
+<p>
+It proved to be his own company. Instantly, his
+talk with Murray flashed through his mind. “You are
+paid to protect your company, so far as lies in your
+power,” Murray had said. Absolute loyalty to its interests
+was imperative. Would it be honorable for
+him to enter into any arrangement with this woman
+that would cost his company money? Had he any
+right to do more than the company would do itself?
+What would be thought of an employee in any other
+line of business who advanced money that was to be
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_40'></a>40</span>
+used to the financial disadvantage of his employer,
+however proper it might be in the case of some one
+else?
+</p>
+<p>
+“I can do nothing,” he announced shortly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, Owen!” cried his wife reproachfully.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It is impossible!” he insisted. “If it were a proper
+thing to do, Murray would do it for her himself.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mr. Murray doesn’t understand the situation,”
+urged his wife.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Murray would understand my situation and his,”
+he returned. “We are taking money from this company,
+we are its trusted agents, and we can not do
+anything that would be to its disadvantage. It is a
+matter of business integrity.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The woman did not weep now, but the look she gave
+him haunted him all that night. And his wife’s entreaties
+and reproaches added to his unhappiness.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why, Jennie,” he explained, “I stand alone between
+the company and a loss of over four thousand
+dollars. I know that this man is dying; I know that,
+if I pay this premium, the company will have to pay
+out the full amount of the insurance within a few
+days; I know that the premiums paid to date amount
+to only about five hundred or six hundred dollars,
+which, under the terms of the policy, the woman will
+not wholly lose. For me, an employee, to conspire to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_41'></a>41</span>
+get the rest of the money for her would be like taking
+it from the cash drawer. I won’t do it; I can’t do it
+after Murray’s talk to me to-day about business integrity!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“The company can afford it,” persisted Mrs. Ross,
+“and the woman needs it so badly.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“There are lots of companies and individuals who
+could afford to let the woman have five thousand dollars,”
+replied Ross.
+</p>
+<p>
+Still, Mrs. Ross could not understand. If he had
+been willing to pay the premium to another company,
+why not to his own?
+</p>
+<p>
+“Resign and pay it!” she exclaimed suddenly, feeling
+that she had solved the problem; but that was a
+greater sacrifice than he was prepared to make. He
+was sincerely sorry for the woman; the case was on his
+mind all the following morning; but Murray’s talk
+had made a deep impression. This was one of the
+severe temptations of the business—the more severe
+because there was no question of corruption, but only
+of sympathy, in it. Such, he had read, were the
+temptations that led men of the best intentions astray
+in many of the affairs of life.
+</p>
+<p>
+He was thinking of this when he called to see the
+“sanctimonious optimist”; he was thinking of it when
+he advanced the arguments Murray had given him;
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_42'></a>42</span>
+he was still thinking of it when the man said he was
+almost convinced and would telephone him after talking
+with his wife. Consequently, this success failed to
+elate him.
+</p>
+<p>
+“The law of humanity,” he told himself, “is higher
+and more sacred than the law of business.”
+</p>
+<p>
+He had walked unconsciously in the direction of his
+father’s office, and, still arguing with himself, he
+went in.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Father,” he said, “I want to borrow a hundred
+dollars.” The premium was a little more than that,
+but he could supply the remainder.
+</p>
+<p>
+“For what?” asked the senior Ross.
+</p>
+<p>
+“There is something I may wish to do,” was the
+enigmatical reply. “I will repay it as rapidly as possible.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Commissions few and small?” laughed the senior
+Ross. “Well, a young man never finds out exactly
+what he’s worth, while working for a relative or a
+friend, so this experience ought to be valuable.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Still undecided, but with the money in his pocket,
+Ross left his father’s office and went to his own. He
+wanted to pay that premium, but it seemed to him a
+very serious matter, ethically and actually. The
+woman faced a future of privation; he faced what
+seemed to him a crisis in his business career. He revolted
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_43'></a>43</span>
+at the thought of being false to his employer,
+but to let the woman suffer would be heartless.
+</p>
+<p>
+“A letter for you, Ross,” said one of the clerks, as
+he entered the office. “Your wife left it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+He opened it with nervous haste, and a notice of a
+premium due dropped out.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You must find some way to help this woman,
+Owen,” his wife wrote. “I went to see her to-day, and
+the situation is pitiable. She has used up every cent
+she had and is in debt. Her husband is conscious at
+intervals, and he looks at you so wistfully, so anxiously,
+that it makes your heart bleed. Oh! if I could
+only tell him that the insurance is all right! It
+would give him peace for the little time that is left to
+him on this earth. <em>Owen! resign, if necessary, but do
+what I ask!</em>”
+</p>
+<p>
+Ross crumpled the note in his hand and walked into
+Murray’s private office.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mr. Murray,” he said, “please accept my verbal
+resignation.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What’s the matter?” asked Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I have no time to explain now,” said Ross. “I
+want to be released from my obligations to the company
+at once.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You’re excited,” said Murray. “Sit down! Now,
+what’s the matter?”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_44'></a>44</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Ross hesitated a moment, and then blurted out the
+whole story.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You wish to pay this premium?” asked Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’m going to pay it!” said Ross defiantly. “It will
+stick the company for more than four thousand dollars,
+but I’m going to pay it!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And you wish to resign to do it honorably?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Pay it!” said Murray. “But your resignation is
+not accepted. I wouldn’t lose such a man as you for
+ten times four thousand dollars.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It is all right?” asked Ross, bewildered.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course it’s all right,” asserted Murray. “As a
+matter of sympathy and justice, it is not only right
+but highly commendable; as a matter of financial
+profit to you, it would be despicable. Pay that premium,
+and I tell you now that the company will never
+pay a death benefit with less hesitation than it will pay
+this one. What is one risk more or less? We do business
+on the general average, and any sum is well invested
+that uncovers so conscientious an employee.
+Pay it, and come back to me.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Three minutes later, Ross, with the receipt in his
+pocket, was at the telephone.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s all right,” he told his wife. “The premium is
+paid.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_45'></a>45</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, Owen!” exclaimed Mrs. Ross, and her voice
+broke a little, “you don’t know what comfort you have
+given a dying man! If you could only see—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Get a cab!” he broke in. “He doesn’t know it yet,
+and you must tell him. Get a cab and drive like—”
+</p>
+<p>
+He stopped short, but his wife knew what he almost
+said, and she forgave him without even a preliminary
+reproach.
+</p>
+<p>
+His eyes were bright and his heart was light when
+he went back to Murray. Mrs. Becker’s situation was
+sad enough, but surely he had lessened the gloom of
+it by removing one great source of anxiety. He felt
+that he had done something worthy of a man, and it
+was a joy that he could do this without transcending
+the rules of business integrity and loyalty.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I want you,” said Murray, and there was something
+of admiration in his tone; “I want you so much
+that I am going to put you in the way of making more
+money. You have a great deal to learn about the insurance
+business before you will cease making unnecessary
+problems for yourself, but you have one quality
+that makes you valuable to me.” He paused and smiled
+a little at the recollection of what had passed. “I
+would suggest,” he went on, “that you bear this in
+mind: life insurance is not for one life only or for one
+generation only, but for the centuries. Otherwise, we
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_46'></a>46</span>
+could not do business on the present plan. We exist
+by reducing the laws of chance to a science that makes
+us secure in the long run, although, on the basis of a
+single year, there may be considerable losses. And a
+good company will no more stoop to shabby tricks
+than you will; nor will it seek to escape obligations
+through technicalities or petty subterfuges. That’s
+why I told you to pay that premium, and I respect
+you for doing it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray picked up a memorandum on his desk.
+</p>
+<p>
+“By the way,” he added, glancing at it, “you must
+have made good use of the arguments I gave you, for
+your sanctimonious optimist telephoned that, if you
+would call this afternoon or to-morrow, he would arrange
+with you for a ten-thousand-dollar policy.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Grateful as Murray’s praise was to his ears, the
+greeting from his wife gave Ross the most joy.
+</p>
+<p>
+“He was conscious for a moment and understood,”
+she said, as she put her arms around her husband’s
+neck, “and there was such an expression of restful
+peace on his face that it made me happy, in spite of
+the shadow of death hovering over. It made him a
+little better, the doctor said, but nothing can save
+him. And I’m so proud of you, Owen!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“To tell the truth, dearest,” he replied tenderly,
+“I’m almost proud of myself.”
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_47'></a>47</span><a name='c3' id='c3'></a>AN INCIDENTAL TRAGEDY</h2>
+<p>
+Dave Murray stretched his legs comfortably under
+the table, blew rings of smoke toward the ceiling, and
+waited for Stanley Wentworth to speak.
+</p>
+<p>
+Having his full share of worldly wisdom, Murray
+knew that there was a reason for Wentworth’s most
+urgent invitation to lunch with him at his club. While
+they had been friends for years and had lunched together
+on many previous occasions, there was a formality
+about this invitation that presaged something
+of importance. So, when they reached the cigars,
+Murray smoked and waited.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You win, Dave,” Wentworth announced at last.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I knew I would—when you married,” returned
+Murray. “It was only a question of time then.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Especially after you got the ear of my wife,” said
+Wentworth. “You worked that very nicely, Dave.
+Do you remember the story you told her about the
+man who couldn’t give any time to life insurance during
+the busy season and who was on his death-bed
+when the date he had set for his examination arrived?”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_48'></a>48</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“It was true, too,” asserted Murray. “The man
+was a good risk when I went after him, and there
+would have been ten thousand dollars for his wife if
+he hadn’t procrastinated. There’s no money in the
+policy that a man was just going to take out, Stanley.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, you win, anyway,” said Wentworth. “We’ve
+been jollying each other on this insurance business
+for six or eight years, and I’ve stood you off pretty
+well, but I can’t stand against the little woman at
+home. I was lost, Dave, the day I took you up to the
+house and introduced you to her.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I guess I played the cards pretty well,” laughed
+Murray. “I told you at the beginning that I was
+going to insure you before I got through, and a good
+insurance man doesn’t let a little matter like the personal
+inclinations of his subject interfere with his
+plans. Why, I’ve been known to put a man in a
+trance, have him examined, and abstract the first premium
+from his pocket before he waked up. But you
+were the hardest proposition I ever tackled. You
+ought to have taken out a policy ten years ago.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I couldn’t see any reason for it,” explained Wentworth.
+“I thought I was a confirmed bachelor: had
+no family and never expected to have one. That was
+at twenty-five, and at thirty I considered the matter
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_49'></a>49</span>
+absolutely settled, but at thirty-five the little woman
+just quietly reached out and took me into camp—and
+I’m glad of it. Never knew what real life was before.
+Still, I hate like thunder to surrender to you after
+our long, harmonious and entertaining fight, Dave;
+I wouldn’t do it if you hadn’t taken advantage of my
+hospitality to load my wife up with insurance ghost
+stories. If you want to be fair, you’ll pay her half
+the commission.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’ll do it!” exclaimed Murray; “not in cash, of
+course, but I’ll make her a present that will cover it—something
+nice for the house. You won’t be jealous,
+will you?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Jealous!” returned Wentworth with a hearty
+laugh. “Well, I guess not! Why, I’ll help out by
+making the policy worth while: I’ll take out one for
+twenty-five thousand. I tell you, Dave, I’m not going
+to run any risk of leaving the little woman unprovided
+for, and I lost four thousand in the last month.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The conversation had been jocular, with an undercurrent
+of seriousness in it, but Wentworth became
+really serious with the last remark. Murray saw that
+this loss had had more to do with the decision than
+any arguments that had been advanced, and he, too,
+dropped his bantering tone.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I never could see,” Wentworth went on, “why insurance
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_50'></a>50</span>
+was any better than an investment in good
+stock—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“A little more certain,” suggested Murray, “so far
+as your wife is concerned. No stock is safe while a
+man lives and continues in business. It is too convenient
+as collateral and can be reached too easily in
+the case of failure. You will take risks with stock that
+you will not take with insurance, even when you can;
+you will sell stock to get ready cash for a business
+venture that may prove disastrous, but it’s like robbing
+your own widow to touch life insurance money.
+No man ever raised money on his policy without feeling
+meaner than a yellow dog, for he is gambling with
+the future of the one he loves, or at least should love.
+He has taken money that he promised her; money
+that she will sadly need in case of his unexpected
+death. That she consented to it does not ease his conscience,
+if he is any sort of a man, for no woman ever
+freely consents to jeopardizing any part of her husband’s
+life insurance money; she is led to do it, against
+her better judgment, by love and faith, and he knows
+that he has demanded of her what may prove to be a
+great sacrifice. That is why insurance is a better investment
+than stocks for the purpose you have in
+mind, Stanley; whatever your business needs, you
+never can ask your wife to join you in hypothecating
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_51'></a>51</span>
+the policy without feeling like a mean heartless
+sneak.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I never looked at in that way,” returned Wentworth
+thoughtfully, “but you’re right, Dave. The
+policy will have a sacredness that no stock can possess.
+To touch it, to risk any part of it in business,
+would seem like taking money out of the baby’s bank.
+Still,” he added whimsically, “a game in which you
+have to die to win never did appeal to me very
+strongly.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“A game in which you are sure to win when you
+die is better than a game in which you are likely to
+lose twice,” retorted Murray, “or one in which you
+have to live to win, so long as life is something over
+which you have no jurisdiction. With insurance you
+win when you lose, but with stocks you may lose both
+ways and leave nothing but a reputation for selfish
+improvidence. Of course, I am looking at it from the
+family, rather than the personal, point of view.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Surely,” acquiesced Wentworth. “I am thinking
+of the little woman and the baby.” He settled back
+in his chair and smoked dreamily for a few moments,
+his thoughts evidently wandering to the home that
+had given him so much of happiness during the last
+eighteen months. And Murray was silent, too. The
+affair was as much one of friendship as of business
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_52'></a>52</span>
+with him. It had been largely a joke when he had
+first declared that he would write a policy on Wentworth’s
+life, although he believed implicitly that
+every man should have insurance and should get it
+when he is young enough to secure a favorable rate.
+At that time Wentworth had no one dependent upon
+him, but Murray had kept at him in a bantering way,
+telling him that he would surely have need of insurance
+later and that he had better prepare for it while
+the opportunity offered. Then, when celibacy seemed
+to have become a permanent condition with him, he
+had married, and thereafter, while still treating the
+subject lightly and humorously, Murray had conducted
+a campaign that was really founded on friendship.
+No one knows better than a man who has been
+long in the insurance business of the tragedies resulting
+from procrastination and neglect; no one can better
+appreciate how great a risk of such a tragedy a
+friend may be running. So Murray, jolly but insinuating,
+was actuated by something more than purely
+business interest when he made whimsical references
+to his long campaign in the presence of Mrs. Wentworth
+and incidentally, apparently only to tease her
+husband, described some of the sad little dramas of life
+that had come to his notice. And he had won at last.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Get the application ready,” said Wentworth, suddenly
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_53'></a>53</span>
+rousing himself, “and let me know when your
+doctor wants to see me.”
+</p>
+<p>
+That evening Wentworth told his wife that he had
+arranged to take out a twenty-five-thousand-dollar
+policy, and she put her arms around his neck and
+looked up at him in an anxious, troubled way.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You don’t think I’m mercenary, do you, Stanley?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Indeed, I don’t, little woman,” he replied, as he
+kissed her; “I think you are only wise.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It seems so sort of heartless,” she went on, “but
+you know I’m planning only for the baby. There is
+something sure about life insurance, and everything
+else is so uncertain. Some of the stories Mr. Murray
+told were very sad.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, Murray was after business,” he said with a
+laugh. “He told me long ago that he intended to insure
+me, and it’s been a sort of friendly duel with us
+ever since. But he has convinced me that he is right
+in holding that every married man should carry life
+insurance, and, aside from that, I would cheerfully
+pay double premiums to relieve you of any cause for
+worry. The insurance company is going to get the
+best of me, though: I’ll live long enough to pay in
+more than it will have to pay out.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course you will!” she exclaimed confidently.
+“You’re so big and strong it seems foolish—except
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_54'></a>54</span>
+for the baby. That’s why we mustn’t take any
+chances.”
+</p>
+<p>
+So cheerful and confident was Wentworth that he
+failed to notice the solemnity of the physician who
+examined him the next day. The doctor began with
+a joke, but he ended with a perplexed scowl.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You certainly look as strong as a horse,” he said.
+“But you’re not,” he added under his breath.
+</p>
+<p>
+Then he made his report to Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Heart trouble,” he explained. “The man may live
+twenty or thirty years or he may die to-morrow. My
+personal opinion is that he will die within two years.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray was startled and distressed. Wentworth
+was his close personal friend, and to refuse his application
+after he had striven so hard to get it seemed
+heartless and cruel, especially as the refusal would
+have to be accompanied by an explanation that would
+be much like a death-warrant. Of course, he was in no
+way responsible for the conditions, but it would seem
+as if he were putting a limit on his friend’s life.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Are you sure?” he asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Positive,” replied the physician. “It is an impossible
+risk.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Did you tell him?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And I am to dine with him and his wife to-night,”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_55'></a>55</span>
+said Murray. “They will be sure to ask about the
+policy.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray was tempted to send word that he could
+not come, but it was rather late for that. Besides, the
+information would have to be given some time, so
+what advantage could there be in procrastinating?
+But it came to him as a shock. The news of actual
+death would hardly have affected him more seriously,
+for it seemed like a calamity with which he was personally
+identified and for which he was largely responsible.
+He knew that he was not, but he could not
+banish the disquieting feeling that he was. He closed
+his desk and walked slowly and thoughtfully to Wentworth’s
+house, wishing, for once, that he had been
+less successful in the “friendly duel.”
+</p>
+<p>
+It was a long walk; he could easily have put in another
+half-hour at the office had he chosen to take the
+elevated; but he was in no humor for business and he
+preferred to walk. It gave him additional time for
+thought. He must decide when and how he would tell
+Wentworth, and it is no easy task to tell a friend that
+his hold upon life is too slight to make him a possible
+insurance risk.
+</p>
+<p>
+He would not do it to-night. It would be nothing
+short of brutal so to spoil a pleasant evening. Wentworth
+would have the knowledge soon enough, even
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_56'></a>56</span>
+with this respite, and he was entitled to as much of
+joyousness and pleasure as could be given him.
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray was noticeably dispirited. He tried to
+be as jovial as usual, but he found himself looking
+at his friend much as he would have looked at a condemned
+man. There was sympathy and pity in his
+face. He wondered when the hour of fate would arrive.
+Might it not be that very evening? A moment
+of temporary excitement might be fatal; anything in
+the nature of a shock might mean the end. Indeed,
+the very information he had to give might be the one
+thing needed to snap the cord of life. If so, he would
+feel that he had really killed his friend, and yet he
+had no choice in the matter: he must refuse and he
+must explain why he refused. If it had been his own
+personal risk, he would have taken it cheerfully, but
+even had he so desired, he could not take it for the
+company in the face of the doctor’s report.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What makes you so solemn?” asked Mrs. Wentworth.
+“You look as if you had lost your best friend.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I feel as if I had,” Murray replied thoughtlessly,
+and then he hastened to explain that some business
+affairs disturbed and worried him.
+</p>
+<p>
+“But your victory over Stanley ought to make you
+cheerful,” she insisted. “Think of finally winning
+after so long a fight!”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_57'></a>57</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“When shall I get the policy?” asked Wentworth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Policies are written at the home office,” answered
+Murray evasively.
+</p>
+<p>
+“But the insurance becomes effective when the application
+is accepted and the first premium paid,
+doesn’t it?” asked Wentworth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes,” answered Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, now that I am at last converted to insurance
+I am an enthusiast,” laughed Wentworth. “We won’t
+waste any time at all. Get out your little check-book,
+Helen, and give Murray a check for the first premium.
+I’ll make it good to you to-morrow.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t believe I could accept it now,” said Murray
+hesitatingly. “There are certain forms, you
+know—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, well, I’ll send you a check the first thing in
+the morning,” interrupted Wentworth. “Perhaps it
+isn’t just the thing to turn a little family dinner into
+a business conference.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Better wait till you hear from me,” advised Murray,
+and his face showed his distress. He wished to
+avoid anything unpleasant at this time, but he was
+being driven into a corner.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Is—is anything wrong?” asked Mrs. Wentworth
+anxiously.
+</p>
+<p>
+“There is an extraordinary amount of red tape to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_58'></a>58</span>
+the insurance business,” explained Murray, and the
+fact that he was very ill at ease did not escape the
+notice of Wentworth. The latter said nothing, but
+he lost his jovial air and he watched Murray as closely
+as Murray had previously watched him. It did not
+take him long to discover that Murray was abstracted
+and uncomfortable; that he was a prey to painful
+thoughts and kept track of the conversation only by
+a strong effort of will.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Wentworth, too, discovered that something
+was wrong, and when the men retired to the library
+to smoke she went to her own room in a very unhappy
+frame of mind. She was sure that Murray had some
+bad news for her husband, but it did not occur to her
+that it concerned the insurance policy; it probably related
+to some business venture, she thought, for she
+knew that her husband had recently lost money and
+had still more invested in a speculative enterprise.
+Well, he would get the news from Murray, and she
+would get it from him.
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray did not remain long, and he went out very
+quietly. Usually the two men laughed and joked at
+parting, but there was something subdued about them
+this time. As they paused for a moment at the door,
+she heard her husband say, “That’s all right, old
+man; it isn’t your fault.” Then, instead of coming to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_59'></a>59</span>
+her, he put on his hat and left the house almost immediately
+after Murray had gone.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was late when he came back, but she was waiting
+for him, and his face frightened her. He seemed to
+have aged twenty years in a few hours; he was haggard
+and pale and there was something of fear in his
+eyes.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What’s the matter?” she asked. “You look sick.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“A little tired,” he answered with an attempt at
+carelessness. “I’ll be all right to-morrow.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mr. Murray was troubled, too,” she persisted.
+“What’s it all about?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, Murray has been unfortunate in a little business
+affair,” he explained.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And you’re concerned in it, too,” she said.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes,” he admitted. “But it’s all right, so don’t
+worry.”
+</p>
+<p>
+More he refused to say, but later in the night,
+waking suddenly, she heard him in the library, and,
+stealing down stairs, found him pacing the floor in his
+dressing-gown and slippers. He meekly went back to
+bed when she gently chid him, but he was restless and
+slept little.
+</p>
+<p>
+The next morning he held her in his arms several
+minutes before leaving for the office, and he knelt for
+some time beside the baby’s crib. It was such a
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_60'></a>60</span>
+leave-taking as might have been expected if he were going
+on a long journey. And she knew that he was withholding
+something from her.
+</p>
+<p>
+At the office he shut himself up for nearly the whole
+morning.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It must be a mistake,” he kept muttering. “That
+doctor is a fool. I’ll try another company.”
+</p>
+<p>
+In the afternoon he put in an application and suggested
+that, as a matter of business convenience, he
+would like to be examined at once. Two days later he
+was politely informed that the company, on the advice
+of its physician, felt constrained to decline the
+risk. But the man who is condemned to death does
+not give up hope: he appeals to a higher court, holding
+to the last that an error of law or of fact will be
+discovered. Wentworth appealed his case, but the verdict
+of the specialist he consulted was the same: he
+might live many years, but he might die at any moment.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I would advise you,” said the physician, “to give
+up active business and to get your financial affairs in
+the best possible shape. If you are to live, you must
+take unusual precautions to avoid excitement and
+worry.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Avoid worry! What a mockery, when he was deprived
+of the opportunities to make proper provision
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_61'></a>61</span>
+for the little woman and the baby! He was well-to-do,
+but only so long as he continued to live and make
+money. Some investments he had, but they were
+neither numerous nor large, and not of a character
+that would be considered absolutely safe. He had invested
+to make money rather than to save it in most
+instances, so the amount that he had in really first-class
+securities was comparatively trifling.
+</p>
+<p>
+“If I continue in business, how long can I expect
+to live, Doctor?” he asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It is problematical,” was the reply. “Frankly, I
+don’t think I would give you more than two or three
+years of active business life, with the possibility of
+death at any moment during that time. Still, if you
+are careful, you ought to last two years.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Wentworth shuddered. He had told the physician
+to speak frankly, but it was horrible to have the limit
+of life set in this way.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Retire from business,” the doctor added, “go to
+some quiet place, and you <em>may</em> live as long as any
+other.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But I can’t!” cried Wentworth. “I haven’t the
+money, and I must provide for the little woman and
+the baby. My God! how helpless they would be without me!”
+</p>
+<p>
+Wentworth went from the doctor’s office to the safe-deposit
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_62'></a>62</span>
+vaults where he kept his securities. He was a
+desperate man now—a man who had deliberately decided
+to sacrifice his life for those he loved. He would
+continue in business another year—two years, if
+necessary and the Lord permitted—and he would
+bend every energy to making provision for his little
+family. It might—nay, probably would—kill him,
+but what matter? To buy life at the expense of their
+future would be supremely selfish. And he might succeed
+before the fatal summons came: he might get his
+affairs in such shape in a year that he could retire
+with almost as good a chance of life as he had now—if
+he could stand the strain so long. But in his heart
+he felt he was pronouncing his own doom. He might
+put the optimistic view of the situation in words, but
+he did not believe the words. A great fear—a fear
+that was almost a certainty—gripped hard at his
+heart.
+</p>
+<p>
+“<em>Hic jacet!</em>” he said to himself, as he went over the
+securities and estimated the amount of available cash
+he could command. He had speculated before and
+had been reasonably successful in most instances; he
+must speculate again, for in no other way could he
+bring his resources up to the point desired within the
+time limitations. The moment he reached this point
+he would put everything in stocks or bonds that would
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_63'></a>63</span>
+be absolutely safe. Indeed, he would do this as fast
+as he got a little ahead of the game.
+</p>
+<p>
+Wentworth had speculated previously only with
+money that he could afford to lose; but he was speculating
+now with his entire surplus. It had been a
+divertisement before; it was a business now. He had to
+win—and he lost. No one could be more careful than
+he, but his judgment was wrong. When he had given
+the markets no particular attention he had taken an
+occasional “flier” with success; when he made a study
+of conditions and discussed the situation with friendly
+authorities he found himself almost invariably in
+error.
+</p>
+<p>
+There was something pathetic and disquieting in
+the affection and consideration he displayed for his
+wife and child during this time. He endeavored to
+conceal his own distress, but morning after morning
+his wife clung to him and looked anxiously into his
+face. He spoke cheeringly, but he grew daily more
+haggard, and she knew he was concealing something.
+Once she asked for news about the life insurance policy.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, that’s all settled,” he replied, but he did not
+tell her how it was settled.
+</p>
+<p>
+Finally she went to see Murray. He had brought
+the news that had made this great change in her husband,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_64'></a>64</span>
+and he could tell her what was worrying him.
+Murray had not called since that evening. While in
+no sense responsible for it, he had been so closely identified
+with this blow that had fallen on his friend that
+he felt his presence, for a time at least, would be only
+an unpleasant reminder.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I must know this secret,” she told Murray with
+earnest directness of speech. “It is killing Stanley.
+He is worried and anxious, and he is working himself
+to death in an effort to straighten out some complication.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“He mustn’t do that!” exclaimed Murray quickly.
+“Work and worry are the two things for him to
+avoid.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why?” demanded Mrs. Wentworth.
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray hesitated. He knew why Wentworth had
+kept this from his wife, but was it wise? The man
+was deliberately walking to his grave. Ought not his
+wife to be informed in order that she might take the
+necessary steps to save him? It would be a breach of
+confidence, but did not the circumstances justify it?
+Wentworth was his friend, and he had a sincere regard
+for Mrs. Wentworth. Surely he ought not to
+stand idly by and witness a tragedy that he might
+prevent.
+</p>
+<div class='figcenter' style='padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='i003' id='i003'></a>
+<img src="images/illus-064.jpg" alt="“You—you didn’t insure him?” she said inquiringly" title=""/><br />
+<span class='caption'>“You—you didn’t insure him?” she said inquiringly</span>
+</div>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_65'></a>65</span></div>
+<p>
+“Mrs. Wentworth,” he said at last, “the thing that
+is worrying Stanley is the fact that we had to decline
+him as a risk.“
+</p>
+<p>
+“You—you didn’t insure him?” she said inquiringly,
+as if she did not quite comprehend.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“He let me think you had.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Because he did not wish to distress you, and I assure
+you, Mrs. Wentworth, I would not tell you this
+myself, were it not for the fact that Stanley is doing
+the most unwise thing possible.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am very glad you did tell me,” she said quietly.
+She was not an emotional woman, but the pallor of her
+face and something of anxious fright in her eyes told
+how deeply she felt. “What must I do?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Get him out of business and away from excitement,”
+replied Murray promptly. “In a quiet place,
+if he takes care of himself, he may live as long as any
+of us.”
+</p>
+<p>
+When Wentworth reached home that evening, the
+little woman, always affectionate, greeted him with
+unusual tenderness. She said nothing of her visit to
+Murray, but later she brought up the subject of moving
+to the country.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’m dreadfully worried about you, Stanley,” she
+said. “You must take a vacation.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I can’t,” he replied.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_66'></a>66</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“But you must,” she insisted. “You’ve been working
+too hard lately.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Next year,” he said, “I hope to get out of this city
+turmoil and take you away to some quiet place, where
+we can live for each other and the baby.”
+</p>
+<p>
+She went over and knelt beside him, as he leaned
+wearily back in his big arm-chair.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why not now?” she pleaded.
+</p>
+<p>
+“My God! I can’t, Helen!” he cried. “I want to,
+but I can’t! If you only knew—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I only know that you will break down, if you don’t
+take a rest,” she interrupted hastily. It would only
+add to his distress to learn that she knew his secret.
+“Don’t you suppose I can see how you are overtaxing
+your strength? We must go away for a time, anyway.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Little woman,” he said, putting an arm round her,
+“it’s a question of finance, and you never could understand
+that very well. When I get things in shape we
+will go, but not yet. I have some investments to watch,
+and,”—wearily,—“things have gone rather against
+me lately. There are lots of things to be done before I
+can take any extended vacation, and it is even a more
+serious matter to retire permanently. My earning capacity
+is about all we have to live on now.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I thought you had money invested,” she remarked.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_67'></a>67</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“I had,” he replied, “but it was not enough, and in
+trying to make it enough I made some wrong guesses
+on the market.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Never mind,” she said cheerily. “We’ll make the
+best of what’s left. We won’t need much if we get
+away from this fearful life. It isn’t money that the
+baby and I want, it’s you; and we don’t want you to
+die for us, but to live for us.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Wentworth gave his wife a quick glance, for this
+was hitting very close to his secret; but he saw in her
+only the very natural anxiety of a loving wife, who
+knew that her husband was overtaxing his strength.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You mean well,” he said, “but you don’t know.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Wentworth was not a business woman, and she
+knew little of her husband’s affairs, but she had a
+feeling that this question of life insurance was all that
+stood in the way of the precautions that he ought to
+take. He could get something for his interest in the
+business, if he retired, but not enough to make proper
+provision for her. He could take up some quiet pursuit
+and continue to make a little money as long as
+he lived, but he could leave only the most trifling income.
+And, in his efforts to improve matters, he had
+only made them worse. She understood so much.
+</p>
+<p>
+There was an undercurrent of sadness, but still
+something beautiful, in the life that followed this
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_68'></a>68</span>
+conversation. All the little sympathetic attentions that
+love can suggest, each gave to the other, while each
+worried in secret, seeking only to make life a little
+easier and more cheerful for the other.
+</p>
+<p>
+But Mrs. Wentworth was becoming as desperate
+as her husband, and even more unreasoning. Was
+not her husband’s life worth all the money of all
+the insurance companies? And were they not condemning
+him to death by their action? It was
+more than a risk that depended upon life; it was a
+life that depended upon the risk. In a little time she
+convinced herself that the insurance companies could
+save him and would not, failing utterly to appreciate
+the fact that, even with the greatest precautions,
+the chances were against him; that there
+was only a possibility that he might live longer
+than a few years, the probability being quite the reverse.
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray was shocked when she called to see him
+again. The change in her husband was no greater
+than the change in her. Was not the man she loved
+committing suicide before her eyes? And was he not
+doing this for love of her and the baby? Would not
+such a condition of affairs make any woman desperate
+and unreasoning?
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mr. Murray,” she said, “if you are as good a
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_69'></a>69</span>
+friend to my husband as he has always been to you,
+you will save his life.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I will do anything in my power, Mrs. Wentworth,”
+replied Murray. “Nothing in life ever has so distressed
+me as this.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Then give him the policy he wants.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Impossible! Why, the doctor—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You can fix it with the doctor; you know you can!
+Or you can get another doctor to pass him! Oh, Mr.
+Murray! I am not asking for money; I am asking for
+life—for his life! It’s suicide—murder! I want to get
+him away! I must get him away! But I can’t while
+he fears for our future—the baby’s and mine! He
+must provide for us, and he’s losing the little he had!
+He can’t stand it a month longer! Give him the policy,
+Mr. Murray, and I’ll swear to you never to present
+it for payment! It’s only for him that I ask it! You
+can give him life—give your friend life! Won’t you
+do it?”
+</p>
+<p>
+The tears were running down the little woman’s
+cheeks, and Murray could not trust himself to speak
+for a moment.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mrs. Wentworth,” he said at last, “every cent I
+have is at your husband’s disposal, if he needs it, but
+what you ask is utterly impossible. The risk would be
+refused at the home office, even if I passed it, for the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_70'></a>70</span>
+fact that he has been refused by two other companies
+would be reported there.”
+</p>
+<p>
+In the case of another, Murray would have said
+more, but he knew that Mrs. Wentworth was quite beside
+herself and did not really appreciate that she was
+asking him to be dishonest with the company that employed
+him.
+</p>
+<p>
+“He wouldn’t touch a cent of the money of such a
+friend!” she exclaimed with sudden anger. “He’s not
+a beggar, and neither am I! All I seek for him is the
+tranquility that means life; all I ask is the removal
+of the anxiety that means death. And this little you
+will not do for a friend!” She was beside herself with
+desperation.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was bitter, it was harsh, it was unjustifiable, but
+Murray had forgiven her before she had ceased speaking.
+The depth of her feeling and the excitement
+under which she was laboring were sufficient to excuse
+her. But he felt as if he really were condemning his
+friend to death. Yet what could he do? He would
+cheerfully give a thousand dollars out of his own
+pocket to make things easier for the two suffering
+ones, but it was not a matter of ready cash. Wentworth
+had enough of that.
+</p>
+<p>
+In the deepest distress Murray was pacing back and
+forth when the door opened and Wentworth himself
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_71'></a>71</span>
+staggered in. Murray was at his side in a moment and
+guided him to a chair.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What’s the matter, old man?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Lost everything,” Wentworth gasped. “Tried to
+protect—margined to limit—all gone!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But your interest in the business?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Sold it—to protect deal.” He seemed almost at the
+point of collapse, but he rallied for a moment. “Insurance!”
+he cried. “I must have it! Damn the company!
+You must put it through for me! You hear, Murray!”
+The man was almost crazy, and he spoke fiercely.
+“You’ve got to do it—for humanity’s sake! Can’t
+leave them penniless!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“We’ll talk about it to-morrow,” said Murray
+soothingly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You lie, Murray!” the excited man cried. “You
+won’t do it at all; you’ll see them starve first, you—you
+dog! I’ll kill you, if you don’t—”
+</p>
+<p>
+Wentworth had risen in frenzied fury, as he pictured
+the future of his loved ones; he swayed for an
+instant, and Murray caught him as he fell. He was
+dead before Murray could get him back into the chair.
+</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+<p>
+Murray did all that anyone could do for the bereaved
+woman, and more than any one else would
+have done, for the next day he sent her this letter:
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_72'></a>72</span>
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 2em;'>
+Dear Mrs. Wentworth: After a conference with our
+physician we decided that a small risk on Mr. Wentworth
+would be justified, and the matter was closed up
+yesterday afternoon just previous to his death. As a
+result of my close personal relations with him, I know
+that he left his affairs in rather a complicated condition,
+so, as it will take a little time to file the necessary
+proofs and get the money from the company, I am
+taking the liberty of sending you my personal check
+for the amount of the policy, one thousand dollars,
+and I hope that you will not hesitate to call on me for
+any service that is in my power to render. With the
+deepest sympathy, I am,
+</p>
+<p style='text-align:right; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; margin-right:2em;;'>Very sincerely yours,</p>
+<p style='text-align:right; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; margin-right:2em;;'><span class='sc'>David Murray</span>.</p>
+<p>
+“A lie,” he muttered, referring to the insurance
+item; “a cold, deliberate lie, but I feel better for telling
+it.”
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_73'></a>73</span><a name='c4' id='c4'></a>AN INCIDENTAL SPECULATION</h2>
+<p>
+Just when the Interurban Traction Company
+thought the successful culmination of its plans in sight
+it woke up to the fact that there had been a miscalculation
+or an oversight somewhere. It had the absolute
+or prospective control of all the principal lines
+embraced in its elaborate scheme of connecting various
+towns and cities by trolley, which means that it had
+bought a good deal of the necessary stock and had
+options on most of the rest; but there was one insignificant
+little road that it had left to the last. This
+road had been a losing venture from its inception, and
+its stock was quoted far below par, with no buyers.
+As a matter of business policy, the more successful
+roads should be secured first, for the moment the secret
+was out their stocks would soar. They represented the
+larger investments, and their stock-holders could hold
+on, if they saw the advisability of it, without making
+any financial sacrifice; they were in a position to “hold
+up” the new company in the most approved modern
+style. But the Bington road was weak and unprofitable,
+valuable only as a connecting link in the chain.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_74'></a>74</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course,” said Colonel Babington, who was at
+the head of the new venture, “we’re sure to be held up
+somewhere on the line, and these people can hold us up
+for less than any of the others. They haven’t much as
+a basis for a hold-up, and they can’t afford to go on
+losing money. We can buy their road cheap the first
+thing, but the discovery of the purchase will give our
+plans away and add a million dollars to the cost of
+carrying them out. Any fool would know that we were
+not buying that road for itself alone. Why, the mere
+rumor that negotiations were opened would add fifty
+or a hundred per cent. to the value of the other stocks
+we want. We can’t afford even to wink at that road
+until we get control of the others.”
+</p>
+<p>
+So they went about their work very secretly, hoping
+so to conceal their design that they would be able to
+get the last link at the bed-rock price; but, when the
+time came, entirely unexpected difficulties were encountered.
+The stock-holders might have been tractable
+enough, but the stock-holders themselves had been
+fooled.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why, there was a young fellow here last week,”
+they explained, “and he got a sixty-day option on
+enough stock to control the road.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Who was he?” asked the startled Colonel Babington.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_75'></a>75</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“His name is Horace Lake,” they told him.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’ll have to look Horace up,” remarked the colonel
+thoughtfully.
+</p>
+<p>
+Meanwhile, Horace was congratulating himself on
+having done a good stroke of business, and further
+amusing himself by figuring his possible profit.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’ve been looking for just such a chance as this,”
+he told Dave Murray, the insurance man.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Have you got the money to carry it through?”
+asked the practical Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I had enough to put up a small forfeit to bind the
+option and convince them that I mean business, and I
+don’t need any more,” returned Lake.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Once in a great while,” said Murray, “a man
+makes a good lot of money on a bluff, but even then
+he usually has some backing. It takes money to make
+money, as a general rule. You will find that most successful
+men, even those who are noted for their nervy
+financiering, got the basis of their fortunes by hard
+work and rigid economy. Wind may be helpful, but it
+makes a poor foundation.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“This is one of the times when it is about all that is
+necessary,” laughed Lake. “I got a little inside information
+about the Interurban Traction Company’s
+plans in time to secure an option on one link in its
+chain of roads, and it has simply got to do business
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_76'></a>76</span>
+with me before it can make its line complete. For
+twenty thousand dollars, paid any time within sixty
+days, I can control the blooming little line, and the
+option to buy at that price is going to cost the traction
+company just twenty-five thousand dollars, which
+will be clear profit for me.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It sounds nice,” admitted Murray, “but, if I were
+in your place, I’d feel a good deal better if I had the
+money to make good. If they don’t buy, you lose your
+forfeit, which represents every cent you could scrape
+up.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“They will buy,” asserted Lake confidently.
+</p>
+<p>
+“They may think it cheaper to parallel your line,”
+suggested Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’m not worrying,” returned Lake confidently.
+“I’m just waiting for them to come and see me, and
+they’ll come.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Lake’s prophecy proved correct. They came—at
+least Colonel Babington came, he being the active
+manager of the company’s affairs. But Colonel Babington
+first took the precaution to learn all he could
+of Horace Lake’s financial standing and resources.
+This convinced him that it was what he termed a
+“hold-up,” but, even so, it was better to pay a reasonable
+bonus than to have a fight.
+</p>
+<p>
+“We will give you,” said Colonel Babington, “a
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_77'></a>77</span>
+thousand dollars for your option on the majority stock
+of the Bington road.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“The price,” replied Lake, “is twenty-five thousand
+dollars.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“My dear young man,” exclaimed the colonel, when
+he had recovered his breath, “you ought to see a
+specialist in mental disorders. You are clearly not
+right in your mind.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“The price,” repeated Lake, “is twenty-five thousand
+dollars now, and, if I am put to any trouble or
+annoyance in the matter, the price will go up.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“A bluff,” said the colonel, “is of use only when the
+opposing party does not know it is a bluff. We happen
+to know it. You haven’t the money to buy that
+road, and you can’t get it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You speak with extraordinary certainty,” returned
+Lake with dignified sarcasm.
+</p>
+<p>
+“The road,” asserted the colonel, “is valuable only
+to us, and we can parallel it, if necessary. No conservative
+capitalist is going to advance you the money
+to buy it in the face of such a risk as that, so we have
+only to wait until your option expires to get it from
+the men who now own it, and I may add that we have
+taken a second option at a slightly higher price.
+Therefore, your only chance to get out of the deal
+with a profit is to let us acquire the road under the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_78'></a>78</span>
+first option at something less than the second option
+price. To avoid any unnecessary delay, we might be
+willing to pay you a bonus of two thousand dollars.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“The price,” said Lake, “is now twenty-six thousand.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Sixty days—less than fifty now, as a matter of
+fact—is not such a long time,” remarked the colonel.
+“We will wait.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Lake told Murray later that he “had them in a corner,”
+but Murray was inclined to be doubtful; fighting
+real money with wind, he said, was always a risky
+undertaking, and the Interurban Traction Company
+had plenty of real money. Lake, however, being in the
+“bluffing” line himself, was inclined to think all others
+were doing business on the same basis, and he confidently
+expected the colonel to return in a few days.
+But the colonel came not.
+</p>
+<p>
+Then Lake made another trip to Bington, to look
+the ground over, and he was disturbed to find that the
+colonel had been sounding the people on a proposition
+to put a line through the town on another street.
+This was only a tentative plan, to be adopted in case
+of failure to get the existing line, but it showed that
+the company was not disposed to be held up without a
+fight. Fortunately, the people did not take kindly to
+the idea. The principal shops were on the line of the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_79'></a>79</span>
+trolley now, and the proprietors did not wish to have
+travel diverted to another street.
+</p>
+<p>
+Lake devoted several days to missionary work in
+Bington, pointing out the great depreciation of property
+that would follow such a move, and he finally left
+with a feeling that the company would have an extremely
+difficult time getting the necessary legislation
+from the town officials. Still, he was not entirely at
+ease, for officials are sometimes “induced” to act contrary
+to the wishes of the people they are supposed to
+represent. But he believed he had made the situation
+such that Babington would come back to him. Surely,
+it would be cheaper to deal with him than to buy an
+entire town board.
+</p>
+<p>
+Thirty of the sixty days slipped away, and Lake
+grew really anxious. The Interurban Traction Company
+could not be a success without a connecting link
+between the two main stretches of its line, and Lake
+had not believed that it would dare to proceed with its
+plans until this was assured. Consequently, he had expected
+all work to stop, pending negotiations with
+him. But work did not stop. There were two or three
+trifling gaps at other places, and the company was
+laying the rails to bridge them, in addition to improving
+the road-beds of the lines it had bought. It even
+began to build a half-mile of track to reach one terminus
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_80'></a>80</span>
+of his little road. Clearly, there was no anticipation
+of trouble in ultimately beating him.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s my lack of money,” he soliloquized. “I’ve got
+the basis of a good thing, if I only had the money to
+make it good, but I haven’t, and they know it. Murray
+was right.”
+</p>
+<p>
+His thoughts being thus turned to Murray, he went
+to see him, in the faint hope that he might interest him
+in the plan. Murray had money to invest. But Murray
+deemed the risk too great in this instance.
+</p>
+<p>
+“They can beat you,” said Murray. “They have
+unlimited resources, and they’ll certainly get through
+Bington on another street, if you persist in making
+your terms too stiff. Very likely, they would have
+given you three thousand or possibly even five thousand
+for your option when they first came to you, and
+they may do it now.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I tell you, it’s a good thing,” insisted Lake.
+</p>
+<p>
+“If it’s really as good a thing as you think it is,”
+said Murray, “you will have no difficulty in getting
+somebody with money to take it off your hands at a
+good margin of profit to you, but I can’t see it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+In this emergency, Lake recalled a man of considerable
+wealth who had known him as a boy and had
+taken an interest in him. It was humiliating not to be
+able to put the scheme through himself, after all his
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_81'></a>81</span>
+planning and confident talk, but it was better to turn
+it over to some one else than to fail entirely. So he
+went to see Andrew Belden.
+</p>
+<p>
+“There is a remote chance of success,” declared
+Belden, “but I would not care to risk twenty thousand
+on it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“The company can’t get through Bington, except
+on that franchise,” insisted Lake.
+</p>
+<p>
+“That may be so,” admitted Belden, “but I have
+learned not to be too confident in forecasting the action
+of public officials and corporations. The company
+could make a strong point by threatening to cut out
+Bington entirely and carry its line to one side of it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That would make a loop in their road that would
+be costly in building and in the delays it would occasion,”
+argued Lake. “They can’t make any circuits,
+if they are to do the business.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Nevertheless,” returned Belden, “their actions
+show that they are very sure of their ground.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Simply because I haven’t the ready cash,” said
+Lake bitterly. “Will you loan it to me, Mr. Belden?
+If you won’t go into the deal yourself, will you loan
+me the money to put it through? I’ll give you the
+stock as security, and I think you know me well enough
+to know that I’ll repay every cent of it as rapidly as
+possible.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_82'></a>82</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“My dear Horace,” exclaimed Belden with frank
+friendliness, “I haven’t the least doubt of your integrity,
+but I have very serious doubts of your ability
+to repay any such sum, and it is more than I care to
+lose. You never have had a thousand dollars at one
+time in your life, and I may say, without intending to
+be unkind, that it isn’t likely you ever will. As for the
+security, its value depends entirely on the success of
+your plans: if you fail, it won’t be worth ten cents.
+Now, if you had any real security, upon which I could
+realize in case anything happened to you, I would
+cheerfully let you have the money for as long a time
+as you wish. Although your plan does not appeal to
+me, I am sincerely anxious to be of assistance to you
+as far as possible, but I can’t make you a gift of
+twenty thousand dollars. Convince me that it will be
+repaid ultimately—no matter in how long a time—and
+I will let you have it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Lake departed, discouraged. He had no security of
+any sort to offer, and had only asked for the loan as a
+desperate last resort, without the slightest expectation
+that he would get it. The company, he decided, had
+beaten him, just because no one else was clear-headed
+enough to see the opportunity, and he might as well
+get what little profit he could while there was still time.
+With this object in view, he went to see the colonel.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_83'></a>83</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“I have decided,” he said, “to let you have the road
+for a bonus of five thousand dollars.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That is very kind of you,” returned the colonel,
+“but we can get it cheaper. You see,” he explained,
+with the disagreeable frankness of one who thinks he
+holds the winning hand, “the minority stock-holders
+were a little disgruntled when they learned of your
+deal—thought they had been left out in the cold—and
+they were ready to make very favorable terms with us.
+As we have a second option on the majority stock, at
+a somewhat higher figure, we have only to wait until
+your option expires and then take the little we need
+to give us control.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’ll let you have my option for the two thousand
+you offered a month ago,” said Lake in desperation.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s not worth that to us now.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“One thousand dollars.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why, frankly, Mr. Lake,” said the colonel still
+pleasantly, “we men of some experience and standing
+in the business world don’t like to have half-baked
+financiers interfering with our plans, and we aim to
+discourage them as effectually as possible whenever
+possible.” Then, with a sudden change of tone: “We
+won’t give you a damn cent for your option. You
+were too greedy.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_84'></a>84</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course, you men of money and high finance are
+not greedy at all,” retorted Lake sarcastically.
+</p>
+<p>
+Lake was too depressed to see it at the moment, but
+later it began to dawn on him that the colonel, usually
+astute, had made a grievous mistake. In his anxiety
+to impress upon the young man the futility of his
+avaricious schemes, in the face of such wise and resourceful
+opposition, he had mentioned the fact that
+the minority stock had been brought within their
+reach. Had they already bought it, or had they only
+secured options on it? If already purchased, the purchase
+price would prove a dead loss, unless they were
+able to get enough more to secure control. To parallel
+the road would be to kill a company in which they
+were financially interested, in addition to incurring
+the considerable expense necessary for a new connecting
+link.
+</p>
+<p>
+Lake went to Bington that afternoon, and returned
+the following morning. The game was his, if he could
+raise the money; they had bought most of the minority
+stock outright, being unable to get options on it.
+He was sure of victory now, if he could raise the
+money. He no longer wished to turn the deal over to
+any one else on any terms: he wished to carry it to
+the conclusion himself. But the money, the money!
+</p>
+<p>
+He tried Belden again, but Belden still considered
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_85'></a>85</span>
+the security utterly inadequate for a loan of twenty
+thousand dollars. In truth, although Belden considered
+the outlook a little more promising now, he
+doubted the young man’s ability to handle such a deal,
+and it would take very little to upset all calculations.
+The company’s investment was not sufficient to prevent
+the abandonment of the road in some very possible
+circumstances, although it was ample evidence of
+a present plan to use it. Murray took the same view of
+the situation.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It begins to look like a good speculation,” said
+Murray, “but I haven’t the money to invest in it, and
+I never was much of a speculator, anyway. I have
+discovered that, as a general thing, when the possible
+profit begins to climb very much over the legal rate
+of interest, the probability of loss increases with it.
+However, if you want to take the risk, that’s your
+affair, provided you have the money.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But I haven’t,” complained Lake; “that’s the
+trouble.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Too bad you’re not carrying enough insurance to
+be of some use,” remarked Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What good would that do?” asked Lake.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why, then you’d only have to convince your wife
+that you have a safe investment, and it’s always easier
+to convince your wife than it is to convince some coldblooded
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_86'></a>86</span>
+capitalist. Insurance ranks high as security,
+but of course the beneficiary has to consent to its use.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I never had thought of insurance as a factor in
+financiering,” said Lake. “I had regarded it more as a
+family matter.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It plays an important part in the business world,”
+explained Murray, “and it might even play a part
+in speculation. There is partnership insurance, you
+know.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I may have heard of it, but I never gave it any
+consideration.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s not a speculation, but a business precaution,”
+said Murray. “The partners are insured in favor of
+the firm. If one of them dies, it gives the firm the
+ready cash to buy his interest from the widow, without
+infringing on the business capital. Partnership
+insurance may sometimes prevent a failure; it may
+prevent several. Many interests may depend temporarily
+upon the operation of one man, and his sudden
+death might spell ruin for a number of people,
+unless they were protected by insurance. The policy
+is playing a more important part in the business world
+every day. There are lots of strange things that can
+be done when you fully understand it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But that doesn’t help me,” asserted Lake impatiently.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_87'></a>87</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“No,” returned Murray, “I don’t see how insurance
+could help you just now, unless you were to die. A
+policy won’t be accepted as security for a sum in excess
+of the premiums paid, for you might default.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’m not the kind of man who dies to win,” said
+Lake rather sharply.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course not,” replied Murray. “I was merely
+considering the financial possibilities of policies.” All
+insurance questions being of absorbing interest to
+Murray, he straightway forgot all about Lake’s predicament,
+and busied his mind with his own speculations.
+“There is so much that can be done with insurance,”
+he went on, “but I guess it’s just as well the
+public doesn’t know it all. Do you remember the case
+of Rankin, the banker who committed suicide?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, Rankin couldn’t have done anything with
+our company, because the element of premeditation is
+assumed if death by suicide occurs within two years
+from the time the policy is issued. After that the
+manner of death cuts no figure, for the courts have
+held that an insurance company takes a risk on the
+mind as well as the body of a policy-holder, and, anyway,
+competition has cut out the old suicide restrictions.
+But there are companies that issue policies incontestable
+after the date of issue. Suppose Rankin,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_88'></a>88</span>
+when he found his affairs in such shape that he no
+longer dared to face the world, had gone to one or
+more of these companies. A hundred thousand dollars—very
+likely less—would have protected his bank
+and provided for his family. He had already decided
+to kill himself, for his operations had been such that
+he could not hope to escape the penitentiary when discovery
+came, but he was ostensibly still a prosperous
+man. Many men of his standing insure themselves for
+extraordinarily large sums, to protect legitimately
+their business interests as well as their families.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Not so very long ago we issued a paid-up policy
+for fifty thousand dollars on the life of one man,
+who died within three years, and we thought nothing
+of it. He was taking a risk on his own life
+then, for he thought he was going to live long
+enough to make a paid-up policy cheaper than the
+aggregate of annual payments, whereas there would
+have been a saving to his estate of a good many
+thousands of dollars if he had followed the other
+plan. However, that has nothing to do with this
+case; I mention it only to show that a man of Rankin’s
+apparent standing could have got insurance to
+any amount without creating comment. And, with
+an incontestable-after-date-of-issue policy, he could
+have protected his business associates and his family
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_89'></a>89</span>
+by the very culmination of his overwhelming
+disgrace. Why, a defaulter could use part of his
+stolen money in this way to provide for his family
+when the moment of discovery and death shall come,
+or a dishonest business man, facing ruin, could use his
+creditors’ money to make such provision, for insurance
+money is something sacred, that can not be reached
+like the rest of an estate. Oh, there are great dramatic
+possibilities in this business, Lake—tragedies and
+comedies and dramas of which the public knows nothing.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“How does that help me?” demanded Lake gloomily,
+and the question brought Murray back to the
+realities of the moment.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It doesn’t help you,” Murray replied, “but it’s an
+intensely interesting subject to one who gives it a little
+time and thought.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Yet it did help Lake, although not at that moment.
+It was a new field, and Lake liked to explore new
+fields. A novelty that taxed his ingenuity appealed to
+him especially. True, he had enough to occupy his
+mind without entering upon idle speculation, but,
+when every other avenue to success seemed closed, his
+thoughts would revert to insurance.
+</p>
+<p>
+“If it holds out such opportunities for others, why
+not for me?” he asked. “If others have entirely overlooked
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_90'></a>90</span>
+the possibilities, why may not I be doing the
+same thing?”
+</p>
+<p>
+He met the colonel on the street occasionally, and
+the way the colonel smiled at him was maddening.
+There could be no doubt that the colonel considered
+the game won, but he was not a man to take chances:
+he had Lake watched, and the latter’s every move was
+reported to him. Even when Lake made another trip
+to Bington and endeavored to arrange a shrewd deal
+with some of the majority stock-holders, the colonel
+promptly heard of it.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Accept my notes in payment for the stock,” Lake
+urged on that occasion, “and I’ll let you in on the
+profits of the deal. The traction company has got to
+get this road, but you can’t hold it up for a big price,
+because you were foolish enough to give it a second
+option. I can do it, however. Let me have the stock,
+and you can divide up among yourselves half of all I
+get in excess of the option price. My notes will be
+paid, and you will have a bonus of twelve or fifteen
+thousand dollars.”
+</p>
+<p>
+But the stock-holders were conservative and cautious
+men, and the very fact that Lake could not
+command the money that he needed made them suspicious.
+As matters stood, they were sure of getting
+out of a losing venture with a small profit—at least,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_91'></a>91</span>
+so it seemed to them—and they preferred that to the
+risk of losing everything in an effort to secure a larger
+profit. Furthermore, they were now on the side of the
+colonel, for his option was at a larger price. And the
+colonel was very confident—so confident that work was
+being rushed on details that would prove valueless
+without the Bington road. This was what made Lake
+desperately angry; it was humiliating to be treated as
+a helpless weakling.
+</p>
+<p>
+As valuable time passed, his mind reverted again to
+the insurance field. His opportunity—the opportunity
+of a lifetime—was almost lost. The colonel, wishing to
+lose no time, had arranged for a meeting with certain
+of the majority stock-holders the day the first option
+expired. The option expired at noon, and the colonel
+would be ready to take over what stock he needed at
+one minute after the noon hour. This would not be
+very much, in view of the minority stock he already
+held, but the sanguine stock-holders did not know this:
+they expected him to take all of it.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Some of them are going to find they’re tricked,
+just as I am,” Lake grumbled. “If I could only convince
+Belden of the ultimate absolute security of a
+loan! He wants to help me; he’s ready to be convinced;
+but—”
+</p>
+<p>
+People passing saw this moody, depressed young
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_92'></a>92</span>
+man stop short in the street and his eye light with
+sudden hope.
+</p>
+<p>
+“By thunder!” he exclaimed. “Of course, I can
+protect him against unforeseen disaster, if he has confidence
+in my integrity!”
+</p>
+<p>
+He was almost jubilant when he entered Belden’s
+office.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Got the money?” asked Belden.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No; but I know how to get it,” replied Lake.
+“You believe in my honesty, don’t you?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Implicitly.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You merely doubt my ability?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Your financial ability,” explained Belden. “You
+will do what you agree to do—if you can. I have no
+earthly doubt of your willingness, even anxiety, to repay
+every obligation you may incur, but, added to
+other risks, there is the possibility of accident.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“If I eliminate that?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You may have the money.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“On long time?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“The time and the terms are immaterial.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’ll come for it later,” announced Lake, and he
+departed, leaving Belden puzzled and curious.
+</p>
+<p>
+Once outside, Lake stopped to do a little mental
+figuring before taking up the other details of his plan.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I advanced five hundred to bind the option,” he reflected.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_93'></a>93</span>
+“That leaves nineteen thousand five hundred
+necessary to put the deal through. Twenty thousand
+from Belden will give me just the margin I need.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray was as much puzzled and surprised by the
+change in the man as Belden had been, and Murray,
+like Belden, was anxious to help him in any reasonably
+safe way.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Am I good for five hundred for thirty days, if I
+give you my positive assurance that I know exactly
+how I am going to pay it in that time?” asked Lake.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why, yes,” replied Murray. “On short-time
+figuring you’re a pretty safe man.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Draw me a check for it, and I’ll give you my
+thirty-day note,” said Lake, “and my verbal assurance
+that it’s a cinch.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray noted the confidence of Lake’s tone and
+manner, and drew the check.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What are you going to do with it?” he asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Pay a life insurance premium,” laughed Lake.
+“Give me an application blank and round up a medical
+examiner. I want a twenty-year endowment policy
+for twenty thousand dollars, and I want it put
+through like a limited express that’s trying to make
+up time.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I suppose you know what you’re doing,” said
+Murray doubtfully.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_94'></a>94</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“You bet I do!” Lake spoke confidently.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, very well,” remarked Murray. “I don’t see
+how I can refuse business for the company, even if I
+stand to lose.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You won’t lose,” declared Lake with joyous enthusiasm.
+“I’m going to show you a new trick in the
+line of insurance financiering.”
+</p>
+<p>
+After that, Lake haunted Murray’s office, and grew
+daily more anxious. He was a good risk, but certain
+formalities were necessary, and these took time, although
+Murray did his utmost to shorten the routine.
+Lake’s nervousness increased; he had Murray telegraph
+the home office; he grew haggard, for he had
+not counted on this delay; but finally, in the moment
+of almost utter despair, the policy was delivered to
+him. An hour later he was in Belden’s office.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I want twenty thousand at four per cent., payable
+at the rate of one thousand a year, with interest!” he
+cried. “I’ll pay it, to a certainty, within sixty days,
+but I’m trying to make it look more reasonable, to
+satisfy you. You believe I can pay one thousand a
+year, don’t you?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“If you live.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“If I don’t,” exclaimed Lake, “there is insurance
+for twenty thousand in my wife’s favor, and duly assigned
+to you,” and he banged the policy down on the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_95'></a>95</span>
+desk in front of the astonished Belden. “You can
+trust me to take care of the premiums, can’t you?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Your integrity I never doubted,” replied Belden,
+“and that obligation should be within your means.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“My rule of life shall be: the premiums first, the
+payments on the note next,” declared Lake. “If I fall
+behind in the latter, the security will still be good. I
+only ask that anything in excess of what may be due
+you, in case of my death, shall go to my wife, and she,
+of course, becomes the sole beneficiary the moment you
+are paid. But, for the love of heaven, hurry!”
+</p>
+<p>
+Instead of hurrying, Belden leaned back in his
+chair and looked at the young man with bewildered
+admiration.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Such ingenuity,” he said at last, “ought not to go
+unrewarded. As a strict business proposition, your
+plan would hardly find favor with a conservative
+banker, but, as a matter of friendship and confidence—”
+He reached for his check-book. “Such a
+head as yours is worth a risk,” he added a moment
+later.
+</p>
+<p>
+Lake reached the office of the Bington road at
+11:30 on the day his option expired. The colonel was
+already there, waiting. So were some of the majority
+stock-holders. The colonel was confident and unusually
+loquacious.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_96'></a>96</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Now that the matter is practically settled,” he remarked
+with the cheerful frankness of a man who has
+won, “I may admit that the young man had us up a
+tree. He succeeded in putting the other route
+through Bington practically beyond our reach, and
+forced us to take the risk of doing business with the
+minority stock-holders at a possible dead loss. But we
+knew he didn’t have the money, so we went ahead with
+our plans and our work without delay. A little ready
+cash—”
+</p>
+<p>
+It was then that Lake entered and deposited a small
+satchel on the long table.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I will take the stock under my option,” he announced
+briefly to such of the majority stock-holders
+as were present. “I think I have got all I need, with
+the exception of what is represented by you gentlemen.
+It has been a pretty busy morning for me.” He
+emptied the stock certificates already acquired and
+some bundles of bank-notes on the table. “Colonel,”
+he said with a joyous and triumphant laugh, “you’d
+better sit up and begin to take notice.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The colonel’s attitude and air of easy confidence already
+had changed, and his look of amazement and
+dismay was almost laughable.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Quick, gentlemen,” cautioned Lake, with a glance
+at the clock. “I’ve tendered the money in time, but
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_97'></a>97</span>
+I’ll feel a little more comfortable when I have the rest
+of the needed stock.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Like one in a dream the colonel leaned over the
+table and watched the transaction.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do—do you want to sell some of that stock?” he
+asked at last.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No,” replied Lake; “I don’t want to sell some of
+it; I want to sell all of it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“We don’t need all of it,” said the colonel.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” returned Lake
+magnanimously. “I’ll sell you all or any part of it
+for fifty thousand dollars.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“On the basis of fifty thousand for your entire holdings?”
+asked the colonel.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No; at the set price of fifty thousand for whatever
+you take.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Too much,” said the colonel.
+</p>
+<p>
+“As you please,” said Lake carelessly. “The price
+of the control of the Bington road goes up one thousand
+dollars a day. It’s dirt cheap at fifty thousand
+now, but, of course, if you don’t need it, Colonel, the
+bargain price doesn’t interest you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The colonel did need it; in fact, the company, in its
+sublime confidence, had put itself in a position where
+failure to get it meant a considerable loss.
+</p>
+<p>
+“On second thought,” remarked Lake, “I’ll have
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_98'></a>98</span>
+to add a thousand to compensate me for the indignity
+of being called a half-baked financier. Do you remember
+that, Colonel?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“We’ll take it,” said the colonel resignedly. Then
+he added reflectively: “You’ve made a pretty good
+thing out of this, Lake.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Fair, fair,” replied Lake. “After I’ve repaid the
+twenty thousand five hundred that I borrowed, I’ll
+have thirty thousand five hundred left, not to mention
+an insurance policy for twenty thousand in favor of
+my wife, with the first premium paid. You ought to
+study the insurance question, Colonel. There are wonderful
+financial possibilities in it, and some day, perhaps,
+you will wake up to the fact that insurance beat
+you in this deal.”
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_99'></a>99</span><a name='c5' id='c5'></a>AN INCIDENTAL FAVOR</h2>
+<p>
+On the same day two women called to see Dave
+Murray in regard to the same matter, and that was
+the beginning of the trouble.
+</p>
+<p>
+The first was Mrs. Albert Vincent. The obituary
+columns of the morning papers had given a few lines
+to the death of Albert Vincent, but Murray had not
+expected to hear from his widow so promptly, and she
+was a little too businesslike to meet his idea as to the
+proprieties of the occasion. In fact, there was no indication
+of either outward mourning or inward grief.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Perhaps you will recall,” she said, without the
+slightest trace of emotion, “that I wrote to you some
+time ago to ask if the premiums on my husband’s insurance
+had been fully paid.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I recall it,” replied Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And you answered that they had been paid.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I recall that also,” said Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, he died last night,” explained the widow,
+“and I would like to know when I can get the insurance
+money.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray looked at her in amazement. He had had
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_100'></a>100</span>
+to deal with many people whom necessity made importunate,
+but never before had he met such cold-bloodedness
+as this woman displayed in tone and manner.
+Apparently, it was no more to her than a business
+investment, upon which she was now about to realize.
+</p>
+<p>
+“There are certain formalities necessary,” he said,
+“but there will be little delay after proper proof of
+death has been filed. You will, of course, have the attending
+physician—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t know who he is,” interrupted the woman.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You don’t know who he is!” repeated Murray in
+astonishment.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No. But I will find out and see him at once. It is
+important that there shall be as little delay as possible.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Previous experiences made Murray quick at jumping
+to conclusions in such cases, and he now thought
+he had the explanation of this unusually prompt call.
+The woman was stylishly dressed, but that was no
+proof that she had the ready cash essential at such a
+time.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I think I understand,” said Murray delicately.
+“You can not meet the expenses incident to—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I have nothing to do with any expenses,” the
+woman again interrupted coldly. “<em>She</em> looked after
+him in life, and she can look after him now.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_101'></a>101</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“She!” exclaimed Murray. “Who?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“The nurse,” replied the woman scornfully. “But
+she can’t have the insurance—not a cent of it. And
+that’s what she has been after.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Let me understand this,” said Murray thoughtfully.
+“You and your husband have not been living
+together?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Not for five years.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And this other woman?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“She was an old flame, and she went to him when
+he became ill.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Did he send for you?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No. He knew better than to do that. But the insurance
+is in my name, and I’m going to have it—all
+of it. That’s my right, isn’t it?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes,” replied Murray slowly; “I’m sorry to say
+that is your absolute right.” The supreme selfishness
+and heartlessness of the woman were revolting to
+Murray. “The policy names you as beneficiary, and
+when it is presented, with proof of death, the money
+will have to be paid to you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“How am I to get the policy?” asked the woman.
+“He had it put away somewhere.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That is a matter upon which I can not undertake
+to advise you,” replied Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Anyhow,” declared the woman defiantly, for Murray’s
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_102'></a>102</span>
+words and expression showed his disapprobation,
+“I want to serve notice on you that not one cent of the
+money is to be paid to any one else. It would be just
+like that nurse to try to get it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You shall have every cent to which you are entitled,”
+replied Murray with frigid courtesy, “but
+nothing is to be gained by further discussion.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I suppose,” exclaimed the woman with sharp resentfulness,
+“that your sympathies are with that
+shameless nurse.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t know,” returned Murray quietly. “I’m not
+at all sure that your husband was not the one who was
+most entitled to sympathy.”
+</p>
+<p>
+It was unlike Murray to speak thus brutally, but
+the woman irritated him. Many were the examples
+of selfishness that had come to his notice, but this
+seemed to him a little worse than any of the others.
+That she had been living apart from her husband
+might be due to no fault of hers, but she impressed
+him as being a vain, vindictive, mercenary woman,
+with no thought above the rather gaudy clothes she
+wore—just the kind to demand everything and give
+nothing. Certainly her actions showed that she lacked
+all the finer sensibilities that one naturally associates
+with true women. No matter what might lie back of it
+all, common decency should have prevented her from
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_103'></a>103</span>
+making such a display of her own small soul at such a
+time. At least, so Murray thought.
+</p>
+<p>
+“She is the kind of woman who marries a man’s
+bank account,” he mused, “and considers the inability
+to supply her with all the money she wants as the
+first evidence of incompatibility of temper. Some
+women think they want a husband when they really
+only want an accommodating banker.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray was still musing in this strain when the
+second woman called. Unlike the first, this woman
+gave some evidence of grief and mourning: her eyes
+showed that she had been weeping, and her attire, although
+not the regulation mourning, was as near to it
+as a scanty wardrobe would permit on short notice.
+But she was self-possessed, and spoke with patient resignation.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Necessity,” she explained, “has compelled me to
+come to see you at this time about Albert Vincent’s life
+insurance policy.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh!” exclaimed Murray thoughtlessly, “you are
+the nurse!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes,” she replied quietly, after one startled look,
+“I am the nurse. I infer that Mrs. Vincent has been
+here.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“She has just left,” said Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Her attentions,” said the nurse bitterly, “have
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_104'></a>104</span>
+been confined to an effort to get prompt news of her
+husband’s death.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray knew instinctively that a little drama of life
+was opening before him, but his duty was clear.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Nevertheless,” he said, “the policy is in her name.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“In her name!” cried the nurse. “Why, he told
+me—” Then she stopped short. She would not betray
+his perfidy, even if he had been false to her.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What did he tell you?” asked Murray kindly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No matter,” answered the nurse. “I—I only
+wanted enough to defray the—the necessary expenses.
+That’s why I came. There isn’t a cent—not a cent.
+Even the little money I had has been used, and there
+are debts—But she’ll pay, of course.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray was deeply distressed. Mrs. Albert Vincent
+was so bitter—possibly with justification, although
+he did not like to believe it—that she would do
+nothing; her feeling was simply one of deep resentment
+that even death could not allay. But he hesitated
+to say so.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Let me understand this matter a little better,” he
+said at last. “I am sincerely anxious to be of any assistance
+possible, but the circumstances are unusual.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The nurse fought a brief battle with herself in
+silence. To bare the details of the story was like uncovering
+her heart to the world, but she saw the sympathy in
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_105'></a>105</span>
+Murray’s eyes, and she was personally helpless
+in a most trying emergency. She sorely needed a
+guiding hand.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Albert and I were engaged to be married,” she
+said at last, with simple frankness. “We had some
+trifling quarrel, and then this woman came between
+us. He was not rich, but he had some property and
+excellent prospects, and—well, they were married. It
+was an elopement—a matter of momentary pique, he
+told me afterward. God knows I never tried to interfere
+with their married life, and she had no reason to
+be jealous of me. I did not even see either of them,
+except at rare intervals, for a long time, but she could
+not forget or forgive the fact that we had been a great
+deal to each other. And she was selfish and extravagant.
+I am merely repeating the judgment of her own
+friends in this, for I do not wish to be unjust to her,
+even now. After I had forsaken society and become a
+trained nurse I heard something of their troubles:
+they were living beyond his income, and his income did
+not increase according to expectations. Perhaps the
+worry of such conditions made him less capable of improving
+his opportunities. At any rate, her extravagance
+created a great deal of comment, and he has
+told me since that they quarreled frequently over
+financial matters. Then I heard that they had separated
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_106'></a>106</span>
+and that he had given her nearly all of the little
+he had left. I was not trying to keep track of them
+or pry into their affairs, but there were mutual friends,
+and I could not help hearing what was common gossip.
+But I studiously avoided any chance of meeting either
+of them—until I heard that he was sick and alone.
+Then I went to him and cared for him. It was not
+proper, you will say? Perhaps not. It put me in a
+false position and invited scandal? Perhaps it did.
+But I went, and I would go again; I was there to
+soothe his last moments; I was with him when all
+others had forsaken him, and there is nothing in this
+life that I would not sacrifice for the glory of that
+memory!”
+</p>
+<p>
+The light of self-sacrificing love shone in her eyes
+as she made this final declaration, and Murray did not
+trust himself to speak for a moment or two. The
+story had been told so quietly, so simply, that the
+sudden emphasis at the conclusion was almost irresistible
+in the sublimity of its self-denying love. The
+great contrast between the two women made it all the
+stronger.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I shall consider it my personal privilege,” replied
+Murray, “to see that everything possible is
+done.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Thank you,” said the nurse.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_107'></a>107</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“But there are still some points that will have to be
+cleared up,” continued Murray. “What made you
+think the policy was in your name?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“He told me he would have it changed, so that I
+could pay all the bills in case of his death,” said the
+nurse.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Possibly,” remarked Murray, “he thought he
+could, but to permit a change in the beneficiary without
+the consent of the original beneficiary would be a
+blow at the very structure of life insurance. It would
+put a true and devoted wife at the absolute mercy of
+an unscrupulous or thoughtless husband: he could
+change the policy without her knowledge; he could
+sell it for the cash-surrender value; he could transfer
+it to a loan-shark to meet his personal or business
+needs—in fact, it would be no more than so much
+stock that could be reached by any creditor, and the
+trusting wife might find herself penniless. In this
+particular case the inability to make such a change
+may work injustice, but the ability to make it would
+work far greater injustice in practically all other instances.
+Mr. Vincent may have thought he could do
+this, and it is the very exceptional case when I most
+heartily wish it had been possible, but he doubtless
+made inquiries and found that it was not. When the
+beneficiary can be deprived of her interest without her
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_108'></a>108</span>
+knowledge and consent the value of insurance will be
+gone.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Then that is what he learned,” she remarked, as if
+a question had been answered. “He was dreadfully
+worried before he became too ill to give much thought
+to business matters,” she added by way of explanation.
+“I thought it was because I was using my own little
+hoard to pay expenses, and, on the doctor’s advice, I
+went with him twice in a cab to see about some things
+that were worrying him, although even then he had
+no business to leave his bed. It was the lesser of two
+evils, the doctor said, for his mental distress was affecting
+his physical condition seriously. He said he never
+could rest until he had provided for those who had
+been good to him in adversity. But he didn’t mean
+me!” she exclaimed quickly. “He meant the doctor
+and some others who had been generous in the matter
+of credit. He knew why I—” She paused a moment,
+and then added: “But he wanted the others paid, and
+there was no one else he could trust.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I quite understand,” said Murray encouragingly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“He made me stay in the cab both times,” she went
+on, “and the second time—when he had me sign his
+wife’s name—he seemed—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Had you sign his wife’s name!” exclaimed Murray.
+“To what?”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_109'></a>109</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t know,” she answered. “It was a formality,
+he said, to straighten out some tangle, so I did it. I
+would have done anything to ease his mind and get
+him back to bed.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray gave a low whistle. He was beginning to
+understand the situation.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Pardon me, Miss—” he said.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Miss Bronson—Amy Bronson,” she explained.
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray had heard of Miss Bronson some years before.
+She had suddenly given up society to become a
+trained nurse, and there had been vague rumors of an
+unhappy love affair. Later, her father’s death had
+left her dependent upon her own resources, and society
+had commented on what a fortunate thing it was that
+she had already chosen an occupation and fitted herself
+for it. He never had known her, and only a bare
+suggestion of the story had come to his notice, but it
+was sufficient to make him more than ever her champion
+now.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Miss Bronson,” he said, “I fear there are greater
+complications here than I had supposed. Did Mr.
+Vincent get any money on either of those trips?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes. On the second he told me that he closed up
+an old deal, and he was more contented after that.
+After the first he was so dreadfully disturbed, that I
+never dared ask him any questions.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_110'></a>110</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do you know where the insurance policy is?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No. I searched for it before coming here, but
+could find no trace of it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray was as considerate as the circumstances
+would permit, but he had become suddenly business-like.
+Aside from the question of sympathy, the matter
+was now one to interest him deeply. He had been
+groping blindly before, but with light came the possibility
+of action.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You are alone?” he asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Entirely so.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“If you will go back,” said Murray, reaching for
+his desk telephone, “Mrs. Murray will be there as soon
+as a cab can carry her. I would go myself, but I think
+I can be of better service to you for the moment by remaining
+here.”
+</p>
+<p>
+As soon as she had gone and he had telephoned to
+his wife, Murray made some inquiries of the clerks in
+the outer office and learned of a sick man who had
+asked about the possibility of changing the beneficiary
+of a policy. The visit had been made some time before,
+but the man was so evidently ill and in such deep
+distress that the circumstances had been impressed on
+the mind of the clerk who had answered his questions.
+</p>
+<p>
+“That accounts for one trip,” mused Murray.
+“Now for the loan-shark that he saw on the other.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_111'></a>111</span>
+We’ll hear from him pretty soon, and then there will
+be some lively times.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray had had experience with the ways of loan-sharks
+before, and he was confident that he now had
+the whole story. Vincent was out of money and desperate;
+he knew that Miss Bronson had been using her
+own money, and that not one cent of it would his wife
+pay back; he had tried to have the beneficiary of the
+policy changed, and had failed. Then, determined to
+get something out of the policy, he had gone to a loan-shark.
+The unscrupulous money-lender, getting an
+exorbitant rate of interest, could afford to be less particular
+about the wife’s signature. He would run the
+risk of forgery, confident that the policy would be redeemed
+to prevent a scandal, no matter what happened.
+Indeed, in some cases a loan-shark would a little
+rather have a forgery than the genuine signature,
+for it gives him an additional hold on the interested
+parties and lessens the likelihood of a resort to law
+over the question of usurious interest.
+</p>
+<p>
+“The scoundrel will come,” said Murray, and the
+scoundrel came by invitation. A formal notification
+that he held an assignment of the policy arrived first,
+and that gave his name and address and enabled Murray
+to telephone him. A loan-shark does not lose much
+time in matters of this sort. Neither did Murray in
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_112'></a>112</span>
+this case, for his invitation to call was prompt and imperative,
+even to setting the exact time for the call.
+And a message was sent to Mrs. Albert Vincent, also.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What’s your interest in that policy?” asked Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“A thousand dollars,” replied the money-lender.
+</p>
+<p>
+“A thousand dollars!” ejaculated the startled Murray.
+“What the devil did he do with the money?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That is something that does not concern me,” said
+the money-lender carelessly.
+</p>
+<p>
+The confidence and carelessness of the reply recalled
+Murray to a consciousness of the situation. He had a
+sharp and hard game to play with a clever and unscrupulous
+man.
+</p>
+<p>
+“How much did you loan him?” he demanded.
+</p>
+<p>
+“The note is for a thousand dollars,” was the
+prompt reply.
+</p>
+<p>
+“How much did you loan him, Shylock?” repeated
+Murray, and the money-lender was startled out of his
+complacent confidence.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I didn’t come here to be insulted!” he exclaimed.
+“I hold the policy and the assignment of it as security.
+If you can’t talk business, as man to man, I’ll quit and
+leave the matter to a lawyer.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“If you put one foot outside of that door,” retorted
+Murray, “we’ll fight this matter to a finish, Shylock,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_113'></a>113</span>
+and we’ll get some points on your business methods.
+Come back and sit down.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The money-lender had made a pretense of leaving,
+but he paused and met the cold, hard look of Murray.
+Then he came back.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course, we take risks,” he said apologetically.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mighty few,” commented Murray uncompromisingly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“If a man has security that is good at the bank he
+won’t come to us,” persisted the money-lender. “We
+have to protect ourselves for the additional risk.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“By getting a man to put himself in the shadow of
+the penitentiary,” said Murray. “I know all about
+you people, Shylock. How much did you loan?”
+</p>
+<p>
+The money-lender was angered almost to the point
+of defiance—but not quite. Loan-sharks do not easily
+reach that point: the very nature of their business
+makes it inadvisable, except when some poor devil is in
+their power.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, of course, if it’s a personal matter with you,”
+he said, “I might scale it a little. The note is for a
+thousand dollars, with various incidental charges that
+make it now a thousand and eighty dollars. I might
+knock off a hundred from that.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“How much did you loan him, Shylock?” repeated
+Murray.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_114'></a>114</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Nine hundred dollars,” answered the money-lender
+in desperation.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Shylock,” said Murray with cold deliberation, “I
+know you people. If I didn’t, I might ask to see the
+canceled check, but that would prove nothing. You
+give a check for the full amount, but the man has to
+put up a cash bonus when he gets it. How much did
+you loan him?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’ll stand on the note,” declared the money-lender
+angrily. “I know my rights, and I can be as ugly as
+you. The note is signed by himself and his wife, and
+you’ll have a hard time going back of it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray touched a bell and a boy answered.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Ask Mrs. Vincent to step in here,” said Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+The money-lender was plainly disconcerted, but he
+was not unaccustomed to hard battles, so he nerved
+himself to bluff the thing through, it being too late to
+do anything else.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mrs. Vincent,” said Murray, when the woman appeared,
+“I have found the insurance policy.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Where is it?” she asked eagerly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mr. Shylock,”—with a motion toward the money-lender,—“holds
+it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Give it to me, Mr. Shylock,” demanded Mrs. Vincent,
+who was not a woman to grasp the bitter insult
+of the name, and her innocent repetition of it added to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_115'></a>115</span>
+the anger of the man. Still, the habit of never letting
+his personal feelings interfere with business was strong
+within him.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I must be paid first,” he said.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Paid!” she cried. “What is there to pay? The insurance
+money is mine!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I hold a note,” insisted the money-lender.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What’s that to me?” she retorted. “Do you think
+I’m going to pay his debts? I didn’t contract them; I
+wasn’t with him; he left me years ago! Let <em>her</em> look
+out for the debts! Give me the policy or I’ll have you
+arrested!”
+</p>
+<p>
+The woman was wildly and covetously excited: she
+would not rest easy until the actual possession of the
+money assured her that there was no possibility of a
+slip. The money-lender, too, was anxious. Murray
+alone seemed to be taking the matter quietly, for
+these two were now playing the game for him,
+although the details required his close attention. A
+very slight miscalculation might carry it beyond his
+control.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s assigned to me,” said the money-lender with a
+pretense of confidence. “I have your signature.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s a lie!” she cried.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, no,” interrupted Murray quietly; “it’s a
+forgery.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_116'></a>116</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“That woman!” exclaimed Mrs. Vincent. “She stole
+my name as well as my husband!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That man,” corrected Murray. “He did it for the
+woman who did so much for him. He would have given
+her all, if he could.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray had reason to know that it was the nurse,
+but he lied cheerfully in what he considered a good
+cause. They were getting to the critical and dangerous
+point in the game he was playing: the widow
+would be merciless to the nurse.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s a forgery, anyway!” declared Mrs. Vincent.
+“I won’t pay a cent!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’ll sue,” said the money-lender threateningly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, sue!” she cried. “What do I care? You
+can’t get anything on a forgery. I guess I know that
+much.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It will make a scandal,” said the money-lender insinuatingly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Let it,” she retorted angrily.
+</p>
+<p>
+They were again making points for Murray, each
+showing the weakness of the other’s position, so Murray
+merely watched and waited.
+</p>
+<p>
+“If there is another woman in the case,” persisted
+the money-lender, who had been quick to grasp the
+significance of the previous remarks, “the shame and
+disgrace—”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_117'></a>117</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“What do I care?” she interrupted. “The disgrace
+is for her.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And for him,” said the money-lender. “I can
+make him out a forger.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It won’t give you the money,” she argued.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It will make you the widow of a criminal,” he
+threatened. “How would you like the disgrace of
+that? And the other things! If I have to go to court
+the whole scandal will be revealed and the very name
+you bear will be a shame! The widow of a forger! A
+woman who could not hold her husband! An object of
+pitying contempt, so small that she would not pay an
+honest debt to protect the name that is hers!” In his
+anxiety not to lose, the money-lender became almost
+eloquent in picturing possible conditions. No other
+sentiment or emotion could have given him this power.
+And he saw that the effect was not lost upon the
+woman, for no one knew better than she the harm the
+exploitation of the whole miserable story would do.
+Even a blameless woman can not entirely escape the
+obloquy that attaches to the name she bears, and there
+had been enough already to make it difficult for Mrs.
+Vincent to retain a position on the fringe of society.
+“Of course,” he went on, “if you’d rather stand this
+than pay, there is nothing for me to do but leave and
+put the matter in the hands of a lawyer.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_118'></a>118</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Wait a minute, Shylock,” interrupted Murray.
+“Mrs. Vincent is going to pay—something.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Pay money that he got for <em>her</em>!” she exclaimed
+with sudden resentfulness. “She’s the forger, anyway;
+I know it!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Did you ever see her, Shylock?” asked Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“He came alone,” replied the money-lender, “with
+the assignment of policy ready, and he swore to it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That settles that,” said Murray with apparent
+conviction. “It would be a thankless task to try to
+prove that any one else forged the signature, and
+neither one of you is in a position to seek any court
+notoriety. Now, Shylock, after deducting the bonus
+and all trumped-up charges, how much did you loan?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Nine hundred dollars,” said the money-lender
+desperately.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Try again, Shylock,” urged Murray. “You never
+loaned any such sum under any such circumstances.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“If you don’t stop insulting me,” exclaimed the
+money-lender angrily, “I’ll quit right now and take
+my chances with the law.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You haven’t any chances with the law, Shylock,”
+retorted Murray. “You can make a scandal, but you
+can’t get a damn cent. That’s why you’re going to be
+reasonable. How much did you loan? You’d better be
+honest with me, for it’s your only chance.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_119'></a>119</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’ll take eight hundred dollars, with the interest
+charges.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You’ll take an even seven hundred dollars,” said
+Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“But the interest!” cried the money-lender. “Don’t
+I get any interest?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Aha!” exclaimed Murray. “I guessed it right,
+didn’t I? That’s just what you loaned. You see,
+others have hypothecated policies with you people, and
+I’ve learned something of the business. There are
+more peculiar deals tried with insurance policies than
+with any other form of security. But you don’t get
+any interest, Shylock: you get your principal back,
+and you’re lucky to get that.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s robbery!” complained the money-lender.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s generosity,” said Murray. “You ought to lose
+it all.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I won’t pay it!” declared Mrs. Vincent, and Murray
+turned sharply to her.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mrs. Vincent,” he said, “you will pay this sum to
+Shylock out of the policy, and you will pay all the
+bills, including the cost of the funeral, which I advanced.
+You will not do this as a matter of generosity,
+or even of justice, but from purely selfish motives.
+If you, being able to prevent it, permitted this scandal
+to come to light, you would be eternally disgraced:
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_120'></a>120</span>
+doors would be closed to you everywhere. God knows
+it is bad enough as it is, but this would make it infinitely
+worse. Even where no real blame attaches to
+her, there is always criticism and contempt for the
+woman who lets another take her husband from her,
+and a repudiation of the expenses of his last illness or
+any other bills, when you are getting the insurance,
+would condemn you absolutely in the eyes of all people
+who knew the circumstances. For this reason, you
+are going to do what I say, and you are going to make
+the necessary arrangements now. For similar selfish
+reasons, Shylock is going to do what I say, and he is
+going to make the necessary arrangements now. If
+either of you balk at the terms, I’ll drop the whole
+matter and let you fight it out, to your mutual trouble
+and loss.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Neither dared take the risk, for each feared that,
+without Murray, the other would gain the advantage.
+Neither was in a position to defy the other, and Murray
+had forced concessions from each that the other
+could not. He was clearly master of the situation.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do you accept the terms?” he demanded. “If not,
+get out!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s brutal, outrageous!” declared the woman.
+</p>
+<p>
+“A swindle!” exclaimed the man.
+</p>
+<p>
+“That will do, Shylock,” cautioned Murray.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_121'></a>121</span>
+“There is nothing to be said except ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and
+only thirty seconds in which to say that. I’ve reached
+the limit of my patience.”
+</p>
+<p>
+He took out his watch and began to count the seconds.
+</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+<p>
+When they were gone Murray sent for Amy Bronson,
+the nurse.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I was just coming to see you,” she explained when
+she arrived. “I finally found a note hidden away
+among Albert’s effects. It contained five one hundred-dollar
+bills and the scribbled line, ‘I have tried to do
+more for you, but can not.’”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I didn’t see how he could have spent all the
+money,” mused Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Now I can pay the bills,” she said.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No,” said Murray. “A memorandum of all that
+he owed is to be sent to me. Mrs. Vincent will pay
+everything.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mrs. Vincent!” cried the nurse. “Impossible! I
+couldn’t have so misjudged her.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t think you misjudged her,” returned Murray,
+“but,”—whimsically,—“I’m a wonder at argument.
+You ought to hear me argue. Mrs. Vincent decided
+to take my view of the matter with the insurance.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_122'></a>122</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“But the five hundred dollars!” said Miss Bronson.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Keep it,” said Murray. “He intended it for you,
+and it is little enough. I’m only sorry that the ten-thousand-dollar
+policy is not for you, also, but it is
+one of the incidental hardships that arise from an
+ordinarily wise provision of the law.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The nurse’s lip quivered and the tears came to her
+eyes.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I was an entire stranger to you, Mr. Murray,” she
+said, “but you have been very good to me when I most
+needed a friend. I—I don’t know how I can—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I have been amply repaid for all I have done,” said
+Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“How?” she asked in surprise.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I have had the royal satisfaction,” he answered,
+“of compelling an unscrupulous man and a selfish
+woman to do a fairly creditable thing; I have had the
+joy of showing my contempt for them in my very
+method of doing this.”
+</p>
+<p>
+She did not quite understand, her gratitude making
+her blind to all else at the moment.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And also,” added Murray to himself, when she had
+gone, “the great satisfaction of saving a devoted
+woman from the consequences of at least one of her
+acts of devotion. Forgery is a serious matter, regardless
+of the circumstances.”
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_123'></a>123</span><a name='c6' id='c6'></a>AN INCIDENTAL ERROR</h2>
+<p>
+“It’s mighty awkward,” said Owen Ross, the insurance
+solicitor.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It is,” admitted Dave Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’ve been after him for over six months,” persisted
+Ross, “and now, after urging him persistently to take
+out a policy, I have got to tell him that we won’t give
+him one. That would be hard enough if he had sought
+us out, and it’s ten times as hard when we have sought
+him. Why, it looks as if we were playing a heartless
+practical joke on him.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But it can’t be helped,” said Murray. “It’s one of
+the disagreeable features of the business. We convince
+a man that it’s to his interest to carry life insurance,
+and then we tell him he can’t have any. Naturally,
+from his prejudiced viewpoint, we seem to be contemptibly
+insincere and deceitful.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course, we are in no sense shortening his life,”
+remarked Ross, “but it seems like pronouncing a sentence
+of death, just the same. He is sure to make an
+awful row about it.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_124'></a>124</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“One man,” said Murray reminiscently, “fell dead
+in this office when his application was refused. The
+shock killed him, but there was no way to avoid giving
+him the shock. However, that was an exceptional case:
+I never knew of another to succumb, although it must
+be admitted that the news that one is destined not to
+live long is distressing and depressing.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What’s the reason for refusing Tucker?” asked
+Ross.
+</p>
+<p>
+“There are several reasons,” replied Murray. “The
+physician reports heart murmur, which indicates some
+latent trouble that is almost certain to develop into a
+serious affection.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“May not the physician be wrong?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“He is paid to be right, but, of course, we are all
+liable to make mistakes, and it can’t be denied that
+heart murmur is deceptive. I’ve known men to be the
+subject of unfavorable reports at one hour of the day
+and most favorable ones at another. The occupation
+immediately preceding the examination may develop
+symptoms that are normally absent. However, I would
+not feel justified in accepting this application, even if
+the report were favorable.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why not?” demanded Ross.
+</p>
+<p>
+“The amount of insurance he wishes to carry would
+make him worth more dead than alive, which is a condition
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_125'></a>125</span>
+of affairs that an insurance company dislikes.”
+Murray became reminiscent again. “I recall one such
+risk,” he went on. “The man found the premiums a
+greater burden than he could carry, so he died.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Suicide!” exclaimed Ross.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, no,” replied Murray, with a peculiar smile;
+“merely a mistake. But, if you will put yourself in
+that man’s place, you will see how the mistake could
+happen. He was carrying twenty-five thousand dollars
+of insurance, and he wasn’t worth twenty-five cents
+at the time, owing to some recent reverses. He was ill,
+but was not considered dangerously ill. Still, he was
+depressed, believing apparently that he would not recover
+and knowing that he had not the money for the
+next premium. If he died before a certain date there
+would be twenty-five thousand dollars for his wife and
+children; if he died after that date there would be
+comparatively little. Now, in imagination, just assume
+the problem that confronted that man on a certain
+night: twenty-four hours of life for him meant a
+future of privation for his wife, if he did not recover
+and prosper, while immediate death for him meant
+comfort for those he loved. Picture yourself contemplating
+that prospect while lying weak and discouraged
+in the sick-room, with various bottles—one
+labeled ‘Poison’—within reach. A poison may have
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_126'></a>126</span>
+medicinal value when properly used, you know, but
+what more natural than that you should make a mistake
+in the gloom of the night while the tired nurse is
+dozing? It is so easy to get the wrong bottle—to take
+the poison instead of the tonic—and it solves a most
+distressing problem. A drop of the poison is beneficial;
+a teaspoonful is death; and the tonic is to be taken in
+large doses.” Murray paused a moment to let the terrible
+nature of the situation impress itself on Ross.
+Then he added quietly: “We paid the insurance, although
+the timeliness of the accident did not escape
+comment. The same mistake twenty-four hours later
+would not have had the same financial result. Now, do
+you understand why I would not care to put fifty thousand
+dollars on the life of Tucker, even if he were
+physically satisfactory? Unexpected reverses may
+make any man worth more dead than alive, but we seldom
+contribute knowingly to such a condition of affairs.
+It isn’t prudent. While the average man is not
+disposed to shorten his life to beat an insurance company,
+it isn’t wise to put the temptation in his way
+unless you are very sure of your man.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, we needn’t explain that to Tucker,” said
+Ross.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No,” returned Murray. “We can put the whole
+thing on the basis of the physician’s report.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_127'></a>127</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“I wish you would break the news to him,” urged
+Ross. “You can do it with better grace, for you were
+not instrumental in getting him to put in his application.
+He’ll be up here to-day.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, very well,” returned Murray. “I’ll see him
+when he comes.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Though the task was far from pleasant, Murray
+had been long enough in the business to take matters
+philosophically. One must accustom oneself to the
+disagreeable features of any occupation, for there is
+none that is entirely pleasurable.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tucker, however, did not make this interview disagreeable
+in the way that was expected: instead of
+becoming discouraged and depressed, he became indignant.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What’s that?” he cried. “You don’t consider me a
+good risk?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am sorry to say,” returned Murray, “that our
+physician does not report favorably on you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, he doesn’t!” exclaimed Tucker. “Well, that’s
+a good joke on the doctor, isn’t it?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You’d better discharge him and get a man with
+some sense.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I thought,” said Murray dubiously, “that it might
+seem rather hard on you.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_128'></a>128</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Hard on me!” ejaculated Tucker. “Hard on the
+company, you mean! You’re letting a little two-by-four
+doctor steer you away from a good thing. Why,
+say! I’m good for as long a life as an elephant!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’m sure I hope so.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s robbery—plain robbery—for that doctor to
+take a fee from you for making such a report on me.
+I’ll show him up!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“How?” asked Murray curiously.
+</p>
+<p>
+“By living!” declared Tucker. “It’s going to give
+me infinite pleasure to report to you from time to time
+and show you one of the healthiest men that ever was
+turned down by an insurance company. He can’t scare
+me into a decline—not any! And, say! he looks to me
+like a young man.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“He is.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“A young man in fine physical condition.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“He is.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, I’ll go to his funeral, and I’ll be in prime
+condition when he’s put away! You tell him that, will
+you? I’ll be walking when he has to be carried.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Now, this was rather annoying to Murray. It was
+preferable to the despair that overwhelmed some men
+in similar circumstances, but it seemed to him that
+Tucker was overdoing it.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Anyhow,” said Murray resentfully, “we would not
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_129'></a>129</span>
+care to put fifty thousand dollars on your life, for it’s
+more than a man in your position ought to carry.
+You’ll never be worth as much alive as you would be
+dead, with that insurance.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, I won’t!” retorted Tucker sarcastically. “Well,
+now, instead of making the girl I am to marry a present
+of a policy on my life, I’ll just make her a present
+of your whole blamed company in a few years. You
+watch what I do with the money you might have had!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You are about to marry?” asked Murray with interest.
+“It’s a serious matter, in view of the physician’s
+report.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Marriage is always a serious matter,” asserted
+Tucker. “I don’t have to have a doctor tell me that.
+But he can’t scare me out with flubdub about heart
+murmur, for I know the heart was murmuring, and
+the prospective Mrs. Tucker does, too. She’ll interpret
+that murmur for him any time he wants a little enlightenment.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray laughed when Tucker had gone. The man’s
+indignation had been momentarily irritating, but there
+was something amusing about it, too.
+</p>
+<p>
+“He’s going to live to a green old age, just to spite
+the company,” mused Murray. “It’s a matter of no
+great personal interest to him, but he’d like to make
+the company feel bad. If a man could order his life
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_130'></a>130</span>
+as he can his business affairs, there would be mighty
+little chance for us.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Meanwhile, Tucker was hastening to the home of
+Miss Frances Greer.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’ve come to release you,” he announced cheerfully.
+</p>
+<p>
+“But I don’t want to be released,” she returned.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course not,” he said. “I didn’t suppose you
+would. But you might just as well know that you’re
+getting a poor risk.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What do you mean?” she asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why, I wanted to put fifty thousand dollars on my
+life, as a precaution for the future, and the fool of an
+insurance doctor turned me down.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What do I care about the doctor!” she exclaimed.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Not a thing, of course.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Or insurance!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Still less.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And,” she said happily, “you’re a good enough
+risk for me.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Then they went into executive session and decided
+that insurance doctors didn’t know anything, anyway.
+But they did not forget Dave Murray, and they did
+not let Dave Murray forget them: he heard from them
+indirectly in the most annoying ways. His wife informed
+him less than a week later that she had met
+Miss Greer at a reception.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_131'></a>131</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“A most extraordinary girl!” his wife remarked.
+“I can’t understand her at all. She asked me in a most
+ingenuous way if I ever had noticed any indications of
+heart murmur about you.
+</p>
+<p>
+“‘Never,’ said I.
+</p>
+<p>
+“‘Not even in the engagement days when he was
+making love?’ she insisted.
+</p>
+<p>
+“‘Not even then,’ I answered, bewildered.
+</p>
+<p>
+“‘He couldn’t have been much of a lover,’ she remarked.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray laughed and explained the situation to his
+wife. But Murray would have been better pleased if
+the two women had not met, for he had no desire to
+have this case perpetually present in the more intimate
+associations of life. However, he had to make the best
+of it, even when he was invited to the wedding, to which
+his wife insisted that he should go. She had discovered
+that the bride was related to an intimate friend of her
+own girlhood days, and the bride further showed flattering
+gratification in this discovery. She was especially
+gracious to Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I want to ask you a question,” she told him.
+</p>
+<p>
+Thereupon Murray made heroic efforts to escape
+before she could find a suitable opportunity, but she
+beckoned him back whenever he got near the door.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mama,” she said finally, for this happened during
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_132'></a>132</span>
+the wedding reception, and her mother stood near
+her, “I wish you would take charge of Mr. Murray
+and see that he doesn’t run away. I have something
+very important to say to him before Ralph and I
+leave.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Thus the unhappy Murray was held until the bride
+and groom were ready to depart, when the bride finally
+succeeded in getting him alone for a minute.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I wanted to ask you, as a particular favor to me,”
+she said appealingly, “to let Ralph live a little while—that
+is, if your doctor won’t make too big a row
+about it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Then she laughed merrily. There could be no doubt
+at all that Mrs. Ralph Tucker refused absolutely to
+worry about the health of Mr. Ralph Tucker; she had
+simply put the doctor down as an ignoramus. And
+Mr. Ralph Tucker’s appearance certainly was not that
+of a man in poor physical condition. However, Murray
+knew how deceptive appearances may be, and,
+while no physician is infallible, it is necessary to
+rely on their judgment. Nor was it a joking matter,
+in his opinion. He was glad that the young people
+could look at the future without misgivings, but a
+really serious matter ought not to be treated so lightly.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was about a week later that a note came to Murray
+from Mrs. Tucker.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_133'></a>133</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“So grateful to you for sparing Ralph so long,” it
+read.
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray crumpled it up and, with some rather warm
+remarks, threw it in the waste-basket.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why did I relieve Ross of his disagreeable task?”
+he grumbled.
+</p>
+<p>
+Then he began to count the days that would precede
+their return from the bridal trip, for he was sure they
+would call on him. There could be no doubt that Mrs.
+Tucker had deliberately planned to make things as
+uncomfortable for him as possible, and there was every
+reason to believe that Tucker himself was aiding and
+abetting her.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It isn’t fair,” he muttered, “to make it appear that
+this is a personal matter with me. The Lord knows I
+haven’t anything to do with his lease of life.”
+</p>
+<p>
+This was just after he had received a telegram to
+the effect that “the patient is doing as well as can be
+expected,” and Ross, who happened in the office at the
+time, noticed that his chief looked at him reproachfully.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What’s the matter?” asked Ross.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Hereafter,” returned Murray morosely, “my solicitors
+have got to carry their own burdens. If Tucker
+and his wife put me in an insane asylum, the administrator
+of my estate will surely sue you for big damages. I
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_134'></a>134</span>
+never thought I was getting a life sentence
+when I let you unload on me.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The physician also noticed a growing coolness and
+was moved to ask what was wrong.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Didn’t you make a mistake in the Tucker case?”
+Murray inquired by way of reply. “I don’t wish
+Tucker any harm, but I’m doomed to an early death
+if he isn’t.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t see what his life has to do with yours,” retorted
+the doctor.
+</p>
+<p>
+“That’s because you don’t know Mrs. Tucker,” replied
+Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“He was an impossible risk,” asserted the doctor.
+“The indications of serious trouble may entirely disappear,
+under favorable conditions of life, but they
+were there when I made the examination. Ours is not
+yet an exact science, and the human system frequently
+fools us. You recall the Denton case, don’t you?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“At twenty the doctors, including his family physician,
+gave him not more than two or three years to
+live, and at twenty-five he was considered a good risk
+for any insurance company. He is nearly thirty-five
+now, has one policy in this company, and we would be
+glad to let him have another.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, you’re all right, Doctor, of course,” returned
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_135'></a>135</span>
+Murray. “We must be careful to err on the safe side,
+if we err at all, in this business. But I wish the Tuckers
+would transfer their attentions to you. I’ll be
+tempted to jump out of the window when I see them
+coming in the door.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The Tuckers, however, were not to be escaped.
+After an interval of about three weeks they sent him
+another telegram, which read: “If we retire to a ranch,
+will you lengthen the lease of life a little?” Then they
+came back and called on him.
+</p>
+<p>
+“So kind of you to let us have this trip,” said Mrs.
+Tucker with every evidence of deep gratitude. “Poor
+Ralph appreciates it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Poor Ralph was looking as big and strong and
+happy as it was possible for a man to look, and Murray
+was correspondingly uncomfortable.
+</p>
+<p>
+“The premiums on fifty thousand dollars would have
+been pretty heavy,” remarked Tucker with a cheerful
+grin.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes,” admitted Murray weakly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I had a tidy little sum put aside to care for them,”
+Tucker explained. “We thought it would interest
+your company to know that we put that money into a
+small ranch out west, so it is entirely out of reach
+now. You don’t mind my choosing a restful place for
+my early demise, do you?”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_136'></a>136</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Now, see here!” cried Murray, but Mrs. Tucker
+interrupted him.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, he wouldn’t be so cruel as that!” she exclaimed.
+“Show him what the doctor said, Ralph.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Tucker spread a sheet of paper on the desk before
+Murray, and the latter read: “This is to certify that
+I have made a careful examination of Ralph Tucker,
+and I believe him to be in excellent physical condition.
+I attach slight importance to the indications of incipient
+heart trouble, which, with reasonable care and
+proper treatment, should disappear entirely.” This
+was signed by a noted specialist.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And the next,” said Mrs. Tucker.
+</p>
+<p>
+Thereupon Tucker laid this before Murray: “The
+heart murmur noted I believe to be due to temporary
+causes and not to any permanent affection. On the occasion
+of one examination there were no indications of
+it at all.” This also was signed by a well-known physician.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Poor Ralph!” sighed Mrs. Tucker, and Murray
+felt that the burden of this case was greater than he
+could bear.
+</p>
+<p>
+“They don’t agree entirely,” he asserted aggressively.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No,” admitted Tucker, “but I understand that’s
+not unusual in such cases.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_137'></a>137</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“And they don’t agree with your doctor at all,”
+added Mrs. Tucker. “But, of course, your doctor is
+right. Poor Ralph!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Please don’t do that,” pleaded Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Poor Ralph!” sighed Mrs. Tucker again. “The
+doctors don’t think he’ll live more than a lifetime.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Put in another application and take another examination,”
+urged Murray in despair. “The doctor
+may have been misled by some trifling temporary
+trouble.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What would be the use?” asked Tucker. “I’ve already
+invested the premium money in a small ranch.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s too bad,” remarked Mrs. Tucker lugubriously.
+“That money would have done the company so much
+good.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“This has ceased to be a joke!” declared Murray
+earnestly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“A joke!” exclaimed Mrs. Tucker. “Has it ever
+been a joke with you?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, it hasn’t,” said Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I didn’t think you could be so heartless,” asserted
+Mrs. Tucker. “One has only to look at poor Ralph—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Don’t, don’t!” cried Murray. “On what terms will
+you quit this?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, if you want to get down to business,” put in
+Tucker, “I’d like to begin delivering this company to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_138'></a>138</span>
+Frances. You know I said I was going to do it. I
+don’t care for policies, but I might take some stock.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You said you had no money.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No premium money,” corrected Tucker. “I invested
+that in the ranch, but I was notified this morning
+of a legacy from a bachelor uncle that will give
+me some ready cash.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“The stock of this company gets on the market very
+seldom,” explained Murray. “I have a little myself,
+but I don’t care to part with it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, very well,” replied Tucker in careless tones;
+“it’s quite immaterial to us for the moment. In fact,
+I’d be in no hurry about it at all if I only had a longer
+time to live.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Poor Ralph!” sighed Mrs. Tucker, as they departed.
+</p>
+<p>
+When they had gone, Murray rang for his office-boy.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You tell Mr. Ross,” he said to the boy, “to keep
+out of my way for a few days. I’m not in a mental
+condition to stand the sight of the man who loaded this
+trouble on me.”
+</p>
+<p>
+For the next three days Murray saw as little of his
+office as he possibly could, fearing another call from
+Mr. and Mrs. Tucker. Then he learned that they had
+left again for the West, and he breathed more freely.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_139'></a>139</span>
+But, shortly thereafter, a stock-broker called upon
+him.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am commissioned,” said the broker, “to buy some
+stock in your company, and I thought possibly you
+might know of some that is for sale.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I do not,” replied Murray. “As you know, it is
+not a speculative stock, but is held, for the most part,
+by conservative investors. A little gets on the market
+occasionally, when some estate is being settled or some
+holder becomes financially embarrassed, but that is
+about your only chance.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“So my client informed me,” said the broker, “but
+he also informed me that he was sure he could get some
+himself, and he wished me to use every effort to add to
+his prospective holdings.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mr. Tucker, your client, tried to buy some from
+me before he left for the West,” said Murray, for he
+had no doubt as to the identity of the man who wanted
+the stock.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Indeed!” returned the broker. “I didn’t know that.
+He explained his anxiety for prompt action by the
+rather extraordinary statement that he wished to get
+the stock before somebody foreclosed on his life!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“By thunder!” cried Murray, “somebody <em>will</em> foreclose
+on his life, and take the Limited west to do it, if
+he keeps this thing up!”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_140'></a>140</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+In some amazement, the broker apologized and retired,
+and Murray began to wonder what would happen
+to him if Mrs. Tucker ever did get enough of the
+stock to make her influence felt. Of course, there was
+little chance of that, but even a small stock-holder
+could be annoying when so disposed. He began to
+dream about the Tucker case, and an incidental mention
+of it in the office would make the atmosphere unpleasant
+for the day. Every clerk and solicitor understood
+that it was a dangerous topic. Once the name
+“Tucker” was mentioned in the ordinary course of
+business, and Murray had things at a fever heat before
+it could be explained to him that it was another
+Tucker. Then came a letter from the West, with a
+Tucker return card on the envelop. A council of war
+was held before it was delivered to Murray, and even
+then a time was chosen when he was absent to lay it
+on his desk. It was very brief—just an announcement
+that “the patient” had rallied splendidly after the
+fatigue of the journey and exhibited “really wonderful
+vitality for a sick man.” No one cared to go near
+Murray all the rest of that day.
+</p>
+<p>
+Soon after the first of the following month another
+missive arrived—a mere formal affidavit, headed “Certificate
+of Life,” and solemnly averring that “Ralph
+Tucker’s heart has not ceased to murmur along in the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_141'></a>141</span>
+land of the living.” This was followed a month later
+by a certificate from a physician to the effect that “a
+restful ranch life is especially conducive to longevity,
+and Mr. Tucker’s health continues to show all the
+improvement that can be expected in a man who had
+nothing the matter with him in the first place.”
+</p>
+<p>
+These facetious reports continued to arrive at
+monthly intervals for a period of nearly a year. Usually
+they were brief, but occasionally the doctor, who
+seemed to enter into the spirit of the affair, would go
+into such details as weight, endurance, appetite, lifting
+power, respiration and—heart murmur. “The
+heart,” he wrote at one time, “seems to be too well
+satisfied to murmur now, and the patient was able to
+sit up and eat a large steak to-day, after which a little
+gentle exercise—about twenty miles on horseback—seemed
+to do him some good.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray promptly turned this over to the company
+doctor, and the latter sighed. Almost the only satisfaction
+in life that Murray had during this time arose
+from his ability to make the doctor miserable.
+</p>
+<p>
+“He was not a good risk when I examined him,” the
+doctor insisted, “but he may be a good one now. We
+can’t be certain of results in such a case, and the law
+of probabilities frequently works out wrong. He could
+not have done a better thing, under the circumstances,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_142'></a>142</span>
+than to go in for a simple, outdoor life. The basis
+of trouble was there, in my judgment, but it may
+have been overcome.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“The basis of trouble is still there,” declared Murray;
+“not only the basis of trouble, but the whole
+blame structure, and it’s resting on us. I can feel the
+weight.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“So can I,” replied the doctor disconsolately.
+</p>
+<p>
+Less than a week after this Tucker telegraphed to
+know if Murray had changed his mind about disposing
+of any stock.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No,” was the reply sent back.
+</p>
+<p>
+“All right,” Tucker answered. “I just wanted to
+give Mrs. Tucker another slice of your company. She
+has a little of it already.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Investigation showed that the broker had succeeded
+in picking up a few shares, but hardly enough to exert
+any considerable influence. Still, it was disquieting to
+find the Tuckers so persistent.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’ll bet,” said Murray, “that mental worry has put
+me where you wouldn’t pass me for a risk.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“If your wife,” returned the doctor, “is anything
+like Mrs. Tucker I’d pass you for any kind of risk
+rather than incur her displeasure. They’ll begin to
+take a stock-holder’s interest in the affairs of this particular
+office pretty soon.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_143'></a>143</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“The affairs are in good shape,” declared Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“But a real determined stock-holder can stir up a
+devil of a rumpus over nothing,” asserted the doctor.
+“If she should send all those physicians’ reports to
+headquarters, they would rather offset my report on
+which he was turned down, and the company would
+feel that it had lost a good thing. The company will
+not stop to think that my report may have been justified
+by conditions at the time.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And the risk that I thought too big for him then
+may not seem too big for him now,” commented Murray
+ruefully.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’d like to examine him again,” said the doctor.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t think it would be safe,” returned Murray,
+“unless you were searched for weapons first.”
+</p>
+<p>
+So the doctor and Murray settled down to await,
+with some anxiety, the next move in the game, and
+their patience was rewarded by the receipt of five certificates
+of health from as many different physicians,
+each certificate having a message of some sort scribbled
+across the top. “The patient had to ride a hundred
+miles to get these,” Mrs. Tucker had written on the
+first. “There were a few shares of this stock in my late
+lamented uncle’s estate,” appeared in Tucker’s handwriting
+on the second. “The president of your company
+is rusticating a few miles from here,” Mrs.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_144'></a>144</span>
+Tucker asserted on the third. “Better come out here
+for a few days,” Tucker urged on the fourth. “Poor
+Ralph!” was Mrs. Tucker’s comment on the fifth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Poor Dave Murray!” grumbled Murray, and he
+and the doctor started West the next day. “Might as
+well get this thing settled,” he said. “You and I have
+got to be on harmonious terms with the stock-holders.
+Besides, there’s an early grave yawning for me if I
+don’t succeed in making peace with Mrs. Tucker. I
+tell you, Doctor, when a woman decides to make things
+uncomfortable for a man,—well, the man might just
+as well resign himself to being perpetually uncomfortable.”
+</p>
+<p>
+And yet, no one could have greeted them more graciously
+than did Mrs. Tucker.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’m so glad you’ve come,” she said, “and brought
+the doctor. It is particularly pleasing to have the doctor
+here, for I want him to see if something can’t be
+done for poor Ralph. I’m sure I don’t know what’s
+going to become of the poor fellow. He doesn’t sleep
+any better than a baby, and he can’t ride over a hundred
+miles without getting tired. His muscles aren’t
+a bit harder than iron, either, and his heart beats all
+the time.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mrs. Tucker,” said Murray appealingly, “what
+can we do to make peace with you?”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_145'></a>145</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Without even seeing your husband again,” added
+the doctor, “I am willing to concede that he will live
+to be three thousand years old.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“We are beaten,” asserted Murray. “You have
+humbled our business and professional pride. We give
+Mr. Tucker none of the credit; it all belongs to you.
+We claim to be the equals of any man, but of no
+woman. Now, on what terms can we have peace?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I did want your insurance company for a sort of
+belated wedding present,” said Mrs. Tucker thoughtfully.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’d give it to you if I could,” said Murray with
+the utmost sincerity. “I assure you, that company
+has been nothing but an annoyance to me ever since
+you cast longing eyes on the stock.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, I’ve become more modest in my expectations,”
+replied Mrs. Tucker cheerfully. “I don’t expect much
+more than we’ve got now.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“How much have you got?” asked Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, our broker picked up a few shares, and there
+were some more in the estate of Ralph’s uncle, and the
+president of the company kindly arranged it so that
+we could get a little more. Such a delightful man he
+is, too! It was when I heard he had a place in this vicinity,
+where he came for an outing every year, that I
+insisted upon Ralph’s buying this ranch. I thought it
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_146'></a>146</span>
+would be nice to be near him—and it was. We’re great
+friends now, although he’s only here for a little while
+in the spring and fall.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Did—did you tell him about the insurance?” asked
+Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What insurance?” asked Mrs. Tucker blandly.
+“We haven’t any insurance. Poor Ralph—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mrs. Tucker,” interrupted Murray, “if you say
+‘Poor Ralph’ again, you will see a driveling idiot
+making streaks across the prairie. I have reached the
+limit of endurance. All I want is peace, peace, peace,
+and I’ll pay the price for it. Do you want some of
+my stock?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, dear, no,” she replied. “We’ve got it fixed now
+so that Ralph is pretty sure to be a director next year.
+We talked it over with the president.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Does Mr. Tucker still want a policy?” asked
+Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Certainly not,” said Mrs. Tucker. “If he’s going
+to die so soon, it would be beating the company, and
+we’re part of the company now, so we—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Stop it! stop it!” pleaded Murray. “I’ll bet you
+couldn’t kill him with an ax!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Sir!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I beg your pardon, but this is the climax of a year
+of torment that I didn’t suppose was possible this side
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_147'></a>147</span>
+of the infernal regions,” explained Murray dismally,
+“and I’m just naturally wondering why you brought
+me out here.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, I didn’t tell you that, did I?” returned Mrs.
+Tucker ingenuously. “I just wanted to tell you that,
+now that we’re stock-holders to a reasonable amount—Ralph
+retained a few shares, you know, and holds a
+proxy for mine—we look at the matter from an entirely
+different viewpoint, and we think that every
+reasonable precaution should be taken to avoid poor
+risks, as you call them. We are highly gratified by
+the evidence of caution that has inadvertently come
+under our notice, even if there was an incidental error
+that baffled human foresight.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The sudden and startling changes of position by
+this young woman were too much for both Murray and
+the doctor; they could only look at her in amazement
+as she calmly commended their course.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You have brought us all this distance to tell us
+that!” ejaculated Murray at last.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, it’s worth the trip!” he announced, as he recalled
+the events of the last year.
+</p>
+<p>
+Then Tucker appeared, big, strong, bronzed,
+hearty, and shook hands with them. Never a weakling
+in appearance, his year of outdoor life had made him
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_148'></a>148</span>
+the embodiment of health. He beamed upon his guests
+with hearty good nature as he gave them each a grip
+that made them wince. His wife regarded him critically
+for a moment.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Poor Ralph!” she said mischievously, and then she
+hastily assured them that this was really the last of
+the joke.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_149'></a>149</span><a name='c7' id='c7'></a>AN INCIDENTAL FAILURE</h2>
+<p>
+Adolph Schlimmer’s wink was of the self-satisfied
+variety that plainly says to the person at whom it is
+directed, “They’re mostly fools in this world—except
+you and me, and I’m not quite sure about you.”
+Adolph Schlimmer was a small man, but he thought
+he had enough worldly wisdom and sharpness for a
+giant. “You bet you, I don’t get fooled very much,”
+he boasted.
+</p>
+<p>
+Just now his wink was directed at Carroll Brown,
+an insurance solicitor.
+</p>
+<p>
+“How much iss there in it for you?” he asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, I get my commission, of course,” replied
+Brown.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Sure, sure,”—and again Adolph winked. “You
+don’t need it all, maybe.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why not?” asked Brown with disconcerting frankness.
+“I’m entitled to what I earn.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Sure, sure,” admitted Adolph, somewhat annoyed.
+“It’s vorth something to you to make the money, ain’t
+it, yes? I gif you the chance. It might be vorth
+something to me, perhaps, maybe.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_150'></a>150</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, if you want me to divide my commission with
+you,” exclaimed Brown, “we might as well quit talking
+right here. It would cost me my job, if anybody
+found it out.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Who iss to find it out? I bet you, if people could
+find out things, we’d haf more people in jail than out.
+Some big men, vorth millions, would haf to live a
+century to serf their time out. The boss discharges
+hiss clerk for doin’ what he iss doin’ himself.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s against the law,” argued Brown. “It’s a
+rebate on premiums and is prohibited.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Sure, sure,” conceded Adolph again. “But you
+got to do something to make business, ain’t it? I gif
+premiums and I get discounts. There don’t nobody
+fool me very much.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, I’m taking no chances with either my job
+or the law,” announced Brown, “even if I wanted to
+sacrifice part of my legitimate commission. I’m offering
+you a policy in a first-class company on the same
+terms that we give them to all others, and that’s the
+best I can do. If you’re looking for an advantage
+over your neighbors, you’ll have to go elsewhere. The
+very first rule of straight business is to treat all alike.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Sure it iss,” returned Adolph. “Look at the railroads
+and the big shippers.” Again he winked wisely.
+“I bet you, your boss ain’t such a fool as you. Make
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_151'></a>151</span>
+the big money when you can, but don’t run avay
+from the little money. I gif you a chance for the
+little money because I’m smart; some other feller let
+you haf it all because he issn’t.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Therein lay the measure of Adolph. It was beyond
+his comprehension that any man should treat all
+fairly: some one surely was “on the inside,” and his
+first thought in any transaction was to make a quiet
+“deal” with some interested party that would give
+him a trifling advantage over others. He was shrewd
+in a small and near-sighted way, and he had an idea
+that all men, except fools, looked at things as he did.
+He believed there was “graft” in everything. That
+being the case, it was the duty of a sharp man to get
+a share of it, even if, as in this instance, it only
+lessened his own expense somewhat. So Adolph
+Schlimmer went to see Brown’s boss, who happened
+to be Dave Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I get me some insurance,” he announced.
+</p>
+<p>
+“All right,” returned Murray agreeably. “You
+look like a good risk.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Risk?” repeated Adolph. “No, <em>nein</em>. I’m a sure
+thing.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray laughed.
+</p>
+<p>
+“That’s bad,” he said banteringly. “Sure things
+are what men go broke on in this world; they’re the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_152'></a>152</span>
+biggest risks of all.” Then, explanatorily: “I mean
+you seem to be in good physical condition, so that our
+physician is likely to pass you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You bet you,” returned Adolph, “but it’s my vife
+what counts. If I die, I leaf her the money; if she
+die, she leaf me nothing.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, you want to get a policy on your wife’s life,”
+said Murray thoughtfully, not favorably impressed
+with the other’s commercial tone. “How much?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“<em>Zwei</em> t’ousand dollars.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Not very much,” commented Murray. “A man
+of sense would prefer a good wife to two thousand
+dollars any day. Is she a worker?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You bet you, yes,” replied Adolph earnestly. “If
+she die, I looss money on her at that price. I figger
+it all out. She safe me the wages uf a clerk and a
+cook and some other things. I count up what she
+safe me and what she cost me and she’s vorth fifteen
+dollars a week easy in work and ten dollars a week
+in saving. I can’t afford to looss that. I insure the
+store and the stock, and now I insure this. I watch
+out for myself pretty close.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray was both disgusted and amused. Such a
+character as this was new to his experience, but the
+risk might be, and probably was, a perfectly good
+and legitimate one.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_153'></a>153</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, you bring your wife in,” he said after a
+moment of thought, “and I’ll talk to her.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Sure,” said Adolph. Then he winked in his wise
+way. “I safe you the commission. What iss there
+in it for me?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What?” exclaimed Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I haf a talk with Brown,” explained Adolph. “It’s
+vorth something to him to get the business, but he
+don’t make it vorth nothing to me to give it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“If he did we’d discharge him.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Sure, sure,” returned the imperturbable Adolph.
+“We got to watch the boys or there won’t be nothing
+left for us. So I safe the commission for you. What
+iss there in it for me?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Not a damn thing!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You play it that way with the fool,” advised
+Adolph complacently. “It’s a bully bluff for the
+feller that don’t know how things was done in business.
+Then we go splits, yes?”
+</p>
+<p>
+The ignorance and effrontery of the man so amazed
+Murray that he forgot his indignation for a moment
+and undertook to explain.
+</p>
+<p>
+“There is no commission on business that comes to
+the office,” he said.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Sure!” laughed Adolph, again resorting to that
+sagacious wink. “You let the company make it, yes?
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_154'></a>154</span>
+I stay home, you send man to tell me get insured, I
+say yes, man get paid—ain’t it so? I come here to
+get insured, and you give that man’s pay to the company,
+the men vorth millions—oh, yes, sure!” Adolph
+laughed at the absurdity of the thing. “Iss there
+anything in my eye?” he asked suddenly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You sit down there!” ordered Murray, for Adolph
+was now leaning familiarly over Murray’s desk. “I
+ought to kick you out, but I’m going to tell you a few
+things. Sit down and keep still. I’m several sizes
+bigger than you are and it’s my turn.” Murray
+spoke so aggressively that Adolph promptly returned
+to his seat. “Now, to begin with, you make a mistake
+in judging everybody else by yourself; there
+are a lot of decent people in this world. A good many
+may worship the almighty dollar, and that’s bad
+enough, but God help the few who get down to worshiping
+the almighty cent. A good many keep a
+lookout for graft, but you are the first one I ever saw
+who seemed to think everybody was crooked.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, <em>nein</em>; only business—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Keep still! You insult everybody you try to do
+business with by acting on the assumption that he is
+in your class. You have absorbed some of the tricky
+commercialism that is prevalent these days, and you’ve
+got the idea that there isn’t anything else—not even
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_155'></a>155</span>
+common sense. You would break the law for a trifle.
+What you propose is morally wrong, but we won’t discuss
+that, because you can’t understand it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t like—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Keep still! I’m doing you a favor, but I’ve got
+to tell you first what a libel you are on the average
+human being. The law that you want to break was
+made for the protection of just such financially insignificant
+people as you. It prohibits giving rebates
+in any form on insurance premiums and provides that
+the acceptance of such a rebate by the policy-holder
+shall invalidate his policy, and that the giving of
+such a rebate by a company or any of its agents shall
+subject the company to a fine. Do you understand?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Sure; but who iss to know?”
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray was discouraged, but he had set out to
+drive a lesson home to this dull-witted fellow who
+thought he was smart, and he valiantly held to his
+task. He could feel nothing but contempt for the
+man, but he had become rather interested in convincing
+him how foolish he was. Besides, Murray was a
+bitter opponent of the rebate evil in all lines of business—every
+one knows how it fosters monopoly—and
+he attacked it whenever and wherever he could.
+</p>
+<p>
+“If rebates on insurance premiums were not unlawful,”
+he asked, “do you think people of your kind
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_156'></a>156</span>
+are the ones who would get them? Well, hardly. The
+millionaires, the rich men, the men who take out the
+big policies, would get them, and you little fellows
+would pay the full price, just as you do wherever
+else the rebate evil exists. This law was made to
+protect you, and you want to break it down. Well, I
+suppose there are others just as bad. The men for
+whose benefit a law is made frequently insist upon
+playing with it until they drop it and break it, and
+then they wonder why the splinters won’t do them
+as much good as the original law.” Having warmed
+up to a subject that interested him, Murray was talking
+for himself now. Adolph could understand in a
+general way what he meant, but many of the remarks
+were entirely beyond his comprehension. “Look at it
+in another way,” Murray went on. “As a speculation,
+the insurance rebate is a mistake. The man who gets
+or accepts a rebate is taking a risk. ‘Well,’ he argues,
+‘so is the man who buys wheat or stocks or undeveloped
+real estate of problematical future value.’ Quite right;
+but when you speculate you want to be sure that your
+probable or possible profits bear a fair proportion to
+the risk and your possible losses. It’s all right to make
+a secured loan of one thousand dollars at five per cent.,
+but when you put your thousand into a scheme where
+there is a chance of losing every cent of it, you also
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_157'></a>157</span>
+want a chance of making a good deal more than the
+legal rate of interest. Russell Sage is said to look
+as closely after the small profits as the large, but
+Russell would shy away from an investment—a real
+safe <em>investment</em>—that promised only a ten cent profit
+on five dollars; and if it were a <em>speculation</em>, where he
+might lose the whole five, he would want to see a possibility
+of winning at least half as much. The man
+who accepts an insurance premium rebate is going into
+a speculation—a flimsy, cheap speculation, with a
+chance of loss so entirely out of proportion to the
+slight advantage he gains over other policy-holders
+that no man with a grain of sense would consider
+it for a moment. To secure a discount on his premium
+he risks his whole policy. Why, in your case
+you would put a two-thousand-dollar policy in danger
+to save a few miserable dollars. It isn’t cleverness, it
+isn’t shrewdness, it isn’t business, it isn’t sense; it isn’t
+anything but damn foolishness. Do you understand?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Sure,” answered Adolph. “If we iss found out, I
+looss the policy and you looss a fine. We both looss.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That’s it exactly.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Vell, if we both looss by telling, who iss going to
+find it out?” demanded Adolph triumphantly. “You
+bet you, I take the chance. Go ahead with her.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray leaned wearily back in his chair.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_158'></a>158</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“You’d better get out of here,” he said. “This company
+wouldn’t issue a policy in which you had any
+sort of interest on any terms. I was curious to discover
+if I could not stir up just a glimmer of business
+sense in you, and my curiosity is satisfied. You seem
+to me like a man who would risk all his money to win
+a fly-speck, if he thought he was going to win it by
+some underhand deal. Get out as quick as you can!
+But I tell you again, don’t fool with rebates!”
+</p>
+<p>
+Adolph stopped in the doorway.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You got to haf the whole commission, yes?” he
+remarked with accusing bitterness. “I take you for
+a hog.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Then he disappeared very suddenly, for he feared
+Murray would pursue.
+</p>
+<p>
+Here again was the measure of Adolph. In spite
+of Murray’s explanation, he could see nothing except
+a chance to win by saving a part of the commission.
+He could not comprehend that he was running any
+unusual risk or doing anything that another would
+not do, if the other had the sense to see the chance.
+In fact, he was fully convinced in his own mind that
+Murray was merely talking for effect and really desired
+the whole commission for himself. This made
+him the more determined to gain this small advantage
+for himself—partly because his little business world
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_159'></a>159</span>
+was made up of such devious methods, and partly because
+it would be an evidence of his own cleverness.
+</p>
+<p>
+Now, occasionally a solicitor for a company of high
+standing, acting on his own responsibility, will divide
+his commission in order to get some one to take out
+a policy. If he is trying to make a record, the temptation
+is considerable. If the policy is large, his half
+of this commission may be more than his whole commission
+in most other cases. He does this secretly, but
+he is inviting three kinds of trouble: his own discharge,
+a fine for his company, and a loss for the
+policy-holder. These three things will follow discovery,
+but he takes the chance. And there are irresponsible
+or unscrupulous companies or agencies (so
+it is said) that will tacitly approve such a course in
+some instances, taking the necessary risk in order to
+get business. Of course, no first-class or reliable company
+will sanction or even tolerate such methods.
+</p>
+<p>
+Nevertheless, Adolph, the shrewd fool, finally found
+the man for whom he was searching. A man may
+nearly always find trouble if he searches for it industriously,
+and Adolph was industrious. Unfortunately
+for him, however, he treated several other solicitors
+to his knowing wink before he met the one who agreed
+to his proposition, and, when it was learned that
+Adolph was taking out a policy on his wife’s life, they
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_160'></a>160</span>
+were quick to reach conclusions. But it was none of
+their business, and they said nothing. What they
+knew merely made it easier to prove the case, if the
+question should ever arise. The solicitor who finally
+entered into the deal was one who had done the same
+thing before. He was “broke” a good part of the time,
+and, when in that condition, he did not question
+closely the ethics of any proposition that promised
+an early, even though small, cash return. He was an
+outcast among such of the many conscientious men of
+the fraternity as knew him, but the local agent of the
+company that employed him was not particular, and
+there were rumors that the company itself might have
+been more strict.
+</p>
+<p>
+Anyhow, Adolph got the policy he wanted. His
+wife was disposed to object at first, for she had not
+been consulted until Adolph had made his bargain.
+There was no use, he argued, in telling her about it
+until he knew what he was going to do.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I buy you a policy,” he finally told her in the
+tone that a man—another man—might tell his wife
+he would buy her a sealskin coat.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What’s that?” she asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It pays <em>zwei</em> t’ousand dollars,” he explained.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Schlimmer was not enthusiastic.
+</p>
+<p>
+“When?” she asked.
+</p>
+<div class='figcenter' style='padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='i004' id='i004'></a>
+<img src="images/illus-160.jpg" alt="“What’s the use to me?” she persisted" title=""/><br />
+<span class='caption'>“What’s the use to me?” she persisted</span>
+</div>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_161'></a>161</span></div>
+<p>
+“When you are in the grafe,” he answered after a
+pause.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What’s the use to me?” she persisted.
+</p>
+<p>
+“My dear,” he said, with such gallantry as he
+could command, “it shows what you iss vorth.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Somehow, she was not flattered. She was a good
+wife, who worked hard, and she herself thought she
+was worth it, but she was selfish enough to think she
+ought to realize on her own value.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, <em>nein</em>,” he argued, “it ain’t the vay it’s done.
+You got yourself, ain’t it, yes? When you ain’t got
+yourself, you ain’t here, but I am. You don’t looss
+yourself when you die, but I looss you, and you’re
+vorth a lot.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“There’s other women,” she retorted.
+</p>
+<p>
+“But they ain’t vorth what you are by <em>zwei</em>
+t’ousand dollars,” he insisted, and this delicate bit of
+flattery won the day. After all, it made no difference
+to her. She rebelled a little at going to the insurance
+office to be examined, however.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You tell ’em I’m all right,” she urged. “You
+know.”
+</p>
+<p>
+But a new gown—a cheap one—gained this point,
+and she went.
+</p>
+<p>
+Adolph prided himself very much on this stroke of
+business. His great aim in life was to pay a little
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_162'></a>162</span>
+less than the market price for everything, and he was
+never convinced that he was really doing this unless
+the deal had to be carried out in some underhand
+way. When he could buy for less than others he was
+making so much more money, and it was his experience
+that the biggest profit lay in shady transactions.
+In others he had made, or saved, much more than
+in this, but the difficulties he encountered in this instance
+convinced him that it was an especially notable
+achievement. He was proud of his success.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You bet you, they don’t fool me very much,” he
+asserted frequently.
+</p>
+<p>
+And, in time, he told how clever he was. Not at
+first, however; he was very cautious at first, for Murray’s
+words had made an impression on him. But,
+after he had paid a few premiums, the lapse of time
+gave him a feeling of security, and one day, in boasting
+of his business shrewdness, he mentioned that he
+was even sharp enough to get life insurance at a bargain.
+After that, it was easier to speak of it again,
+and he finally told the story. The news spread in his
+own little circle. It was quite a feat, and he was held
+to have demonstrated remarkable cleverness. When
+another told of some sharp business deal, some one
+would remark, “Yes, that was clever, but you never
+got life insurance at a bargain.” And, in the course
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_163'></a>163</span>
+of time—six months or more from the time the story
+was first breathed—it came to the ears of one Daniel
+Grady. This was unfortunate, for Daniel at once
+jumped to the conclusion that he had been cheated.
+Daniel had a small policy in the same company, and
+this policy was costing him the full premium without
+rebate of any kind from any insurance solicitor or
+anybody else. Daniel did not like this, and neither
+did he like Adolph; in fact, he would have been willing
+to pay a little higher premium for the privilege
+of making trouble for Adolph. Failing that, Daniel
+would like to get on even terms with him.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s th’ divil iv a note,” said Daniel, “that I
+sh’u’d be payin’ more than that little shrimp, an’ me
+only thryin’ to take care iv Maggie an’ th’ childhern.
+I’ll go down to th’ office an’ push th’ face iv th’ man
+in if he don’t give me th’ same rate, I will so.”
+</p>
+<p>
+But Daniel wisely did nothing of the kind, for he
+recalled that there were a number of clerks in the
+office and a police station not far away, and he had
+no wish to add a fine to his expenses. Instead, after
+pondering the matter a few weeks and growing steadily
+more indignant, he went to see a little lawyer who
+had an office over a saloon, next to a justice of the
+peace. Daniel planned only to get his premiums reduced,
+but the lawyer saw other opportunities.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_164'></a>164</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s a great chance,” said the lawyer. “You’re
+a policy-holder—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Who says so?” demanded Daniel, for this sounded
+to him like an accusation.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I mean,” explained the lawyer, “that you are
+insured in the company.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What iv it?” asked Daniel.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why, the other policy-holders are the ones discriminated
+against in a case like this,” said the lawyer,
+“and any one of them can file a complaint.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’m not the kind iv a man to do much complainin’,”
+declared Daniel. “I niver see that it did much good.
+If I c’u’d give Schlimmer a bad turn—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That’s it; that’s it exactly. You can knock his insurance
+sky-high and get some money yourself.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Say that wanst more,” urged Daniel. “Me hearin’
+seems to be playin’ thricks.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“The law,” said the lawyer slowly, “fines a company
+for doing that—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“How much?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’ll have to look it up. Pretty stiff fine, though,
+and the informer—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t like th’ word.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, the man who makes the complaint gets half
+the fine. Do you understand that? Let me take charge
+of the matter for you, and we’ll divide the money.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_165'></a>165</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Will it hurt me own insurance?” asked Daniel.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Not a bit.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’m not lukkin’ to l’ave Maggie an’ th’ childhern
+without money whin I die, jist to land a dollar-twinty
+f’r me own pocket now. That’s a Schlimmer thrick.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Your insurance will be just as good as it ever
+was,” the lawyer asserted.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Will there be twinty dollars in it f’r me?” Daniel
+persisted.
+</p>
+<p>
+“There’ll be a good deal more than that—exactly
+how much I can’t say.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Go ahead,” instructed Daniel. “Put the little divil
+through.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The lawyer investigated and found his task comparatively
+easy, for Adolph had now personally told
+the story to several people. Indeed, by the exercise
+of a little ingenuity, the lawyer got him to tell it to
+him. Then he acted.
+</p>
+<p>
+When the news reached the local agency of the
+company there was no indecision as to what should be
+done. Unnecessary publicity in a matter of that kind
+was the very last thing sought. The solicitor was
+called in, put on the rack, and promptly confessed.
+Then he was discharged without further questioning.
+Perhaps the local agent was afraid he might learn of
+other similar instances if he pressed the matter too
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_166'></a>166</span>
+far, and he was quite content to remain in ignorance
+of anything else of that nature, so long as the public
+also remained in ignorance. The company promptly
+acknowledged its fault, showed that it had cleared itself
+morally by discharging the offending agent, and
+proceeded to clear itself legally by paying the necessary
+fine.
+</p>
+<p>
+When the news came to Adolph, however, there
+was wailing prolonged, for his policy was annulled.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I bet you,” said Adolph, “that feller Murray put
+up the job. He iss a great hog; he iss like those
+mono<em>pol</em>ists that puts smaller people out of business
+and gobbles it all.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Then Adolph got a pencil and a sheet of paper
+and began to figure his losses.
+</p>
+<p>
+“<em>Zwei</em> t’ousand dollar insurance,” he groaned, “and
+maybe she wouldn’t lif long. And I gif her a
+dress, too—a new dress. <em>Ach, Himmel!</em> it’s hard
+when a man’s vife beats him. A new dress for nothing
+at all but to looss money. That law iss a shame. It
+iss a—what you call it?—restriction of business.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Thereafter, for some time, the sight of the new
+gown would make Adolph morose and gloomy, and
+his friends found him unusually modest and unobtrusive.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_167'></a>167</span><a name='c8' id='c8'></a>AN INCIDENTAL SCHEME</h2>
+<p>
+There came to Dave Murray one day a young man
+who was looking for a job. He was a bright young
+fellow and seemed to be very earnest.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I have been a clerk,” he explained, “but there is
+little prospect for the future where I am now, and
+I want to get something that has some promise in it.
+In fact, I must do so. I am making barely enough
+to support my mother and myself, and I may want
+to marry, you know.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray readily admitted that young men frequently
+were attacked by the matrimonial bacillus and
+that, there being no sure antidote, the disease had to
+run its course. “Which is a good thing for the world,”
+he added, “so you are quite right to prepare yourself
+for the attack. But are you sure that insurance is
+your field?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I have given the subject a good deal of thought,”
+was the reply, “and insurance interests me.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That’s a good sign,” commented Murray. “Success
+is for the man who is interested in his work, and
+not merely in the financial results of that work.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_168'></a>168</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, I want to make money, too,” said the young
+man frankly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“We all do,” returned Murray, “but the man who
+has no other aim than that would better stick to business
+and let the professions alone. Life insurance has
+become a profession, like banking. Time was when
+anybody with money could be a banker, but now it is
+conceded to require special gifts and a special training.
+I place life insurance right up in the front rank
+of the professions, for it is semi-philanthropic. We
+are not in it for our health, of course, but, if we are
+conscientious and earnest, we may reasonably flatter
+ourselves that we are doing a vast amount of good
+in line with our work. The life insurance solicitor
+has been the butt of many jokes. Perhaps he himself
+has been responsible for this, but times have changed
+and so have methods. If I ever caught one of my
+men slipping into an office with an apologetic air, like
+a second-rate book-canvasser, I’d discharge him on the
+spot. The insurance solicitor of to-day wants to consider
+himself a business man with a business proposition
+to make; he must have self-respect and show it.
+The best men plan their work carefully, do not attempt
+to hurry matters, and usually meet those that
+they expect to interest in their proposition by appointment,
+instead of trying to force the thing upon them
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_169'></a>169</span>
+by pure nerve. When a fellow becomes a nuisance
+he is hurting himself, his company and all others in
+his line. Do you still think insurance the line for
+you?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I can begin,” said the young man, by way of reply,
+“with an application from my present employer. I’ve
+been talking insurance to him for practice, and he has
+agreed to take out a policy. He’s a pretty good fellow.
+He says I’m worth more than he can afford to
+pay me and he wants to help me along.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I guess you’re all right,” laughed Murray. “At
+any rate, you impress me as being the kind of man I
+want. Leave your references and come in again tomorrow.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray was unusually particular as to the character
+of the men he employed. It was not enough
+for him that a man could get business, but he had his
+own ideas as to the way business should be secured.
+Absolute integrity and the most painstaking care to
+state a proposition fairly, without exaggeration, were
+points upon which he insisted.
+</p>
+<p>
+“A dissatisfied policy-holder,” he said, “is a dead
+weight to carry; a satisfied policy-holder is an advertisement.
+If a man finds he is getting a little more
+than he expected, he is so much better pleased; if he
+finds he is getting a little less, he feels he has been
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_170'></a>170</span>
+tricked. Insurance is a good enough proposition, so
+that you don’t have to gild it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray himself, in his younger days, had once secured
+an application for a large policy by refusing
+to expatiate on the merits of the particular form of
+insurance he was advocating.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, let’s hear what a beautiful thing it is,” the
+man had said.
+</p>
+<p>
+“My dear sir,” Murray had replied, “it is a straight
+business proposition, with no frills or twists of any
+kind. You have the facts and the figures. If you,
+with your business training, can’t see the merit of it,
+it would be a waste of time for me to attempt any
+elucidation. I have not the egotism to think I can
+<em>talk</em> you into taking out a policy. As a matter of
+fact, this proposition doesn’t need any argument, and
+it would be a reflection on the plain merit of the proposition
+for me to attempt one.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Different methods for different men. This man
+never before had seen an insurance solicitor who would
+not talk for an hour, if he had the chance, and he was
+impressed and pleased. This was business,—straight
+business and nothing else. He straightway took out a
+large policy.
+</p>
+<p>
+Something of this Murray told the young man when
+he came back the next day, for he was anxious to impress
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_171'></a>171</span>
+upon him the fact that life insurance was not
+like a mining scheme, which has to be painted with all
+the glories of the sunset in order to float the stock,
+and that the man who overstated his case would inevitably
+suffer from the reaction.
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray had been favorably impressed with the
+young man—Max Mays was the name he gave—and
+the employer of Mays had spoken well of him. He
+was rather a peculiar fellow, according to the employer—always
+busy with figures or financial stories
+and seemingly deeply interested in the details of
+the large business affairs that were discussed in the
+newspapers and the magazines. Aside from this,
+he was about like the average clerk who hopes for
+and seeks better opportunities, and meanwhile
+makes the best of what he has—reasonably industrious
+and yet far from forsaking the pleasures of this
+life.
+</p>
+<p>
+All in all, Mays seemed like good material from
+which to make a life insurance man, and the fact
+that he did not propose to desert his present employer
+without notice was in his favor. Possibly the fact
+that he was getting his first commission through the
+latter had something to do with this, but, anyhow, he
+planned to continue where he was until a successor
+had been secured; and too many young men, contemplating
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_172'></a>172</span>
+such a change, would have let their enthusiasm
+lead them to quit without notice when they
+found the new place open to them. This is mentioned
+merely as one of the things that led Murray to think
+he had secured a thoroughly conscientious, as well as
+an ambitious, employee.
+</p>
+<p>
+When he finally reported for duty Murray gave him
+certain general instructions, principal among which
+was this: “Never make a statement that will require
+explanation or modification later. Any time you decide
+that the proposition you are making is not good
+enough to stand squarely on its merits, without exaggeration
+or deception, direct or inferential, come
+into the office and resign. Any time you find yourself
+saying anything that you yourself do not believe implicitly,
+it is time for you to quit. When you have
+to explain what you really meant by some certain
+statement, you are creating doubt and distrust, for
+the unadulterated truth, of course, does not have to be
+explained.”
+</p>
+<p>
+For a time Murray watched Mays rather closely—not
+in the expectation of finding anything wrong, but
+rather with the idea of giving him helpful suggestions—but
+the young man seemed to be unusually capable
+and unusually successful for a beginner. He seemed
+to be working a comparatively new field—a field that
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_173'></a>173</span>
+turned up no large policies but that seemed to be prolific
+of small ones. This, however, was quite natural.
+Every new man works first among those he happens
+to know, and Mays was doing business with his old
+associates. In time, Murray ceased to give him any
+particular attention, except to note the regularity
+with which he turned in applications for small policies,
+and there probably would have been no deviation from
+the customary routine had it not been for an unexpected
+and apparently trivial incident.
+</p>
+<p>
+An application for a small policy had come in
+through one of the other solicitors. Mays happened
+to be in the office when the applicant called for his
+physical examination, but they exchanged no greetings.
+Apparently they were strangers. Yet Mays
+slipped out into the hall and intercepted the other
+as he came from the doctor’s office. Murray, emerging
+suddenly from his own room, saw them talking together
+and caught this question and answer:
+</p>
+<p>
+“Is it all right?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course. I’m a bully good risk, as you call it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Then, seeing Murray, they hastily separated and
+went their ways.
+</p>
+<p>
+Now, why should a friend of Mays apply for insurance
+through another solicitor? Well, he might
+have been ignorant, when he made his application, of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_174'></a>174</span>
+the fact that Mays was in the insurance business. But
+why did they give no sign of recognition when they
+met in the main office? It was quite natural that
+Mays should be anxious to learn how his friend came
+out with the physician, but why should he sneak out
+into the hall to ask the question?
+</p>
+<p>
+Any evidence of secrecy and underhand work always
+annoyed Murray. He did not like this, although he
+could see nothing in it to cause him any anxiety.
+Nevertheless, he looked up the papers of the man who
+had just been examined and found that his name was
+John Tainter and that he lived near Mays. He was
+a good risk, however, and he got his policy. There
+was no earthly reason why it should be refused. But
+Murray watched Mays more carefully and gave painstaking
+attention to the risks he brought in.
+</p>
+<p>
+The applicants were generally small tradesmen—usually
+foreigners—but there was nothing in
+the least suspicious in any case. Indeed, it was
+difficult to see how there could be anything
+wrong, for the safeguards made it practically impossible
+for a mere solicitor to put up any successful
+scheme to beat the company, and certainly
+it would not be tried with any trifling policy. But
+it annoyed Murray to find that a man he had believed
+so frank and straightforward was tricky, and he
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_175'></a>175</span>
+could not, try as he would, find any reason for this
+trickiness.
+</p>
+<p>
+Then, one day, while he was waiting in a hotel office
+for his card to be taken up to the room of a man with
+whom he had some business, he heard a strangely
+familiar voice near him making a strangely familiar
+assertion.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You bet you, they don’t fool me very much,” said
+the voice.
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray turned to see who it was, but a big square
+column was in the way. Murray’s chair was backed
+up to one side of this, and the speaker was on the
+other.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I can’t just place that voice,” mused Murray, “but
+I have heard it somewhere.” There was silence for an
+instant.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s going to be vorth something, ain’t it, yes?”
+inquired the voice at last.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It looks like a big thing and no mistake,” was the
+reply.
+</p>
+<p>
+“By George!” muttered Murray, “it’s that Adolph
+Schlimmer who tried to get a rebate on his policy, and
+the fellow with him is Max Mays.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Just then word came that Murray’s man would see
+him, and he had to leave. He was careful, however,
+to keep the column between him and the two he had
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_176'></a>176</span>
+found in conversation. It was just as well not to
+let them know of his presence, for he preferred not
+to have their suspicions aroused.
+</p>
+<p>
+There was now little doubt in his mind that some
+scheme was being worked out. But what? What
+could these two men, neither of whom was versed in
+the theory and details of life insurance, do that would
+be in any way hurtful to the company or advantageous
+to them? Of course, it was only a surmise that their
+confidential business concerned him in any way, but
+association with Schlimmer would be sufficient to make
+Murray uneasy about any of his men, and the strange
+action of Mays in the Tainter matter added to his
+uneasiness.
+</p>
+<p>
+His first move was to investigate Mays thoroughly,
+and, to his astonishment, he discovered that, far from
+having a mother to support, Mays was living with a
+married brother and had no one to look after but
+himself. He had told the truth about his business
+record, but he had lied about his personal responsibilities.
+That lie had been an artistic one, however, for
+it had helped materially to get him a position with
+Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+Further investigation showed that there was a
+light-headed, frivolous young girl, to whom he
+was devoted and with whom he attended Saturday-night
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_177'></a>177</span>
+dances in various public halls, but it had to be
+admitted, to his credit, that he never let these interfere
+with business and was always on hand with a
+clear head. At the same time, it threw an entirely
+new light on his character, and showed him to be not
+at all the sort of fellow his business record had indicated.
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray was tempted to discharge him at once, but
+he refrained for two reasons: first, his action would
+be dictated by his own disappointment in the man
+rather than by anything he knew that was definitely
+derogatory, aside from his falsehood about his mother;
+second, he wanted a chance to investigate further the
+association with Schlimmer, and the only way to do
+this was to pretend to be entirely unsuspicious and
+entirely satisfied. If there was any kind of scheme
+that could be put up by two such men, he was interested
+in finding it out, especially if they had already
+taken any action. Until the thing was clear, he wished
+to have Mays within reach.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mays was shadowed for a few days, but nothing was
+learned except that he unquestionably had business
+relations with the unscrupulous Schlimmer, and that
+they occasionally met in the office of a lawyer in that
+district.
+</p>
+<p>
+“A lawyer!” mused Murray. “Now, what the devil
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_178'></a>178</span>
+do they need of a lawyer? I can’t see where he comes
+in.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Tainter was with them once,” replied the
+“shadow.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I certainly never had anything puzzle me like
+this,” remarked Murray. “The separate incidents
+are so trifling that it seems absurd to attach any importance
+to them, and yet, taking them all together,
+I am convinced there is something wrong. I’d like
+to hear what they have to say to each other.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That,” said the shadow, “can be easily arranged,
+for they are to meet next Sunday afternoon, and I
+can get the janitor easily to let us into the adjoining
+office.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’ll be there,” said Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+Now, Murray, in spite of his good nature, was a
+dignified man, but he knew when to sacrifice his dignity.
+He was an “office man,” but he rather enjoyed
+an excuse for getting outside and occupying himself
+in some unusual way. In fact, Murray had the making
+of a “strenuous” man in him, if fate had not decreed
+that he should devote his energies to the less exciting
+task of directing the destinies of a life insurance
+agency. So he rather enjoyed the mild excitement of
+getting into the adjoining office unobserved and lying
+prone on his stomach to get his ear close to the crack
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_179'></a>179</span>
+under the door. But the reward was not great. The
+lawyer—a big blustering fellow—was there, and so
+were Schlimmer, Tainter and Mays, but the meeting
+seemed to be one for jubilation rather than for planning.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I got the papers all ready,” said the lawyer.
+“Sign ’em, Tainter, and then we’re ready to go ahead
+the moment Mays gives the word. We want to land
+all we can.”
+</p>
+<p>
+And that was the only business transacted. The
+rest of the time was given to gloating over some scheme
+that was not put in words.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You bet you, I make that Murray sit up and take
+notice, yes?” remarked Schlimmer. “I gif him his
+chance once and I get the vorst of it, but I even up
+now.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s great,” commented the lawyer. “You’ve got
+a great head on you, Schlimmer. Not one man in a
+thousand would have thought of it. We’ll all even up,
+but they would have been mighty suspicious if I had
+let Tainter’s application go in through Mays. That’s
+where you get the advantage of having a lawyer in
+the deal.”
+</p>
+<p>
+And more to the same effect, but no definite explanation
+of the scheme.
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray was at his office unusually early Monday
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_180'></a>180</span>
+morning, and the first thing he did was to have a
+clerk look up the Schlimmer case. Some company, he
+knew, had got into trouble over a Schlimmer policy,
+and he wanted to know all about it. He learned that
+Schlimmer had taken out a policy on his wife’s life,
+had demanded and secured a rebate from the solicitor,
+and that another policy-holder had taken action that
+resulted in nullifying the policy and imposing a fine
+on the company.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I think I understand it now,” mused Murray, “but
+it looks to me as if pretty prompt action might be
+necessary.”
+</p>
+<p>
+All doubt, all hesitation had disappeared. Murray
+was wide awake and active. He called in his private
+messenger.
+</p>
+<p>
+“When Mr. Mays reports,” he said, “he is to wait
+until I have had a talk with him before going out. I
+shall send for him when I am ready.” Then, giving
+the boy a slip of paper with a name and an address on
+it, “I want to see that man here at once. Take a cab
+and bring him. Tell him the validity of his life insurance
+depends upon it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+While the boy was gone, Murray slipped out himself,
+and, when he returned, a stranger accompanied
+him. The stranger was secreted in a room adjoining,
+and then Murray took up the routine of his regular
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_181'></a>181</span>
+work. The only interruption came when a clerk informed
+him that Mays was waiting.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Let him wait,” said Murray. “I’m not quite ready
+for him yet. If he tries to leave, jump on his back
+and hold him.”
+</p>
+<p>
+After a time the messenger returned with the man
+for whom he had been sent, and Murray immediately
+took him into his private office and shut the door.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mr. Leckster,” he said abruptly, “how much of a
+rebate did Mays give you on the policy you took out
+with us?”
+</p>
+<p>
+Leckster was plainly mystified and frightened.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Out with it!” commanded Murray. “Your policy
+isn’t worth the paper it’s written on unless the matter
+is straightened out mighty quick. How much was the
+rebate?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t understand,” said Leckster, already nearly
+terror-stricken.
+</p>
+<p>
+“How much of his commission did he give to you to
+get you to take out a policy?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, he give me a half.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Leckster,” said Murray, “that was against the law.
+If any other policy-holder hears of it and wants to go
+into court, he can nullify your policy and get half
+of the fine that will be assessed against us for the act
+of our agent. If you want to make your policy
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_182'></a>182</span>
+unassailable, you must refund that rebate. Now, go
+home and think it over.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Then he sent word to Mays that he was ready to
+see him.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mays,” he said abruptly, “what was your
+scheme?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Sir!” exclaimed Mays.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What was your scheme?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Surely you must be joking, sir,” protested Mays.
+“I have no scheme.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why did Tainter,” replied Murray in deliberate
+tones, “a friend of yours, put in his application
+through another solicitor?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“He didn’t know I was in the insurance business until
+he came up here to be examined.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Then why did you fail to recognize each other
+until you got out in the hall where you thought you
+were unobserved?”
+</p>
+<p>
+Mays did not even hesitate. Evidently he had prepared
+himself for this.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Another man had got his application,” he said,
+“and I was afraid it would look as if I were trying
+to interfere in some way. I did nod to him, but very
+likely it wasn’t noticed.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What are your relations with Schlimmer?” persisted
+Murray.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_183'></a>183</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, I got into a little business deal with him, for
+which I am sincerely sorry. I’m trying to get out
+now.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Insurance?” asked Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, sir; it had nothing whatever to do with insurance.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray was thoughtful and silent for several minutes.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mays,” he said at last, speaking slowly, “I don’t
+know whether you’re worth saving or not. You’ve
+got in with a bad crowd and you’re mixed up in a bad
+deal. But you impressed me favorably when you
+came here, and I think you are capable of being legitimately
+successful. Of course, you lied to me about
+your mother—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I was very anxious for the job, sir.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I quite appreciate that, although your motive for
+wanting the job will hardly bear close scrutiny. Still,
+you are young and I am anxious to give you another
+chance. Now, tell me the whole story.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“There is nothing to tell, sir,” Mays replied with
+an ingenuous air. “Your words and insinuations are
+a deep mystery to me.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Think again,” advised Murray. “I know the
+story pretty well myself.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I shall be glad to have you tell it, sir,” said Mays.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_184'></a>184</span>
+“Your earnestness leads me to think it must be interesting.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“If I tell it,” said Murray, “it removes your last
+chance of escaping any of the consequences.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Go ahead,” said Mays.
+</p>
+<p>
+At least, he had magnificent nerve.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Schlimmer,” said Murray, fixing his eyes sharply
+on Mays, “was once mixed up in a little trouble over
+rebates, which are unlawful. He tried to get me to
+give him a rebate on a policy, but I refused, and he
+seems to have got the idea that I was directly responsible
+for the failure of his scheme elsewhere. He
+learned, however, that the informer gets half of the
+fine assessed against the company in each case, but
+that only another policy-holder is empowered to make
+the necessary complaint. It occurred to Schlimmer
+that, if he could find enough rebate cases, there would
+be a good bit of money in it on the division of the fines.
+Being a man of low cunning, it occurred to Schlimmer
+that these cases might be manufactured, if he could
+get hold of a complaisant insurance solicitor, for the
+company is held responsible for the act of the agent,
+and the easiest way to get hold of a complaisant
+solicitor was to make one. So he went to a young man
+who was absorbed in the study of tricky finance and
+who couldn’t see why he couldn’t do that sort of thing
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_185'></a>185</span>
+himself, and the young man got a job in this office.
+The young man, Max Mays by name, immediately
+began preparing rebate cases for future use. He
+worked among a class of people who knew little of
+insurance or insurance laws and who are in the habit
+of figuring very closely, and this rebate proposition
+looked pretty good to them.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Next, Schlimmer and Mays got a lawyer into the
+scheme, because they would need him when it came
+to the later proceedings, and they further prepared
+for their <em>coup</em> by having a confederate, named Tainter,
+take out a policy in the company, so that he would be
+in a position to make the necessary complaint. In
+order to avert suspicion, when the time for action
+came, Tainter applied for his policy through another
+solicitor. I think that is about all, Mays, except that
+you were ready to spring your surprise as soon as the
+policies had been issued on two or three applications
+now under consideration. I was in the next room to
+you when you held your meeting yesterday, Mays.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Mays had grown very white during this recital, but
+he still kept his nerve, although he now showed it in
+a different way.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes,” he said, “that is about all. There are some
+details lacking, but the story is practically correct.
+What do you intend to do with me?”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_186'></a>186</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Then Mays was suddenly conscious of the fact that
+a man, a stranger, was standing beside him. The
+man had emerged quietly from the room in which he
+had been concealed.
+</p>
+<p>
+“There are the warrants for the whole crowd, including
+this man,” said Murray, handing the stranger
+a number of documents. “The charge is conspiracy,
+and, if they could have secured half the fine in each
+of the cases they prepared so carefully, they would
+have made a pretty good thing. Now, I’ve got the
+job of straightening this matter out so that both the
+policies and the company will be unassailable under
+the rebate law. But, at any rate, Schlimmer has got
+his second lesson, and it’s a good one. Look out for
+him especially, officer. If you keep this man away
+from the telephone, you’ll have no difficulty in getting
+Schlimmer and all the others.”
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_187'></a>187</span><a name='c9' id='c9'></a>AN INCIDENTAL COURTSHIP</h2>
+<p>
+Harry Renway was the kind of man that people
+refer to as “a simple soul.” He might feel deeply,
+but he did not think that way. As a matter of fact,
+it was stretching things a little to call him a man,
+for he was hardly more than a boy—a youth in years,
+but a boy in everything else. Nevertheless, it is worth
+recording that he was a reasonably thrifty boy,
+although his earning capacity had not permitted him
+to put aside anything resembling a fortune.
+</p>
+<p>
+Love, however, visits the poor as well as the wealthy,
+the simple as well as the wise. Indeed, sometimes it
+seems as if Love rather avoids the wealthy and wise and
+chooses the companionship of less-favored mortals.
+So, perhaps, it is not at all extraordinary that Harry
+Renway was in love, and the object of his affections
+was one of the most tantalizing specimens of femininity
+that ever annoyed and delighted man.
+</p>
+<p>
+She said frankly that she was mercenary, but it is
+probable she exaggerated. She had been poor all her
+life, but she had no dreams of great wealth and no
+ambition for it: she merely wanted to be assured
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_188'></a>188</span>
+reasonable comfort—that is, what seemed to her
+reasonable comfort. A really mercenary girl would
+have deemed it poverty and hardship. Somehow,
+when one has been poor and has suffered some privations,
+one learns to give some thought to worldly
+affairs, and it is to the credit of Alice Jennings that
+she did not grade men more exactly by the money
+standard. Harry’s modest salary would be sufficient
+to meet her requirements, but Harry had nothing but
+his salary. A larger salary might give something
+of luxury, in addition to comfort, but, assured the
+comfort and freedom from privation, she would be
+guided by the inclinations of her heart. So, perhaps,
+she was wise rather than mercenary. Love needs a
+little of the fostering care of money, although too
+much of this tends to idleness and scandal.
+</p>
+<p>
+“But if anything should happen to you,” argued
+Alice, when Harry tried to tell her how hard he would
+work for her.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What’s going to happen to me?” he demanded.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t know,” she answered lightly. “You’re a
+dear, good boy, Harry, and I like you, but I’ve had
+all the poverty I want.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Who’s talking about poverty?” persisted Harry
+stoutly. “I’ve got more than two hundred dollars
+saved up, and I’ll have a bigger salary pretty soon.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_189'></a>189</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“What’s two hundred dollars!” she returned.
+“We’d use that to begin housekeeping. Then, if anything
+should happen to you—Why, Harry, I’d be
+worse off than I am now. I don’t want much, but
+I’ve learned to look ahead—a little. I’ve neither the
+disposition nor the training to be a wage-earner, and
+I’ll never go back home after I marry. Dad has a
+hard enough time of it, anyhow.” There was raillery
+in her tone, but there was also something of earnestness
+in it. “Now, Tom Nelson has over two thousand
+dollars,” she added.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, if you’re going to sell yourself!” exclaimed
+Harry bitterly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I didn’t say I’d marry him,” she retorted teasingly,
+“but, if I did and anything happened to him—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You’d probably find he’d lost it in some scheme,”
+put in Harry.
+</p>
+<p>
+“He might,” admitted Alice thoughtfully, “but he’s
+pretty careful.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And too old for you,” added Harry angrily. “Still,
+if it’s only money—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It isn’t,” she interrupted more seriously; “it’s caution.
+I’ve had enough to make me just a little cautious.
+You don’t know how hard it has been, Harry,
+or you’d understand. If you knew more of the disappointments
+and heartaches of some of the girls
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_190'></a>190</span>
+who are deemed mercenary, you wouldn’t blame them
+for sacrificing sentiment to a certain degree of worldliness.
+’I just want to be sure I’ll never have to go
+through this again,’ says the girl, and she tries to
+make sure. It isn’t a question of the amount of
+money she can get by marriage, nor of silks or satins,
+but rather of peace and security after some years of
+privation and anxiety. She learns to think of the
+future, if only in a modest way—that is, some girls do.
+I’m one of them. What could I do—alone?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Then you won’t marry me?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I didn’t say that.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Then you will marry me?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I didn’t say that, either. There’s no hurry.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Thus she tantalized him always. It was unfair, of
+course—unless she intended to accept him eventually.
+In that case, it was merely unwise. It is accepted as
+a girl’s privilege to be thus perverse and inconsistent
+in her treatment of the man she intends to marry,
+but sometimes she goes too far and loses him. However,
+Alice Jennings was herself uncertain. She had
+known Harry a long time, and she liked him. She
+had known Tom Nelson a shorter time, and she liked
+him also. It may be said, however, that she did not
+love either of them. Love is self-sacrificing and gives
+no thought to worldly affairs. Alice Jennings might
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_191'></a>191</span>
+have been capable of love, if she could have afforded
+the luxury, but circumstances had convinced her that
+she could not afford it, so she did not try. She would
+not sell herself solely for money, and her standard of
+comfort was not high, but she was trying hard to
+“like” the most promising man well enough to marry
+him. As far as possible, she was disposed to follow the
+advice of the man who said, “Marry for love, my son,
+marry for love and not for money, but, if you can love
+a girl with money, for heaven’s sake do so.”
+</p>
+<p>
+As a natural result of her desire to make sure of
+escaping for all time the thraldom of poverty that was
+so galling to her, she was irresolute and capricious.
+She dressed unusually well for a girl in her position,
+but this was because she had taste and had learned to
+make her own clothes, so the money available for her
+gowns could be put almost entirely into the material
+alone. She was a capable housekeeper, because necessity
+had compelled her to give a good deal of time
+to housework in her own home. She had no thought
+of escaping all these duties, irksome as they were, but
+she did not wish to be bound down to them. A comfortable
+flat, with a maid-of-all-work to do the cooking
+and cleaning, and a sewing girl for a week once or
+twice a year, was her idea of luxury. This, even
+though there was still much for her to do, would give
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_192'></a>192</span>
+her freedom, and this, with reasonably careful management,
+either of the men could give her. But she
+looked beyond, and hesitated; she had schooled herself
+to go rather deeply into the future.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tom Nelson found her quite as unreasonable and
+bewildering as did Harry. Tom was older and more
+resourceful than Harry, but he was not so steady and
+persistent. Harry was content to let his money accumulate
+in a savings’ bank, but Tom deemed this too
+slow and was willing to take risks in the hope of
+larger profits. He made more, but he also spent
+more, and, all else aside, it was a question as to whether
+Harry would not be able to provide the better home.
+Then, too, Tom occasionally lost money, while nothing
+but a bank failure could endanger Harry’s modest
+capital. So Tom had his own troubles with the girl.
+He knew her dread of poverty—amounting almost to
+a mania—and he made frequent incidental reference
+to his capital.
+</p>
+<p>
+“But that isn’t much,” she said lightly. Her self-confessed
+mercenariness was always brought out in a
+whimsical, half-jocular way that seemed to have nothing
+of worldly hardness in it. “And there’s no telling
+whether you’ll have it six months from now,” she
+added. “As long as I had you to take care of me,
+it would be all right, but—”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_193'></a>193</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+She always came back to the same point. Yet one
+of these two she intended to marry, her personal
+preference being for Harry, and her judgment commending
+Tom. The former would plod; the latter
+might be worth twenty thousand in a few years, or
+he might be in debt. Harry never would have much;
+Tom might have a great deal—enough to make the
+future secure, no matter what happened.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Will you invest the money for me?” she asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why, no,—I must use it to make more.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Thus she flirtatiously, laughingly, but with an undertone
+of seriousness, kept them both uncertain, while
+she impressed upon them her one great fear of being
+left helpless. Yet even in this her ambition was
+modest: no income for life, but only something for
+her temporary needs until she could adjust herself to
+new conditions, if that became necessary. Anything
+more than that was too remote for serious thought.
+</p>
+<p>
+Harry finally told his troubles to a friend, when
+these exasperating conditions had continued for some
+time. He wanted consolation; he got advice.
+</p>
+<p>
+“A little too worldly to suit me,” commented the
+friend. “Still, it might be better if some of the girls
+who marry hastily had just a little of such worldliness.
+There would be fewer helpless and wretched
+women and children.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_194'></a>194</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“That’s just it,” returned Harry. “She knows
+what it means, and that two thousand of Tom Nelson’s
+looks awful big to her. If I had as much I’d
+invest it for her outright, and that would settle it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Doesn’t want it to spend, as I understand it?”
+queried the friend.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, no—just to know that she has something in
+case anything happens.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why don’t you try life insurance?” asked the
+friend.
+</p>
+<p>
+It took Harry a moment or two to grasp this.
+Then his face lighted up.
+</p>
+<p>
+“By thunder! I never thought of that!” he cried.
+</p>
+<p>
+“That’s the trouble with lots of men,” remarked
+the friend dryly. “Marriage is considered a dual
+arrangement when it should be a triple—man, woman
+and life insurance. That’s the only really safe combination.
+The thoughtful lover will see that the life
+insurance agent and the minister are interviewed about
+the same time.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Where did you learn all that?” asked the astonished
+Harry.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, it’s not original with me,” was the reply. “I
+heard Dave Murray talk about insurance once. He’s
+an enthusiast. He claims that the best possible wedding
+gift is a paid-up life insurance policy, and I
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_195'></a>195</span>
+guess he’s right. It would be a mighty appropriate
+gift from the groom’s father to the bride—a blame
+sight better than a check or a diamond necklace. A
+paid-up policy for five thousand would look just as
+big as a five-thousand-dollar check, and it wouldn’t
+cost nearly as much—unless the old man plans to
+sneak back the check before it can be cashed. And
+what a lot of good it might do at a time when the
+need may be the greatest! If the bride is the one
+to be considered in selecting a wedding gift, as I
+understand to be the case, what better than this?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I guess Dave Murray is the man for me,” said
+Harry in admiration of the originality of this idea.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course he is,” asserted the friend. “And if
+you want to make the argument stronger for your
+wavering girl, get an accident insurance policy, with
+a sick benefit clause, also, and then take out a little
+old age insurance. There ought to be no trouble about
+giving her all the assurance necessary to allay her
+fears.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Harry was a good risk, and he had no difficulty in
+getting a policy. He saw Murray personally, but, as
+he did not explain his purpose or situation, their conference
+was brief: Murray merely asked if he thought
+a thousand-dollar policy was all he could afford.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Because,” said Murray, “when you go after a
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_196'></a>196</span>
+good thing it’s wise to take all you can of it. There
+ought to be enough so that something can be found
+after your estate is settled.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’d make it five hundred if I could,” said Harry.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Most of the good companies,” said Murray,
+“wisely protect a man from his own economical folly
+by refusing to issue a policy for less than a thousand.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s an experiment. A fellow doesn’t want to put
+too much money into an experiment.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray, the resourceful Murray, was bewildered.
+Life insurance an experiment! Surely he could not
+mean that.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well,” he said, “your widow will be pretty sure
+to think the experiment a success.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I haven’t got a widow,” asserted Harry.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course not; but you may have.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“How can I have a widow when I am dead?” asked
+Harry. “How can I have anything when I am dead?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You can’t tell by the looks of an electric wire how
+highly it is charged,” mused Murray. “I guess I
+touched this one too recklessly.” Then to Harry:
+“But there may be <em>a</em> widow.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“There may,” returned Harry.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, she’ll be sorry you didn’t experiment on a
+larger scale, because it really isn’t an experiment at
+all. There’s only one thing surer than insurance.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_197'></a>197</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“What’s that?” asked Harry with interest.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Death; and, with the popular gold bonds or any
+limited payment policy, you have a chance to beat
+death by some years. But suit yourself.”
+</p>
+<p>
+So Harry took the physical examination and got
+the policy, payable to his estate. Then he promptly
+assigned it to Alice.
+</p>
+<p>
+“There’s one thousand dollars sure, if anything
+should happen to me,” he said. “That beats any old
+elusive two thousand that Tom Nelson may have.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You’re a dear, good, faithful boy, Harry,” she
+said impulsively, and she gave him a kiss.
+</p>
+<p>
+That was happiness enough for that day and the
+next, but on the third he began to get down to earth
+again and deemed the time propitious.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You’ll marry me?” he suggested.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Perhaps,” was her reply.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Perhaps!” he cried. “It’s always perhaps.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Perhaps it won’t be always perhaps,” she returned.
+</p>
+<p>
+In truth, she had wavered so long that she found
+it difficult to make up her mind. Besides, Tom was
+prospering, Tom was devoted, and Tom was a nice
+fellow. True, he was twenty-six while she was only
+eighteen, and Harry, at twenty, was nearer her own
+age, but—well, aside from any question of the future,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_198'></a>198</span>
+it was rather nice to have two men so devotedly attentive.
+Then, too, Tom spent his money more freely,
+and she derived the benefit in present pleasures. There
+was no hurry; the future was now brighter, whichever
+she chose, and, things being so nearly equal,
+there was even less reason for haste. Alice, in addition
+to her dread of poverty, was a natural flirt:
+she enjoyed the power she exerted over these two
+men. But she said nothing to Tom of Harry’s latest
+move; perhaps she thought it would be unfair, or
+perhaps she was a trifle truer to Harry than to Tom.
+</p>
+<p>
+Harry, in his “simple” way, misinterpreted this
+irresolution. He was too devoted to criticize; he had
+begun to understand her dread and to think that she
+was quite right in taking such a very worldly view
+of the situation. Why should she not, so far as possible,
+endeavor to make her future secure? It was
+for him to convince her of his thoughtfulness and his
+ability to provide for her. Thereupon he got an accident
+insurance policy.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You’re awfully thoughtful, Harry,” she said. “I
+like you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t want you to worry,” said Harry, flattered
+and pleased.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’m not worrying,” she told him.
+</p>
+<p>
+“But I am,” he retorted ruefully.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_199'></a>199</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Men,” she asserted, “are <em>so</em> impatient.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Harry could not quite agree to this—he thought
+he had been wonderfully patient. In his straightforward
+way he began to ponder the matter deeply. It
+had seemed to him he was doing a wonderfully clever
+thing that ought to settle the matter definitely. Had
+he made a mistake? If so, what was necessary to
+rectify it? Incidentally, he heard that some of Tom
+Nelson’s little speculations had turned out favorably,
+and Tom was still quite as devoted as ever and seemed
+to be received with as much favor. Then to Harry
+came an idea—a really brilliant idea, he thought.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Perhaps,” he told himself, “I ought not to have
+assigned that policy to her; perhaps I ought to have
+kept it in my control so that a wedding would be
+necessary to give her the benefit of it. As it is now,
+she has the policy, no matter whom she marries. I
+don’t think she would—”
+</p>
+<p>
+Without finishing the sentence, Harry knitted his
+brow and shook his head. It was not a pleasant
+thought—he told himself it was an unjust thought—but,
+as he had gone in to win, he might as well take
+every precaution. If the conditions were a little different,
+it might put an end to her flirtatious mood
+and compel a more serious consideration of his suit;
+it might have a tendency to emphasize his point and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_200'></a>200</span>
+“wake her up,” as he expressed it. Possibly, it was
+just the argument needed.
+</p>
+<p>
+With this in mind, he again called upon Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’m in a little trouble,” he explained. “I ought
+to have had that policy made out to my wife.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It makes no difference, unless the estate is involved
+in some way,” explained Murray. “She’ll get
+it through—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It makes a big difference,” interrupted Harry.
+“You see, I’ve got to get the wife.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What!” ejaculated Murray. “Say that again,
+please.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why, if I had an insurance policy in favor of my
+wife, it would make it easier to get the wife, wouldn’t
+it?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Thunder!” exclaimed Murray. “I thought I was
+pretty well up on insurance financiering, but this
+beats me. Are you hanging an insurance policy up
+as a sort of prize package?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That’s it, that’s it!” cried Harry, pleased to find
+the situation so quickly comprehended. “The other
+fellow is worth more, but insurance looks bigger than
+anything else I can buy for the money, and I want
+to show her how much safer she will be with me than
+with him.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You’re all right,” laughed Murray, “but I’m
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_201'></a>201</span>
+afraid you’ll have to marry first. We can’t very well
+make a policy payable to a person who doesn’t exist,
+and you have no wife now. When you have one, bring
+the policy back if you’re not satisfied to have it payable
+to the estate, and—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But she’s got it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Who?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“The girl. I assigned it to her, so she doesn’t
+have to marry me to get the benefit. That wasn’t
+good business.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray leaned back in his chair and looked at the
+youth with amusement and curiosity.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No,” he said at last, “that may have been good
+sentiment, but it wasn’t good business. And,” he
+added jokingly, “I don’t know that this transaction
+is quite legal.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why not?” asked Harry anxiously.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, we’re not allowed to give prizes, and, if a
+girl goes with the policy, it looks a good deal like a
+prize-package affair. I’m not sure that that wouldn’t
+be considered worse than giving rebates on premiums.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You’ve got the wrong idea,” argued Harry with
+solemn earnestness. “The girl doesn’t go with the
+policy, but the policy goes with me. At least, that’s
+what I intended.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Better try it again with another policy,” suggested
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_202'></a>202</span>
+Murray. “Make it payable to your estate,
+and then hang on to it until you get the girl. Let
+me give you a word of advice, too, although it’s not
+exactly to my interest.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, the policy that you gave to her doesn’t
+amount to much if you stop paying premiums on it.
+You might suggest that to her.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“By George! I never thought of that!” exclaimed
+the youth. “I guess I haven’t much of a financial
+head.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, you’re all right,” returned Murray. “You’re
+the first fellow I ever knew who made a matrimonial
+bureau of an insurance office. I’ve got something to
+learn about this business yet.”
+</p>
+<p>
+With his second policy in his pocket, Harry reverted
+quite casually to the subject of insurance, although
+he had first taken the precaution to have a lot of insurance
+literature sent to Alice. From this she
+learned that nothing could quite equal it in making
+the future secure.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I have decided,” said Harry in an offhand way,
+“that the best investment for a young man who has
+any one dependent upon him is life insurance. I have
+just taken out another policy for a thousand dollars.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“How thoughtful of you!” exclaimed Alice.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_203'></a>203</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s on the twenty-year endowment plan,” explained
+Harry. “At the end of twenty years the
+whole sum may be drawn down or it may be left to
+accumulate. As provision for the future, I guess
+that makes any two or three thousand in the bank look
+like thirty cents.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You’re awfully good to me,” said Alice, for this
+apparent evidence of unselfish devotion, in addition to
+what had preceded it, really made her reproach herself
+for her capriciousness. But it was such jolly fun
+to keep two men anxious!
+</p>
+<p>
+“The insurance,” Harry went on, “is payable to
+my estate.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What does that mean, Harry?” she asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It means,” replied Harry, “that a girl has got
+to marry me to get a chance at it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I always did like you, Harry.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But you’re so impatient.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Harry was beginning to develop a little strategical
+ingenuity.
+</p>
+<p>
+“There is no need,” he said, “to make a secret of
+this. I’m not ashamed to have all the girls know that
+I am making proper provision for the one who becomes
+my wife.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Harry Renway,” exclaimed Alice, “if you make
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_204'></a>204</span>
+our private affairs a subject of public gossip I’ll
+never speak to you again as long as I live.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Thereupon Harry demonstrated that he was not
+as “simple” as he was supposed to be, for he promptly
+returned the kiss that she had given him on a previous
+occasion. There could be no misinterpreting “our”
+private affairs.
+</p>
+<p>
+“When?” he asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, pretty soon,” she replied, for the flirtatious
+instinct was still in evidence. Besides, under the circumstances,
+too much haste might be in poor taste.
+However, their friends were told of the engagement,
+and that was something. Tom Nelson was angry and
+disgusted.
+</p>
+<p>
+“The fool!” he exclaimed. “A live man wants to
+have the use of his money, and he has tied himself
+up with insurance. That isn’t my way.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But he got the girl,” some one suggested.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Not yet,” retorted Tom, “and you never can
+tell.”
+</p>
+<p>
+In truth, it seemed as if Tom’s insinuation was
+almost prophetic, for Alice procrastinated and postponed
+in a most tormenting way, and Harry took
+it all in good part for two or three months. There
+was no particular reason for this delay, as the preliminaries
+of such a wedding as they would have
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_205'></a>205</span>
+could be arranged very quickly, and in time it tried
+the patience even of Harry.
+</p>
+<p>
+“The semi-annual premium on that first policy is
+due the day after to-morrow,” he remarked one evening.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well?” she returned inquiringly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“If the premium isn’t paid the policy lapses,” he
+went on.
+</p>
+<p>
+“But you’ll pay it?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“For my wife I will.”
+</p>
+<p>
+She gave him a quick look and knew that he was
+not going to be swayed this time by her little cajoleries.
+</p>
+<p>
+“But, Harry,” she protested, “that’s so—so soon.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I have the license in my pocket,” he said; “there’s
+a church within two blocks, and I saw a light in the
+pastor’s study as I came by. I guess we’ve waited
+long enough. Let’s go out for a little stroll.”
+</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+<p>
+It was six months later that Harry again met Dave
+Murray, but Murray remembered him.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Did you get the prize with your policy?” asked
+Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Sure,” replied Harry.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Was it a good prize?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Bully!” said Harry. “A little hard to handle
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_206'></a>206</span>
+just at first, but you can do almost anything with insurance.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You certainly have made good use of it,” laughed
+Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You bet I have,” answered Harry with some pride.
+“Why, say! an insurance policy is the greatest thing
+in the world for family discipline.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“For what!” exclaimed Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Family discipline. The first time we had a little
+rumpus she had me going seven ways for Sunday
+until I thought of the insurance policies. ‘Well,’
+said I, ‘if I’m not the head of the house there’s no
+reason why I should be paying insurance premiums,
+and I’ll default on the next one. The head of the
+house looks after things of that sort,’ I told her, and
+that settled it. I’m the head of the house, and, if I
+don’t play it too strong, I’ve got the thing to maintain
+discipline.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Don’t you want another policy?” laughed Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well,” returned Harry thoughtfully, “if I could
+get the same kind of prize with another, and if it
+wasn’t against the law, I rather think I might be
+tempted to do it. Anyhow, there can’t anybody tell me
+there’s nothing in insurance, for I know better.”
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_207'></a>207</span><a name='c10' id='c10'></a>AN INCIDENTAL SACRIFICE</h2>
+<p>
+“I guess it’s all up with us,” said Sidney Kalin
+despairingly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It looks that way,” admitted his brother, Albert
+Kalin.
+</p>
+<p>
+The father, Jonas Kalin, sat at his desk with his
+head half-buried in his hands.
+</p>
+<p>
+“There is no chance for an extension, of course,”
+he said wearily.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I should say not,” returned Sidney. “Telmer
+bought up the mortgage for just one purpose, and
+his only hope of success lies in foreclosing. He wants
+to get his hands on the invention.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Will he take an interest in the business?” asked
+Jonas.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why should he, when he can get the only thing
+he wants without?” returned Sidney.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What does Dempsey say?” persisted the senior
+Kalin.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s out of his line,” answered Albert, to whom
+the question was addressed. “If five thousand would
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_208'></a>208</span>
+straighten the thing out, he might risk it, but he
+wouldn’t put up a cent more than that, and he’d want
+a twenty-five per cent. interest in the business for that
+sum.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And, if we can save it, the thing is worth a fortune,”
+groaned Jonas. “We’ve got a start already,
+and there’s almost no limit to the possibilities. It
+ought to be worth fifty thousand a year inside of three
+years. He doesn’t want much.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, he’s out of the question, anyway,” said
+Sidney. “We’ve got to have twenty-five thousand,
+and we’ve got to have it mighty soon.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“My life insurance is more than that,” mused Jonas.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What good does that do?” retorted Sidney rather
+sharply. “Even if you wanted to surrender it, the
+cash surrender value is less than ten thousand at the
+present time.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That would help,” argued Jonas.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Nothing will help that doesn’t put the full sum
+needed within our reach,” asserted Albert. “We’re
+about due to begin life over again with a little less
+than nothing.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’ll think it over,” said Jonas, rising and wearily
+reaching for his hat. “I’ve always weathered the
+storms before. Perhaps I’ll find a way to weather this
+one.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_209'></a>209</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Jonas Kalin once had been accounted a successful
+real estate man, but he had lost a good deal of money
+in speculation, and the time and thought he gave to
+speculation had had an injurious effect upon his business.
+One of the sons had been for a time in the employ
+of a manufacturer of fountain pens. Later the
+elder Kalin had started both boys, as an independent
+firm, in that line of business, their pen differing sufficiently
+from others to avoid any infringement of
+patents on patented features. They had made no
+great amount of money, indeed barely a living income,
+but they had kept out of debt until Sidney invented
+a machine for finishing the shell or case of the pen.
+</p>
+<p>
+His experiments had been rather costly, and the
+machine had been costly to construct, but he had
+convinced his father that it was a good thing, and
+Jonas had given up his dwindling real estate business
+and put what money he had left into his sons’ firm,
+becoming a partner in the enterprise. Even then it
+had been found necessary to borrow twenty-five thousand
+dollars in order to establish the business on the
+new and larger basis, giving a mortgage on the entire
+plant, which included the new machine, and this
+mortgage had passed into the hands of a more prosperous
+business rival at a time when the value of the
+invention was just becoming apparent. This invention
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_210'></a>210</span>
+largely reduced the cost of production, but the
+exploiting so far done, although expensive and reasonably
+successful, had not enabled the Kalins to accumulate
+anything to meet their obligation. Indeed, believing
+they would have no difficulty in securing an
+extension, they had not worried about this until they
+found themselves in the power of a rival.
+</p>
+<p>
+The machine had not been patented, for reasons
+that most successful inventors will readily understand.
+While a patent is supposed to protect the
+inventor, it does not do so in many instances; on the
+contrary, it frequently gives a rival just the information
+he needs to duplicate the device with technical
+variations that will at least make the question of
+infringement a difficult one to decide. The inventor
+of limited means, opposed by a company with almost
+unlimited capital, is at a serious disadvantage when
+he gets into the courts, and there are cases where the
+value of an invention has been largely destroyed by
+having the market flooded with the article before the
+legal rights can be definitely determined. There is
+hardly a single patented device of great value that
+has not been the basis of long and costly litigation,
+involving either the unauthorized use or manufacture
+of the device as it is or the use or manufacture of a
+device suggested by the original and differing from
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_211'></a>211</span>
+it only enough to give technical plausibility to the
+plea that it is not an infringement. Even the great
+Edison is reported to have said that he has made
+practically no money on his patents, but has had to
+enter the manufacturing business to get any material
+benefit from his inventions.
+</p>
+<p>
+“When you patent an invention,” the Kalins had
+been informed by a man of experience in such matters,
+“you are furnishing ammunition to the enemy.
+You are giving him your secret, and he will put some
+smart men at work to discover some method of using
+it himself. Edison is still busy with inventions, but
+you don’t see his name in the patent reports any
+more. He has become too wise for that. Secrecy is
+the best protection, provided you have something that
+can be kept secret.”
+</p>
+<p>
+All this Jonas Kalin reviewed as he walked slowly
+and with bowed head toward his club. They had
+kept their invention secret, they had advertised extensively,
+and now, just as they were beginning to
+get returns on their investment, the dream was shattered.
+They had tried to interest various capitalists,
+but capitalists could not see the future as they saw it.
+Capital is exceptionally conservative when there is
+a question of investing in inventions that it does not
+understand, for inventors are proverbially optimistic
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_212'></a>212</span>
+and not infrequently cost capital a good deal of
+money.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Thirty thousand dollars of life insurance!” muttered
+Jonas, as he settled himself in a corner of the
+reading-room. “If we could have the use of that
+money for a year we would be all right.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Jonas was a widower, but his wife had been living
+when he had taken out this insurance. Now it would
+go to the sons eventually, if they survived him, but,
+meanwhile, they would lose a fortune. Since the death
+of his wife, Jonas had given his every thought to the
+boys and their future. He reproached himself for
+the speculations that had deprived him of the power
+of helping them as he had planned in earlier days; he
+felt that somehow he had defrauded them. So deeply
+did he feel this that from the day he gave up his real
+estate business he never had put one dollar into a
+speculation of any kind, except so far as his investment
+in their business was a speculation.
+</p>
+<p>
+“If we could make that go,” he mused, as he
+crouched miserably in the big chair, “I should be content.
+I owe it to the boys to see them fairly started.
+I was in a position to do it once and I lost the money
+foolishly—their money, by rights, for I had put it
+aside for them. And here am I, almost useless—a
+business wreck—too old to begin again as an employee
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_213'></a>213</span>
+and lacking the capital to be an employer or to do
+business of any sort for myself. Instead of helping
+my boys, I am to be a burden to them—until I die.
+I am of value only in the grave.” He shuddered and
+seemed to sink still lower in the chair. “It is my duty
+to do what I can for them,” he added. “I am useless,
+but life is before them—a continuation of my life.
+I must be a success through my sons.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Benson, a friend, stopped near him.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What’s the matter, Kalin?” asked Benson. “You
+look blue.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Kalin looked up at Benson in a dazed way, and for
+a moment seemed to be unable to grasp the fact that
+he had been addressed.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Benson,” he said at last, his eyes wandering
+dreamily about the room, “is a man ever justified in
+committing suicide?”
+</p>
+<p>
+Benson was startled, but he replied promptly and
+emphatically, “Never.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Suppose,” Kalin went on, “that your life intervened
+between those you love and happiness; suppose
+that your life meant misery and failure for them,
+while your death meant success and—and comfort.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Benson drew up a chair and placed his hand on
+Kalin’s arm as if to emphasize his words.
+</p>
+<p>
+“<em>The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away</em>,” he
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_214'></a>214</span>
+quoted earnestly. “Life is God’s gift and should be
+treasured as such. You may not return it until He
+calls, unless you would doubt His wisdom.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Kalin nodded his head thoughtfully.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Men have gone to certain death for those they
+love and been glorified for so doing,” he argued.
+</p>
+<p>
+“A man may <em>give</em> his own life to save the life of
+another and be a hero,” returned Benson, “but he
+may not <em>take</em> his own life for any cause and be aught
+but a coward.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What matters it whether he takes it or gives it,
+so long as the purpose is the same?” asked Kalin.
+</p>
+<p>
+Benson gripped the arm on which his hand lay and
+shook Kalin.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Wake up!” he commanded sharply. “What’s the
+matter with you to-day?”
+</p>
+<p>
+Kalin roused himself, as if from a dream, and
+laughed in a forced, dreary way.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Nothing is the matter with me,” he replied. “I
+must have been reading something that gave my
+thoughts a morbid turn. Still, your reasoning seems
+to be that of a man who never has been tested. Your
+view has been my view, but I can see how a man’s
+views may change when he is confronted by the actual
+conditions concerning which he has previously only
+theorized. I don’t think you’re right.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_215'></a>215</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s a disagreeable subject, even for abstract consideration,”
+asserted Benson. “Let’s drop it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“All right,” said Kalin. “I’m going in to lunch.”
+</p>
+<p>
+In the dining-room he got into an obscure corner
+and the waiter had to joggle his elbow to rouse him
+from the reverie into which he immediately fell. Then,
+after barely tasting the lunch he ordered, he went to
+the office of the club and asked that all charges against
+him be footed up.
+</p>
+<p>
+“There’s nothing against me at all now?” he said
+inquiringly as he paid the bill.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Nothing at all, sir,” replied the clerk.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’d hate to leave any club debts,” he remarked,
+as if talking aloud to himself.
+</p>
+<p>
+At his office he found his sons still gloomily discussing
+the situation.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I think,” he said, “that I have found a way to
+save the business.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“How?” they asked eagerly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“The details are not quite clear in my mind yet,”
+he replied. “I would like to give them a little more
+thought before explaining the matter. But, if I succeed
+in pulling you through, you boys must be
+mighty careful in the future. A concern doesn’t get
+out of this kind of hole twice, and I’m going to turn
+it all over to you.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_216'></a>216</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why?” asked Albert in surprise.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I ruined one business,” was the reply. “One is
+enough. Be cautious. Go slow. You’ve got a good
+thing—a fortune—if you handle your finances properly
+and don’t try to spread out too fast.”
+</p>
+<p>
+He shook hands with both the boys, to their great
+bewilderment.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Where are you going?” asked Sidney. “One would
+think you were starting on a long journey.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’m taking leave of the business,” he answered,
+with a laugh that had something of pathos in it. “I’m
+going to shut myself up for a day or so until I get
+my little scheme elaborated, and then you shall have
+the benefit of it, but I am out of active business.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Sidney and Albert were silent for some time after
+he had left. Jonas Kalin always had been a rather
+eccentric man, and they were accustomed to letting
+his whims and peculiarities of word and action pass
+without comment, but there was something in this
+parting that made them feel uncomfortable.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t like it,” remarked Sidney. “I wonder if
+the worry and disappointment have been too much
+for him.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It is a hard blow to him—not for himself, but for
+us,” returned Albert. “However, we’ll see him this
+evening.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_217'></a>217</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Albert Kalin was the housekeeper for the three
+men. Sidney, being a bachelor, had always lived with
+his father, but Albert had married and moved away
+from the parental roof. Then, when his mother died,
+Jonas had called him back and practically turned
+the house over to him and his wife, reserving only one
+large room for himself. In this he had his own little
+library, and to this he frequently retired for long
+evenings of solitude, for, while not a recluse, he was
+a man who really needed no other companionship
+than his own thoughts and often seemed to avoid the
+society of others.
+</p>
+<p>
+He was not at home, however, when his sons arrived
+for dinner. Mrs. Albert Kalin said he had
+brought home two or three bundles early in the afternoon,
+had gone directly to his room, where he remained
+for about an hour, and had then appeared with a
+valise.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I never saw him look so haggard and distressed,”
+she explained. “He kissed me most affectionately and
+said he had some business to attend to and would
+not be home to-night.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Late that evening Sidney Kalin went to his father’s
+club, where he saw Benson and learned enough to
+send him to police headquarters. There was no publicity,
+but a search for the missing man was begun
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_218'></a>218</span>
+at once. The circumstances were, to say the least,
+disquieting.
+</p>
+<p>
+At the moment this search was begun Jonas Kalin
+was crossing Lake Michigan on one of the large steamers,
+and his actions were such as to attract the attention
+of some of the other passengers. It was a Friday
+night boat and was crowded with excursionists bound
+for a Saturday and Sunday outing in Michigan.
+Jonas had a state-room, but he merely put his valise
+in it, and then paced the deck, occasionally stopping
+to lean over the rail and look down at the water.
+Once or twice he sought a secluded corner and sat
+for a time buried in thought, but he moved away the
+moment others stopped near him. About eleven
+o’clock, as he passed through the main cabin, he saw
+a woman putting a little boy to bed on a sofa, and
+he offered her his state-room.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’m very grateful to you, sir,” she replied, “but
+we couldn’t think of taking it. You’ll need it yourself.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I shall not sleep to-night,” he said. “It will be
+vacant unless you take it. Shove the valise into a
+corner somewhere and I’ll get it in the morning.”
+</p>
+<p>
+He dropped the state-room key on a chair and disappeared
+through a door leading to the deck before
+she could make further protest, but his face haunted
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_219'></a>219</span>
+her all that night. In the morning, after some search,
+she found him huddled up on a camp-stool against
+the rail of the forward deck, and she thanked him
+again.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You don’t look well,” she ventured. “Can I do
+anything for you?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s not a question of what any one can do for
+me,” he answered, “but of what I can do for others.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t understand you, sir,” she said.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s a good thing you don’t,” he returned, and,
+fearing that she had to deal with a crazy man, she
+left him.
+</p>
+<p>
+After landing, he went directly to a hotel, engaged
+a room, and shut himself up in it until afternoon.
+Then he went to the dock and wandered nervously
+back and forth, looking out over the water and occasionally
+down into it. The dock men watched him
+curiously, and one of them loosened a life-preserver
+that hung near, but he went back to the hotel without
+giving them an opportunity to use it.
+</p>
+<p>
+He kept close to his room at the hotel, and was so
+unobtrusive that the clerks and the other guests hardly
+realized he was there, and, being registered under
+an assumed name, not one of them recognized him as
+the Jonas Kalin who was described in the Sunday papers
+as being missing. For, the secret search Friday
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_220'></a>220</span>
+night and Saturday failing to reveal any trace of him,
+his sons had decided to try the effect of publicity.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was not until he had surrendered his room Sunday
+night that his identity was established. On the
+table was found a letter, sealed, addressed to Sidney
+Kalin.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Kalin!” cried the clerk, when the letter was
+brought to him. “Good Lord! that’s the man who
+disappeared. And there’s a reward for information.
+I remember, too, he had all the Sunday papers sent to
+his room, and then kept out of the way until the
+moment he left.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The clerk looked at the letter, uncertain as to what
+he ought to do. Finally, he decided to get the Chicago
+police department on the long-distance telephone.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Jonas Kalin has been here for two days under an
+assumed name,” he reported, “but his identity was
+discovered only after he had taken the night boat
+back to Chicago. He left a letter. It is sealed and
+addressed to Sidney Kalin.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“We’ll notify Kalin and meet the boat,” was the
+prompt reply. “Hold the letter until you hear from
+Kalin.”
+</p>
+<p>
+A little later Kalin called up the hotel and instructed
+that the letter be mailed to him at once. As
+Jonas was already on his way back, nothing would be
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_221'></a>221</span>
+gained by having its contents transmitted by telephone.
+He was beyond reach until the boat arrived.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was an anxious little crowd that waited at the
+wharf for the arrival of the boat. There were Albert
+and Sidney Kalin, two detectives and some newspaper
+men. The news of Jonas Kalin’s sojourn across the
+lake was already in the morning papers, having come
+by telegraph, and there was natural curiosity to learn
+the reason for this strange procedure. In addition,
+there was an undefined and unexpressed feeling that
+there might be a tragedy back of it. In any event,
+there was a mystery.
+</p>
+<p>
+The boat reached its dock before five o’clock, but the
+state-room passengers had the privilege of sleeping
+until seven, so only the excursionists who had been
+obliged to sit up all night left the boat at once. There
+were many of these, however—a weary and disheveled
+lot of individuals, groups and couples straggling
+along to the dock. They were talking of something
+that had happened during the night, or was supposed
+to have happened. Something or some one
+certainly had gone over the rail, for the splash was
+distinctly heard, and an excitable passenger had
+raised the cry of “Man overboard!” The boat had
+been stopped, but investigation had failed to discover
+an actual witness to any such accident, although two
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_222'></a>222</span>
+people were sure they had seen something in the water
+just after the splash. The captain, however, insisted
+that it was all the result of some nervous person’s
+imagination.
+</p>
+<p>
+To Albert and Sidney Kalin these rumors brought
+sinking hearts and a great dread. It took them a
+little time to locate the state-room that had been occupied
+by their father, but a description of him, coupled
+with the name he had used at the hotel, enabled them
+to do it.
+</p>
+<p>
+His valise alone was found.
+</p>
+<p>
+Several people remembered the haggard man who
+had tramped the deck so restlessly. He seemed to be
+in great mental distress, anxious only to keep away
+from all companionship, and no one could recall having
+seen him after the cry of “Man overboard!” Even
+the captain had finally to admit that it was probable
+he had lost a passenger, although, of course, no blame
+whatever attached to him or to any of the boat’s
+crew.
+</p>
+<p>
+Then came the letter that had been forwarded from
+the hotel. It was pathetically brief and to the point,
+as follows:
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 2em;'>
+“My Dear Sons: The insurance money will pull
+you through. It is all that I can give you. Your
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_223'></a>223</span>
+success is dearer to me than anything else in the world.
+Your affectionate father,
+</p>
+<p style='text-align:right; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; margin-right:2em;;'><span class='sc'>Jonas Kalin</span>.</p>
+<p>
+Of course, Dave Murray read the story in the
+papers—all but the letter. That was brought to him
+later by Albert Kalin.
+</p>
+<p>
+“We wish to give you all the facts, without reservation,”
+Albert explained. “Father did this for us
+to save the firm, to save an almost priceless invention.”
+The young man choked a little. “We have
+hoped against hope that his letter might prove to be
+capable of some other interpretation, or that he may
+have changed his mind after writing it, and we have
+left no stone unturned—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Neither have we,” said Murray quietly. “Perhaps
+we know more than you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Have you got trace of him?” asked Albert quickly,
+and his face showed a dawn of hope that could not be
+misunderstood: he actually believed his father dead
+and would welcome any evidence to the contrary. It
+was not the expression of a man who was principally
+interested in the payment of the insurance money,
+although he was naturally presenting his and his
+brother’s claim.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am sorry to say we have not,” replied Murray,
+“but neither have we any proof of death.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_224'></a>224</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Albert plainly showed his disappointment at Murray’s
+first statement, and it was a moment or two before
+he replied to the second.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I do not know your rules or aims,” he said, “but
+it is possible—indeed almost probable, under the circumstances—that
+there never will be any absolute
+proof of death. It—it happened in mid-lake, you
+know.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Our aim,” returned Murray, “is to pay every
+claim that we are convinced is just, without resorting
+to any quibbling or technical evasions, but we have
+to be careful. In saying this, I am merely stating a
+general proposition, without particular reference to
+this affair. Indeed, I concede that the presumption
+of death is unusually strong in this case. I shall be
+glad to have any facts bearing on it that you can give
+me.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Albert fully reviewed the circumstances as he knew
+them, to all of which Murray listened attentively.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I shall make a complete report to the home office,”
+said Murray at the conclusion of the recital. “Of
+course, after the lapse of a certain period there is a
+legal presumption of death, anyhow, but it is possible
+that the circumstantial evidence may be deemed strong
+enough to warrant an earlier settlement. Knowing
+the ostensible motive, I appreciate the value of time
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_225'></a>225</span>
+to you, and I assure you the company has no desire
+to delay matters longer than is necessary to assure
+itself of the justice of the claim.”
+</p>
+<p>
+After Albert had departed, Murray went over the
+case carefully, and the evidence seemed quite convincing.
+In the first place, there could be no question as
+to a very strong motive. There was the certainty of
+ruin, which the death of Jonas alone could avert, and,
+after a lapse of two years from the date of the policy,
+suicide did not invalidate it. Therefore, by his own
+sacrifice, he could purchase a bright future for his
+sons. Then there could be no doubt that he had been
+depressed and worried for some time, and latterly unquestionably
+had brooded on the subject of self-destruction.
+In a talk with one man he had spoken of
+it as “self-elimination,” but he had spoken more
+bluntly to Benson at the club. There could be no
+doubt now that he contemplated such action at that
+time, and that he had reference to it when he told
+his sons he had discovered a way to raise the necessary
+money. Everything indicated that his troubles had
+made him temporarily insane.
+</p>
+<p>
+Then there was the evidence of the woman to whom
+he had resigned his state-room on the boat, and of
+various other passengers who had noted his restlessness
+and his misery. One woman even asserted that
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_226'></a>226</span>
+she had said to a companion at the time that there
+was a man who contemplated some desperate act. It
+seemed probable that he had planned to jump overboard
+that first night, but had been deterred, either
+by lack of a favorable opportunity or because his
+courage failed him. His actions at the hotel, and
+especially at the dock, were wholly consistent with
+this theory, and the blunt note he left was further
+evidence of mental derangement. Although his purpose
+in no way affected his policy, a man in his right
+mind would hardly have stated it so frankly; indeed,
+a sane man probably would have tried to give the appearance
+of accident to his death. Finally, he had
+boarded the return boat and was missing when the
+boat reached Chicago, although his strange actions
+had directed particular attention to him during the
+early part of the trip.
+</p>
+<p>
+After a brief delay the company paid the policy.
+The circumstantial evidence could hardly be more
+convincing, and the body of a man who drowned himself
+in mid-lake might never be recovered.
+</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+<p>
+It was several years later that Albert Kalin called
+upon Murray and introduced himself a second time.
+</p>
+<p>
+“We have just heard from father,” he said.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What!” cried Murray.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_227'></a>227</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“He died in South America,” explained Albert;
+“died there miserably—not because of any poverty,
+but because he was an exile and felt that he was a
+swindler. He left a letter which was forwarded to us.
+His life, he said, had been one long torture since that
+night on the boat, and he had a thousand times regretted
+that he did not actually throw himself into
+the lake. I fear,” added Albert sadly, “that he really
+did commit suicide finally. He made one dying request.
+I would like to read it to you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Albert took a letter from his pocket and read this
+paragraph:
+</p>
+<p>
+“My life as an exiled swindler has been hell, but I
+have seen the Chicago papers and I know that I saved
+the firm and the invention and that you have prospered.
+That has been my only consolation. It would
+have been some relief if I could have communicated
+with you, but I would not make you a party to my
+crime. Now, at last, I ask you to do something for
+the old man: Refund to the insurance company every
+cent you received, less the premiums I actually paid.
+Refund it all, if necessary, but make my record clear.
+That was the only dishonest act of a long business
+career, and God only knows how I have suffered for
+it. You have prospered, you can do this, and I know
+you will. It is that alone that gives me consolation
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_228'></a>228</span>
+as my period of punishment at last draws to a
+close.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“How did he do it?” asked Murray, before Albert
+could speak.
+</p>
+<p>
+“He purchased and took with him a second-hand
+suit of clothes and a wig,” explained Albert. “He cut
+off his whiskers and mustache, so that he appeared as
+a man who had neglected to shave for a week—a
+pretty good disguise in itself, for father was always
+neat and clean. The clothes he had worn went overboard
+with a weight attached, which accounts for the
+splash, and he himself raised the cry of ‘Man overboard!’
+After that he kept out of the light, and he
+had little difficulty in slipping ashore while we were
+hunting his state-room. His mental distress was real,
+for he was leaving all he held dear and condemning
+himself to exile.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well,” commented Murray, “I guess the circumstances
+would have fooled any one, for his whole
+previous life made him about the last man who would
+be suspected of anything of that sort.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And now,” said Albert, “my brother and I are
+prepared to make a cash settlement with you on any
+basis that you deem satisfactory.”
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_229'></a>229</span><a name='c11' id='c11'></a>AN INCIDENTAL DISCOVERY</h2>
+<p>
+The applicant for insurance was nervous and ill
+at ease, but that alone was not sufficient to make Dave
+Murray suspicious. A man taking out his first policy
+is very often nervous—he dreads the physical examination
+in many instances. He may think he is all
+right, but he fears the possibility of some serious latent
+trouble. If there is anything radically and incurably
+wrong with the average man, he prefers not to know
+it. He may not say so, but he does. He goes before
+the medical examiner with the fear that he may learn
+something disagreeable.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’m fairly contented now,” he says to himself, if
+he happens to be practical enough to put his thoughts
+into words, “but life will be a haunting hell to me if I
+learn that I am not a good risk. That will mean at
+least the probability of an early death. It will not
+change conditions, but it will seem to bring death
+nearer.”
+</p>
+<p>
+These thoughts do not come to the very young man,
+but they do come to the man who has passed, or is
+passing, the optimism of youth. In the words of Dave
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_230'></a>230</span>
+Murray, “One of the great annoyances of the life insurance
+business is that the very young man is too well
+and strong to want to be insured, and the man of
+middle age is afraid of learning that he is not as well
+and strong as he thinks he is. We have to fight
+optimism first and cowardice later. Theoretically, the
+‘risk’ ought to be caught young, but, practically, it is
+easier to catch him when he has begun to appreciate
+the responsibilities of life. The optimism is more difficult
+to overcome than the cowardice.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Nevertheless, the man who has neglected to take
+out insurance when he could get the best rate is likely
+to be nervous when he applies for it later, however
+hard he may try to conceal the fact. And Elmer
+Harkness was nervous. He was a year short of forty,
+apparently in the best physical condition, but he was
+unusually nervous. He hesitated over his answers to
+the most ordinary questions, he corrected himself once
+or twice, and he betrayed a strong desire to get
+through with the ordeal in the quickest possible time.
+When, at last, he was able to leave, the physician having
+completed his examination, he gave a very audible
+sigh of relief.
+</p>
+<p>
+“There’s something about this I don’t like,” commented
+Murray a little later.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What?” asked the doctor.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_231'></a>231</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“That’s the trouble,” returned Murray. “I can’t
+say exactly what it is, but I have a feeling that something
+is wrong. We’ve had nervous men here before.
+Remember the fellow who was brought up by his wife
+and who would have ducked and run if he could have
+got the chance? He was nervous enough, but not in
+the same way. He was afraid he would find he was
+going to die next week, but this fellow was shifty.
+How does he stand physically, doctor?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Fine,” answered the doctor. “You couldn’t ask
+a better risk.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, he doesn’t get the policy until I’ve made a
+pretty thorough investigation, in addition to the usual
+investigation from headquarters,” announced Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+It took a good deal really to disturb Murray, but
+this case disturbed him before he got through with it.
+His first discovery was that Elmer Harkness had been
+refused insurance by another company some years
+previous. This information came from the home
+office, which had secured it through the “clearing-house.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“The risk was refused,” said the report, “on the
+advice of the company’s physician.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Must be another Harkness,” said the doctor, when
+Murray told him about it. “This man was in splendid
+physical condition.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_232'></a>232</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“The Elmer Harkness refused,” said Murray, consulting
+the papers before him, “was born at Madison,
+Indiana, January twentieth, 1866, and that is the
+place and date of birth given by the man who applied
+to us. You don’t suppose there were twins, do you?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Might look it up,” suggested the doctor.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course, I’ll look it up,” returned Murray. “It’s
+mighty funny that a man who was refused on physical
+grounds five years ago should be a superb risk now.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“There’s one satisfaction,” remarked the doctor.
+“With the safeguards thrown around the business in
+these modern days, a man can’t very well beat us.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“There’s no game that can’t be beaten,” asserted
+Murray emphatically. “There is no burglar-proof
+safe. With improvements in safes there has come a
+corresponding improvement in cracksmen’s methods.
+No man is so much superior to all other men that he
+can devise a thing so perfect that some other can not
+find the flaw that makes it temporarily worthless. The
+burglar-proof safes have to be watched to keep burglars
+away from them. The insurance system is as good
+as we now know how to make it, but it has to be
+watched to keep swindlers from punching holes in it.
+When we further improve the system they will further
+improve their methods, and we’ll have to keep on
+watching. The business concern that thinks it has an
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_233'></a>233</span>
+infallible system to protect itself from loss is then in
+the greatest danger.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do you think this case a swindle?” asked the doctor.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s better to get facts before reaching conclusions,”
+replied Murray. “It may be only an extraordinary
+coincidence. The man who was refused insurance
+was not then living where the man who applied
+to us is now living. That’s worth considering.”
+</p>
+<p>
+But investigation only made the case the more puzzling.
+From Madison, Indiana, a report was received
+that Elmer Harkness was born there on the date given,
+and that nothing was known of any second Elmer
+Harkness. The father of the Elmer born at Madison
+had been Abner Harkness, who was now dead. The
+name of the father of the man who had applied to
+Murray was given as Abner, and that also was the
+name of the father of the man whose application had
+been previously refused. Elmer, after the death of
+his parents, had left Madison, and nothing had been
+heard of him since, although he was supposed to be
+in Chicago.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Strange!” commented Murray. “This Madison
+Harkness is our Harkness, beyond question, and he
+also corresponds, except physically, to the Harkness
+who was refused.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_234'></a>234</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+So far as was known at Madison, Harkness was
+physically sound and well. He certainly had been considered
+a strong, healthy man.
+</p>
+<p>
+“That,” said Murray, “answers the description of
+the man who was here, but it really means nothing, as
+far as the other refusal is concerned. Heart trouble
+was the cause of that refusal, and there hardly would
+have been any indication of that to the casual observer.
+This Madison Harkness may well have been the man
+who was refused or the man who applied to us, but he
+can hardly be both—unless you have made a mistake,
+Doctor.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’ll examine him again,” said the doctor.
+</p>
+<p>
+So he sent for Harkness again, on the plea that he
+had mislaid the record of the previous examination,
+and this time he gave particular attention to the heart.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Normal and strong,” he reported. “No trouble
+there. It’s possible he had some slight temporary affection
+when he was examined for the other company.
+The heart is sometimes most deceptive, and there are
+occasionally apparent evidences of a serious malady
+where none really exists. In some cases I’ve discovered
+symptoms of heart trouble at one examination
+and found them absolutely lacking a little later. This
+man is all right.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Nevertheless, Murray questioned Harkness closely.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_235'></a>235</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Are you sure,” he asked, the question having been
+previously answered when the application was made,
+“that you never were refused by any other company?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I never applied for insurance before,” replied
+Harkness, but there was the same shifty look in his
+eyes.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Did you ever know another Harkness at Madison,
+Indiana?”
+</p>
+<p>
+Harkness looked frightened, but he answered
+promptly in the negative.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Where have you been since you left Madison?”
+</p>
+<p>
+Harkness told briefly of his movements.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Did you ever live at 1176 Wabash Avenue?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The case became even more mystifying. There was
+a record of only one Elmer Harkness at Madison, but
+it was evident that two had applied for insurance, for
+the Harkness who had been refused had given his address
+as 1176 Wabash Avenue.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am tempted,” said Murray later, “to make a
+strong adverse report. At the same time I don’t want
+to do an injustice and refuse a man who is rightfully
+entitled to insurance. My refusal, coupled with the
+mystifying record, would make it practically impossible
+to get insurance anywhere at any time, and he
+may be all right.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_236'></a>236</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“If there’s a fraud in it anywhere,” remarked the
+doctor, “there are some clever and experienced people
+behind it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Quite the contrary,” returned Murray. “The experienced
+people are the people we catch, because they
+do things the way one naturally expects. As a general
+thing, you will find that the police are fooled, not
+by the professional criminal, but by the novice who
+is ignorant of the ways of the crook, and the same
+rule applies to insurance swindles. If there is anything
+wrong here our difficulty lies in the fact that
+this fellow and those behind him are not experienced
+and are not going at the thing the way an experienced
+swindler would.”
+</p>
+<p>
+An attempt to identify the Harkness who had applied
+for insurance as the Harkness who had lived at
+1176 Wabash Avenue failed utterly, owing to the fact
+that the woman who had formerly conducted a boarding-house
+at that number had moved and it was impossible
+to find her. It was a simple matter, however,
+to verify other statements made by Harkness. He was
+now living at 2313 Wesson Street, and was employed
+by a large wholesale grocery firm. His employer
+spoke highly of him, but knew nothing of his personal
+affairs. He might or might not be married. The
+employer had been under the impression that he was
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_237'></a>237</span>
+a bachelor, but could not recall that Harkness ever
+had said so. This confusion was partly explained at
+the Wesson Street boarding-house, for Harkness had
+recently told the landlady that he expected his wife
+to join him soon. He explained that she had been
+visiting relatives during the six months he had been
+at this house, but that they were planning to take a
+small flat. They had previously had a flat, the address
+of which he gave, and the agent for the building
+remembered that Elmer Harkness had been among his
+tenants for two years. He knew very little about
+them, except that Harkness had paid his rent
+promptly and had been a model tenant.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And there you are!” grumbled Murray. “He’s
+all right, and I wouldn’t hesitate a minute, except for
+this other Harkness who hailed from the same place,
+lived in Wabash Avenue, and was refused insurance.
+Who was he? How can there be two Elmers from a
+town that produced only one?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Possibly it is the same Elmer,” suggested the doctor.
+“Possibly he was refused owing to some temporary
+trouble that deceived the first physician. Possibly
+he did live at the Wabash Avenue place, but
+thought his chance of getting insurance would be better
+if he denied that he ever had been refused, and,
+having once told that story, he has had to stick to it.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_238'></a>238</span>
+Of course, he had no means of knowing our facilities
+for getting information.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t see,” returned Murray, “that our facilities
+have succeeded in doing more than confuse us in this
+case. However, I’ll submit the whole matter to the
+home office.”
+</p>
+<p>
+After taking some time for consideration, the home
+office decided that there was no reason for refusing the
+risk.
+</p>
+<p>
+“If you are sure this man is physically all right,”
+was the reply received, “and that he is the man he
+represents himself to be, there would seem to be no
+reason for refusing the risk. There may have been
+some attempt at fraud, with which he had nothing to
+do, in the other case, and none in this. In any event,
+if the man who applied to you is a good risk physically,
+and a man of good reputation, as your report indicates,
+we are willing to give him the policy.”
+</p>
+<p>
+In these circumstances there was no reason for refusal.
+Harkness was a man of good reputation. Because
+of the other apparently mythical Harkness, he
+had been investigated more thoroughly than was usually
+deemed necessary, and his references had proved
+to be good. The inquiries had been made cautiously
+and circumspectly, to avoid giving offense, and the
+replies had been generally satisfactory. Nevertheless,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_239'></a>239</span>
+Murray had another talk with him before delivering
+the policy.
+</p>
+<p>
+Harkness told whom and when he married, and the
+truthfulness of this statement was capable of easy
+verification. His wife, he said, had been away for some
+time, but was now returning.
+</p>
+<p>
+“We shall take a small flat again,” he explained.
+“I have already selected one in Englewood—on Sixty-fourth
+Street. A fellow can get more for his money
+out there than he can nearer the city.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Then Harkness got his policy, and a little later he
+notified the company that he had moved to the Sixty-fourth
+Street flat. Murray puzzled his head a little
+over the mysterious Harkness, and once took the
+trouble to learn that the Harkness he had insured was
+still employed by the wholesale grocery firm. Then
+other matters claimed his attention, and the Harkness
+case was forgotten. There seemed to be no doubt
+that it was a good risk, even if there was a mystery
+back of it somewhere.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was six months later that he was notified of the
+sudden death at the Sixty-fourth Street flat of Elmer
+Harkness, who had a policy in his company. Instantly
+the details of the case, and his misgivings at
+the time, returned to him. Yet the proof of death,
+signed by a reputable and well-known physician, was
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_240'></a>240</span>
+flawless. A latent heart trouble had developed suddenly,
+and Harkness had died within forty-eight
+hours after he was stricken. The physician who had
+attended him never had been called for Harkness before,
+but he had been at the flat a number of times to
+prescribe for the trifling ailments of Mrs. Harkness,
+and he had become well acquainted with the husband.
+They had moved into the neighborhood about six
+months before.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It all fits in with what we know of the case,” commented
+Murray, “except the heart trouble. That
+sounds like the mysterious Harkness. Could you have
+possibly made any mistake in your examination,
+Doctor?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Certainly I could,” admitted the company’s physician
+ruefully. “None of us is infallible, but I’ll swear
+there were no indications of any heart trouble when I
+examined him. Still, the heart is a mighty deceptive
+organ. There may be trouble without any indications
+of it and there may be indications without any trouble.
+I once knew of a man whose heart seemed to skip a
+beat once in so often, but the best of medical talent
+was unable to discover the cause of it, and the man
+lived to a good old age. I don’t claim infallibility, but
+I never examined a man who seemed freer from any
+indications of heart trouble.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_241'></a>241</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“I wonder,” said Murray thoughtfully, “if Harkness’
+employer has heard of his death.”
+</p>
+<p>
+An insurance company is merciless in following up
+evidence of attempted fraud, but, lacking such evidence,
+it is wise to conduct investigations with extreme
+delicacy. A reputation for unnecessary intrusion or
+harshness, for a lack of sympathy with the bereaved,
+for any action that implies a suspicion of dishonesty
+when the proof is lacking, may do a great deal of
+harm. Every reputable company is anxious to pay
+all honest claims with as little inconvenience to the
+beneficiaries as is compatible with safety. Such investigation
+as may be necessary in some exceptional case
+is conducted as unobtrusively as possible.
+</p>
+<p>
+In this instance, the ordinary proof of death would
+have been accepted without question were it not for
+the mystery of the “heart trouble” that was supposed
+not to exist. This, combined with the report on the
+other Harkness, was annoying, and, to satisfy himself,
+Murray sent a man to the wholesale house where
+Harkness had been employed. The result was reassuring,
+so far as any question of fraud was concerned.
+The other clerks were then taking up a subscription
+to send some flowers to the funeral, and his illness and
+death had been reported promptly to the head of the
+department in which Harkness had worked. Furthermore,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_242'></a>242</span>
+he was registered as living at the Sixty-fourth
+Street flat, to which place he had moved from 2313
+Wesson Street.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It seems to be all right,” remarked Murray. “This
+is the man we insured on the strength of your report,
+Doctor, and I guess the only thing we can do is to
+charge you up with an error of judgment. Fortunately,
+it’s only a three-thousand-dollar policy.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t understand it,” said the doctor gloomily.
+“I wish we could demand an autopsy.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Hardly justifiable, in view of the circumstances,”
+returned Murray. “We have the affidavit of a first-class
+physician, and we know that it’s the same man,
+so the autopsy would be only to satisfy your curiosity.
+My own curiosity deals with the Wabash Avenue man
+who was refused. I wish we could locate him, although
+I don’t see that it would have any bearing on this case.
+He seems to have disappeared utterly. Perhaps he’s
+dead.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Before dismissing the matter from his mind, Murray
+reviewed the facts carefully. There had been an
+application to another company from a man living
+at 1176 Wabash Avenue, which had been refused because
+of heart trouble, but the city directory for that
+year gave no Harkness at that address. It did give
+an Elmer Harkness at another address, however, which
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_243'></a>243</span>
+coincided with the story told by the Harkness he had
+insured.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Somebody,” mused Murray, “must have been trying
+to beat the other company. That’s the best I can
+make out of it, although I can’t see why he should
+have assumed this Elmer’s name and antecedents. It’s
+a most extraordinary case.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The latest city directory gave Elmer Harkness as
+living at 2313 Wesson Street, which certainly was his
+address at the time the directory was issued. So
+much Murray had looked up before. Now, further
+to satisfy himself, he went through all the directories
+for the interval between the two years, and he was
+rewarded by finding the name of Elmer Harkness
+twice in one of them. Both were clerks, the addresses
+of the employers not being given, and the residence of
+one of them was put down as the address of the Harkness
+who had secured insurance.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Then there are, or at least there were, two,”
+thought Murray, “but only one came from Madison.
+And what has become of the missing Harkness? Why
+is he in only one directory? The fact that there were
+two helps to clear up the record of the one I insured,
+so far as that Wabash Avenue address is concerned,
+but how did both happen to give the same place and
+date of birth? And did both have heart trouble?”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_244'></a>244</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray straightened up suddenly and sent for the
+clerk who had made the previous inquiries for him.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Harry,” he said, “I want you to go to the funeral
+of Elmer Harkness to-morrow. Go early, and get a
+look at him, if possible. If not, get a description of
+him from some of the neighbors.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray reproached himself for not having searched
+all the directories before, although it would have made
+little difference. The fact that another Harkness had
+lived in Chicago would have had no bearing on the
+case, so long as the record of the one who applied for
+insurance was clear. In fact, it would have explained
+everything, except the coincidence of the alleged birth
+records. Still, it would have given a new line of investigation,
+which might have cleared up the mystery.
+</p>
+<p>
+Harry reported promptly the next day, and almost
+his first words aroused Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I couldn’t get a glimpse of the late lamented,”
+he said flippantly, “for the casket was closed, but I
+learned that he had hair slightly tinged with gray
+and—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Gray!” exclaimed Murray. “Does a man get gray
+hair in six months? The man we insured hadn’t a
+gray hair in his head.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“He was rather stout—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Our man was not.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_245'></a>245</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“I couldn’t learn much else—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You’ve learned enough.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“—except that when he was stricken his wife’s first
+thought seemed to be to get a message to some mysterious man,
+who responded in person, had a short
+talk with the wife, and then disappeared. A neighbor
+who had come in was somewhat impressed by this,
+because she called him ‘Elmer,’ which was her husband’s
+name.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What!” cried Murray, startled out of his usual
+imperturbability by the evidence thus unexpectedly
+accumulating. Then, more calmly, “Harry, you
+didn’t get the address to which she sent, did you?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“The messenger,” said Harry, proud of his success,
+“was a neighbor’s boy. I found him. Here is
+the address.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray took the slip of paper, looked at the address,
+and then sent for the company’s physician.
+</p>
+<p>
+“We’ll make identification sure,” he said, “for we
+both know the man, and we’ll take an officer and a
+warrant along with us.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Elmer Harkness was sitting on his trunk, waiting
+for an expressman, when the party appeared at the
+door of his room in a little out-of-the-way boarding-house.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I thought you were dead,” said Murray.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_246'></a>246</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“I wish I was,” said Harkness. He had almost
+fainted at the first sight of Murray, but had recovered
+himself quickly, and, having once decided that
+the case was hopeless, he resigned himself to the inevitable
+and spoke with a frank carelessness that had
+been entirely lacking when he was playing a part and
+trying to stick to the details of a prepared story.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Any weapons?” asked the policeman, making a
+quick search.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No weapons,” replied Harkness. “I’m not that
+kind.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t see,” said Murray, “why you waited here
+to be arrested.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why, I had a little interest in that insurance,”
+explained Harkness, “and I rather wanted to get it
+before leaving. However, waiting here was a little
+trying to the nerves, even if everything did seem to
+be going all right, and I was just about to slip up
+to Milwaukee until the case was settled. I ought to
+have gone the day Elmer was stricken.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What Elmer?” demanded Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Elmer Harkness, my cousin,” the other replied
+promptly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And who are you?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’m Elmer Harkness, his cousin,” he returned with
+equal promptness.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_247'></a>247</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Which of you was born at Madison, Indiana?”
+pursued Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“He was,” replied Harkness, and added, “I was born
+at Matteson, Illinois.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“There’s a nice pair of names for a tangle,” commented
+Murray as the possibilities of the situation
+began to dawn on him. “No wonder my inquiries
+failed to untangle it. Would you mind telling me how
+you happened to try this thing?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No trouble at all,” returned Harkness. “It was
+my cousin’s scheme. He had tried to get insurance
+when he was living on Wabash Avenue and had failed.
+He had a heart trouble that was likely to culminate
+fatally almost any time. Still, I don’t think it occurred
+to him to try to beat an insurance company
+until we happened to be thrown together about a year
+ago. We were cousins, although we never had met
+before, and the similarity of names seemed to make
+a great impression on him. He had just returned to
+Chicago after a year or more in St. Louis, and he
+already had had one heart attack, with a warning
+from his doctor that the next would almost certainly
+be fatal. He was also told that the next was not
+likely to be long delayed. Now, I suppose you’ll
+think I’m lying, but I did not take kindly to his
+scheme, and the money alone would not have tempted
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_248'></a>248</span>
+me to go into it. I was sorry for his wife. He had
+been able to make only a bare living; he could leave
+her absolutely nothing. She never had had to support
+herself and there seemed to be mighty little
+chance that she could do it. I finally agreed to go
+into it for her sake. It looked easy and I was glad to
+make the try on her account.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But you wouldn’t refuse a little something for
+yourself on the side, so to speak,” suggested Murray
+sarcastically.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, I wouldn’t,” Harkness frankly admitted. “To
+carry out the plan it would be necessary for me to
+give up my job, change my name and make a fresh
+start somewhere else. The job was not such an all-fired
+good one, but it might be some time before I got
+another as good, and I would need something for expenses
+while I was losing myself. I was to get five
+hundred of the three thousand dollars insurance. The
+rest was to go to the widow.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That wouldn’t last her very long,” remarked Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It would help a little,” said Harkness, “and we
+thought we would stand a better chance if we didn’t
+ask for too big a sum.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“An insurance company,” said Murray, “has to be
+as particular with a small risk as with a large one,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_249'></a>249</span>
+and it will follow up a suspicious case as closely in
+one instance as in the other. It’s a matter of principle.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I think I understand that now,” remarked Harkness
+regretfully.
+</p>
+<p>
+“But I am curious to know,” persisted Murray,
+“how in the world you arranged such a mystifying
+record.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It was easy,” replied Harkness. “I gave you my
+cousin’s place and date of birth, his parents, his marriage
+and his life up to the time he left Madison. Then
+I gave you my record up to the finish, with the exception
+of one year, when he was in the Chicago
+directory. We put that year in so you could get
+trace of the wife in case you made any investigation.
+I have no wife, and it was rather important, of
+course, that there should be a record of a wife somewhere.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It was a wise provision,” admitted Murray. “We
+got trace of the wife at that flat.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It was after leaving there,” Harkness continued,
+“that my cousin went to St. Louis. When he returned
+we met and a little later fixed up the job.
+As soon as I got the policy I rented the Sixty-fourth
+Street flat, and my cousin and his wife moved in.
+That’s all, I think, except that you ought to be a little
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_250'></a>250</span>
+easy on me, I think, for giving you such an entertaining
+story.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray turned to the doctor with a pardonable air
+of triumph.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Was I right, Doctor,” he asked, “in saying that
+it takes the novice to devise the really confusing
+scheme?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You were right,” said the doctor.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_251'></a>251</span><a name='c12' id='c12'></a>AN INCIDENTAL GRIEVANCE</h2>
+<p>
+Jane Moffat, widow, was sore distressed.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Without Tom,” she said, “I don’t know what I’ll
+do. Tom was a good man, but unlucky. There was
+better providers than Tom, but he was better than
+none.”
+</p>
+<p>
+This apparent reflection on her late husband did
+not mean that Mrs. Moffat confined herself to the
+financial point of view, for she had been a true and
+devoted wife, but her present need was great and her
+present resources were nothing. Furthermore, Tom
+Moffat certainly had been either unlucky or incapable.
+Mrs. Moffat, out of her affection for him, chose to
+attribute their misfortunes to ill luck; another, less
+considerate, might have said that Tom lacked ability
+and stability; no one, however, could have said that
+he was neglectful or indifferent—he did the best he
+could, and his family always had all he could provide.
+Nevertheless, Tom Moffat had drifted from one thing
+to another, and his wife and two children had drifted
+with him. He had worked at many things, and in
+many places, and there had been times when he lacked
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_252'></a>252</span>
+work entirely. So he left Mrs. Moffat practically
+nothing when he died.
+</p>
+<p>
+“The neighbors was good,” continued Mrs. Moffat,
+“an’ I’ve got some sewing to do. I was pretty good
+at that in my younger days, but the children don’t
+give me time to earn much, even if the pay was what
+it should be. I had to sell some furniture already, an’
+I don’t know what I’ll do. We’ve been going from
+bad to worse.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Didn’t he have no insurance?” asked the sympathetic
+Mrs. Crimmins, whose husband was a member
+of one of the fraternal organizations.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Not when he died,” answered Mrs. Moffat. “Didn’t
+I say he was unlucky? He had insurance when it
+didn’t mean anything but paying out money, but
+there ain’t any when the time comes for getting it
+back.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“They can’t take your money an’ not give you
+nothing for it,” declared Mrs. Crimmins.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Sure they can!” said Mrs. Moffat.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I say they can’t,” insisted Mrs. Crimmins. “There
+can’t nobody do that, if you got the sense to fight.
+There was a lawyer once told my man so.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, Tom paid the money, an’ it ain’t come back
+to me, has it?” demanded Mrs. Moffat, as if that
+settled the question.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_253'></a>253</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“You ain’t tried to get it, that’s why!” retorted
+Mrs. Crimmins. “You go see a lawyer. He’ll make
+’em pay, an’ he won’t charge you a cent if he don’t
+get the money. Some might, but I’ll tell you one
+that won’t.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Moffat was not in a position to overlook even
+a slight chance to get any money, especially if it cost
+nothing to make the attempt. She knew less about
+insurance than Mrs. Crimmins, and Mrs. Crimmins
+had only wild, weird, second-hand notions. Still, Mrs.
+Crimmins talked confidently, and Mrs. Moffat finally
+took the address of the lawyer recommended to her.
+This, of course, was a mistake—it would have been
+better to go direct to the insurance company. But the
+impression prevails in some quarters that insurance
+companies are ready to take advantage of any technicality
+to escape the payment of claims, and that a
+lawyer’s services are necessary to compel them to pay
+anything that can possibly be questioned. Some
+lawyers, for their own purposes, encourage this idea.
+Isaac Hinse, to whom Mrs. Moffat went, was one of
+this class.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You did well to come to me,” he said pompously,
+as soon as she had stated her errand. “What chance
+has a woman, with no knowledge of the law, against
+a great corporation that has big lawyers engaged for
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_254'></a>254</span>
+the sole purpose of bulldozing or fooling the ignorant?
+Fortunately, I know how to deal with them. Now,
+where is this policy?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Tore up,” answered Mrs. Moffat.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What!” cried Hinse.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Tom tore it up when he couldn’t pay any more
+on it. I ain’t looking for the whole thousand dollars,
+but only to get back what he paid in. Mrs. Crimmins
+said I could do that.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Hinse leaned back in his chair and looked at the
+ceiling thoughtfully.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well,” he said at last, “that makes more trouble,
+of course. An insurance company can’t escape its obligations
+because the policy has been destroyed, but
+it makes it more difficult to prove the claim. Do you
+know what kind of policy it was?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“How should I?” returned Mrs. Moffat. “I’m no
+lawyer nor no insurance man. I come to you to learn
+my rights.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Quite right, quite right,” conceded Hinse; “but
+I must know something of the circumstances. When
+was this policy taken out?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Fifteen or sixteen years ago,” answered Mrs.
+Moffat. “We was doing pretty well then. Tom’s
+aunt left him a bit of money, an’ Tom was workin’
+steady an’ I got some money a little later. But Tom
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_255'></a>255</span>
+was always unlucky. He didn’t seem to hold on well,
+an’ we kept movin’ an’ movin’ an’ gettin’ harder up—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And he finally let the policy lapse,” suggested
+Hinse.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Lapse!” exclaimed Mrs. Moffat, as if she had
+made an important discovery unexpectedly. “That’s
+it; that’s what he said when he tore it up an’ threw
+it in the fire. I only knew he didn’t think it was
+good, but Mrs. Crimmins says they got to pay back
+what he paid them.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That depends on the policy and circumstances,”
+said Hinse in his most impressive way—and Hinse
+prided himself upon being impressive. “How long
+did he pay premiums?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Eight or ten years.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Ha!” exclaimed Hinse. “There is a chance, but
+it is a desperate chance—so desperate that I really
+can’t afford to take this on my usual contingent fee.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What’s that?” asked Mrs. Moffat.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I mean,” explained Hinse, “that I’ll get the money
+for you if any one can, but I’ll have to charge five
+dollars in advance.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Moffat hesitated.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I got it,” she said, “but it’s rent money.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“There’s more than rent in this,” declared Hinse,
+“but why should I take all the risk? It is a hard case
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_256'></a>256</span>
+and will take a great deal of my time, but I know
+these people, and I think I can work it out of them.
+You happened to come to just the right man.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Moffat was sitting on the opposite side of
+the desk from Hinse, which she deemed fortunate at
+this critical moment.
+</p>
+<p>
+“There ain’t any safe place to leave money at
+home,” she explained apologetically, “an’ a woman
+don’t have safe pockets like a man.”
+</p>
+<p>
+She made a dive down behind the desk, there was a
+sound of moving skirts, and she straightened up with
+three bills in her hand—a five and two ones. She
+handed the five to Hinse, who promptly tucked it
+away in his vest pocket.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t know what I’ll do about the rent,” she
+sighed.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Think of the insurance,” suggested Hinse, “and
+remember that you’ve got the best man cheap. I’ll
+see these insurance people to-day.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Hinse was a large pompous man, who wore a long
+rusty frock coat, because he thought that kind of coat
+properly impressed his police-court clients. His
+speeches also were for his clients, rather than for the
+judge—he wanted to show them he was not afraid of
+the court. He talked loud and aggressively. His
+whole life being what is popularly termed a “bluff,”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_257'></a>257</span>
+it naturally followed that he considered bluffing the
+main element of success.
+</p>
+<p>
+That is where he made his mistake when he went to
+see Dave Murray about Mrs. Moffat’s claim. Murray
+was not in particularly good humor that day. A
+friend had been arguing to him that corporations are
+notoriously ungrateful for services rendered, and another
+friend had endeavored to demonstrate that life
+insurance companies had a way of forcing a man to
+the limit of his endurance, of squeezing all the life
+and energy out of him in a few years, and then dropping
+him.
+</p>
+<p>
+The worst of it was that some of the cases cited
+Murray knew to be true: men were “forced” and then
+left to seek other avenues of employment when insurance
+had got the best that was in them. He had
+argued that it was the universal business rule of “the
+survival of the fittest”; that the man who had the
+ability to get near the top need have no fear, and
+that men who could stand the pace prospered wherever
+they might be in the great system. But an unexpected
+and rather harsh criticism from headquarters
+had given him a more pessimistic view of the situation:
+it could not be denied that comparatively few men
+grew old in the service. Then there was a gloomy outlook
+for a promotion he had expected, to add to his
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_258'></a>258</span>
+annoyance, and—well, Murray, the energetic and
+enthusiastic Murray, was momentarily dissatisfied.
+He was in no humor to be “bluffed” by a pompous
+shyster lawyer.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am representing Mrs. Jane Moffat,” announced
+Hinse.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What about her?” asked Murray shortly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“She has a claim against your company.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Policy?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Let’s see it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“There will be time enough for that,” said Hinse
+in his most impressive tones, “when we have settled
+what is to be paid on it.” Hinse was so constituted
+morally that he could not possibly be frank and
+straightforward. “It is a policy for a thousand dollars
+on the life of her late husband, Thomas Moffat.
+He failed to pay some of the last premiums, but there
+is a value to it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Is there?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“There is. Will you look it up and see how the
+matter stands, or shall I take legal proceedings to
+force a settlement?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Better sue,” said Murray. “Good day.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You will regret this interview,” announced Hinse.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I regret it already,” returned Murray. Then, his
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_259'></a>259</span>
+professional instinct overcoming his dislike of the
+man, he added: “If premiums have not been paid,
+the policy may have lapsed, or it may be non-forfeitable.
+I must see the policy and know the details. I
+never heard of Thomas Moffat that I recall. Give me
+the facts.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Ah,” said Hinse, settling himself comfortably in
+a chair, “I thought you would see the wisdom of being
+reasonable.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Reasonable!” exploded Murray. “Damn it! I’m
+having trouble enough being patient. Who was he,
+where did he live, and when did he die?”
+</p>
+<p>
+There was something in the way this was said that
+led Hinse to change his tactics, and he partly explained
+the situation in a confidential way. Premiums
+had been paid on the policy for at least eight years,
+he said, but the widow had supposed that everything
+was forfeited when her husband failed to pay the
+later premiums: she knew nothing about cash surrender
+values or non-forfeitable clauses.
+</p>
+<p>
+“She’ll do what I say,” he said significantly in conclusion.
+“She’ll compromise for any figure that I
+say is right.”
+</p>
+<p>
+He waited for Murray to reach for this bait, but
+Murray was merely fighting an impulse to throw the
+man out of the office.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_260'></a>260</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, she will!” said Murray at last. “Well, you’ll
+talk more frankly than you have, if you want to do
+business with me. Where’s the proof of death and
+the proof of identity? Where’s the policy?”
+</p>
+<p>
+Hinse ignored the last question. He wished to find
+out certain things about that policy himself before he
+admitted that it had been destroyed, and he thought
+he was handling the matter with consummate skill.
+</p>
+<p>
+“There will be no trouble about the proof of death,”
+he said. “In fact, I have that with me. But Moffat
+and his family moved many times during the years
+that have elapsed since he stopped paying premiums,
+living in two or three different cities, and they were
+not always known to their neighbors.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I thought so,” remarked Murray sarcastically.
+“Somebody died, and you want me to take it on faith
+that he was the Thomas Moffat who once was insured
+in this company. Although I haven’t looked it up,
+I have no doubt that a Thomas Moffat did take out
+a policy, for I don’t believe even you would have the
+nerve to come to me without at least that much foundation
+for your claim. Perhaps it was the same
+Thomas Moffat who died; perhaps it was a man who
+was merely given that name in the certificate of death.
+Perhaps he left a widow; perhaps you are representing
+that widow, but perhaps you are representing a
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_261'></a>261</span>
+woman who merely claims to be that widow. She has
+moved so often that she can’t produce any satisfactory
+evidence of her identity. Doesn’t it strike you that
+you are telling a rather fishy story? Doesn’t it occur
+to you that you ought to have ingenuity enough to
+concoct something more plausible?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“This insult, sir—” Hinse shifted again to his
+pompous manner, but Murray interrupted him.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Insult!” exclaimed Murray. “That wasn’t an
+insult, but I’ll give you one. I think you’re a tricky
+scoundrel. You have virtually offered to sell out your
+alleged client. I think you’re a swindler. I don’t
+believe you have or can produce any such policy.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“The loss of a policy, sir—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I knew it!” broke in Murray. “Policy lost, of
+course! In other words, your client hasn’t a policy
+and never did have one. She’s an impostor! You or
+she learned that there had been such a man and such
+a policy, and you thought there was a chance to get
+some money. You must think insurance companies
+are easy.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I shall take this matter to court!” declared Hinse.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do!” advised Murray. “Take it anywhere, so
+long as you take it out of this office.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You shall hear from me again!” said Hinse at the
+door.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_262'></a>262</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’d rather hear from you than see you,” retorted
+Murray. “You annoy me.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Nevertheless, when Hinse had departed, Murray
+had the matter looked up, and found that such a
+policy actually had been issued, that it was non-forfeitable
+after three years, and that about four hundred
+dollars was due on it as a result of the premiums that
+had been paid. Murray was eminently a just man—he
+wished to take unfair advantage of no one. There
+might be merit in the claim advanced, and some woman,
+entitled to the money, might be in great want. Still,
+it was not his business to seek for ways of disbursing
+the company’s funds. He reported the matter to the
+home office, and was advised to give it no further attention
+unless suit actually was brought. Then it
+should be fought. Insurance companies do not like
+lawsuits, but they like still less to pay out money
+when there is doubt as to the justice of a claim. When
+one of them goes into court, however, it fights bitterly.
+Hinse knew this, and he had not the slightest intention
+of bringing suit.
+</p>
+<p>
+If Mrs. Moffat had had any more money, so that
+there would have been a chance to exact further fees,
+he might have sued for the mere sake of getting the
+fees, but she could not even advance court costs. So
+Murray waited in vain for the threatened suit, but
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_263'></a>263</span>
+the possibility of it kept the case in his mind. The
+claim probably was fraudulent, but, if not, the woman
+unquestionably was poor and unfortunate: the very
+fact that she had taken the case to such a shyster as
+Hinse was proof of that. Somehow, the well-to-do
+people do not get into the hands of shysters. Murray
+believed it was a fraud, but he always came back
+to the possibility of being mistaken in this. And injustice—the
+injustice of passivity as well as of activity—was
+abhorrent to him.
+</p>
+<p>
+The day Murray ran across a newspaper item to
+the effect that a Mrs. Thomas Moffat had been evicted
+for the non-payment of rent, he disobeyed the instructions
+from the home office and looked her up. In
+theory it was all right to wait for a beneficiary to
+bring in the necessary proofs; in practice it was horrible
+to think of taking advantage of the ignorance
+or helplessness of a woman in trouble.
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray found Mrs. Moffat and her two children
+in a little back room near the somewhat larger apartment
+from which she had just been evicted. She
+was trying to sew and care for the children at the
+same time. It was evident, however, that she had long
+since overtaxed her strength and was near the point
+of physical collapse.
+</p>
+<p>
+“The neighbors has been good to me,” she explained,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_264'></a>264</span>
+“but they got their own troubles an’ they
+can’t do much.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray had primed himself with such facts as to
+Thomas Moffat as the books of the company and the
+old insurance application gave, and, after explaining
+his errand, he asked when and where Thomas Moffat
+was born. The weary woman, too long inured to disappointment
+to be really hopeful now, brought out
+a little old Bible and showed him the entries relating
+to birth and marriage. They corresponded with the
+dates he had. Murray took up the little Bible reverently,
+and he then and there decided that this woman
+was the widow of the Thomas Moffat who had been
+insured in his company. Even her maiden name, as
+given in the Bible, corresponded with the name he
+had taken from the books. Nevertheless, he questioned
+her closely on all the other details that he could verify.
+She gave the address at which they were living when
+the policy was taken out, and also told of the various
+changes of residence during the time that the premiums
+were being paid.
+</p>
+<p>
+“He kep’ the big paper with the seals on it for
+‘most three years after he quit paying,” she said.
+“Then he tore it up an’ burned it. He said it wasn’t
+no more use, for he’d lost it all when he quit paying.
+It seemed mighty hard, but I thought he knew.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_265'></a>265</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“There isn’t even a scrap of it left?” queried Murray.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, sir. He burned the scraps. I saw him do it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That’s unfortunate,” said Murray. “If there was
+barely enough to identify the policy it would help. It
+would be annoying to have it turn up after we had
+settled the matter, for the custom is to surrender the
+policy to the company when the payment is made.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You needn’t to worry over that,” Mrs. Moffat
+assured him anxiously. “It was burned to the very
+last piece. I saw it myself.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t doubt it,” returned Murray. “Have you
+your marriage certificate?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Have I!” exclaimed Mrs. Moffat in surprise. “You
+didn’t never know an honest married woman who would
+lose that, did you? A man don’t think much of it,
+but a woman does. It’s the proof she’s respectable.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Moffat produced the certificate, but Murray
+merely glanced at the names.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I think you may rely on getting the money, Mrs.
+Moffat,” he said. “It isn’t much, but—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I got a chance to start a little school store if I had
+a bit of money,” she interrupted eagerly. “I don’t
+need only two hundred or two hundred and fifty, an’
+it’s better than sewing.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am so confident that this is all right,” said Murray,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_266'></a>266</span>
+ignoring the interruption, “that I am going to
+advance you a little money now. I imagine you
+need it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Indeed I do!” exclaimed the grateful and now
+hopeful woman. “The lawyer got most of the rent
+money.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Damn the lawyer!” ejaculated Murray. “If he
+hears that you’ve got anything he’ll probably put in
+another claim, but you’re not to pay him a cent. Do
+you understand that? Send him to me. I’ll settle with
+him.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, sir,” returned Mrs. Moffat meekly. “He
+helped me—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Helped you! He did more to hurt you than any
+other ten men could have done. He ought to be made
+to pay damages.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Then Murray laughed at his own heat and gave
+Mrs. Moffat a twenty-dollar bill.
+</p>
+<p>
+“When we get the matter settled,” he said, “you
+can repay this.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Indeed I will!”
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray noted that there were tears in her eyes, and,
+disliking a scene of any description, he picked up his
+hat and hastily withdrew.
+</p>
+<p>
+The matter, however, was not settled as easily as
+he expected. He stated frankly what he had done,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_267'></a>267</span>
+and the officials at headquarters seemed to think he
+had taken unnecessary pains to make trouble. It was
+not that they objected to paying any just claim
+against the company, but they held that he had put
+life into a slumbering claim that was at least open to
+suspicion. Such evidence as she produced might have
+fallen into the hands of an impostor, and there was
+a considerable interval during which the connection
+between the real beneficiary and the present claimant
+was lost, the only explanation being that they had
+made frequent changes of residence and had been
+among strangers. In brief, the company did not consider
+the claims satisfactorily established and criticized
+the whole affair as being irregular.
+</p>
+<p>
+Murray was disappointed and annoyed. He was
+entirely satisfied in his own mind, and he resented the
+criticism. Nevertheless, he sought for further evidence,
+and Mrs. Moffat was finally able to supply it
+in the shape of a receipt for the last premium paid.
+This, it seemed, had not been destroyed with the policy.
+Mrs. Moffat had discovered it among some old
+papers. This Murray also reported.
+</p>
+<p>
+“We are not satisfied with the evidence produced,”
+was the reply that came back.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am satisfied,” was Murray’s answer, as he recalled
+the woman’s tears of gratitude, “and I have
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_268'></a>268</span>
+settled the claim and paid the money. Is my action
+to be upheld or is my resignation desired?”
+</p>
+<p>
+There was a long interval of silence on the part of
+the officials at headquarters. This Murray understood
+to be an evidence of their displeasure. Having thus
+made their displeasure very apparent, the report was
+finally returned with the single word, “Approved,”
+written across it.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Nevertheless,” mused Murray, “I fear I am not
+long for this business—at least with this company.
+Either I am becoming both headstrong and sensitive
+or else my superiors are becoming inconsiderate and
+dissatisfied.”
+</p>
+<p>
+That evening he took a long street-car ride, at the
+end of which he entered a little store opposite one of
+the big public schools. He wanted to see the result
+of his work.
+</p>
+<p>
+When he reappeared, a little woman followed him
+to the door, and there was a quaver in her voice as
+she said, “You’ve been so good to us, Mr. Murray, and
+we’re so happy.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well,” returned Murray with a smile, “I’m happy
+myself. And,” he added, as he was returning home,
+“it’s worth all that it ever can cost me.”
+</p>
+<p>
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+</p>
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+<p>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>The&nbsp;&nbsp;Shepherd&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;the&nbsp;&nbsp;Hills.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Harold&nbsp;&nbsp;Bell&nbsp;&nbsp;Wright.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Jane&nbsp;&nbsp;Cable.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;George&nbsp;&nbsp;Barr&nbsp;&nbsp;McCutcheon.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Abner&nbsp;&nbsp;Daniel.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Will&nbsp;&nbsp;N.&nbsp;&nbsp;Harben.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>The&nbsp;&nbsp;Far&nbsp;&nbsp;Horizon.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Lucas&nbsp;&nbsp;Malet.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>The&nbsp;&nbsp;Halo.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Bettina&nbsp;&nbsp;von&nbsp;&nbsp;Hutten.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Jerry&nbsp;&nbsp;Junior.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Jean&nbsp;&nbsp;Webster.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>The&nbsp;&nbsp;Powers&nbsp;&nbsp;and&nbsp;&nbsp;Maxine.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;C.&nbsp;&nbsp;N.&nbsp;&nbsp;and&nbsp;&nbsp;A.&nbsp;&nbsp;M.&nbsp;&nbsp;Williamson.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>The&nbsp;&nbsp;Balance&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;Power.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Arthur&nbsp;&nbsp;Goodrich.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Adventures&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;Captain&nbsp;&nbsp;Kettle.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Cutcliffe&nbsp;&nbsp;Hyne.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Adventures&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;Gerard.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;A.&nbsp;&nbsp;Conan&nbsp;&nbsp;Doyle.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Adventures&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;Sherlock&nbsp;&nbsp;Holmes.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;A.&nbsp;&nbsp;Conan&nbsp;&nbsp;Doyle.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Arms&nbsp;&nbsp;and&nbsp;&nbsp;the&nbsp;&nbsp;Woman.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Harold&nbsp;&nbsp;MacGrath.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Artemus&nbsp;&nbsp;Ward’s&nbsp;&nbsp;Works</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;(extra&nbsp;&nbsp;illustrated).<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>At&nbsp;&nbsp;the&nbsp;&nbsp;Mercy&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;Tiberius.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Augusta&nbsp;&nbsp;Evans&nbsp;&nbsp;Wilson.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Awakening&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;Helena&nbsp;&nbsp;Richie.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Margaret&nbsp;&nbsp;Deland.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Battle&nbsp;&nbsp;Ground,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Ellen&nbsp;&nbsp;Glasgow.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Belle&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;Bowling&nbsp;&nbsp;Green,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Amelia&nbsp;&nbsp;E.&nbsp;&nbsp;Barr.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Ben&nbsp;&nbsp;Blair.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Will&nbsp;&nbsp;Lillibridge.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Best&nbsp;&nbsp;Man,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Harold&nbsp;&nbsp;MacGrath.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Beth&nbsp;&nbsp;Norvell.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Randall&nbsp;&nbsp;Parrish.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Bob&nbsp;&nbsp;Hampton&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;Placer.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Randall&nbsp;&nbsp;Parrish.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Bob,&nbsp;&nbsp;Son&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;Battle.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Alfred&nbsp;&nbsp;Ollivant.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Brass&nbsp;&nbsp;Bowl,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Louis&nbsp;&nbsp;Joseph&nbsp;&nbsp;Vance.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Brethren,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;H.&nbsp;&nbsp;Rider&nbsp;&nbsp;Haggard.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Broken&nbsp;&nbsp;Lance,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Herbert&nbsp;&nbsp;Quick.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>By&nbsp;&nbsp;Wit&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;Women.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Arthur&nbsp;&nbsp;W.&nbsp;&nbsp;Marchmont.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Call&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;the&nbsp;&nbsp;Blood,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Robert&nbsp;&nbsp;Hitchens.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Cap’n&nbsp;&nbsp;Eri.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Joseph&nbsp;&nbsp;C.&nbsp;&nbsp;Lincoln.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Cardigan.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Robert&nbsp;&nbsp;W.&nbsp;&nbsp;Chambers.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Car&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;Destiny,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;C.&nbsp;&nbsp;N.&nbsp;&nbsp;and&nbsp;&nbsp;A.&nbsp;&nbsp;N.&nbsp;&nbsp;Williamson.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Casting&nbsp;&nbsp;Away&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;Mrs.&nbsp;&nbsp;Lecks&nbsp;&nbsp;and&nbsp;&nbsp;Mrs.&nbsp;&nbsp;Aleshine.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Frank&nbsp;&nbsp;R.&nbsp;&nbsp;Stockton.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Cecilia’s&nbsp;&nbsp;Lovers.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Amelia&nbsp;&nbsp;E.&nbsp;&nbsp;Barr.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Circle,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Katherine&nbsp;&nbsp;Cecil&nbsp;&nbsp;Thurston&nbsp;&nbsp;(author&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;“The&nbsp;&nbsp;Masquerader,”&nbsp;&nbsp;“The&nbsp;&nbsp;Gambler”).<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Colonial&nbsp;&nbsp;Free&nbsp;&nbsp;Lance,&nbsp;&nbsp;A.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Chauncey&nbsp;&nbsp;C.&nbsp;&nbsp;Hotchkiss.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Conquest&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;Canaan,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Booth&nbsp;&nbsp;Tarkington.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Courier&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;Fortune,&nbsp;&nbsp;A.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Arthur&nbsp;&nbsp;W.&nbsp;&nbsp;Marchmont.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Darrow&nbsp;&nbsp;Enigma,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Melvin&nbsp;&nbsp;Severy.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Deliverance,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Ellen&nbsp;&nbsp;Glasgow.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Divine&nbsp;&nbsp;Fire,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;May&nbsp;&nbsp;Sinclair.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Empire&nbsp;&nbsp;Builders.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Francis&nbsp;&nbsp;Lynde.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Exploits&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;Brigadier&nbsp;&nbsp;Gerard.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;A.&nbsp;&nbsp;Conan&nbsp;&nbsp;Doyle.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Fighting&nbsp;&nbsp;Chance,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Robert&nbsp;&nbsp;W.&nbsp;&nbsp;Chambers.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>For&nbsp;&nbsp;a&nbsp;&nbsp;Maiden&nbsp;&nbsp;Brave.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Chauncey&nbsp;&nbsp;C.&nbsp;&nbsp;Hotchkiss.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Fugitive&nbsp;&nbsp;Blacksmith,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Chas.&nbsp;&nbsp;D.&nbsp;&nbsp;Stewart.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>God’s&nbsp;&nbsp;Good&nbsp;&nbsp;Man.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Marie&nbsp;&nbsp;Corelli.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Heart’s&nbsp;&nbsp;Highway,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Mary&nbsp;&nbsp;E.&nbsp;&nbsp;Wilkins.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Holladay&nbsp;&nbsp;Case,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Burton&nbsp;&nbsp;Egbert&nbsp;&nbsp;Stevenson.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Hurricane&nbsp;&nbsp;Island.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;H.&nbsp;&nbsp;B.&nbsp;&nbsp;Marriott&nbsp;&nbsp;Watson.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>In&nbsp;&nbsp;Defiance&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;the&nbsp;&nbsp;King.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Chauncey&nbsp;&nbsp;C.&nbsp;&nbsp;Hotchkiss.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Indifference&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;Juliet,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Grace&nbsp;&nbsp;S.&nbsp;&nbsp;Richmond.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Infelice.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Augusta&nbsp;&nbsp;Evans&nbsp;&nbsp;Wilson.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Lady&nbsp;&nbsp;Betty&nbsp;&nbsp;Across&nbsp;&nbsp;the&nbsp;&nbsp;Water.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;C.&nbsp;&nbsp;N.&nbsp;&nbsp;and&nbsp;&nbsp;A.&nbsp;&nbsp;M.&nbsp;&nbsp;Williamson.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Lady&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;the&nbsp;&nbsp;Mount,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Frederic&nbsp;&nbsp;S.&nbsp;&nbsp;Isham.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Lane&nbsp;&nbsp;That&nbsp;&nbsp;Had&nbsp;&nbsp;No&nbsp;&nbsp;Turning,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Gilbert&nbsp;&nbsp;Parker.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Langford&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;the&nbsp;&nbsp;Three&nbsp;&nbsp;Bars.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Kate&nbsp;&nbsp;and&nbsp;&nbsp;Virgil&nbsp;&nbsp;D.&nbsp;&nbsp;Boyles.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Last&nbsp;&nbsp;Trail,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Zane&nbsp;&nbsp;Grey.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Leavenworth&nbsp;&nbsp;Case,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Anna&nbsp;&nbsp;Katharine&nbsp;&nbsp;Green.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Lilac&nbsp;&nbsp;Sunbonnet,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;S.&nbsp;&nbsp;R.&nbsp;&nbsp;Crockett.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Lin&nbsp;&nbsp;McLean.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Owen&nbsp;&nbsp;Wister.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Long&nbsp;&nbsp;Night,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Stanley&nbsp;&nbsp;J.&nbsp;&nbsp;Weyman.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Maid&nbsp;&nbsp;at&nbsp;&nbsp;Arms,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Robert&nbsp;&nbsp;W.&nbsp;&nbsp;Chambers.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Man&nbsp;&nbsp;from&nbsp;&nbsp;Red&nbsp;&nbsp;Keg,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Eugene&nbsp;&nbsp;Thwing.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Marthon&nbsp;&nbsp;Mystery,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Burton&nbsp;&nbsp;Egbert&nbsp;&nbsp;Stevenson.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Memoirs&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;Sherlock&nbsp;&nbsp;Holmes.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;A.&nbsp;&nbsp;Conan&nbsp;&nbsp;Doyle.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Millionaire&nbsp;&nbsp;Baby,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Anna&nbsp;&nbsp;Katharine&nbsp;&nbsp;Green.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Missourian,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Eugene&nbsp;&nbsp;P.&nbsp;&nbsp;Lyle,&nbsp;&nbsp;Jr.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Mr.&nbsp;&nbsp;Barnes,&nbsp;&nbsp;American.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;A.&nbsp;&nbsp;C.&nbsp;&nbsp;Gunter.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Mr.&nbsp;&nbsp;Pratt.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Joseph&nbsp;&nbsp;C.&nbsp;&nbsp;Lincoln.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>My&nbsp;&nbsp;Friend&nbsp;&nbsp;the&nbsp;&nbsp;Chauffeur.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;C.&nbsp;&nbsp;N.&nbsp;&nbsp;and&nbsp;&nbsp;A.&nbsp;&nbsp;M.&nbsp;&nbsp;Williamson.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>My&nbsp;&nbsp;Lady&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;the&nbsp;&nbsp;North.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Randall&nbsp;&nbsp;Parrish.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Mystery&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;June&nbsp;&nbsp;13th.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Melvin&nbsp;&nbsp;L.&nbsp;&nbsp;Severy.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Mystery&nbsp;&nbsp;Tales</b>.&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Edgar&nbsp;&nbsp;Allan&nbsp;&nbsp;Poe.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Nancy&nbsp;&nbsp;Stair.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Elinor&nbsp;&nbsp;Macartney&nbsp;&nbsp;Lane.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Order&nbsp;&nbsp;No.&nbsp;&nbsp;11.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Caroline&nbsp;&nbsp;Abbot&nbsp;&nbsp;Stanley.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Pam.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Bettina&nbsp;&nbsp;von&nbsp;&nbsp;Hutten.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Pam&nbsp;&nbsp;Decides.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Bettina&nbsp;&nbsp;von&nbsp;&nbsp;Hutten.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Partners&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;the&nbsp;&nbsp;Tide.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Joseph&nbsp;&nbsp;C.&nbsp;&nbsp;Lincoln.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Phra&nbsp;&nbsp;the&nbsp;&nbsp;Phoenician.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Edwin&nbsp;&nbsp;Lester&nbsp;&nbsp;Arnold.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>President,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Afred&nbsp;&nbsp;Henry&nbsp;&nbsp;Lewis.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Princess&nbsp;&nbsp;Passes,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;C.&nbsp;&nbsp;N.&nbsp;&nbsp;and&nbsp;&nbsp;A.&nbsp;&nbsp;M.&nbsp;&nbsp;Williamson.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Princess&nbsp;&nbsp;Virginia,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;C.&nbsp;&nbsp;N.&nbsp;&nbsp;and&nbsp;&nbsp;A.&nbsp;&nbsp;M.&nbsp;&nbsp;Williamson.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Prisoners.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Mary&nbsp;&nbsp;Cholmondeley.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Private&nbsp;&nbsp;War,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Louis&nbsp;&nbsp;Joseph&nbsp;&nbsp;Vance.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Prodigal&nbsp;&nbsp;Son,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Hall&nbsp;&nbsp;Caine.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Quickening,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Francis&nbsp;&nbsp;Lynde.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Richard&nbsp;&nbsp;the&nbsp;&nbsp;Brazen.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Cyrus&nbsp;&nbsp;T.&nbsp;&nbsp;Brady&nbsp;&nbsp;and&nbsp;&nbsp;Edw.&nbsp;&nbsp;Peple.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Rose&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;the&nbsp;&nbsp;World.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Agnes&nbsp;&nbsp;and&nbsp;&nbsp;Egerton&nbsp;&nbsp;Castle.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Running&nbsp;&nbsp;Water.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;A.&nbsp;&nbsp;E.&nbsp;&nbsp;W.&nbsp;&nbsp;Mason.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Sarita&nbsp;&nbsp;the&nbsp;&nbsp;Carlist.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Arthur&nbsp;&nbsp;W.&nbsp;&nbsp;Marchmont.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Seats&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;the&nbsp;&nbsp;Mighty,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Gilbert&nbsp;&nbsp;Parker.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Sir&nbsp;&nbsp;Nigel.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;A.&nbsp;&nbsp;Conan&nbsp;&nbsp;Doyle.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Sir&nbsp;&nbsp;Richard&nbsp;&nbsp;Calmady.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Lucas&nbsp;&nbsp;Malet.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Speckled&nbsp;&nbsp;Bird,&nbsp;&nbsp;A.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Augusta&nbsp;&nbsp;Evans&nbsp;&nbsp;Wilson.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Spirit&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;the&nbsp;&nbsp;Border,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Zane&nbsp;&nbsp;Grey.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Spoilers,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Rex&nbsp;&nbsp;Beach.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Squire&nbsp;&nbsp;Phin.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Holman&nbsp;&nbsp;F.&nbsp;&nbsp;Day.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Stooping&nbsp;&nbsp;Lady,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Maurice&nbsp;&nbsp;Hewlett.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Subjection&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;Isabel&nbsp;&nbsp;Carnaby.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Ellen&nbsp;&nbsp;Thorneycroft&nbsp;&nbsp;Fowler.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Sunset&nbsp;&nbsp;Trail,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Alfred&nbsp;&nbsp;Henry&nbsp;&nbsp;Lewis.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Sword&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;the&nbsp;&nbsp;Old&nbsp;&nbsp;Frontier,&nbsp;&nbsp;A.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Randall&nbsp;&nbsp;Parrish.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Tales&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;Sherlock&nbsp;&nbsp;Holmes.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;A.&nbsp;&nbsp;Conan&nbsp;&nbsp;Doyle.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>That&nbsp;&nbsp;Printer&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;Udell’s.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Harold&nbsp;&nbsp;Bell&nbsp;&nbsp;Wright.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Throwback,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Alfred&nbsp;&nbsp;Henry&nbsp;&nbsp;Lewis.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Trail&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;the&nbsp;&nbsp;Sword,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Gilbert&nbsp;&nbsp;Parker.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Treasure&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;Heaven,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Marie&nbsp;&nbsp;Corelli.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Two&nbsp;&nbsp;Vanrevels,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Booth&nbsp;&nbsp;Tarkington.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Up&nbsp;&nbsp;From&nbsp;&nbsp;Slavery.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Booker&nbsp;&nbsp;T.&nbsp;&nbsp;Washington.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Vashti.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Augusta&nbsp;&nbsp;Evans&nbsp;&nbsp;Wilson.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Viper&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;Milan,&nbsp;&nbsp;The</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;(original&nbsp;&nbsp;edition).&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Marjorie&nbsp;&nbsp;Bowen.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Voice&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;the&nbsp;&nbsp;People,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Ellen&nbsp;&nbsp;Glasgow.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Wheel&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;Life,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Ellen&nbsp;&nbsp;Glasgow.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>When&nbsp;&nbsp;Wilderness&nbsp;&nbsp;Was&nbsp;&nbsp;King.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Randall&nbsp;&nbsp;Parrish.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Where&nbsp;&nbsp;the&nbsp;&nbsp;Trail&nbsp;&nbsp;Divides.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Will&nbsp;&nbsp;Lillibridge.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Woman&nbsp;&nbsp;in&nbsp;&nbsp;Grey,&nbsp;&nbsp;A.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Mrs.&nbsp;&nbsp;C.&nbsp;&nbsp;N.&nbsp;&nbsp;Williamson.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Woman&nbsp;&nbsp;in&nbsp;&nbsp;the&nbsp;&nbsp;Alcove,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Anna&nbsp;&nbsp;Katharine&nbsp;&nbsp;Green.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Younger&nbsp;&nbsp;Set,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Robert&nbsp;&nbsp;W.&nbsp;&nbsp;Chambers.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>The&nbsp;&nbsp;Weavers.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Gilbert&nbsp;&nbsp;Parker.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>The&nbsp;&nbsp;Little&nbsp;&nbsp;Brown&nbsp;&nbsp;Jug&nbsp;&nbsp;at&nbsp;&nbsp;Kildare.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Meredith&nbsp;&nbsp;Nicholson.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>The&nbsp;&nbsp;Prisoners&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;Chance.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Randall&nbsp;&nbsp;Parrish.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>My&nbsp;&nbsp;Lady&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;Cleve.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Percy&nbsp;&nbsp;J.&nbsp;&nbsp;Hartley.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Loaded&nbsp;&nbsp;Dice.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Ellery&nbsp;&nbsp;H.&nbsp;&nbsp;Clark.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Get&nbsp;&nbsp;Rich&nbsp;&nbsp;Quick&nbsp;&nbsp;Wallingford.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;George&nbsp;&nbsp;Randolph&nbsp;&nbsp;Chester.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>The&nbsp;&nbsp;Orphan.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Clarence&nbsp;&nbsp;Mulford.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>A&nbsp;&nbsp;Gentleman&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;France.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Stanley&nbsp;&nbsp;J.&nbsp;&nbsp;Weyman<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Purple&nbsp;&nbsp;Parasol,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;George&nbsp;&nbsp;Barr&nbsp;&nbsp;McCutcheon.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Princess&nbsp;&nbsp;Dehra,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;John&nbsp;&nbsp;Reed&nbsp;&nbsp;Scott.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Making&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;Bobby&nbsp;&nbsp;Burnit,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;George&nbsp;&nbsp;Randolph&nbsp;&nbsp;Chester.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Last&nbsp;&nbsp;Voyage&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;the&nbsp;&nbsp;Donna&nbsp;&nbsp;Isabel,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Randall&nbsp;&nbsp;Parrish.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Bronze&nbsp;&nbsp;Bell,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Louis&nbsp;&nbsp;Joseph&nbsp;&nbsp;Vance.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Pole&nbsp;&nbsp;Baker.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Will&nbsp;&nbsp;N.&nbsp;&nbsp;Harben.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Four&nbsp;&nbsp;Million,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;O.&nbsp;&nbsp;Henry.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Idols.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;William&nbsp;&nbsp;J.&nbsp;&nbsp;Locke.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Wayfarers,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Mary&nbsp;&nbsp;Stewart&nbsp;&nbsp;Cutting.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Held&nbsp;&nbsp;for&nbsp;&nbsp;Orders.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Frank&nbsp;&nbsp;H.&nbsp;&nbsp;Spearman.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Story&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;the&nbsp;&nbsp;Outlaw,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Emerson&nbsp;&nbsp;Hough.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Mistress&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;Brae&nbsp;&nbsp;Farm,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Rosa&nbsp;&nbsp;N.&nbsp;&nbsp;Carey.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Explorer,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;William&nbsp;&nbsp;Somerset&nbsp;&nbsp;Maugham.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Abbess&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;Vlaye,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Stanley&nbsp;&nbsp;Weyman.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Alton&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;Somasco.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Harold&nbsp;&nbsp;Bindloss.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Ancient&nbsp;&nbsp;Law,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Ellen&nbsp;&nbsp;Glasgow.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Barrier,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Rex&nbsp;&nbsp;Beach.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Bar&nbsp;&nbsp;20.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Clarence&nbsp;&nbsp;E.&nbsp;&nbsp;Mulford.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Beloved&nbsp;&nbsp;Vagabond,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;William&nbsp;&nbsp;J.&nbsp;&nbsp;Locke.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Beulah.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;(Illustrated&nbsp;&nbsp;Edition.)&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Augusta&nbsp;&nbsp;J.&nbsp;&nbsp;Evans.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Chaperon,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;C.&nbsp;&nbsp;N.&nbsp;&nbsp;and&nbsp;&nbsp;A.&nbsp;&nbsp;M.&nbsp;&nbsp;Williamson.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Colonel&nbsp;&nbsp;Greatheart.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;H.&nbsp;&nbsp;C.&nbsp;&nbsp;Bailey.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Dissolving&nbsp;&nbsp;Circle,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Will&nbsp;&nbsp;Lillibridge.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Elusive&nbsp;&nbsp;Isabel.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Jacques&nbsp;&nbsp;Futrelle.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Fair&nbsp;&nbsp;Moon&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;Bath,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Elizabeth&nbsp;&nbsp;Ellis.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>54-40&nbsp;&nbsp;or&nbsp;&nbsp;Fight.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Emerson&nbsp;&nbsp;Hough.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Four&nbsp;&nbsp;Pool’s&nbsp;&nbsp;Mystery,&nbsp;&nbsp;The</b>.&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Jean&nbsp;&nbsp;Webster.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Ganton&nbsp;&nbsp;and&nbsp;&nbsp;Co.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Arthur&nbsp;&nbsp;J.&nbsp;&nbsp;Eddy.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Heart&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;Jessy&nbsp;&nbsp;Laurie,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Amelia&nbsp;&nbsp;E.&nbsp;&nbsp;Barr.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Inez.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;(Illustrated&nbsp;&nbsp;Edition.)&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Augusta&nbsp;&nbsp;J.&nbsp;&nbsp;Evans.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Into&nbsp;&nbsp;the&nbsp;&nbsp;Primitive.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Robert&nbsp;&nbsp;Ames&nbsp;&nbsp;Bennet.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Katrina.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Roy&nbsp;&nbsp;Rolfe&nbsp;&nbsp;Gilson.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>King&nbsp;&nbsp;Spruce.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Holman&nbsp;&nbsp;Day.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Macaria.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;(Illustrated&nbsp;&nbsp;Edition.)&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Augusta&nbsp;&nbsp;J.&nbsp;&nbsp;Evans.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Meryl.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Wm.&nbsp;&nbsp;Tillinghast&nbsp;&nbsp;Eldredge.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Old,&nbsp;&nbsp;Old&nbsp;&nbsp;Story,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Rosa&nbsp;&nbsp;Nouchette&nbsp;&nbsp;Carey.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Quest&nbsp;&nbsp;Eternal,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Will&nbsp;&nbsp;Lillibridge.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Silver&nbsp;&nbsp;Blade,&nbsp;&nbsp;The.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Charles&nbsp;&nbsp;E.&nbsp;&nbsp;Walk.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>St.&nbsp;&nbsp;Elmo.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;(Illustrated&nbsp;&nbsp;Edition.)&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Augusta&nbsp;&nbsp;J.&nbsp;&nbsp;Evans.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Uncle&nbsp;&nbsp;William.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Jennette&nbsp;&nbsp;Lee.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Under&nbsp;&nbsp;the&nbsp;&nbsp;Red&nbsp;&nbsp;Robe.</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;&nbsp;Stanley&nbsp;&nbsp;J.&nbsp;&nbsp;Weyman.<br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Best Policy, by Elliott Flower
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+</body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Best Policy, by Elliott Flower
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Best Policy
+
+Author: Elliott Flower
+
+Illustrator: George Brehm
+
+Release Date: June 12, 2011 [EBook #36393]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BEST POLICY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "Mrs. Vincent, I have found the insurance policy" _Page
+114_]
+
+
+
+
+                            The Best Policy
+
+                          _By_ ELLIOTT FLOWER
+
+                               Author of
+                "The Spoilsman," "Policeman Flynn," etc.
+
+                             Illustrated By
+                              GEORGE BREHM
+
+                          _A. L. BURT COMPANY_
+                      _Publishers        New York_
+
+
+
+
+                             Copyright 1905
+                       The Bobbs-Merrill Company
+
+                                October
+
+
+
+
+                                TO THOSE
+                        FOR WHOSE BENEFIT I HAVE
+                             INSURED MY OWN
+                                  LIFE
+
+
+
+
+         THE BEST POLICY
+
+           INCLUDING
+
+  An Incidental Comedy             1
+  An Incidental Question          25
+  An Incidental Tragedy           47
+  An Incidental Speculation       73
+  An Incidental Favor             99
+  An Incidental Error            123
+  An Incidental Failure          149
+  An Incidental Scheme           167
+  An Incidental Courtship        187
+  An Incidental Sacrifice        207
+  An Incidental Discovery        229
+  An Incidental Grievance        251
+
+
+
+
+THE BEST POLICY
+
+
+
+
+AN INCIDENTAL COMEDY
+
+
+Naturally, when Harry Beckford married he began to take a more serious
+view of life. If there is anything at all of thoughtfulness and
+consideration in a man, marriage brings it out: he begins to plan. He
+has some one dependent upon him, some one for whom he must provide. That
+he should trust to luck before was solely his affair; that he should
+trust to luck now is quite another matter.
+
+In the case of Beckford, as in the cases of most other young men, this
+feeling was of gradual growth. He was optimistic and happy; his future
+looked long and bright; he had ample time in which to accumulate a
+comfortable fortune; but--he wasn't even beginning. He and his wife so
+enjoyed life that they were spending all he made. It wasn't a large sum,
+but it was enough to make them comfortable and contented, enough to give
+them all reasonable pleasures. Later--he thought of this only in a hazy,
+general sort of way--they would begin to save. There was plenty of time
+for this, for they were both young, and he had proved himself of
+sufficient value to his employer to make his rapid advancement
+practically certain. The employer was a big corporation, the general
+manager of which had taken a deep personal interest in him, and the
+opportunities were limitless.
+
+But the feeling of responsibility that came to him with marriage
+gradually took practical form, perhaps because the girl who sat opposite
+him at the breakfast-table was so very impractical. She was loving,
+lovable, delightfully whimsical, but also unreasoningly impractical in
+many ways. Before marriage she never had known a care; after marriage
+her cares were much like those of a child with a doll-house--they gave
+zest to life but could be easily put aside. If the maid proved
+recalcitrant, it was annoying, but they could dine at a restaurant and
+go to the theater afterward, and Harry would help her with breakfast the
+next morning. Harry was so awkward, but so willing, that it all became a
+huge joke. Harry had not passed the stage where he would "kiss the cook"
+in these circumstances, and an occasional hour in the kitchen is not so
+bad when there is a fine handsome young man there, to be ordered about
+and told to "behave himself." So even marriage had not yet awakened
+Isabel Beckford to the stern realities of life.
+
+It was her impracticalness, her delightful dependence, that finally
+brought Harry to the point of serious thought. What would she do, if
+anything happened to him? Her father had been successful but
+improvident: he would leave hardly enough for her mother alone to live
+in modest comfort; and, besides, Harry was not the kind of youth to put
+his responsibilities on another. He began to think seriously about
+cutting expenses and putting something aside, even at this early day.
+The really successful men had begun at the beginning to do this. Then
+there came to his notice the sad case of Mrs. Baird, who was left with
+nothing but a baby. Baird had been a young man of excellent promise and
+a good income, but he had left his widow destitute. He had put nothing
+aside, intending, doubtless, to begin that later.
+
+"Just like me," thought Harry, as he looked at his girl-wife across the
+table.
+
+"Isn't it frightful?" she asked, referring to the little tragedy
+contained in the item he had just read to her from the morning paper.
+"Every one thought the Bairds were so prosperous, too."
+
+"Every one thinks we are prosperous," he commented thoughtfully.
+
+"Oh, that's different!" she exclaimed. "You mustn't talk like that or
+you'll make me gloomy for the whole day! Why, it sounds as if you were
+expecting to die!"
+
+"Not at all," he replied, "but neither was Baird."
+
+"Please don't!" she pleaded. "I shan't have another happy minute--until
+I've forgotten what you said."
+
+He laughed at the ingenuousness of this and blew her a kiss across the
+table; but he did not abandon the subject.
+
+"Baird was a young man," he persisted, "but, with a little care and
+forethought, he could have left things in fair shape."
+
+"Perhaps we ought to be saving a little," she admitted in a tone of
+whimsical protest. "I'll help you do it, if you just won't make me
+blue."
+
+"He hadn't even life insurance," he remarked, "and neither have I."
+
+"Oh, not insurance!" she cried. "I wouldn't like that at all."
+
+"Why not?" he asked.
+
+"Why--why, think how much you could do with the money you'd be paying to
+the old life insurance company!"
+
+"Wouldn't it be just the same if you were saving it?" he argued.
+
+"Oh, no; not at all," she asserted. "Why, you can get money that you're
+saving whenever you want it, but life insurance money is clear out of
+your reach."
+
+"A policy has a cash surrender value," he explained. "Every cent paid in
+premiums adds to its value, if you want to give it up."
+
+"But then you lose the insurance," she argued with feminine
+inconsistency.
+
+"Of course," he admitted, "just as you lose your savings when you spend
+them."
+
+"Oh, but you can get at your savings easier, and it's easier to start
+again, if you happen to use them," she insisted.
+
+"The very reason why life insurance is better for us," he said. "I want
+to make sure of something for you that we're certain not to touch while
+I live."
+
+But she took the unreasonable view of insurance that some young women do
+take, and refused to be convinced.
+
+"If I should die first," she said, with a little shudder at the very
+thought of death for either of them, "all the money you'd paid the
+company would be wasted."
+
+"Not necessarily," he returned. "There might be--"
+
+"Hush!" she interrupted, blushing so prettily that he went over and
+kissed her. Then he dropped the subject temporarily, which was the
+wisest thing he could have done. She had the feminine objection to
+paying out money for which she got no immediate return, but she wanted
+to please her husband. She was capricious, imperious at times and then
+meekly submissive--a spoiled child who surrendered to the emotion of the
+moment, but whose very inconsistencies were captivating. So when she
+decided that victory was hers, she also decided to be generous: to
+please him she would make a concession.
+
+"I've changed my mind about insurance," she told him a few days later.
+As a matter of fact, she had changed her mind, but not her opinions: she
+was not convinced, but she would please him by accepting his plan--with a
+slight modification.
+
+"I knew you would see the wisdom of it!" he exclaimed joyously.
+
+"How much insurance did you plan to get?" she asked, with a pretty
+assumption of business ways.
+
+"Ten thousand dollars," he replied.
+
+"Well, we'll divide it," she said, "and each get five thousand dollars."
+
+"You mean that you'll be insured, too?" he asked doubtfully.
+
+"Of course. Isn't my life worth as much as yours?"
+
+"More! a thousand times more!" he cried, "but--but--"
+
+Her eyes showed her indignation, and he stopped short.
+
+"You don't want me to be insured!" she exclaimed hotly. "You don't think
+I'm worth it!"
+
+"Why, dearest," he protested, "you're worth all the insurance of all the
+people in the world, but it isn't necessary in your case. It's my
+earning capacity that--"
+
+Unfortunate suggestion! There was an inference that she considered
+uncomplimentary.
+
+"Haven't I any earning capacity?" she demanded. "Don't I earn every cent
+I get? Isn't the home as important as the office?"
+
+"Surely, surely, darling, but--"
+
+"Doesn't a good wife earn half of the income that she shares?" she
+persisted.
+
+"More than half, sweetheart."
+
+"Don't say 'sweetheart' to me in the same breath that you tell me I'm
+not worth being insured!" she cried. "It's positively insulting,
+and--and--you always said you loved me."
+
+Her voice broke a little, and he was beside her in an instant.
+
+"You don't understand," he explained. "Insurance has nothing to do with
+your value to me or my value to you, but there is a more worldly value--"
+
+"Oh, you're of some account in the world and I'm not!" she broke in, her
+indignation driving back the tears.
+
+"Isabel, you're simply priceless to me!"
+
+"But, if I hadn't happened to meet you, I suppose I'd be a nonentity!"
+she flashed back at him. "I'm just a piece of property that you happen
+to like, and--why, Harry Beckford, men insure property, don't they?"
+
+"Of course, but--"
+
+"And I'm not worth insuring, even as property!" she wailed. "Oh, I
+didn't think you could ever be so cruel, so heartless! You might at
+least let me think I'm worth something."
+
+The young husband was in despair. He argued, pleaded, explained in vain;
+she could only see that he put a value on his life that he did not put
+on hers, and it hurt her pride. Besides, they were partners in
+everything else, so why not in insurance?
+
+"But I wouldn't want the insurance on your life," he urged.
+
+"Do you think I'm any more mercenary than you?" she retorted. "I don't
+want the insurance, either; I want you--when you're nice to me."
+
+"We'll think it over," he said wearily.
+
+"I've thought," she returned decisively. "If it's such a good thing, I
+think you're mean not to let me share it with you." Then, with sudden
+cheerfulness: "It would be rather jolly and exciting to go together,
+just as we go to the theater and--and--all other amusements."
+
+He laughed at her classification of life insurance among the pleasures
+of life, and then he kissed her again. Her unreasoning opposition
+distressed him, but resentment was quite out of the question. There was
+momentary exasperation, and then a little love-making, to bring the
+smiles back to her face. All else could wait.
+
+It is a noteworthy fact, however, that life insurance takes a strong
+hold on a man the moment he really decides he ought to have it, and
+opposition only adds to his determination. He who finds that, because of
+some unsuspected physical failing, he can not get it, immediately is
+possessed with a mania for it. So long as he considered it within his
+reach, he turned the agents away; now he goes to them and lies and
+pleads and tries desperately to gain that which he did not want until he
+found he could not get it.
+
+Thus, in a minor degree, the opposition of Beckford's wife served only
+to impress on Beckford's mind the necessity and advantage of some such
+provision for the future. Perhaps the explanation of this is that in
+trying to convince her he had convinced himself. At any rate, the
+subject, at first taken up in a desultory way, became one of supreme
+importance to him, and he went to see Dave Murray. Dave, he was solemnly
+informed by a friend who claimed to know, probably had been christened
+David, but the last syllable of the name had not been able to stand the
+wear and tear of a strenuous life, in addition to which Murray was not
+the kind of man to invite formality. He was "Dave" to every one who got
+past the "Mr. Murray" stage, and it never took long to do that.
+"Anyhow," his informant concluded, "you have a talk with him. There
+isn't a better fellow or a more upright man in the city. The only thing
+I've got against him is that he'll insure a fellow while he isn't
+looking and then make him think he likes it. But if you want insurance,
+go to him." So Beckford went, and presently he found himself telling
+Murray a great deal more than he had intended to tell him.
+
+"The fact is," he explained, "my wife was violently opposed to the idea
+at first."
+
+"Not unusual," said Murray, and then he added sententiously: "Wives
+don't care for insurance, but widows do."
+
+Beckford smiled as he saw the point.
+
+"It doesn't do a widow much good to care for insurance, if she objected
+to it as a wife," he suggested.
+
+"It may," returned Murray. "It isn't at all necessary that a wife should
+know what's coming to her when she becomes a widow. She may be provided
+for in spite of herself."
+
+"That would be rather difficult in my case," said Beckford, "for my wife
+knows just what my salary is, and we plan our expenditures together.
+It's a pretty good salary, but we have been living right up to the limit
+of it, so I can't provide for premiums without her knowledge, although I
+can do it easily with it."
+
+"That complicates matters a little," remarked Murray.
+
+"Besides," Beckford added, "we have been so frank with each other that I
+should be unhappy with such a life-secret, and, if I acted on my own
+judgment and took the policy home to her, she says she would tear it up
+and throw it away."
+
+"I knew a woman to do that once," said Murray reflectively. "Her husband
+insured his life before going on the excursion that ended in the
+Ashtabula disaster. A few days later her little boy came in to ask if
+anything could be done about the policy that she had destroyed."
+
+"I don't think Isabel would really destroy it," said the troubled
+Beckford, "but it would distress her very much to have me go so contrary
+to her wishes in a matter that we had discussed."
+
+"It would distress her very much to be left penniless," remarked Murray.
+
+"I think," said Beckford thoughtfully, "I really think, if I had known
+that she was going to take this view of the matter, I would have insured
+myself first and talked to her about it afterward. Then the situation
+wouldn't be so awkward. But I thought that all women favored life
+insurance."
+
+"Not at first," returned Murray, "but usually there comes a change."
+
+"When?" asked Beckford hopefully.
+
+"When they begin to think of the needs and the future and the possible
+hardships of the first baby," replied Murray, whereat Beckford blushed a
+little, even as his wife had done a few days before, for young people do
+not consider and discuss prospective family problems with the same
+candor that their elders do.
+
+"Woman, the true woman," Murray continued, "is essentially unselfish;
+she thinks of others. Careless for her own future, she plans
+painstakingly for those she loves. The insurance premium that is for her
+own benefit she would rather have to spend now, but you never hear her
+object to the investment of any money that is to benefit her husband or
+children, even when she has to make sacrifices to permit it."
+
+"But that doesn't help me," complained Beckford. "I don't want any
+insurance on her life; I don't need it, and there is no reason to think
+that I ever shall need it. It's for her that I am planning, but she
+won't listen to anything but this dual arrangement."
+
+"I quite understand the situation," returned Murray. "What insurance you
+are able to take out must be to protect her."
+
+"Precisely; and I never knew before that a woman could be so
+unreasoningly wilful in opposition to her own interests."
+
+"My dear sir," said Murray, with some feeling, "you have a great deal to
+learn about women. I have more than twenty thousand dollars charged up
+to them in commissions that I have lost, after convincing the men
+interested. But if I can help you to provide for this one perverse
+sample of femininity, in spite of herself, I shall feel that I have
+taken a Christian revenge on the whole sex." Beckford rather objected to
+this reference to his wife, but there was nothing of disrespect in the
+tone, and somehow the quaintness of the sentiment made him smile.
+
+"I wonder," Murray went on, "if we could refuse the risk without
+frightening her."
+
+"I'm afraid not," returned Beckford, "but"--and a sudden inspiration
+lighted his face, "couldn't you put in some restrictions that would
+frighten her away?"
+
+Murray leaned back in his chair and gave the matter thoughtful
+consideration. Somehow he had become unusually interested in this young
+man's effort to do a wise and generous thing for his wife in the face of
+her opposition. If the man had been seeking to gain some benefit for
+himself, Murray would not have listened to even a suggestion of deceit.
+But the aim was entirely unselfish, and Beckford had brought a letter of
+introduction that left no doubt as to his responsibility and integrity.
+Then, too, the situation was amusing. Here were two business men
+plotting--what? Why, the welfare of their opponent, and that only.
+
+"So many women have beaten me," said Murray at last, "that I should
+really like to beat one of them, especially when it's for her own good.
+Bring your wife up here, and I'll see what I can do."
+
+But here again feminine capriciousness was exemplified. Having
+apparently won her point, Isabel Beckford began to wish she had lost it.
+
+"I'm afraid," she said. "Suppose I should find that something frightful
+was the matter with me? Those insurance doctors are awfully particular,
+and--and--I'd rather not know it, if I'm going to die very soon."
+
+"Oh, very well," acquiesced her husband. "We'll go back to my original
+plan and put the whole ten thousand dollars on my life."
+
+"No, no, no!" she protested. "It would be even worse, if I learned that
+there was anything wrong with you. I couldn't bear it, Harry; I
+couldn't, really! There wouldn't be anything left in life for me. Let's
+not go at all."
+
+"That's foolish, Isabel," he argued. "I'm all right, and the very fact
+that I am accepted as a good risk will remove every doubt."
+
+"That's so," she admitted. "We'll be sure, then, won't we?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"Then we'll both go," she announced, with a sudden reversal of judgment.
+"I hadn't thought of it that way, but I'll feel a lot better and
+stronger when I'm insured, because the companies are so particular, and
+it will be comforting to know that you are all right. It's worth
+something to find that out, isn't it? And sometimes a family physician
+won't tell you the truth, because it won't do any good and he doesn't
+want to frighten you. We'll go right away and see about it now."
+
+"Hardly this evening," he answered, smiling, although he was sorely
+troubled. "We'll go to-morrow afternoon."
+
+"But it's so long to wait until to-morrow," she pouted.
+
+He regretted the delay quite as much as she did, for his experience up
+to date led him to think that there might be another change. First she
+had refused to consider the matter at all; then she had insisted they
+should go together; after that she had backed out; next she had demanded
+he should give up the idea, also; and now she was again determined it
+should be a joint affair.
+
+"No man," he muttered, as he dropped off to sleep, "knows anything about
+a woman until he marries, and then he only learns enough to know that he
+knows nothing at all."
+
+Then he mentally apologized to his wife for even this mild criticism,
+and dreamed that, through some complication, he had to insure the cook
+and the janitor and the grocer's boy before he could take out a policy
+on his own life, and that, when he had attended to the rest, he had no
+money left for his own premiums, so he made all the other policies in
+favor of his wife and hoped to thunder that the cook and the janitor and
+the grocer's boy would die a long time before he did.
+
+However, she was still of the same mind the next day, so they went to
+see Murray.
+
+"Of course," she said, as they were on the way, "if this thing wrecks
+our happiness by showing that the grave is yawning for either of us, it
+will be all your fault."
+
+That made him feel nice and comfortable--so nice and comfortable that he
+heartily wished he never had mentioned life insurance. Still, he cheered
+up a little when Murray took charge of matters in a masterly, confident
+way.
+
+"I understand, Mrs. Beckford," said Murray, "that both you and your
+husband wish to have your lives insured."
+
+"Yes," she replied, "and for some reason he has selfishly wanted to put
+all the insurance we can afford on his own life."
+
+"So he has told me."
+
+"What right had he to discuss family matters with you?" she demanded
+with asperity.
+
+Thus Murray was jarred out of his air of easy confidence the first
+thing.
+
+"Why--why, he didn't exactly tell me," he explained, "but my experience
+enabled me to surmise as much. Most men are like that."
+
+"I never thought Harry would be," she said, looking at him
+reproachfully. "But it's all right now," she added.
+
+"Yes, it's all right now," repeated Murray. He had intended to argue
+first the advisability of accepting her husband's plan, but he deemed it
+unwise. He had suddenly lost faith in his powers of persuasion, so he
+resorted to guile. "Of course, you understand that life insurance is
+hedged about by many annoying restrictions," he went on.
+
+"I didn't know it," she returned.
+
+"Oh, yes," he said glibly, with a wink at Beckford. "Do you use gasoline
+at all?"
+
+"Why, I have used it occasionally to take a spot out of a gown," she
+admitted.
+
+"Barred!" asserted Murray.
+
+"I can't do even the least little mite of cleaning with gasoline!" she
+exclaimed in dismay.
+
+"None at all! It's dangerous! Might just as well fool with
+nitroglycerin. People who handle it at all become careless."
+
+There were indications of a rising temper. That a mean old insurance
+company should have the audacity to tell her what she could or could not
+do was an outrage!
+
+"And you can't use street-cars," added Murray.
+
+"Can't use street-cars!" she cried. "What will Harry do?"
+
+"Oh, that rule doesn't apply to men," returned Murray calmly, "for men
+don't get off the cars backward and all that sort of thing. Street-cars
+are considered, in our business, a danger only for women."
+
+"Well, it's a hateful, insulting, unfair business!" she cried, rising in
+her indignation. "I wouldn't let such a contemptible lot of people
+insure me for anything in the world."
+
+"But please don't blame me," urged Murray insinuatingly. "I want to do
+the best I can for you."
+
+"Oh, I don't blame you," she returned magnanimously.
+
+"I admit that it sounds unfair," Murray persisted, "but there was a time
+when we wouldn't take risks on women at all, so, even with the
+restrictions, it's quite a concession."
+
+"Oh, very likely, very likely," she admitted, "but I have too much pride
+to accept any such humiliating conditions. Harry can do as he pleases,"
+with dignity, "but nothing could induce me to be insured now. I'm going
+home."
+
+Harry took her to a cab, and then returned to Murray's office.
+
+"Well, it's settled," said Murray, with a sigh of relief.
+
+"Yes, it's settled," returned Beckford, "but I don't feel just
+comfortable about it."
+
+"She sort of bowled me over the first thing," commented Murray. "I
+haven't quite recovered yet. But it's her welfare that we're
+considering. Better put in your application and take the examination
+before there are any more complications."
+
+"Perhaps that's wise," admitted Beckford gloomily, for he was not at all
+at ease about the matter. She had said he could do as he pleased, but
+there had been something in her tone that was disquieting; she might
+think there was disloyalty in his patronage of a company that had so
+offended her. And this was the first cloud that had appeared in the
+matrimonial sky; in all else there had been mutual concession and
+perfect agreement.
+
+He was thinking of this when he went home--and found her in tears.
+
+"I know what's the matter," she wailed. "I didn't think of it at first,
+but I did afterward, and I've been crying ever since. I have heart
+trouble; that's why he didn't want to give me a policy."
+
+"Nonsense!" he protested vigorously.
+
+"Oh, I know it! I know it!" she cried. "He didn't want to tell me, so he
+put in all that about street-cars and gasoline. But it's heart trouble
+or consumption! Those insurance men are so quick to see things that no
+one else notices. Why, I could see that he was worried the very first
+thing!"
+
+Beckford got on his knees beside the bed on which she was lying and
+tried to comfort her, but she was inconsolable. He insisted that she was
+the strongest and healthiest woman of her size in the world; that he
+knew it; that Murray himself had commented on it later; that the company
+physician, who happened to be in the outer office as they passed
+through, had spoken of it; that even the clerks were impressed; but he
+failed to shake her conviction that she had some fatal, and hitherto
+unsuspected, malady. Finally, assuring her that he would have that
+matter settled in thirty minutes, he rushed to the nearest cab-stand and
+gave the driver double fare to run his horse all the way to Murray's
+house.
+
+Murray was just sitting down to dinner, but Beckford insisted that he
+should return with him immediately.
+
+"You've got to straighten this matter out!" he told him excitedly.
+"You've got to give her all the insurance she wants without any
+restrictions! Make it fifty thousand dollars if she wants it! I'll pay
+the premiums, if we have to starve!"
+
+"But I can't give her a policy to-night!" protested Murray.
+
+"You can tell her about it to-night, can't you?" demanded Beckford. "And
+you can take her application to-night, can't you? Why, man, she has
+convinced herself that she's going to die in a week! We can settle the
+details later, but we've got to do something to-night."
+
+"Oh, well, I'll come immediately after dinner," said Murray.
+
+"You come now!" cried Beckford. "If you talk dinner to me, I'll brain
+you! Insurance has made a wreck of me already."
+
+"I haven't been getting much joy out of this particular case myself,"
+grumbled Murray, but he went along.
+
+The moment he reached home, Beckford rushed to his wife's room.
+
+"It's all a mistake!" he exclaimed joyfully. "You--you mustn't cry any
+more, dearest, for it's all right now. Mr. Murray didn't understand at
+first--thought you were one of these capricious, careless, thoughtless
+women that do all sorts of absurd and foolish things on impulse--but he
+knows better now. There aren't any more restrictions for you than for
+me, and he's waiting in the parlor to take your application for all the
+insurance you want."
+
+"Really?" she asked, as the sobs began to subside.
+
+"Really."
+
+"And there isn't anything the matter with me?"
+
+"Of course not, sweetheart."
+
+"Well," she said, after a pause, "I can't see him now, because my eyes
+are all red, but I wish he'd write that out for me. I'd feel so much
+more comfortable."
+
+"Indeed he will," asserted Beckford, "and we can fill out the
+application in here, and I'll take it back to him."
+
+Hopefully and happily the young husband returned to Murray and told him
+what was wanted. Murray sighed dismally. He had missed his dinner for a
+woman's whim, and the woman was merely humiliating him. Still, he felt
+in a measure responsible for the trouble; he ought never to have
+resorted to duplicity, even for so laudable a purpose. So he wrote the
+following: "Investigation has convinced me that the restrictions
+mentioned this afternoon are unnecessary in your case, and I shall be
+glad to have your application for insurance on the same terms as your
+husband's."
+
+Mrs. Beckford read this over carefully. Then she read the application
+blank with equal care. After that she wrote at the bottom of the note:
+"Insurance has almost given me nervous prostration now, and I don't want
+to have anything more to do with it. If Harry can stand the strain, let
+him have it all."
+
+"Give him that, Harry," she said, "and get rid of him as soon as
+possible, for I want you to come back and comfort me. I'm completely
+upset."
+
+Murray lit a cigar when he reached the street, and puffed at it
+meditatively as he walked in the direction of the nearest street-car
+line.
+
+"What's the matter with nervous prostration for me?" he muttered. "One
+more effort to defeat a woman who is fighting against her own interests
+will make me an impossible risk in any company; two more will land me in
+a sanatorium."
+
+
+
+
+AN INCIDENTAL QUESTION
+
+
+Dave Murray, general agent, leaned back in his chair and looked
+thoughtfully at the young man before him.
+
+"So you have run up against an unanswerable argument?" he remarked.
+
+"It seems so to me," said the inexperienced Owen Ross.
+
+"My dear boy," asserted Murray, "in the life insurance business the only
+unanswerable argument is a physician's report that the applicant is not
+a good risk. What is the particular thing that has put you down and
+out?"
+
+"Faith," replied the young man; "just plain faith in the Almighty.
+Perhaps, some time in your career, you have run across a religious
+enthusiast who considers it a reflection on the all-seeing wisdom of the
+Almighty to take any measures for his own protection or the protection
+of his family."
+
+"I have," admitted Murray, "but generally it has been a woman."
+
+"This is a man," said Ross; "a sincere, devout man. If he were a
+hypocrite, it would be different, but it is a matter of religious
+conviction--a principle of faith--with him to trust in the Lord. Life
+insurance he considers almost sacrilegious--an evidence of man's doubt in
+the wisdom of his Maker, and an attempt, in his puny insignificant way,
+to interfere with the plans of the Great Master. To all arguments he
+replies, 'The Lord will provide for His children.'"
+
+"And you consider that unanswerable?" asked Murray.
+
+"In his case, yes. Even his wife is unable to move him, although she
+wants insurance as a provision for the future of the children and was
+instrumental in getting me to talk to him. How would you answer such a
+contention as that?"
+
+"I wouldn't answer it; I would agree with him."
+
+"And give up?"
+
+"Quite the contrary. While there can be no doubt that he is right as far
+as he goes, he does not go far enough. I would turn his own argument
+against him." Murray leaned forward in his chair and spoke with earnest
+deliberation. "The Lord provides for His children through human
+instrumentality. Why should not the man be the human instrument through
+which the Lord provides for that man's family? The Lord does not
+directly intervene--at least, not in these days. If, in the hour of
+extremity, an unexpected legacy should come to relieve the necessities
+of that man's family, he would say the Lord had provided. But it would
+be through human instrumentality: the legacy, and the method and law by
+which it reached them would be essentially human. If, when poverty
+knocks at the door, some generous philanthropist were moved to come to
+their relief, he would hold again that the Lord had provided; if some
+wealthy relative sought them out, it would be through the intervention
+of the Lord; if, through his own wise action, they are saved from want,
+is he more than the human instrument through which the Lord provides?
+May not an insurance company be the chosen instrument? I say this with
+all due reverence, and it seems to me to answer his objections fully. Is
+it only in unforeseen ways that He cares for His children? Has He
+nothing to do with those cases in which reasonable precautions are taken
+by the children themselves?"
+
+Ross, the young solicitor, looked at his chief with unconcealed
+admiration.
+
+"By George!" he exclaimed, "you've got the theory of this business down
+to a science. I'll try the man again."
+
+"It's not a business," retorted Murray somewhat warmly, for this was a
+point that touched his pride; "it is a profession--at least, it lies with
+the man himself to make it a business or a profession, according to his
+own ability and character. There are small men who make a business of
+the law, and there are great men who make a profession of it; there are
+doctors to whom medicine is a mere commercial pursuit, and there are
+doctors to whom it is a study, a science, a profession. You may make of
+life insurance a cheap business, or you may make of it a dignified
+profession; you may be a mere annoying canvasser, or you may be a man
+who commands respect; but, to be really successful, you must have, or
+acquire, a technical knowledge of the basis of insurance, a knowledge of
+law, and, above all, a knowledge of human nature,--and even that will
+avail little if you are not temperamentally suited to the work. You can
+no more make a good insurance man of unpromising material than you can
+make a good artist."
+
+Ross caught some of the enthusiasm and earnestness of Murray, and
+unconsciously straightened up.
+
+"You have made me look at the subject from a new point of view," he
+said. "I confess I was rather ashamed of the soliciting part of the work
+at first--felt a good deal like a cripple selling pencils to support a
+sick wife."
+
+"And very likely you acted like it," remarked Murray, "in which case the
+people you approached would so class you. It isn't necessary to have the
+'iron nerve,' so long identified with that branch of the work; it isn't
+even helpful, for it makes a man unpopular, and the most successful men
+are the most popular ones. You've lost ground when you have reached a
+point where any man you know is not glad to see you enter his office. At
+the same time,"--musingly,--"nerve and persistence become forethought and
+wisdom when time proves you were right. I have known of cases where a
+man afterward thanked the solicitor who had once made life a burden to
+him; but it is always better to change a man's mind without his
+knowledge."
+
+"Rather difficult," laughed Ross.
+
+"But it has been done," said Murray. "As a matter of fact, you are
+working to save men and women from their own selfishness or
+heedlessness. If you think of that, you will be more convincing and will
+raise your work to the dignity of a profession; if you think only of the
+commissions, you will put yourself on the level of the shyster lawyer
+whose interest centers wholly in the fees he is able to get rather than
+in the cases he is to try. There are pot-boilers in every business and
+every profession, but success is not for them: they can't see beyond the
+needs of the stomach, and the man who works only for his belly never
+amounts to much. He will stoop to small things to gain a temporary
+advantage, never seeing the future harm he is doing; he is the kind of
+man who hopes to rise by pulling others down. Remember, my boy, that
+insinuations as to the instability of a rival company invariably make a
+man suspicious of all: when you have convinced him that the rival's
+proposition and methods are not based on sound financial and business
+principles, you have more than half convinced him that yours aren't,
+either, and that very likely there is something radically wrong with the
+whole blame system."
+
+"I'm glad you spoke of that," said Ross. "There have been cases where
+insinuations have been made against our company, and I have been tempted
+to fight back the same way. A man is at a disadvantage when he is put on
+the defensive and is called upon to produce evidence of what ought to be
+a self-evident proposition."
+
+"Never do it, unless the question is put to you directly," advised
+Murray. "You must defend yourself when attacked, but, in every other
+case, go on the assumption that your company is all right, and that
+everybody knows it is all right. The late John J. Ingalls once said,
+'When you have to offer evidence that an egg is good, that egg is
+doubtful, and a doubtful egg is always bad.' It's worth remembering.
+Many a man is made doubtful of a good proposition by ill-advised efforts
+to prove it is good."
+
+"If that is invariably true,"--with a troubled scowl,--"I fear I have made
+some mistakes."
+
+"The man who thinks he makes no mistakes seldom makes anything else."
+
+Ross brightened perceptibly at this.
+
+"You've made them yourself?" he asked.
+
+"Lots of them," replied Murray, and then he added whimsically: "Once I
+placed a risk that meant a two-hundred-dollar commission for me, and my
+wife and I went right out and ordered two hundred dollars' worth of
+furniture and clothes. The risk was refused, and I never got the
+commission."
+
+Ross laughed.
+
+"I'm beginning to develop enthusiasm and pride in the business--I mean
+profession."
+
+"Oh, call it a business," returned Murray, "but think of it as a
+profession. It's the way you regard it yourself that counts, and you
+can't go far astray in that if you stop to think what is required of a
+good insurance man. Sterling integrity, for one thing, and tact and
+judgment. A man who brings in a good ten-thousand-dollar risk is more
+valuable than the man who brings in one hundred thousand dollars that is
+turned down by the physicians or at the home office. And the first
+requisite for advancement is absolute trustworthiness. There are
+temptations, even for a solicitor--commission rebates to the insured that
+are contrary to the ethics of the business--and there are greater
+temptations higher up. You will learn, as in no other line, that a man
+wants what he can't get, even if he didn't want it when he could get it,
+and he will pay a high price for what he wants. Collusion in a local
+office might give it to him, in spite of all precautions taken; such
+collusion might be worth ten thousand dollars to a man who had no record
+of refusal by other companies against him, and ten thousand dollars
+could be split up very nicely between the local agent and the company's
+physician. So integrity, unswerving integrity, is rated exceptionally
+high, and the least suspicion of trickery or underhand dealing may keep
+a capable man on the lowest rung of the ladder for all time, even if it
+doesn't put him out of the business entirely. You are paid to protect
+your company, so far as lies in your power, and to get business by all
+honorable means; if you resort to dishonorable means, even in your
+company's interests, there is always the suspicion that you will use the
+same methods against its interests whenever that may be to your personal
+advantage."
+
+Owen Ross pondered this deeply on his way home. It gave a new dignity to
+his occupation. He had taken up insurance because it happened to be the
+only available opening at a time when he was out of employment. He had
+been a clerk for a big corporation that had recently combined two branch
+offices, thus materially reducing its office force, and Ross had been
+one of those to suffer. His father, a prosperous merchant, had expressed
+himself, when consulted, in this way:
+
+"I will give you a place here whenever that is necessary to enable you
+to live, but I prefer that you should complete your preliminary business
+training under some one else. No boy can consider himself a success
+until he has proved his independence, and no boy can be sure he has
+proved that until he has made a secure place for himself outside the
+family circle."
+
+So Ross, being wise enough to see the reason and justice of this,
+endeavored to show his independence by securing a position with Murray.
+And, although fairly successful from the start, he was only just
+beginning to take a real interest in his work. Murray liked him and
+encouraged him: there was, he thought, the making of a good and
+successful man in him, and he frequently went to considerable trouble to
+explain the theory and practice of insurance. Then, too, he knew that
+Ross had married just before he lost his other position, and that he was
+living in a modest little flat on his own earnings, in spite of the fact
+that he had a father who would be much more ready to assist him
+financially than he was to take him into his own office at that
+particular time. In fact, the elder Ross was quite willing that his son
+and his son's wife should live with him, holding only that the family
+influence should not extend to his first business connections, but Owen
+deemed the flat a necessary evidence of his independence.
+
+"I'll get that sanctimonious optimist to-morrow," he mused as he walked
+along. "He can't answer those arguments that Murray gave me. He is
+content because the Lord will provide, but why may not I be the human
+instrument through which the Lord makes provision? That sounds
+presumptuous, but why not? Hasn't He provided for others in just this
+way? Hasn't many a man, convinced against his will, protected the future
+of those he loved barely in time?" He laughed quietly at a thought that
+occurred to him. "If this man should be insured to-morrow and die the
+next day," he went on, "he would think the Lord had provided, but if he
+has to pay the premiums for twenty years, he'll think it all very human.
+I'm beginning to understand him."
+
+He was still smiling at this quaint conceit when he entered his flat and
+was informed by his wife that Mrs. Becker had been there to see him.
+Mrs. Becker was a woman who did washing and occasional cleaning for
+them.
+
+"To see me!" he exclaimed. "Why, her dealings are all with you."
+
+"It has something to do with insurance," his wife explained. "She knows
+you're in that business, of course, and she is in deep distress. She was
+crying when she was here this afternoon, but I couldn't understand what
+the trouble was. She said she'd come back this evening."
+
+Ross puzzled over this a good deal during dinner, and even tried to get
+some additional information by questioning his wife closely. Exactly
+what did the woman say? Her words might be "all Greek" to his wife and
+still be intelligible to him, if only she could repeat them.
+
+"But I can't," she insisted. "I was so sorry for her and so helpless
+that I really didn't hear it all, anyway. I only know that it had
+something to do with an application or a premium or a policy, and her
+husband is very sick and she needs money."
+
+Ross began to speculate. The ignorant have strange ideas of insurance,
+and very likely this woman thought she could insure a dying husband. His
+backbone began to stiffen at once. Of course such a thing was actually,
+as well as ethically, impossible, but it was going to be a very
+difficult matter to explain it to her, and he anticipated a distressing
+scene. His wife was interested in the woman, spoke frequently of her
+hardships and her courage, and had helped her to such trifling extent as
+they could afford. No doubt the woman had some wild notion that he,
+being an insurance man, could do this for her and would do it as a
+matter of charity. Ethical questions do not trouble such people.
+
+When she came, he was prepared for a request that was impossible in
+honor and in fact, and he was ready to refuse it with such gentleness as
+he deemed due to a weary and desperate woman who did not realize what
+she was asking--the gentleness of sympathy coupled with the firmness of
+principle. Ross was a young man, inclined to exaggerate the importance
+and difficulties of problems that confronted him, and he was
+disconcerted when he found he had made an error in the basis from which
+he had reached his conclusion; the woman did not wish to insure a dying
+husband, but to protect insurance he already carried.
+
+"Oh, good Mr. Ross," she wailed, "you must fix it for me some way. If we
+don't pay to-morrow, we'll lose everything. And we haven't the money,
+Mr. Ross, not enough to pay the doctor even, and it's worrying Peter
+more than the sickness. But you can fix it for us--of course you can fix
+it for us,"--with appealing hopefulness.
+
+"Sit down, Mrs. Becker, and tell me about it," he urged. "I don't
+understand."
+
+She sank into a chair, and looked at him with anxious, tearful doubt and
+hope. Worn out with work and watching, she was a prey to conflicting
+emotions. Never doubting that he could help her, she feared he might
+refuse. Her anxiety was pitiable, and it was some time before he could
+get the details of the story from her. Finally, however, he learned that
+in more prosperous days her husband had insured his life for five
+thousand dollars, and, even in adversity, had succeeded in keeping up
+the payments, until stricken by this last illness. The sum he had saved
+up for the next premium--the one due the following day--had been used for
+medicines and other necessaries, and now he was near death. The doctor
+held out no hope; he might live a few days, but hardly more than that,
+for he was slowly but surely sinking. Until the previous night, when
+there came a turn for the worse, his recovery had been confidently
+expected, and his wife had worried little about the premium; the
+insurance company would be glad to take it when he was well.
+
+"But _he_ worried," she said with unconscious pathos; "he worried and
+asked about it until--he couldn't any more. He's too sick to know now.
+But,"--hopefully,--"he'll understand when I tell him it's all right."
+
+Ross was as much distressed as the woman, but he could give her little
+comfort. He could protect the insurance only by paying the premium
+himself, and he was not able to do that. Still, almost all policies
+provided for the payment of something proportionate to the amount paid
+in, even when the premiums were not kept up, so--He paused uncomfortably
+at this point, for the woman's attitude and expression had changed from
+tearful anxiety to dull, sullen suspicion. She did not believe him; like
+all insurance men, he was ready to seize any opportunity to defraud her;
+she was helpless, and a rich company would take advantage of her
+helplessness.
+
+"You can get the money, Owen," his wife urged, almost in tears herself.
+
+[Illustration: "Perhaps I can arrange it," he said at last. "In what
+company is he insured?"]
+
+"I'll pay it back to you--when he dies!" cried the woman, and Ross gave
+her a quick glance. It seemed heartless, but he saw it was not. The
+woman was tried beyond her endurance; she, with her two children, faced
+a future that was absolutely devoid of hope; she was sick, wretched,
+despairing, and the husband she had striven so hard to keep with her was
+already beyond recall. She spoke of his approaching death merely as
+something certain, that could not be prevented, and that force of
+circumstances compelled her to consider. She had to think for herself
+and children, plan for herself and children, even at this fearful time,
+for there was no one to do it for her, no one to relieve her of any part
+of the burden. The problem of the larder and the problem of burial would
+confront her simultaneously; she had to face these cold, hard, brutal
+facts, in spite of the grief and sorrow of the moment.
+
+All this Ross saw and appreciated, and he gave his attention to various
+possible ways of raising the necessary money.
+
+"Perhaps I can arrange it," he said at last. "In what company is he
+insured?"
+
+It proved to be his own company. Instantly, his talk with Murray flashed
+through his mind. "You are paid to protect your company, so far as lies
+in your power," Murray had said. Absolute loyalty to its interests was
+imperative. Would it be honorable for him to enter into any arrangement
+with this woman that would cost his company money? Had he any right to
+do more than the company would do itself? What would be thought of an
+employee in any other line of business who advanced money that was to be
+used to the financial disadvantage of his employer, however proper it
+might be in the case of some one else?
+
+"I can do nothing," he announced shortly.
+
+"Oh, Owen!" cried his wife reproachfully.
+
+"It is impossible!" he insisted. "If it were a proper thing to do,
+Murray would do it for her himself."
+
+"Mr. Murray doesn't understand the situation," urged his wife.
+
+"Murray would understand my situation and his," he returned. "We are
+taking money from this company, we are its trusted agents, and we can
+not do anything that would be to its disadvantage. It is a matter of
+business integrity."
+
+The woman did not weep now, but the look she gave him haunted him all
+that night. And his wife's entreaties and reproaches added to his
+unhappiness.
+
+"Why, Jennie," he explained, "I stand alone between the company and a
+loss of over four thousand dollars. I know that this man is dying; I
+know that, if I pay this premium, the company will have to pay out the
+full amount of the insurance within a few days; I know that the premiums
+paid to date amount to only about five hundred or six hundred dollars,
+which, under the terms of the policy, the woman will not wholly lose.
+For me, an employee, to conspire to get the rest of the money for her
+would be like taking it from the cash drawer. I won't do it; I can't do
+it after Murray's talk to me to-day about business integrity!"
+
+"The company can afford it," persisted Mrs. Ross, "and the woman needs
+it so badly."
+
+"There are lots of companies and individuals who could afford to let the
+woman have five thousand dollars," replied Ross.
+
+Still, Mrs. Ross could not understand. If he had been willing to pay the
+premium to another company, why not to his own?
+
+"Resign and pay it!" she exclaimed suddenly, feeling that she had solved
+the problem; but that was a greater sacrifice than he was prepared to
+make. He was sincerely sorry for the woman; the case was on his mind all
+the following morning; but Murray's talk had made a deep impression.
+This was one of the severe temptations of the business--the more severe
+because there was no question of corruption, but only of sympathy, in
+it. Such, he had read, were the temptations that led men of the best
+intentions astray in many of the affairs of life.
+
+He was thinking of this when he called to see the "sanctimonious
+optimist"; he was thinking of it when he advanced the arguments Murray
+had given him; he was still thinking of it when the man said he was
+almost convinced and would telephone him after talking with his wife.
+Consequently, this success failed to elate him.
+
+"The law of humanity," he told himself, "is higher and more sacred than
+the law of business."
+
+He had walked unconsciously in the direction of his father's office,
+and, still arguing with himself, he went in.
+
+"Father," he said, "I want to borrow a hundred dollars." The premium was
+a little more than that, but he could supply the remainder.
+
+"For what?" asked the senior Ross.
+
+"There is something I may wish to do," was the enigmatical reply. "I
+will repay it as rapidly as possible."
+
+"Commissions few and small?" laughed the senior Ross. "Well, a young man
+never finds out exactly what he's worth, while working for a relative or
+a friend, so this experience ought to be valuable."
+
+Still undecided, but with the money in his pocket, Ross left his
+father's office and went to his own. He wanted to pay that premium, but
+it seemed to him a very serious matter, ethically and actually. The
+woman faced a future of privation; he faced what seemed to him a crisis
+in his business career. He revolted at the thought of being false to his
+employer, but to let the woman suffer would be heartless.
+
+"A letter for you, Ross," said one of the clerks, as he entered the
+office. "Your wife left it."
+
+He opened it with nervous haste, and a notice of a premium due dropped
+out.
+
+"You must find some way to help this woman, Owen," his wife wrote. "I
+went to see her to-day, and the situation is pitiable. She has used up
+every cent she had and is in debt. Her husband is conscious at
+intervals, and he looks at you so wistfully, so anxiously, that it makes
+your heart bleed. Oh! if I could only tell him that the insurance is all
+right! It would give him peace for the little time that is left to him
+on this earth. _Owen! resign, if necessary, but do what I ask!_"
+
+Ross crumpled the note in his hand and walked into Murray's private
+office.
+
+"Mr. Murray," he said, "please accept my verbal resignation."
+
+"What's the matter?" asked Murray.
+
+"I have no time to explain now," said Ross. "I want to be released from
+my obligations to the company at once."
+
+"You're excited," said Murray. "Sit down! Now, what's the matter?"
+
+Ross hesitated a moment, and then blurted out the whole story.
+
+"You wish to pay this premium?" asked Murray.
+
+"I'm going to pay it!" said Ross defiantly. "It will stick the company
+for more than four thousand dollars, but I'm going to pay it!"
+
+"And you wish to resign to do it honorably?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Pay it!" said Murray. "But your resignation is not accepted. I wouldn't
+lose such a man as you for ten times four thousand dollars."
+
+"It is all right?" asked Ross, bewildered.
+
+"Of course it's all right," asserted Murray. "As a matter of sympathy
+and justice, it is not only right but highly commendable; as a matter of
+financial profit to you, it would be despicable. Pay that premium, and I
+tell you now that the company will never pay a death benefit with less
+hesitation than it will pay this one. What is one risk more or less? We
+do business on the general average, and any sum is well invested that
+uncovers so conscientious an employee. Pay it, and come back to me."
+
+Three minutes later, Ross, with the receipt in his pocket, was at the
+telephone.
+
+"It's all right," he told his wife. "The premium is paid."
+
+"Oh, Owen!" exclaimed Mrs. Ross, and her voice broke a little, "you
+don't know what comfort you have given a dying man! If you could only
+see--"
+
+"Get a cab!" he broke in. "He doesn't know it yet, and you must tell
+him. Get a cab and drive like--"
+
+He stopped short, but his wife knew what he almost said, and she forgave
+him without even a preliminary reproach.
+
+His eyes were bright and his heart was light when he went back to
+Murray. Mrs. Becker's situation was sad enough, but surely he had
+lessened the gloom of it by removing one great source of anxiety. He
+felt that he had done something worthy of a man, and it was a joy that
+he could do this without transcending the rules of business integrity
+and loyalty.
+
+"I want you," said Murray, and there was something of admiration in his
+tone; "I want you so much that I am going to put you in the way of
+making more money. You have a great deal to learn about the insurance
+business before you will cease making unnecessary problems for yourself,
+but you have one quality that makes you valuable to me." He paused and
+smiled a little at the recollection of what had passed. "I would
+suggest," he went on, "that you bear this in mind: life insurance is not
+for one life only or for one generation only, but for the centuries.
+Otherwise, we could not do business on the present plan. We exist by
+reducing the laws of chance to a science that makes us secure in the
+long run, although, on the basis of a single year, there may be
+considerable losses. And a good company will no more stoop to shabby
+tricks than you will; nor will it seek to escape obligations through
+technicalities or petty subterfuges. That's why I told you to pay that
+premium, and I respect you for doing it."
+
+Murray picked up a memorandum on his desk.
+
+"By the way," he added, glancing at it, "you must have made good use of
+the arguments I gave you, for your sanctimonious optimist telephoned
+that, if you would call this afternoon or to-morrow, he would arrange
+with you for a ten-thousand-dollar policy."
+
+Grateful as Murray's praise was to his ears, the greeting from his wife
+gave Ross the most joy.
+
+"He was conscious for a moment and understood," she said, as she put her
+arms around her husband's neck, "and there was such an expression of
+restful peace on his face that it made me happy, in spite of the shadow
+of death hovering over. It made him a little better, the doctor said,
+but nothing can save him. And I'm so proud of you, Owen!"
+
+"To tell the truth, dearest," he replied tenderly, "I'm almost proud of
+myself."
+
+
+
+
+AN INCIDENTAL TRAGEDY
+
+
+Dave Murray stretched his legs comfortably under the table, blew rings
+of smoke toward the ceiling, and waited for Stanley Wentworth to speak.
+
+Having his full share of worldly wisdom, Murray knew that there was a
+reason for Wentworth's most urgent invitation to lunch with him at his
+club. While they had been friends for years and had lunched together on
+many previous occasions, there was a formality about this invitation
+that presaged something of importance. So, when they reached the cigars,
+Murray smoked and waited.
+
+"You win, Dave," Wentworth announced at last.
+
+"I knew I would--when you married," returned Murray. "It was only a
+question of time then."
+
+"Especially after you got the ear of my wife," said Wentworth. "You
+worked that very nicely, Dave. Do you remember the story you told her
+about the man who couldn't give any time to life insurance during the
+busy season and who was on his death-bed when the date he had set for
+his examination arrived?"
+
+"It was true, too," asserted Murray. "The man was a good risk when I
+went after him, and there would have been ten thousand dollars for his
+wife if he hadn't procrastinated. There's no money in the policy that a
+man was just going to take out, Stanley."
+
+"Well, you win, anyway," said Wentworth. "We've been jollying each other
+on this insurance business for six or eight years, and I've stood you
+off pretty well, but I can't stand against the little woman at home. I
+was lost, Dave, the day I took you up to the house and introduced you to
+her."
+
+"I guess I played the cards pretty well," laughed Murray. "I told you at
+the beginning that I was going to insure you before I got through, and a
+good insurance man doesn't let a little matter like the personal
+inclinations of his subject interfere with his plans. Why, I've been
+known to put a man in a trance, have him examined, and abstract the
+first premium from his pocket before he waked up. But you were the
+hardest proposition I ever tackled. You ought to have taken out a policy
+ten years ago."
+
+"I couldn't see any reason for it," explained Wentworth. "I thought I
+was a confirmed bachelor: had no family and never expected to have one.
+That was at twenty-five, and at thirty I considered the matter
+absolutely settled, but at thirty-five the little woman just quietly
+reached out and took me into camp--and I'm glad of it. Never knew what
+real life was before. Still, I hate like thunder to surrender to you
+after our long, harmonious and entertaining fight, Dave; I wouldn't do
+it if you hadn't taken advantage of my hospitality to load my wife up
+with insurance ghost stories. If you want to be fair, you'll pay her
+half the commission."
+
+"I'll do it!" exclaimed Murray; "not in cash, of course, but I'll make
+her a present that will cover it--something nice for the house. You won't
+be jealous, will you?"
+
+"Jealous!" returned Wentworth with a hearty laugh. "Well, I guess not!
+Why, I'll help out by making the policy worth while: I'll take out one
+for twenty-five thousand. I tell you, Dave, I'm not going to run any
+risk of leaving the little woman unprovided for, and I lost four
+thousand in the last month."
+
+The conversation had been jocular, with an undercurrent of seriousness
+in it, but Wentworth became really serious with the last remark. Murray
+saw that this loss had had more to do with the decision than any
+arguments that had been advanced, and he, too, dropped his bantering
+tone.
+
+"I never could see," Wentworth went on, "why insurance was any better
+than an investment in good stock--"
+
+"A little more certain," suggested Murray, "so far as your wife is
+concerned. No stock is safe while a man lives and continues in business.
+It is too convenient as collateral and can be reached too easily in the
+case of failure. You will take risks with stock that you will not take
+with insurance, even when you can; you will sell stock to get ready cash
+for a business venture that may prove disastrous, but it's like robbing
+your own widow to touch life insurance money. No man ever raised money
+on his policy without feeling meaner than a yellow dog, for he is
+gambling with the future of the one he loves, or at least should love.
+He has taken money that he promised her; money that she will sadly need
+in case of his unexpected death. That she consented to it does not ease
+his conscience, if he is any sort of a man, for no woman ever freely
+consents to jeopardizing any part of her husband's life insurance money;
+she is led to do it, against her better judgment, by love and faith, and
+he knows that he has demanded of her what may prove to be a great
+sacrifice. That is why insurance is a better investment than stocks for
+the purpose you have in mind, Stanley; whatever your business needs, you
+never can ask your wife to join you in hypothecating the policy without
+feeling like a mean heartless sneak."
+
+"I never looked at in that way," returned Wentworth thoughtfully, "but
+you're right, Dave. The policy will have a sacredness that no stock can
+possess. To touch it, to risk any part of it in business, would seem
+like taking money out of the baby's bank. Still," he added whimsically,
+"a game in which you have to die to win never did appeal to me very
+strongly."
+
+"A game in which you are sure to win when you die is better than a game
+in which you are likely to lose twice," retorted Murray, "or one in
+which you have to live to win, so long as life is something over which
+you have no jurisdiction. With insurance you win when you lose, but with
+stocks you may lose both ways and leave nothing but a reputation for
+selfish improvidence. Of course, I am looking at it from the family,
+rather than the personal, point of view."
+
+"Surely," acquiesced Wentworth. "I am thinking of the little woman and
+the baby." He settled back in his chair and smoked dreamily for a few
+moments, his thoughts evidently wandering to the home that had given him
+so much of happiness during the last eighteen months. And Murray was
+silent, too. The affair was as much one of friendship as of business
+with him. It had been largely a joke when he had first declared that he
+would write a policy on Wentworth's life, although he believed
+implicitly that every man should have insurance and should get it when
+he is young enough to secure a favorable rate. At that time Wentworth
+had no one dependent upon him, but Murray had kept at him in a bantering
+way, telling him that he would surely have need of insurance later and
+that he had better prepare for it while the opportunity offered. Then,
+when celibacy seemed to have become a permanent condition with him, he
+had married, and thereafter, while still treating the subject lightly
+and humorously, Murray had conducted a campaign that was really founded
+on friendship. No one knows better than a man who has been long in the
+insurance business of the tragedies resulting from procrastination and
+neglect; no one can better appreciate how great a risk of such a tragedy
+a friend may be running. So Murray, jolly but insinuating, was actuated
+by something more than purely business interest when he made whimsical
+references to his long campaign in the presence of Mrs. Wentworth and
+incidentally, apparently only to tease her husband, described some of
+the sad little dramas of life that had come to his notice. And he had
+won at last.
+
+"Get the application ready," said Wentworth, suddenly rousing himself,
+"and let me know when your doctor wants to see me."
+
+That evening Wentworth told his wife that he had arranged to take out a
+twenty-five-thousand-dollar policy, and she put her arms around his neck
+and looked up at him in an anxious, troubled way.
+
+"You don't think I'm mercenary, do you, Stanley?"
+
+"Indeed, I don't, little woman," he replied, as he kissed her; "I think
+you are only wise."
+
+"It seems so sort of heartless," she went on, "but you know I'm planning
+only for the baby. There is something sure about life insurance, and
+everything else is so uncertain. Some of the stories Mr. Murray told
+were very sad."
+
+"Oh, Murray was after business," he said with a laugh. "He told me long
+ago that he intended to insure me, and it's been a sort of friendly duel
+with us ever since. But he has convinced me that he is right in holding
+that every married man should carry life insurance, and, aside from
+that, I would cheerfully pay double premiums to relieve you of any cause
+for worry. The insurance company is going to get the best of me, though:
+I'll live long enough to pay in more than it will have to pay out."
+
+"Of course you will!" she exclaimed confidently. "You're so big and
+strong it seems foolish--except for the baby. That's why we mustn't take
+any chances."
+
+So cheerful and confident was Wentworth that he failed to notice the
+solemnity of the physician who examined him the next day. The doctor
+began with a joke, but he ended with a perplexed scowl.
+
+"You certainly look as strong as a horse," he said. "But you're not," he
+added under his breath.
+
+Then he made his report to Murray.
+
+"Heart trouble," he explained. "The man may live twenty or thirty years
+or he may die to-morrow. My personal opinion is that he will die within
+two years."
+
+Murray was startled and distressed. Wentworth was his close personal
+friend, and to refuse his application after he had striven so hard to
+get it seemed heartless and cruel, especially as the refusal would have
+to be accompanied by an explanation that would be much like a
+death-warrant. Of course, he was in no way responsible for the
+conditions, but it would seem as if he were putting a limit on his
+friend's life.
+
+"Are you sure?" he asked.
+
+"Positive," replied the physician. "It is an impossible risk."
+
+"Did you tell him?"
+
+"No."
+
+"And I am to dine with him and his wife to-night," said Murray. "They
+will be sure to ask about the policy."
+
+Murray was tempted to send word that he could not come, but it was
+rather late for that. Besides, the information would have to be given
+some time, so what advantage could there be in procrastinating? But it
+came to him as a shock. The news of actual death would hardly have
+affected him more seriously, for it seemed like a calamity with which he
+was personally identified and for which he was largely responsible. He
+knew that he was not, but he could not banish the disquieting feeling
+that he was. He closed his desk and walked slowly and thoughtfully to
+Wentworth's house, wishing, for once, that he had been less successful
+in the "friendly duel."
+
+It was a long walk; he could easily have put in another half-hour at the
+office had he chosen to take the elevated; but he was in no humor for
+business and he preferred to walk. It gave him additional time for
+thought. He must decide when and how he would tell Wentworth, and it is
+no easy task to tell a friend that his hold upon life is too slight to
+make him a possible insurance risk.
+
+He would not do it to-night. It would be nothing short of brutal so to
+spoil a pleasant evening. Wentworth would have the knowledge soon
+enough, even with this respite, and he was entitled to as much of
+joyousness and pleasure as could be given him.
+
+Murray was noticeably dispirited. He tried to be as jovial as usual, but
+he found himself looking at his friend much as he would have looked at a
+condemned man. There was sympathy and pity in his face. He wondered when
+the hour of fate would arrive. Might it not be that very evening? A
+moment of temporary excitement might be fatal; anything in the nature of
+a shock might mean the end. Indeed, the very information he had to give
+might be the one thing needed to snap the cord of life. If so, he would
+feel that he had really killed his friend, and yet he had no choice in
+the matter: he must refuse and he must explain why he refused. If it had
+been his own personal risk, he would have taken it cheerfully, but even
+had he so desired, he could not take it for the company in the face of
+the doctor's report.
+
+"What makes you so solemn?" asked Mrs. Wentworth. "You look as if you
+had lost your best friend."
+
+"I feel as if I had," Murray replied thoughtlessly, and then he hastened
+to explain that some business affairs disturbed and worried him.
+
+"But your victory over Stanley ought to make you cheerful," she
+insisted. "Think of finally winning after so long a fight!"
+
+"When shall I get the policy?" asked Wentworth.
+
+"Policies are written at the home office," answered Murray evasively.
+
+"But the insurance becomes effective when the application is accepted
+and the first premium paid, doesn't it?" asked Wentworth.
+
+"Yes," answered Murray.
+
+"Well, now that I am at last converted to insurance I am an enthusiast,"
+laughed Wentworth. "We won't waste any time at all. Get out your little
+check-book, Helen, and give Murray a check for the first premium. I'll
+make it good to you to-morrow."
+
+"I don't believe I could accept it now," said Murray hesitatingly.
+"There are certain forms, you know--"
+
+"Oh, well, I'll send you a check the first thing in the morning,"
+interrupted Wentworth. "Perhaps it isn't just the thing to turn a little
+family dinner into a business conference."
+
+"Better wait till you hear from me," advised Murray, and his face showed
+his distress. He wished to avoid anything unpleasant at this time, but
+he was being driven into a corner.
+
+"Is--is anything wrong?" asked Mrs. Wentworth anxiously.
+
+"There is an extraordinary amount of red tape to the insurance
+business," explained Murray, and the fact that he was very ill at ease
+did not escape the notice of Wentworth. The latter said nothing, but he
+lost his jovial air and he watched Murray as closely as Murray had
+previously watched him. It did not take him long to discover that Murray
+was abstracted and uncomfortable; that he was a prey to painful thoughts
+and kept track of the conversation only by a strong effort of will.
+
+Mrs. Wentworth, too, discovered that something was wrong, and when the
+men retired to the library to smoke she went to her own room in a very
+unhappy frame of mind. She was sure that Murray had some bad news for
+her husband, but it did not occur to her that it concerned the insurance
+policy; it probably related to some business venture, she thought, for
+she knew that her husband had recently lost money and had still more
+invested in a speculative enterprise. Well, he would get the news from
+Murray, and she would get it from him.
+
+Murray did not remain long, and he went out very quietly. Usually the
+two men laughed and joked at parting, but there was something subdued
+about them this time. As they paused for a moment at the door, she heard
+her husband say, "That's all right, old man; it isn't your fault." Then,
+instead of coming to her, he put on his hat and left the house almost
+immediately after Murray had gone.
+
+It was late when he came back, but she was waiting for him, and his face
+frightened her. He seemed to have aged twenty years in a few hours; he
+was haggard and pale and there was something of fear in his eyes.
+
+"What's the matter?" she asked. "You look sick."
+
+"A little tired," he answered with an attempt at carelessness. "I'll be
+all right to-morrow."
+
+"Mr. Murray was troubled, too," she persisted. "What's it all about?"
+
+"Oh, Murray has been unfortunate in a little business affair," he
+explained.
+
+"And you're concerned in it, too," she said.
+
+"Yes," he admitted. "But it's all right, so don't worry."
+
+More he refused to say, but later in the night, waking suddenly, she
+heard him in the library, and, stealing down stairs, found him pacing
+the floor in his dressing-gown and slippers. He meekly went back to bed
+when she gently chid him, but he was restless and slept little.
+
+The next morning he held her in his arms several minutes before leaving
+for the office, and he knelt for some time beside the baby's crib. It
+was such a leave-taking as might have been expected if he were going on
+a long journey. And she knew that he was withholding something from her.
+
+At the office he shut himself up for nearly the whole morning.
+
+"It must be a mistake," he kept muttering. "That doctor is a fool. I'll
+try another company."
+
+In the afternoon he put in an application and suggested that, as a
+matter of business convenience, he would like to be examined at once.
+Two days later he was politely informed that the company, on the advice
+of its physician, felt constrained to decline the risk. But the man who
+is condemned to death does not give up hope: he appeals to a higher
+court, holding to the last that an error of law or of fact will be
+discovered. Wentworth appealed his case, but the verdict of the
+specialist he consulted was the same: he might live many years, but he
+might die at any moment.
+
+"I would advise you," said the physician, "to give up active business
+and to get your financial affairs in the best possible shape. If you are
+to live, you must take unusual precautions to avoid excitement and
+worry."
+
+Avoid worry! What a mockery, when he was deprived of the opportunities
+to make proper provision for the little woman and the baby! He was
+well-to-do, but only so long as he continued to live and make money.
+Some investments he had, but they were neither numerous nor large, and
+not of a character that would be considered absolutely safe. He had
+invested to make money rather than to save it in most instances, so the
+amount that he had in really first-class securities was comparatively
+trifling.
+
+"If I continue in business, how long can I expect to live, Doctor?" he
+asked.
+
+"It is problematical," was the reply. "Frankly, I don't think I would
+give you more than two or three years of active business life, with the
+possibility of death at any moment during that time. Still, if you are
+careful, you ought to last two years."
+
+Wentworth shuddered. He had told the physician to speak frankly, but it
+was horrible to have the limit of life set in this way.
+
+"Retire from business," the doctor added, "go to some quiet place, and
+you _may_ live as long as any other."
+
+"But I can't!" cried Wentworth. "I haven't the money, and I must provide
+for the little woman and the baby. My God! how helpless they would be
+without me!"
+
+Wentworth went from the doctor's office to the safe-deposit vaults where
+he kept his securities. He was a desperate man now--a man who had
+deliberately decided to sacrifice his life for those he loved. He would
+continue in business another year--two years, if necessary and the Lord
+permitted--and he would bend every energy to making provision for his
+little family. It might--nay, probably would--kill him, but what matter?
+To buy life at the expense of their future would be supremely selfish.
+And he might succeed before the fatal summons came: he might get his
+affairs in such shape in a year that he could retire with almost as good
+a chance of life as he had now--if he could stand the strain so long. But
+in his heart he felt he was pronouncing his own doom. He might put the
+optimistic view of the situation in words, but he did not believe the
+words. A great fear--a fear that was almost a certainty--gripped hard at
+his heart.
+
+"_Hic jacet!_" he said to himself, as he went over the securities and
+estimated the amount of available cash he could command. He had
+speculated before and had been reasonably successful in most instances;
+he must speculate again, for in no other way could he bring his
+resources up to the point desired within the time limitations. The
+moment he reached this point he would put everything in stocks or bonds
+that would be absolutely safe. Indeed, he would do this as fast as he
+got a little ahead of the game.
+
+Wentworth had speculated previously only with money that he could afford
+to lose; but he was speculating now with his entire surplus. It had been
+a divertisement before; it was a business now. He had to win--and he
+lost. No one could be more careful than he, but his judgment was wrong.
+When he had given the markets no particular attention he had taken an
+occasional "flier" with success; when he made a study of conditions and
+discussed the situation with friendly authorities he found himself
+almost invariably in error.
+
+There was something pathetic and disquieting in the affection and
+consideration he displayed for his wife and child during this time. He
+endeavored to conceal his own distress, but morning after morning his
+wife clung to him and looked anxiously into his face. He spoke
+cheeringly, but he grew daily more haggard, and she knew he was
+concealing something. Once she asked for news about the life insurance
+policy.
+
+"Oh, that's all settled," he replied, but he did not tell her how it was
+settled.
+
+Finally she went to see Murray. He had brought the news that had made
+this great change in her husband, and he could tell her what was
+worrying him. Murray had not called since that evening. While in no
+sense responsible for it, he had been so closely identified with this
+blow that had fallen on his friend that he felt his presence, for a time
+at least, would be only an unpleasant reminder.
+
+"I must know this secret," she told Murray with earnest directness of
+speech. "It is killing Stanley. He is worried and anxious, and he is
+working himself to death in an effort to straighten out some
+complication."
+
+"He mustn't do that!" exclaimed Murray quickly. "Work and worry are the
+two things for him to avoid."
+
+"Why?" demanded Mrs. Wentworth.
+
+Murray hesitated. He knew why Wentworth had kept this from his wife, but
+was it wise? The man was deliberately walking to his grave. Ought not
+his wife to be informed in order that she might take the necessary steps
+to save him? It would be a breach of confidence, but did not the
+circumstances justify it? Wentworth was his friend, and he had a sincere
+regard for Mrs. Wentworth. Surely he ought not to stand idly by and
+witness a tragedy that he might prevent.
+
+[Illustration: "You--you didn't insure him?" she said inquiringly]
+
+"Mrs. Wentworth," he said at last, "the thing that is worrying Stanley
+is the fact that we had to decline him as a risk."
+
+"You--you didn't insure him?" she said inquiringly, as if she did not
+quite comprehend.
+
+"No."
+
+"He let me think you had."
+
+"Because he did not wish to distress you, and I assure you, Mrs.
+Wentworth, I would not tell you this myself, were it not for the fact
+that Stanley is doing the most unwise thing possible."
+
+"I am very glad you did tell me," she said quietly. She was not an
+emotional woman, but the pallor of her face and something of anxious
+fright in her eyes told how deeply she felt. "What must I do?"
+
+"Get him out of business and away from excitement," replied Murray
+promptly. "In a quiet place, if he takes care of himself, he may live as
+long as any of us."
+
+When Wentworth reached home that evening, the little woman, always
+affectionate, greeted him with unusual tenderness. She said nothing of
+her visit to Murray, but later she brought up the subject of moving to
+the country.
+
+"I'm dreadfully worried about you, Stanley," she said. "You must take a
+vacation."
+
+"I can't," he replied.
+
+"But you must," she insisted. "You've been working too hard lately."
+
+"Next year," he said, "I hope to get out of this city turmoil and take
+you away to some quiet place, where we can live for each other and the
+baby."
+
+She went over and knelt beside him, as he leaned wearily back in his big
+arm-chair.
+
+"Why not now?" she pleaded.
+
+"My God! I can't, Helen!" he cried. "I want to, but I can't! If you only
+knew--"
+
+"I only know that you will break down, if you don't take a rest," she
+interrupted hastily. It would only add to his distress to learn that she
+knew his secret. "Don't you suppose I can see how you are overtaxing
+your strength? We must go away for a time, anyway."
+
+"Little woman," he said, putting an arm round her, "it's a question of
+finance, and you never could understand that very well. When I get
+things in shape we will go, but not yet. I have some investments to
+watch, and,"--wearily,--"things have gone rather against me lately. There
+are lots of things to be done before I can take any extended vacation,
+and it is even a more serious matter to retire permanently. My earning
+capacity is about all we have to live on now."
+
+"I thought you had money invested," she remarked.
+
+"I had," he replied, "but it was not enough, and in trying to make it
+enough I made some wrong guesses on the market."
+
+"Never mind," she said cheerily. "We'll make the best of what's left. We
+won't need much if we get away from this fearful life. It isn't money
+that the baby and I want, it's you; and we don't want you to die for us,
+but to live for us."
+
+Wentworth gave his wife a quick glance, for this was hitting very close
+to his secret; but he saw in her only the very natural anxiety of a
+loving wife, who knew that her husband was overtaxing his strength.
+
+"You mean well," he said, "but you don't know."
+
+Mrs. Wentworth was not a business woman, and she knew little of her
+husband's affairs, but she had a feeling that this question of life
+insurance was all that stood in the way of the precautions that he ought
+to take. He could get something for his interest in the business, if he
+retired, but not enough to make proper provision for her. He could take
+up some quiet pursuit and continue to make a little money as long as he
+lived, but he could leave only the most trifling income. And, in his
+efforts to improve matters, he had only made them worse. She understood
+so much.
+
+There was an undercurrent of sadness, but still something beautiful, in
+the life that followed this conversation. All the little sympathetic
+attentions that love can suggest, each gave to the other, while each
+worried in secret, seeking only to make life a little easier and more
+cheerful for the other.
+
+But Mrs. Wentworth was becoming as desperate as her husband, and even
+more unreasoning. Was not her husband's life worth all the money of all
+the insurance companies? And were they not condemning him to death by
+their action? It was more than a risk that depended upon life; it was a
+life that depended upon the risk. In a little time she convinced herself
+that the insurance companies could save him and would not, failing
+utterly to appreciate the fact that, even with the greatest precautions,
+the chances were against him; that there was only a possibility that he
+might live longer than a few years, the probability being quite the
+reverse.
+
+Murray was shocked when she called to see him again. The change in her
+husband was no greater than the change in her. Was not the man she loved
+committing suicide before her eyes? And was he not doing this for love
+of her and the baby? Would not such a condition of affairs make any
+woman desperate and unreasoning?
+
+"Mr. Murray," she said, "if you are as good a friend to my husband as he
+has always been to you, you will save his life."
+
+"I will do anything in my power, Mrs. Wentworth," replied Murray.
+"Nothing in life ever has so distressed me as this."
+
+"Then give him the policy he wants."
+
+"Impossible! Why, the doctor--"
+
+"You can fix it with the doctor; you know you can! Or you can get
+another doctor to pass him! Oh, Mr. Murray! I am not asking for money; I
+am asking for life--for his life! It's suicide--murder! I want to get him
+away! I must get him away! But I can't while he fears for our future--the
+baby's and mine! He must provide for us, and he's losing the little he
+had! He can't stand it a month longer! Give him the policy, Mr. Murray,
+and I'll swear to you never to present it for payment! It's only for him
+that I ask it! You can give him life--give your friend life! Won't you do
+it?"
+
+The tears were running down the little woman's cheeks, and Murray could
+not trust himself to speak for a moment.
+
+"Mrs. Wentworth," he said at last, "every cent I have is at your
+husband's disposal, if he needs it, but what you ask is utterly
+impossible. The risk would be refused at the home office, even if I
+passed it, for the fact that he has been refused by two other companies
+would be reported there."
+
+In the case of another, Murray would have said more, but he knew that
+Mrs. Wentworth was quite beside herself and did not really appreciate
+that she was asking him to be dishonest with the company that employed
+him.
+
+"He wouldn't touch a cent of the money of such a friend!" she exclaimed
+with sudden anger. "He's not a beggar, and neither am I! All I seek for
+him is the tranquility that means life; all I ask is the removal of the
+anxiety that means death. And this little you will not do for a friend!"
+She was beside herself with desperation.
+
+It was bitter, it was harsh, it was unjustifiable, but Murray had
+forgiven her before she had ceased speaking. The depth of her feeling
+and the excitement under which she was laboring were sufficient to
+excuse her. But he felt as if he really were condemning his friend to
+death. Yet what could he do? He would cheerfully give a thousand dollars
+out of his own pocket to make things easier for the two suffering ones,
+but it was not a matter of ready cash. Wentworth had enough of that.
+
+In the deepest distress Murray was pacing back and forth when the door
+opened and Wentworth himself staggered in. Murray was at his side in a
+moment and guided him to a chair.
+
+"What's the matter, old man?"
+
+"Lost everything," Wentworth gasped. "Tried to protect--margined to
+limit--all gone!"
+
+"But your interest in the business?"
+
+"Sold it--to protect deal." He seemed almost at the point of collapse,
+but he rallied for a moment. "Insurance!" he cried. "I must have it!
+Damn the company! You must put it through for me! You hear, Murray!" The
+man was almost crazy, and he spoke fiercely. "You've got to do it--for
+humanity's sake! Can't leave them penniless!"
+
+"We'll talk about it to-morrow," said Murray soothingly.
+
+"You lie, Murray!" the excited man cried. "You won't do it at all;
+you'll see them starve first, you--you dog! I'll kill you, if you don't--"
+
+Wentworth had risen in frenzied fury, as he pictured the future of his
+loved ones; he swayed for an instant, and Murray caught him as he fell.
+He was dead before Murray could get him back into the chair.
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+Murray did all that anyone could do for the bereaved woman, and more
+than any one else would have done, for the next day he sent her this
+letter:
+
+  Dear Mrs. Wentworth: After a conference with our physician we decided
+  that a small risk on Mr. Wentworth would be justified, and the matter
+  was closed up yesterday afternoon just previous to his death. As a
+  result of my close personal relations with him, I know that he left
+  his affairs in rather a complicated condition, so, as it will take a
+  little time to file the necessary proofs and get the money from the
+  company, I am taking the liberty of sending you my personal check for
+  the amount of the policy, one thousand dollars, and I hope that you
+  will not hesitate to call on me for any service that is in my power to
+  render. With the deepest sympathy, I am,
+
+                                                 Very sincerely yours,
+                                                         David Murray.
+
+"A lie," he muttered, referring to the insurance item; "a cold,
+deliberate lie, but I feel better for telling it."
+
+
+
+
+AN INCIDENTAL SPECULATION
+
+
+Just when the Interurban Traction Company thought the successful
+culmination of its plans in sight it woke up to the fact that there had
+been a miscalculation or an oversight somewhere. It had the absolute or
+prospective control of all the principal lines embraced in its elaborate
+scheme of connecting various towns and cities by trolley, which means
+that it had bought a good deal of the necessary stock and had options on
+most of the rest; but there was one insignificant little road that it
+had left to the last. This road had been a losing venture from its
+inception, and its stock was quoted far below par, with no buyers. As a
+matter of business policy, the more successful roads should be secured
+first, for the moment the secret was out their stocks would soar. They
+represented the larger investments, and their stock-holders could hold
+on, if they saw the advisability of it, without making any financial
+sacrifice; they were in a position to "hold up" the new company in the
+most approved modern style. But the Bington road was weak and
+unprofitable, valuable only as a connecting link in the chain.
+
+"Of course," said Colonel Babington, who was at the head of the new
+venture, "we're sure to be held up somewhere on the line, and these
+people can hold us up for less than any of the others. They haven't much
+as a basis for a hold-up, and they can't afford to go on losing money.
+We can buy their road cheap the first thing, but the discovery of the
+purchase will give our plans away and add a million dollars to the cost
+of carrying them out. Any fool would know that we were not buying that
+road for itself alone. Why, the mere rumor that negotiations were opened
+would add fifty or a hundred per cent. to the value of the other stocks
+we want. We can't afford even to wink at that road until we get control
+of the others."
+
+So they went about their work very secretly, hoping so to conceal their
+design that they would be able to get the last link at the bed-rock
+price; but, when the time came, entirely unexpected difficulties were
+encountered. The stock-holders might have been tractable enough, but the
+stock-holders themselves had been fooled.
+
+"Why, there was a young fellow here last week," they explained, "and he
+got a sixty-day option on enough stock to control the road."
+
+"Who was he?" asked the startled Colonel Babington.
+
+"His name is Horace Lake," they told him.
+
+"I'll have to look Horace up," remarked the colonel thoughtfully.
+
+Meanwhile, Horace was congratulating himself on having done a good
+stroke of business, and further amusing himself by figuring his possible
+profit.
+
+"I've been looking for just such a chance as this," he told Dave Murray,
+the insurance man.
+
+"Have you got the money to carry it through?" asked the practical
+Murray.
+
+"I had enough to put up a small forfeit to bind the option and convince
+them that I mean business, and I don't need any more," returned Lake.
+
+"Once in a great while," said Murray, "a man makes a good lot of money
+on a bluff, but even then he usually has some backing. It takes money to
+make money, as a general rule. You will find that most successful men,
+even those who are noted for their nervy financiering, got the basis of
+their fortunes by hard work and rigid economy. Wind may be helpful, but
+it makes a poor foundation."
+
+"This is one of the times when it is about all that is necessary,"
+laughed Lake. "I got a little inside information about the Interurban
+Traction Company's plans in time to secure an option on one link in its
+chain of roads, and it has simply got to do business with me before it
+can make its line complete. For twenty thousand dollars, paid any time
+within sixty days, I can control the blooming little line, and the
+option to buy at that price is going to cost the traction company just
+twenty-five thousand dollars, which will be clear profit for me."
+
+"It sounds nice," admitted Murray, "but, if I were in your place, I'd
+feel a good deal better if I had the money to make good. If they don't
+buy, you lose your forfeit, which represents every cent you could scrape
+up."
+
+"They will buy," asserted Lake confidently.
+
+"They may think it cheaper to parallel your line," suggested Murray.
+
+"I'm not worrying," returned Lake confidently. "I'm just waiting for
+them to come and see me, and they'll come."
+
+Lake's prophecy proved correct. They came--at least Colonel Babington
+came, he being the active manager of the company's affairs. But Colonel
+Babington first took the precaution to learn all he could of Horace
+Lake's financial standing and resources. This convinced him that it was
+what he termed a "hold-up," but, even so, it was better to pay a
+reasonable bonus than to have a fight.
+
+"We will give you," said Colonel Babington, "a thousand dollars for your
+option on the majority stock of the Bington road."
+
+"The price," replied Lake, "is twenty-five thousand dollars."
+
+"My dear young man," exclaimed the colonel, when he had recovered his
+breath, "you ought to see a specialist in mental disorders. You are
+clearly not right in your mind."
+
+"The price," repeated Lake, "is twenty-five thousand dollars now, and,
+if I am put to any trouble or annoyance in the matter, the price will go
+up."
+
+"A bluff," said the colonel, "is of use only when the opposing party
+does not know it is a bluff. We happen to know it. You haven't the money
+to buy that road, and you can't get it."
+
+"You speak with extraordinary certainty," returned Lake with dignified
+sarcasm.
+
+"The road," asserted the colonel, "is valuable only to us, and we can
+parallel it, if necessary. No conservative capitalist is going to
+advance you the money to buy it in the face of such a risk as that, so
+we have only to wait until your option expires to get it from the men
+who now own it, and I may add that we have taken a second option at a
+slightly higher price. Therefore, your only chance to get out of the
+deal with a profit is to let us acquire the road under the first option
+at something less than the second option price. To avoid any unnecessary
+delay, we might be willing to pay you a bonus of two thousand dollars."
+
+"The price," said Lake, "is now twenty-six thousand."
+
+"Sixty days--less than fifty now, as a matter of fact--is not such a long
+time," remarked the colonel. "We will wait."
+
+Lake told Murray later that he "had them in a corner," but Murray was
+inclined to be doubtful; fighting real money with wind, he said, was
+always a risky undertaking, and the Interurban Traction Company had
+plenty of real money. Lake, however, being in the "bluffing" line
+himself, was inclined to think all others were doing business on the
+same basis, and he confidently expected the colonel to return in a few
+days. But the colonel came not.
+
+Then Lake made another trip to Bington, to look the ground over, and he
+was disturbed to find that the colonel had been sounding the people on a
+proposition to put a line through the town on another street. This was
+only a tentative plan, to be adopted in case of failure to get the
+existing line, but it showed that the company was not disposed to be
+held up without a fight. Fortunately, the people did not take kindly to
+the idea. The principal shops were on the line of the trolley now, and
+the proprietors did not wish to have travel diverted to another street.
+
+Lake devoted several days to missionary work in Bington, pointing out
+the great depreciation of property that would follow such a move, and he
+finally left with a feeling that the company would have an extremely
+difficult time getting the necessary legislation from the town
+officials. Still, he was not entirely at ease, for officials are
+sometimes "induced" to act contrary to the wishes of the people they are
+supposed to represent. But he believed he had made the situation such
+that Babington would come back to him. Surely, it would be cheaper to
+deal with him than to buy an entire town board.
+
+Thirty of the sixty days slipped away, and Lake grew really anxious. The
+Interurban Traction Company could not be a success without a connecting
+link between the two main stretches of its line, and Lake had not
+believed that it would dare to proceed with its plans until this was
+assured. Consequently, he had expected all work to stop, pending
+negotiations with him. But work did not stop. There were two or three
+trifling gaps at other places, and the company was laying the rails to
+bridge them, in addition to improving the road-beds of the lines it had
+bought. It even began to build a half-mile of track to reach one
+terminus of his little road. Clearly, there was no anticipation of
+trouble in ultimately beating him.
+
+"It's my lack of money," he soliloquized. "I've got the basis of a good
+thing, if I only had the money to make it good, but I haven't, and they
+know it. Murray was right."
+
+His thoughts being thus turned to Murray, he went to see him, in the
+faint hope that he might interest him in the plan. Murray had money to
+invest. But Murray deemed the risk too great in this instance.
+
+"They can beat you," said Murray. "They have unlimited resources, and
+they'll certainly get through Bington on another street, if you persist
+in making your terms too stiff. Very likely, they would have given you
+three thousand or possibly even five thousand for your option when they
+first came to you, and they may do it now."
+
+"I tell you, it's a good thing," insisted Lake.
+
+"If it's really as good a thing as you think it is," said Murray, "you
+will have no difficulty in getting somebody with money to take it off
+your hands at a good margin of profit to you, but I can't see it."
+
+In this emergency, Lake recalled a man of considerable wealth who had
+known him as a boy and had taken an interest in him. It was humiliating
+not to be able to put the scheme through himself, after all his planning
+and confident talk, but it was better to turn it over to some one else
+than to fail entirely. So he went to see Andrew Belden.
+
+"There is a remote chance of success," declared Belden, "but I would not
+care to risk twenty thousand on it."
+
+"The company can't get through Bington, except on that franchise,"
+insisted Lake.
+
+"That may be so," admitted Belden, "but I have learned not to be too
+confident in forecasting the action of public officials and
+corporations. The company could make a strong point by threatening to
+cut out Bington entirely and carry its line to one side of it."
+
+"That would make a loop in their road that would be costly in building
+and in the delays it would occasion," argued Lake. "They can't make any
+circuits, if they are to do the business."
+
+"Nevertheless," returned Belden, "their actions show that they are very
+sure of their ground."
+
+"Simply because I haven't the ready cash," said Lake bitterly. "Will you
+loan it to me, Mr. Belden? If you won't go into the deal yourself, will
+you loan me the money to put it through? I'll give you the stock as
+security, and I think you know me well enough to know that I'll repay
+every cent of it as rapidly as possible."
+
+"My dear Horace," exclaimed Belden with frank friendliness, "I haven't
+the least doubt of your integrity, but I have very serious doubts of
+your ability to repay any such sum, and it is more than I care to lose.
+You never have had a thousand dollars at one time in your life, and I
+may say, without intending to be unkind, that it isn't likely you ever
+will. As for the security, its value depends entirely on the success of
+your plans: if you fail, it won't be worth ten cents. Now, if you had
+any real security, upon which I could realize in case anything happened
+to you, I would cheerfully let you have the money for as long a time as
+you wish. Although your plan does not appeal to me, I am sincerely
+anxious to be of assistance to you as far as possible, but I can't make
+you a gift of twenty thousand dollars. Convince me that it will be
+repaid ultimately--no matter in how long a time--and I will let you have
+it."
+
+Lake departed, discouraged. He had no security of any sort to offer, and
+had only asked for the loan as a desperate last resort, without the
+slightest expectation that he would get it. The company, he decided, had
+beaten him, just because no one else was clear-headed enough to see the
+opportunity, and he might as well get what little profit he could while
+there was still time. With this object in view, he went to see the
+colonel.
+
+"I have decided," he said, "to let you have the road for a bonus of five
+thousand dollars."
+
+"That is very kind of you," returned the colonel, "but we can get it
+cheaper. You see," he explained, with the disagreeable frankness of one
+who thinks he holds the winning hand, "the minority stock-holders were a
+little disgruntled when they learned of your deal--thought they had been
+left out in the cold--and they were ready to make very favorable terms
+with us. As we have a second option on the majority stock, at a somewhat
+higher figure, we have only to wait until your option expires and then
+take the little we need to give us control."
+
+"I'll let you have my option for the two thousand you offered a month
+ago," said Lake in desperation.
+
+"It's not worth that to us now."
+
+"One thousand dollars."
+
+"Why, frankly, Mr. Lake," said the colonel still pleasantly, "we men of
+some experience and standing in the business world don't like to have
+half-baked financiers interfering with our plans, and we aim to
+discourage them as effectually as possible whenever possible." Then,
+with a sudden change of tone: "We won't give you a damn cent for your
+option. You were too greedy."
+
+"Of course, you men of money and high finance are not greedy at all,"
+retorted Lake sarcastically.
+
+Lake was too depressed to see it at the moment, but later it began to
+dawn on him that the colonel, usually astute, had made a grievous
+mistake. In his anxiety to impress upon the young man the futility of
+his avaricious schemes, in the face of such wise and resourceful
+opposition, he had mentioned the fact that the minority stock had been
+brought within their reach. Had they already bought it, or had they only
+secured options on it? If already purchased, the purchase price would
+prove a dead loss, unless they were able to get enough more to secure
+control. To parallel the road would be to kill a company in which they
+were financially interested, in addition to incurring the considerable
+expense necessary for a new connecting link.
+
+Lake went to Bington that afternoon, and returned the following morning.
+The game was his, if he could raise the money; they had bought most of
+the minority stock outright, being unable to get options on it. He was
+sure of victory now, if he could raise the money. He no longer wished to
+turn the deal over to any one else on any terms: he wished to carry it
+to the conclusion himself. But the money, the money!
+
+He tried Belden again, but Belden still considered the security utterly
+inadequate for a loan of twenty thousand dollars. In truth, although
+Belden considered the outlook a little more promising now, he doubted
+the young man's ability to handle such a deal, and it would take very
+little to upset all calculations. The company's investment was not
+sufficient to prevent the abandonment of the road in some very possible
+circumstances, although it was ample evidence of a present plan to use
+it. Murray took the same view of the situation.
+
+"It begins to look like a good speculation," said Murray, "but I haven't
+the money to invest in it, and I never was much of a speculator, anyway.
+I have discovered that, as a general thing, when the possible profit
+begins to climb very much over the legal rate of interest, the
+probability of loss increases with it. However, if you want to take the
+risk, that's your affair, provided you have the money."
+
+"But I haven't," complained Lake; "that's the trouble."
+
+"Too bad you're not carrying enough insurance to be of some use,"
+remarked Murray.
+
+"What good would that do?" asked Lake.
+
+"Why, then you'd only have to convince your wife that you have a safe
+investment, and it's always easier to convince your wife than it is to
+convince some coldblooded capitalist. Insurance ranks high as security,
+but of course the beneficiary has to consent to its use."
+
+"I never had thought of insurance as a factor in financiering," said
+Lake. "I had regarded it more as a family matter."
+
+"It plays an important part in the business world," explained Murray,
+"and it might even play a part in speculation. There is partnership
+insurance, you know."
+
+"I may have heard of it, but I never gave it any consideration."
+
+"It's not a speculation, but a business precaution," said Murray. "The
+partners are insured in favor of the firm. If one of them dies, it gives
+the firm the ready cash to buy his interest from the widow, without
+infringing on the business capital. Partnership insurance may sometimes
+prevent a failure; it may prevent several. Many interests may depend
+temporarily upon the operation of one man, and his sudden death might
+spell ruin for a number of people, unless they were protected by
+insurance. The policy is playing a more important part in the business
+world every day. There are lots of strange things that can be done when
+you fully understand it."
+
+"But that doesn't help me," asserted Lake impatiently.
+
+"No," returned Murray, "I don't see how insurance could help you just
+now, unless you were to die. A policy won't be accepted as security for
+a sum in excess of the premiums paid, for you might default."
+
+"I'm not the kind of man who dies to win," said Lake rather sharply.
+
+"Of course not," replied Murray. "I was merely considering the financial
+possibilities of policies." All insurance questions being of absorbing
+interest to Murray, he straightway forgot all about Lake's predicament,
+and busied his mind with his own speculations. "There is so much that
+can be done with insurance," he went on, "but I guess it's just as well
+the public doesn't know it all. Do you remember the case of Rankin, the
+banker who committed suicide?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, Rankin couldn't have done anything with our company, because the
+element of premeditation is assumed if death by suicide occurs within
+two years from the time the policy is issued. After that the manner of
+death cuts no figure, for the courts have held that an insurance company
+takes a risk on the mind as well as the body of a policy-holder, and,
+anyway, competition has cut out the old suicide restrictions. But there
+are companies that issue policies incontestable after the date of issue.
+Suppose Rankin, when he found his affairs in such shape that he no
+longer dared to face the world, had gone to one or more of these
+companies. A hundred thousand dollars--very likely less--would have
+protected his bank and provided for his family. He had already decided
+to kill himself, for his operations had been such that he could not hope
+to escape the penitentiary when discovery came, but he was ostensibly
+still a prosperous man. Many men of his standing insure themselves for
+extraordinarily large sums, to protect legitimately their business
+interests as well as their families.
+
+"Not so very long ago we issued a paid-up policy for fifty thousand
+dollars on the life of one man, who died within three years, and we
+thought nothing of it. He was taking a risk on his own life then, for he
+thought he was going to live long enough to make a paid-up policy
+cheaper than the aggregate of annual payments, whereas there would have
+been a saving to his estate of a good many thousands of dollars if he
+had followed the other plan. However, that has nothing to do with this
+case; I mention it only to show that a man of Rankin's apparent standing
+could have got insurance to any amount without creating comment. And,
+with an incontestable-after-date-of-issue policy, he could have
+protected his business associates and his family by the very culmination
+of his overwhelming disgrace. Why, a defaulter could use part of his
+stolen money in this way to provide for his family when the moment of
+discovery and death shall come, or a dishonest business man, facing
+ruin, could use his creditors' money to make such provision, for
+insurance money is something sacred, that can not be reached like the
+rest of an estate. Oh, there are great dramatic possibilities in this
+business, Lake--tragedies and comedies and dramas of which the public
+knows nothing."
+
+"How does that help me?" demanded Lake gloomily, and the question
+brought Murray back to the realities of the moment.
+
+"It doesn't help you," Murray replied, "but it's an intensely
+interesting subject to one who gives it a little time and thought."
+
+Yet it did help Lake, although not at that moment. It was a new field,
+and Lake liked to explore new fields. A novelty that taxed his ingenuity
+appealed to him especially. True, he had enough to occupy his mind
+without entering upon idle speculation, but, when every other avenue to
+success seemed closed, his thoughts would revert to insurance.
+
+"If it holds out such opportunities for others, why not for me?" he
+asked. "If others have entirely overlooked the possibilities, why may
+not I be doing the same thing?"
+
+He met the colonel on the street occasionally, and the way the colonel
+smiled at him was maddening. There could be no doubt that the colonel
+considered the game won, but he was not a man to take chances: he had
+Lake watched, and the latter's every move was reported to him. Even when
+Lake made another trip to Bington and endeavored to arrange a shrewd
+deal with some of the majority stock-holders, the colonel promptly heard
+of it.
+
+"Accept my notes in payment for the stock," Lake urged on that occasion,
+"and I'll let you in on the profits of the deal. The traction company
+has got to get this road, but you can't hold it up for a big price,
+because you were foolish enough to give it a second option. I can do it,
+however. Let me have the stock, and you can divide up among yourselves
+half of all I get in excess of the option price. My notes will be paid,
+and you will have a bonus of twelve or fifteen thousand dollars."
+
+But the stock-holders were conservative and cautious men, and the very
+fact that Lake could not command the money that he needed made them
+suspicious. As matters stood, they were sure of getting out of a losing
+venture with a small profit--at least, so it seemed to them--and they
+preferred that to the risk of losing everything in an effort to secure a
+larger profit. Furthermore, they were now on the side of the colonel,
+for his option was at a larger price. And the colonel was very
+confident--so confident that work was being rushed on details that would
+prove valueless without the Bington road. This was what made Lake
+desperately angry; it was humiliating to be treated as a helpless
+weakling.
+
+As valuable time passed, his mind reverted again to the insurance field.
+His opportunity--the opportunity of a lifetime--was almost lost. The
+colonel, wishing to lose no time, had arranged for a meeting with
+certain of the majority stock-holders the day the first option expired.
+The option expired at noon, and the colonel would be ready to take over
+what stock he needed at one minute after the noon hour. This would not
+be very much, in view of the minority stock he already held, but the
+sanguine stock-holders did not know this: they expected him to take all
+of it.
+
+"Some of them are going to find they're tricked, just as I am," Lake
+grumbled. "If I could only convince Belden of the ultimate absolute
+security of a loan! He wants to help me; he's ready to be convinced;
+but--"
+
+People passing saw this moody, depressed young man stop short in the
+street and his eye light with sudden hope.
+
+"By thunder!" he exclaimed. "Of course, I can protect him against
+unforeseen disaster, if he has confidence in my integrity!"
+
+He was almost jubilant when he entered Belden's office.
+
+"Got the money?" asked Belden.
+
+"No; but I know how to get it," replied Lake. "You believe in my
+honesty, don't you?"
+
+"Implicitly."
+
+"You merely doubt my ability?"
+
+"Your financial ability," explained Belden. "You will do what you agree
+to do--if you can. I have no earthly doubt of your willingness, even
+anxiety, to repay every obligation you may incur, but, added to other
+risks, there is the possibility of accident."
+
+"If I eliminate that?"
+
+"You may have the money."
+
+"On long time?"
+
+"The time and the terms are immaterial."
+
+"I'll come for it later," announced Lake, and he departed, leaving
+Belden puzzled and curious.
+
+Once outside, Lake stopped to do a little mental figuring before taking
+up the other details of his plan.
+
+"I advanced five hundred to bind the option," he reflected. "That leaves
+nineteen thousand five hundred necessary to put the deal through. Twenty
+thousand from Belden will give me just the margin I need."
+
+Murray was as much puzzled and surprised by the change in the man as
+Belden had been, and Murray, like Belden, was anxious to help him in any
+reasonably safe way.
+
+"Am I good for five hundred for thirty days, if I give you my positive
+assurance that I know exactly how I am going to pay it in that time?"
+asked Lake.
+
+"Why, yes," replied Murray. "On short-time figuring you're a pretty safe
+man."
+
+"Draw me a check for it, and I'll give you my thirty-day note," said
+Lake, "and my verbal assurance that it's a cinch."
+
+Murray noted the confidence of Lake's tone and manner, and drew the
+check.
+
+"What are you going to do with it?" he asked.
+
+"Pay a life insurance premium," laughed Lake. "Give me an application
+blank and round up a medical examiner. I want a twenty-year endowment
+policy for twenty thousand dollars, and I want it put through like a
+limited express that's trying to make up time."
+
+"I suppose you know what you're doing," said Murray doubtfully.
+
+"You bet I do!" Lake spoke confidently.
+
+"Oh, very well," remarked Murray. "I don't see how I can refuse business
+for the company, even if I stand to lose."
+
+"You won't lose," declared Lake with joyous enthusiasm. "I'm going to
+show you a new trick in the line of insurance financiering."
+
+After that, Lake haunted Murray's office, and grew daily more anxious.
+He was a good risk, but certain formalities were necessary, and these
+took time, although Murray did his utmost to shorten the routine. Lake's
+nervousness increased; he had Murray telegraph the home office; he grew
+haggard, for he had not counted on this delay; but finally, in the
+moment of almost utter despair, the policy was delivered to him. An hour
+later he was in Belden's office.
+
+"I want twenty thousand at four per cent., payable at the rate of one
+thousand a year, with interest!" he cried. "I'll pay it, to a certainty,
+within sixty days, but I'm trying to make it look more reasonable, to
+satisfy you. You believe I can pay one thousand a year, don't you?"
+
+"If you live."
+
+"If I don't," exclaimed Lake, "there is insurance for twenty thousand in
+my wife's favor, and duly assigned to you," and he banged the policy
+down on the desk in front of the astonished Belden. "You can trust me to
+take care of the premiums, can't you?"
+
+"Your integrity I never doubted," replied Belden, "and that obligation
+should be within your means."
+
+"My rule of life shall be: the premiums first, the payments on the note
+next," declared Lake. "If I fall behind in the latter, the security will
+still be good. I only ask that anything in excess of what may be due
+you, in case of my death, shall go to my wife, and she, of course,
+becomes the sole beneficiary the moment you are paid. But, for the love
+of heaven, hurry!"
+
+Instead of hurrying, Belden leaned back in his chair and looked at the
+young man with bewildered admiration.
+
+"Such ingenuity," he said at last, "ought not to go unrewarded. As a
+strict business proposition, your plan would hardly find favor with a
+conservative banker, but, as a matter of friendship and confidence--" He
+reached for his check-book. "Such a head as yours is worth a risk," he
+added a moment later.
+
+Lake reached the office of the Bington road at 11:30 on the day his
+option expired. The colonel was already there, waiting. So were some of
+the majority stock-holders. The colonel was confident and unusually
+loquacious.
+
+"Now that the matter is practically settled," he remarked with the
+cheerful frankness of a man who has won, "I may admit that the young man
+had us up a tree. He succeeded in putting the other route through
+Bington practically beyond our reach, and forced us to take the risk of
+doing business with the minority stock-holders at a possible dead loss.
+But we knew he didn't have the money, so we went ahead with our plans
+and our work without delay. A little ready cash--"
+
+It was then that Lake entered and deposited a small satchel on the long
+table.
+
+"I will take the stock under my option," he announced briefly to such of
+the majority stock-holders as were present. "I think I have got all I
+need, with the exception of what is represented by you gentlemen. It has
+been a pretty busy morning for me." He emptied the stock certificates
+already acquired and some bundles of bank-notes on the table. "Colonel,"
+he said with a joyous and triumphant laugh, "you'd better sit up and
+begin to take notice."
+
+The colonel's attitude and air of easy confidence already had changed,
+and his look of amazement and dismay was almost laughable.
+
+"Quick, gentlemen," cautioned Lake, with a glance at the clock. "I've
+tendered the money in time, but I'll feel a little more comfortable when
+I have the rest of the needed stock."
+
+Like one in a dream the colonel leaned over the table and watched the
+transaction.
+
+"Do--do you want to sell some of that stock?" he asked at last.
+
+"No," replied Lake; "I don't want to sell some of it; I want to sell all
+of it."
+
+"We don't need all of it," said the colonel.
+
+"Well, I'll tell you what I'll do," returned Lake magnanimously. "I'll
+sell you all or any part of it for fifty thousand dollars."
+
+"On the basis of fifty thousand for your entire holdings?" asked the
+colonel.
+
+"No; at the set price of fifty thousand for whatever you take."
+
+"Too much," said the colonel.
+
+"As you please," said Lake carelessly. "The price of the control of the
+Bington road goes up one thousand dollars a day. It's dirt cheap at
+fifty thousand now, but, of course, if you don't need it, Colonel, the
+bargain price doesn't interest you."
+
+The colonel did need it; in fact, the company, in its sublime
+confidence, had put itself in a position where failure to get it meant a
+considerable loss.
+
+"On second thought," remarked Lake, "I'll have to add a thousand to
+compensate me for the indignity of being called a half-baked financier.
+Do you remember that, Colonel?"
+
+"We'll take it," said the colonel resignedly. Then he added
+reflectively: "You've made a pretty good thing out of this, Lake."
+
+"Fair, fair," replied Lake. "After I've repaid the twenty thousand five
+hundred that I borrowed, I'll have thirty thousand five hundred left,
+not to mention an insurance policy for twenty thousand in favor of my
+wife, with the first premium paid. You ought to study the insurance
+question, Colonel. There are wonderful financial possibilities in it,
+and some day, perhaps, you will wake up to the fact that insurance beat
+you in this deal."
+
+
+
+
+AN INCIDENTAL FAVOR
+
+
+On the same day two women called to see Dave Murray in regard to the
+same matter, and that was the beginning of the trouble.
+
+The first was Mrs. Albert Vincent. The obituary columns of the morning
+papers had given a few lines to the death of Albert Vincent, but Murray
+had not expected to hear from his widow so promptly, and she was a
+little too businesslike to meet his idea as to the proprieties of the
+occasion. In fact, there was no indication of either outward mourning or
+inward grief.
+
+"Perhaps you will recall," she said, without the slightest trace of
+emotion, "that I wrote to you some time ago to ask if the premiums on my
+husband's insurance had been fully paid."
+
+"I recall it," replied Murray.
+
+"And you answered that they had been paid."
+
+"I recall that also," said Murray.
+
+"Well, he died last night," explained the widow, "and I would like to
+know when I can get the insurance money."
+
+Murray looked at her in amazement. He had had to deal with many people
+whom necessity made importunate, but never before had he met such
+cold-bloodedness as this woman displayed in tone and manner. Apparently,
+it was no more to her than a business investment, upon which she was now
+about to realize.
+
+"There are certain formalities necessary," he said, "but there will be
+little delay after proper proof of death has been filed. You will, of
+course, have the attending physician--"
+
+"I don't know who he is," interrupted the woman.
+
+"You don't know who he is!" repeated Murray in astonishment.
+
+"No. But I will find out and see him at once. It is important that there
+shall be as little delay as possible."
+
+Previous experiences made Murray quick at jumping to conclusions in such
+cases, and he now thought he had the explanation of this unusually
+prompt call. The woman was stylishly dressed, but that was no proof that
+she had the ready cash essential at such a time.
+
+"I think I understand," said Murray delicately. "You can not meet the
+expenses incident to--"
+
+"I have nothing to do with any expenses," the woman again interrupted
+coldly. "_She_ looked after him in life, and she can look after him
+now."
+
+"She!" exclaimed Murray. "Who?"
+
+"The nurse," replied the woman scornfully. "But she can't have the
+insurance--not a cent of it. And that's what she has been after."
+
+"Let me understand this," said Murray thoughtfully. "You and your
+husband have not been living together?"
+
+"Not for five years."
+
+"And this other woman?"
+
+"She was an old flame, and she went to him when he became ill."
+
+"Did he send for you?"
+
+"No. He knew better than to do that. But the insurance is in my name,
+and I'm going to have it--all of it. That's my right, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes," replied Murray slowly; "I'm sorry to say that is your absolute
+right." The supreme selfishness and heartlessness of the woman were
+revolting to Murray. "The policy names you as beneficiary, and when it
+is presented, with proof of death, the money will have to be paid to
+you."
+
+"How am I to get the policy?" asked the woman. "He had it put away
+somewhere."
+
+"That is a matter upon which I can not undertake to advise you," replied
+Murray.
+
+"Anyhow," declared the woman defiantly, for Murray's words and
+expression showed his disapprobation, "I want to serve notice on you
+that not one cent of the money is to be paid to any one else. It would
+be just like that nurse to try to get it."
+
+"You shall have every cent to which you are entitled," replied Murray
+with frigid courtesy, "but nothing is to be gained by further
+discussion."
+
+"I suppose," exclaimed the woman with sharp resentfulness, "that your
+sympathies are with that shameless nurse."
+
+"I don't know," returned Murray quietly. "I'm not at all sure that your
+husband was not the one who was most entitled to sympathy."
+
+It was unlike Murray to speak thus brutally, but the woman irritated
+him. Many were the examples of selfishness that had come to his notice,
+but this seemed to him a little worse than any of the others. That she
+had been living apart from her husband might be due to no fault of hers,
+but she impressed him as being a vain, vindictive, mercenary woman, with
+no thought above the rather gaudy clothes she wore--just the kind to
+demand everything and give nothing. Certainly her actions showed that
+she lacked all the finer sensibilities that one naturally associates
+with true women. No matter what might lie back of it all, common decency
+should have prevented her from making such a display of her own small
+soul at such a time. At least, so Murray thought.
+
+"She is the kind of woman who marries a man's bank account," he mused,
+"and considers the inability to supply her with all the money she wants
+as the first evidence of incompatibility of temper. Some women think
+they want a husband when they really only want an accommodating banker."
+
+Murray was still musing in this strain when the second woman called.
+Unlike the first, this woman gave some evidence of grief and mourning:
+her eyes showed that she had been weeping, and her attire, although not
+the regulation mourning, was as near to it as a scanty wardrobe would
+permit on short notice. But she was self-possessed, and spoke with
+patient resignation.
+
+"Necessity," she explained, "has compelled me to come to see you at this
+time about Albert Vincent's life insurance policy."
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Murray thoughtlessly, "you are the nurse!"
+
+"Yes," she replied quietly, after one startled look, "I am the nurse. I
+infer that Mrs. Vincent has been here."
+
+"She has just left," said Murray.
+
+"Her attentions," said the nurse bitterly, "have been confined to an
+effort to get prompt news of her husband's death."
+
+Murray knew instinctively that a little drama of life was opening before
+him, but his duty was clear.
+
+"Nevertheless," he said, "the policy is in her name."
+
+"In her name!" cried the nurse. "Why, he told me--" Then she stopped
+short. She would not betray his perfidy, even if he had been false to
+her.
+
+"What did he tell you?" asked Murray kindly.
+
+"No matter," answered the nurse. "I--I only wanted enough to defray
+the--the necessary expenses. That's why I came. There isn't a cent--not a
+cent. Even the little money I had has been used, and there are debts--But
+she'll pay, of course."
+
+Murray was deeply distressed. Mrs. Albert Vincent was so bitter--possibly
+with justification, although he did not like to believe it--that she
+would do nothing; her feeling was simply one of deep resentment that
+even death could not allay. But he hesitated to say so.
+
+"Let me understand this matter a little better," he said at last. "I am
+sincerely anxious to be of any assistance possible, but the
+circumstances are unusual."
+
+The nurse fought a brief battle with herself in silence. To bare the
+details of the story was like uncovering her heart to the world, but she
+saw the sympathy in Murray's eyes, and she was personally helpless in a
+most trying emergency. She sorely needed a guiding hand.
+
+"Albert and I were engaged to be married," she said at last, with simple
+frankness. "We had some trifling quarrel, and then this woman came
+between us. He was not rich, but he had some property and excellent
+prospects, and--well, they were married. It was an elopement--a matter of
+momentary pique, he told me afterward. God knows I never tried to
+interfere with their married life, and she had no reason to be jealous
+of me. I did not even see either of them, except at rare intervals, for
+a long time, but she could not forget or forgive the fact that we had
+been a great deal to each other. And she was selfish and extravagant. I
+am merely repeating the judgment of her own friends in this, for I do
+not wish to be unjust to her, even now. After I had forsaken society and
+become a trained nurse I heard something of their troubles: they were
+living beyond his income, and his income did not increase according to
+expectations. Perhaps the worry of such conditions made him less capable
+of improving his opportunities. At any rate, her extravagance created a
+great deal of comment, and he has told me since that they quarreled
+frequently over financial matters. Then I heard that they had separated
+and that he had given her nearly all of the little he had left. I was
+not trying to keep track of them or pry into their affairs, but there
+were mutual friends, and I could not help hearing what was common
+gossip. But I studiously avoided any chance of meeting either of
+them--until I heard that he was sick and alone. Then I went to him and
+cared for him. It was not proper, you will say? Perhaps not. It put me
+in a false position and invited scandal? Perhaps it did. But I went, and
+I would go again; I was there to soothe his last moments; I was with him
+when all others had forsaken him, and there is nothing in this life that
+I would not sacrifice for the glory of that memory!"
+
+The light of self-sacrificing love shone in her eyes as she made this
+final declaration, and Murray did not trust himself to speak for a
+moment or two. The story had been told so quietly, so simply, that the
+sudden emphasis at the conclusion was almost irresistible in the
+sublimity of its self-denying love. The great contrast between the two
+women made it all the stronger.
+
+"I shall consider it my personal privilege," replied Murray, "to see
+that everything possible is done."
+
+"Thank you," said the nurse.
+
+"But there are still some points that will have to be cleared up,"
+continued Murray. "What made you think the policy was in your name?"
+
+"He told me he would have it changed, so that I could pay all the bills
+in case of his death," said the nurse.
+
+"Possibly," remarked Murray, "he thought he could, but to permit a
+change in the beneficiary without the consent of the original
+beneficiary would be a blow at the very structure of life insurance. It
+would put a true and devoted wife at the absolute mercy of an
+unscrupulous or thoughtless husband: he could change the policy without
+her knowledge; he could sell it for the cash-surrender value; he could
+transfer it to a loan-shark to meet his personal or business needs--in
+fact, it would be no more than so much stock that could be reached by
+any creditor, and the trusting wife might find herself penniless. In
+this particular case the inability to make such a change may work
+injustice, but the ability to make it would work far greater injustice
+in practically all other instances. Mr. Vincent may have thought he
+could do this, and it is the very exceptional case when I most heartily
+wish it had been possible, but he doubtless made inquiries and found
+that it was not. When the beneficiary can be deprived of her interest
+without her knowledge and consent the value of insurance will be gone."
+
+"Then that is what he learned," she remarked, as if a question had been
+answered. "He was dreadfully worried before he became too ill to give
+much thought to business matters," she added by way of explanation. "I
+thought it was because I was using my own little hoard to pay expenses,
+and, on the doctor's advice, I went with him twice in a cab to see about
+some things that were worrying him, although even then he had no
+business to leave his bed. It was the lesser of two evils, the doctor
+said, for his mental distress was affecting his physical condition
+seriously. He said he never could rest until he had provided for those
+who had been good to him in adversity. But he didn't mean me!" she
+exclaimed quickly. "He meant the doctor and some others who had been
+generous in the matter of credit. He knew why I--" She paused a moment,
+and then added: "But he wanted the others paid, and there was no one
+else he could trust."
+
+"I quite understand," said Murray encouragingly.
+
+"He made me stay in the cab both times," she went on, "and the second
+time--when he had me sign his wife's name--he seemed--"
+
+"Had you sign his wife's name!" exclaimed Murray. "To what?"
+
+"I don't know," she answered. "It was a formality, he said, to
+straighten out some tangle, so I did it. I would have done anything to
+ease his mind and get him back to bed."
+
+Murray gave a low whistle. He was beginning to understand the situation.
+
+"Pardon me, Miss--" he said.
+
+"Miss Bronson--Amy Bronson," she explained.
+
+Murray had heard of Miss Bronson some years before. She had suddenly
+given up society to become a trained nurse, and there had been vague
+rumors of an unhappy love affair. Later, her father's death had left her
+dependent upon her own resources, and society had commented on what a
+fortunate thing it was that she had already chosen an occupation and
+fitted herself for it. He never had known her, and only a bare
+suggestion of the story had come to his notice, but it was sufficient to
+make him more than ever her champion now.
+
+"Miss Bronson," he said, "I fear there are greater complications here
+than I had supposed. Did Mr. Vincent get any money on either of those
+trips?"
+
+"Yes. On the second he told me that he closed up an old deal, and he was
+more contented after that. After the first he was so dreadfully
+disturbed, that I never dared ask him any questions."
+
+"Do you know where the insurance policy is?"
+
+"No. I searched for it before coming here, but could find no trace of
+it."
+
+Murray was as considerate as the circumstances would permit, but he had
+become suddenly business-like. Aside from the question of sympathy, the
+matter was now one to interest him deeply. He had been groping blindly
+before, but with light came the possibility of action.
+
+"You are alone?" he asked.
+
+"Entirely so."
+
+"If you will go back," said Murray, reaching for his desk telephone,
+"Mrs. Murray will be there as soon as a cab can carry her. I would go
+myself, but I think I can be of better service to you for the moment by
+remaining here."
+
+As soon as she had gone and he had telephoned to his wife, Murray made
+some inquiries of the clerks in the outer office and learned of a sick
+man who had asked about the possibility of changing the beneficiary of a
+policy. The visit had been made some time before, but the man was so
+evidently ill and in such deep distress that the circumstances had been
+impressed on the mind of the clerk who had answered his questions.
+
+"That accounts for one trip," mused Murray. "Now for the loan-shark that
+he saw on the other. We'll hear from him pretty soon, and then there
+will be some lively times."
+
+Murray had had experience with the ways of loan-sharks before, and he
+was confident that he now had the whole story. Vincent was out of money
+and desperate; he knew that Miss Bronson had been using her own money,
+and that not one cent of it would his wife pay back; he had tried to
+have the beneficiary of the policy changed, and had failed. Then,
+determined to get something out of the policy, he had gone to a
+loan-shark. The unscrupulous money-lender, getting an exorbitant rate of
+interest, could afford to be less particular about the wife's signature.
+He would run the risk of forgery, confident that the policy would be
+redeemed to prevent a scandal, no matter what happened. Indeed, in some
+cases a loan-shark would a little rather have a forgery than the genuine
+signature, for it gives him an additional hold on the interested parties
+and lessens the likelihood of a resort to law over the question of
+usurious interest.
+
+"The scoundrel will come," said Murray, and the scoundrel came by
+invitation. A formal notification that he held an assignment of the
+policy arrived first, and that gave his name and address and enabled
+Murray to telephone him. A loan-shark does not lose much time in matters
+of this sort. Neither did Murray in this case, for his invitation to
+call was prompt and imperative, even to setting the exact time for the
+call. And a message was sent to Mrs. Albert Vincent, also.
+
+"What's your interest in that policy?" asked Murray.
+
+"A thousand dollars," replied the money-lender.
+
+"A thousand dollars!" ejaculated the startled Murray. "What the devil
+did he do with the money?"
+
+"That is something that does not concern me," said the money-lender
+carelessly.
+
+The confidence and carelessness of the reply recalled Murray to a
+consciousness of the situation. He had a sharp and hard game to play
+with a clever and unscrupulous man.
+
+"How much did you loan him?" he demanded.
+
+"The note is for a thousand dollars," was the prompt reply.
+
+"How much did you loan him, Shylock?" repeated Murray, and the
+money-lender was startled out of his complacent confidence.
+
+"I didn't come here to be insulted!" he exclaimed. "I hold the policy
+and the assignment of it as security. If you can't talk business, as man
+to man, I'll quit and leave the matter to a lawyer."
+
+"If you put one foot outside of that door," retorted Murray, "we'll
+fight this matter to a finish, Shylock, and we'll get some points on
+your business methods. Come back and sit down."
+
+The money-lender had made a pretense of leaving, but he paused and met
+the cold, hard look of Murray. Then he came back.
+
+"Of course, we take risks," he said apologetically.
+
+"Mighty few," commented Murray uncompromisingly.
+
+"If a man has security that is good at the bank he won't come to us,"
+persisted the money-lender. "We have to protect ourselves for the
+additional risk."
+
+"By getting a man to put himself in the shadow of the penitentiary,"
+said Murray. "I know all about you people, Shylock. How much did you
+loan?"
+
+The money-lender was angered almost to the point of defiance--but not
+quite. Loan-sharks do not easily reach that point: the very nature of
+their business makes it inadvisable, except when some poor devil is in
+their power.
+
+"Oh, of course, if it's a personal matter with you," he said, "I might
+scale it a little. The note is for a thousand dollars, with various
+incidental charges that make it now a thousand and eighty dollars. I
+might knock off a hundred from that."
+
+"How much did you loan him, Shylock?" repeated Murray.
+
+"Nine hundred dollars," answered the money-lender in desperation.
+
+"Shylock," said Murray with cold deliberation, "I know you people. If I
+didn't, I might ask to see the canceled check, but that would prove
+nothing. You give a check for the full amount, but the man has to put up
+a cash bonus when he gets it. How much did you loan him?"
+
+"I'll stand on the note," declared the money-lender angrily. "I know my
+rights, and I can be as ugly as you. The note is signed by himself and
+his wife, and you'll have a hard time going back of it."
+
+Murray touched a bell and a boy answered.
+
+"Ask Mrs. Vincent to step in here," said Murray.
+
+The money-lender was plainly disconcerted, but he was not unaccustomed
+to hard battles, so he nerved himself to bluff the thing through, it
+being too late to do anything else.
+
+"Mrs. Vincent," said Murray, when the woman appeared, "I have found the
+insurance policy."
+
+"Where is it?" she asked eagerly.
+
+"Mr. Shylock,"--with a motion toward the money-lender,--"holds it."
+
+"Give it to me, Mr. Shylock," demanded Mrs. Vincent, who was not a woman
+to grasp the bitter insult of the name, and her innocent repetition of
+it added to the anger of the man. Still, the habit of never letting his
+personal feelings interfere with business was strong within him.
+
+"I must be paid first," he said.
+
+"Paid!" she cried. "What is there to pay? The insurance money is mine!"
+
+"I hold a note," insisted the money-lender.
+
+"What's that to me?" she retorted. "Do you think I'm going to pay his
+debts? I didn't contract them; I wasn't with him; he left me years ago!
+Let _her_ look out for the debts! Give me the policy or I'll have you
+arrested!"
+
+The woman was wildly and covetously excited: she would not rest easy
+until the actual possession of the money assured her that there was no
+possibility of a slip. The money-lender, too, was anxious. Murray alone
+seemed to be taking the matter quietly, for these two were now playing
+the game for him, although the details required his close attention. A
+very slight miscalculation might carry it beyond his control.
+
+"It's assigned to me," said the money-lender with a pretense of
+confidence. "I have your signature."
+
+"It's a lie!" she cried.
+
+"Oh, no," interrupted Murray quietly; "it's a forgery."
+
+"That woman!" exclaimed Mrs. Vincent. "She stole my name as well as my
+husband!"
+
+"That man," corrected Murray. "He did it for the woman who did so much
+for him. He would have given her all, if he could."
+
+Murray had reason to know that it was the nurse, but he lied cheerfully
+in what he considered a good cause. They were getting to the critical
+and dangerous point in the game he was playing: the widow would be
+merciless to the nurse.
+
+"It's a forgery, anyway!" declared Mrs. Vincent. "I won't pay a cent!"
+
+"I'll sue," said the money-lender threateningly.
+
+"Well, sue!" she cried. "What do I care? You can't get anything on a
+forgery. I guess I know that much."
+
+"It will make a scandal," said the money-lender insinuatingly.
+
+"Let it," she retorted angrily.
+
+They were again making points for Murray, each showing the weakness of
+the other's position, so Murray merely watched and waited.
+
+"If there is another woman in the case," persisted the money-lender, who
+had been quick to grasp the significance of the previous remarks, "the
+shame and disgrace--"
+
+"What do I care?" she interrupted. "The disgrace is for her."
+
+"And for him," said the money-lender. "I can make him out a forger."
+
+"It won't give you the money," she argued.
+
+"It will make you the widow of a criminal," he threatened. "How would
+you like the disgrace of that? And the other things! If I have to go to
+court the whole scandal will be revealed and the very name you bear will
+be a shame! The widow of a forger! A woman who could not hold her
+husband! An object of pitying contempt, so small that she would not pay
+an honest debt to protect the name that is hers!" In his anxiety not to
+lose, the money-lender became almost eloquent in picturing possible
+conditions. No other sentiment or emotion could have given him this
+power. And he saw that the effect was not lost upon the woman, for no
+one knew better than she the harm the exploitation of the whole
+miserable story would do. Even a blameless woman can not entirely escape
+the obloquy that attaches to the name she bears, and there had been
+enough already to make it difficult for Mrs. Vincent to retain a
+position on the fringe of society. "Of course," he went on, "if you'd
+rather stand this than pay, there is nothing for me to do but leave and
+put the matter in the hands of a lawyer."
+
+"Wait a minute, Shylock," interrupted Murray. "Mrs. Vincent is going to
+pay--something."
+
+"Pay money that he got for _her_!" she exclaimed with sudden
+resentfulness. "She's the forger, anyway; I know it!"
+
+"Did you ever see her, Shylock?" asked Murray.
+
+"He came alone," replied the money-lender, "with the assignment of
+policy ready, and he swore to it."
+
+"That settles that," said Murray with apparent conviction. "It would be
+a thankless task to try to prove that any one else forged the signature,
+and neither one of you is in a position to seek any court notoriety.
+Now, Shylock, after deducting the bonus and all trumped-up charges, how
+much did you loan?"
+
+"Nine hundred dollars," said the money-lender desperately.
+
+"Try again, Shylock," urged Murray. "You never loaned any such sum under
+any such circumstances."
+
+"If you don't stop insulting me," exclaimed the money-lender angrily,
+"I'll quit right now and take my chances with the law."
+
+"You haven't any chances with the law, Shylock," retorted Murray. "You
+can make a scandal, but you can't get a damn cent. That's why you're
+going to be reasonable. How much did you loan? You'd better be honest
+with me, for it's your only chance."
+
+"I'll take eight hundred dollars, with the interest charges."
+
+"You'll take an even seven hundred dollars," said Murray.
+
+"But the interest!" cried the money-lender. "Don't I get any interest?"
+
+"Aha!" exclaimed Murray. "I guessed it right, didn't I? That's just what
+you loaned. You see, others have hypothecated policies with you people,
+and I've learned something of the business. There are more peculiar
+deals tried with insurance policies than with any other form of
+security. But you don't get any interest, Shylock: you get your
+principal back, and you're lucky to get that."
+
+"It's robbery!" complained the money-lender.
+
+"It's generosity," said Murray. "You ought to lose it all."
+
+"I won't pay it!" declared Mrs. Vincent, and Murray turned sharply to
+her.
+
+"Mrs. Vincent," he said, "you will pay this sum to Shylock out of the
+policy, and you will pay all the bills, including the cost of the
+funeral, which I advanced. You will not do this as a matter of
+generosity, or even of justice, but from purely selfish motives. If you,
+being able to prevent it, permitted this scandal to come to light, you
+would be eternally disgraced: doors would be closed to you everywhere.
+God knows it is bad enough as it is, but this would make it infinitely
+worse. Even where no real blame attaches to her, there is always
+criticism and contempt for the woman who lets another take her husband
+from her, and a repudiation of the expenses of his last illness or any
+other bills, when you are getting the insurance, would condemn you
+absolutely in the eyes of all people who knew the circumstances. For
+this reason, you are going to do what I say, and you are going to make
+the necessary arrangements now. For similar selfish reasons, Shylock is
+going to do what I say, and he is going to make the necessary
+arrangements now. If either of you balk at the terms, I'll drop the
+whole matter and let you fight it out, to your mutual trouble and loss."
+
+Neither dared take the risk, for each feared that, without Murray, the
+other would gain the advantage. Neither was in a position to defy the
+other, and Murray had forced concessions from each that the other could
+not. He was clearly master of the situation.
+
+"Do you accept the terms?" he demanded. "If not, get out!"
+
+"It's brutal, outrageous!" declared the woman.
+
+"A swindle!" exclaimed the man.
+
+"That will do, Shylock," cautioned Murray. "There is nothing to be said
+except 'yes' or 'no' and only thirty seconds in which to say that. I've
+reached the limit of my patience."
+
+He took out his watch and began to count the seconds.
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+When they were gone Murray sent for Amy Bronson, the nurse.
+
+"I was just coming to see you," she explained when she arrived. "I
+finally found a note hidden away among Albert's effects. It contained
+five one hundred-dollar bills and the scribbled line, 'I have tried to
+do more for you, but can not.'"
+
+"I didn't see how he could have spent all the money," mused Murray.
+
+"Now I can pay the bills," she said.
+
+"No," said Murray. "A memorandum of all that he owed is to be sent to
+me. Mrs. Vincent will pay everything."
+
+"Mrs. Vincent!" cried the nurse. "Impossible! I couldn't have so
+misjudged her."
+
+"I don't think you misjudged her," returned Murray,
+"but,"--whimsically,--"I'm a wonder at argument. You ought to hear me
+argue. Mrs. Vincent decided to take my view of the matter with the
+insurance."
+
+"But the five hundred dollars!" said Miss Bronson.
+
+"Keep it," said Murray. "He intended it for you, and it is little
+enough. I'm only sorry that the ten-thousand-dollar policy is not for
+you, also, but it is one of the incidental hardships that arise from an
+ordinarily wise provision of the law."
+
+The nurse's lip quivered and the tears came to her eyes.
+
+"I was an entire stranger to you, Mr. Murray," she said, "but you have
+been very good to me when I most needed a friend. I--I don't know how I
+can--"
+
+"I have been amply repaid for all I have done," said Murray.
+
+"How?" she asked in surprise.
+
+"I have had the royal satisfaction," he answered, "of compelling an
+unscrupulous man and a selfish woman to do a fairly creditable thing; I
+have had the joy of showing my contempt for them in my very method of
+doing this."
+
+She did not quite understand, her gratitude making her blind to all else
+at the moment.
+
+"And also," added Murray to himself, when she had gone, "the great
+satisfaction of saving a devoted woman from the consequences of at least
+one of her acts of devotion. Forgery is a serious matter, regardless of
+the circumstances."
+
+
+
+
+AN INCIDENTAL ERROR
+
+
+"It's mighty awkward," said Owen Ross, the insurance solicitor.
+
+"It is," admitted Dave Murray.
+
+"I've been after him for over six months," persisted Ross, "and now,
+after urging him persistently to take out a policy, I have got to tell
+him that we won't give him one. That would be hard enough if he had
+sought us out, and it's ten times as hard when we have sought him. Why,
+it looks as if we were playing a heartless practical joke on him."
+
+"But it can't be helped," said Murray. "It's one of the disagreeable
+features of the business. We convince a man that it's to his interest to
+carry life insurance, and then we tell him he can't have any. Naturally,
+from his prejudiced viewpoint, we seem to be contemptibly insincere and
+deceitful."
+
+"Of course, we are in no sense shortening his life," remarked Ross, "but
+it seems like pronouncing a sentence of death, just the same. He is sure
+to make an awful row about it."
+
+"One man," said Murray reminiscently, "fell dead in this office when his
+application was refused. The shock killed him, but there was no way to
+avoid giving him the shock. However, that was an exceptional case: I
+never knew of another to succumb, although it must be admitted that the
+news that one is destined not to live long is distressing and
+depressing."
+
+"What's the reason for refusing Tucker?" asked Ross.
+
+"There are several reasons," replied Murray. "The physician reports
+heart murmur, which indicates some latent trouble that is almost certain
+to develop into a serious affection."
+
+"May not the physician be wrong?"
+
+"He is paid to be right, but, of course, we are all liable to make
+mistakes, and it can't be denied that heart murmur is deceptive. I've
+known men to be the subject of unfavorable reports at one hour of the
+day and most favorable ones at another. The occupation immediately
+preceding the examination may develop symptoms that are normally absent.
+However, I would not feel justified in accepting this application, even
+if the report were favorable."
+
+"Why not?" demanded Ross.
+
+"The amount of insurance he wishes to carry would make him worth more
+dead than alive, which is a condition of affairs that an insurance
+company dislikes." Murray became reminiscent again. "I recall one such
+risk," he went on. "The man found the premiums a greater burden than he
+could carry, so he died."
+
+"Suicide!" exclaimed Ross.
+
+"Oh, no," replied Murray, with a peculiar smile; "merely a mistake. But,
+if you will put yourself in that man's place, you will see how the
+mistake could happen. He was carrying twenty-five thousand dollars of
+insurance, and he wasn't worth twenty-five cents at the time, owing to
+some recent reverses. He was ill, but was not considered dangerously
+ill. Still, he was depressed, believing apparently that he would not
+recover and knowing that he had not the money for the next premium. If
+he died before a certain date there would be twenty-five thousand
+dollars for his wife and children; if he died after that date there
+would be comparatively little. Now, in imagination, just assume the
+problem that confronted that man on a certain night: twenty-four hours
+of life for him meant a future of privation for his wife, if he did not
+recover and prosper, while immediate death for him meant comfort for
+those he loved. Picture yourself contemplating that prospect while lying
+weak and discouraged in the sick-room, with various bottles--one labeled
+'Poison'--within reach. A poison may have medicinal value when properly
+used, you know, but what more natural than that you should make a
+mistake in the gloom of the night while the tired nurse is dozing? It is
+so easy to get the wrong bottle--to take the poison instead of the
+tonic--and it solves a most distressing problem. A drop of the poison is
+beneficial; a teaspoonful is death; and the tonic is to be taken in
+large doses." Murray paused a moment to let the terrible nature of the
+situation impress itself on Ross. Then he added quietly: "We paid the
+insurance, although the timeliness of the accident did not escape
+comment. The same mistake twenty-four hours later would not have had the
+same financial result. Now, do you understand why I would not care to
+put fifty thousand dollars on the life of Tucker, even if he were
+physically satisfactory? Unexpected reverses may make any man worth more
+dead than alive, but we seldom contribute knowingly to such a condition
+of affairs. It isn't prudent. While the average man is not disposed to
+shorten his life to beat an insurance company, it isn't wise to put the
+temptation in his way unless you are very sure of your man."
+
+"Well, we needn't explain that to Tucker," said Ross.
+
+"No," returned Murray. "We can put the whole thing on the basis of the
+physician's report."
+
+"I wish you would break the news to him," urged Ross. "You can do it
+with better grace, for you were not instrumental in getting him to put
+in his application. He'll be up here to-day."
+
+"Oh, very well," returned Murray. "I'll see him when he comes."
+
+Though the task was far from pleasant, Murray had been long enough in
+the business to take matters philosophically. One must accustom oneself
+to the disagreeable features of any occupation, for there is none that
+is entirely pleasurable.
+
+Tucker, however, did not make this interview disagreeable in the way
+that was expected: instead of becoming discouraged and depressed, he
+became indignant.
+
+"What's that?" he cried. "You don't consider me a good risk?"
+
+"I am sorry to say," returned Murray, "that our physician does not
+report favorably on you."
+
+"Oh, he doesn't!" exclaimed Tucker. "Well, that's a good joke on the
+doctor, isn't it?"
+
+"What!"
+
+"You'd better discharge him and get a man with some sense."
+
+"I thought," said Murray dubiously, "that it might seem rather hard on
+you."
+
+"Hard on me!" ejaculated Tucker. "Hard on the company, you mean! You're
+letting a little two-by-four doctor steer you away from a good thing.
+Why, say! I'm good for as long a life as an elephant!"
+
+"I'm sure I hope so."
+
+"It's robbery--plain robbery--for that doctor to take a fee from you for
+making such a report on me. I'll show him up!"
+
+"How?" asked Murray curiously.
+
+"By living!" declared Tucker. "It's going to give me infinite pleasure
+to report to you from time to time and show you one of the healthiest
+men that ever was turned down by an insurance company. He can't scare me
+into a decline--not any! And, say! he looks to me like a young man."
+
+"He is."
+
+"A young man in fine physical condition."
+
+"He is."
+
+"Well, I'll go to his funeral, and I'll be in prime condition when he's
+put away! You tell him that, will you? I'll be walking when he has to be
+carried."
+
+Now, this was rather annoying to Murray. It was preferable to the
+despair that overwhelmed some men in similar circumstances, but it
+seemed to him that Tucker was overdoing it.
+
+"Anyhow," said Murray resentfully, "we would not care to put fifty
+thousand dollars on your life, for it's more than a man in your position
+ought to carry. You'll never be worth as much alive as you would be
+dead, with that insurance."
+
+"Oh, I won't!" retorted Tucker sarcastically. "Well, now, instead of
+making the girl I am to marry a present of a policy on my life, I'll
+just make her a present of your whole blamed company in a few years. You
+watch what I do with the money you might have had!"
+
+"You are about to marry?" asked Murray with interest. "It's a serious
+matter, in view of the physician's report."
+
+"Marriage is always a serious matter," asserted Tucker. "I don't have to
+have a doctor tell me that. But he can't scare me out with flubdub about
+heart murmur, for I know the heart was murmuring, and the prospective
+Mrs. Tucker does, too. She'll interpret that murmur for him any time he
+wants a little enlightenment."
+
+Murray laughed when Tucker had gone. The man's indignation had been
+momentarily irritating, but there was something amusing about it, too.
+
+"He's going to live to a green old age, just to spite the company,"
+mused Murray. "It's a matter of no great personal interest to him, but
+he'd like to make the company feel bad. If a man could order his life as
+he can his business affairs, there would be mighty little chance for
+us."
+
+Meanwhile, Tucker was hastening to the home of Miss Frances Greer.
+
+"I've come to release you," he announced cheerfully.
+
+"But I don't want to be released," she returned.
+
+"Of course not," he said. "I didn't suppose you would. But you might
+just as well know that you're getting a poor risk."
+
+"What do you mean?" she asked.
+
+"Why, I wanted to put fifty thousand dollars on my life, as a precaution
+for the future, and the fool of an insurance doctor turned me down."
+
+"What do I care about the doctor!" she exclaimed.
+
+"Not a thing, of course."
+
+"Or insurance!"
+
+"Still less."
+
+"And," she said happily, "you're a good enough risk for me."
+
+Then they went into executive session and decided that insurance doctors
+didn't know anything, anyway. But they did not forget Dave Murray, and
+they did not let Dave Murray forget them: he heard from them indirectly
+in the most annoying ways. His wife informed him less than a week later
+that she had met Miss Greer at a reception.
+
+"A most extraordinary girl!" his wife remarked. "I can't understand her
+at all. She asked me in a most ingenuous way if I ever had noticed any
+indications of heart murmur about you.
+
+"'Never,' said I.
+
+"'Not even in the engagement days when he was making love?' she
+insisted.
+
+"'Not even then,' I answered, bewildered.
+
+"'He couldn't have been much of a lover,' she remarked."
+
+Murray laughed and explained the situation to his wife. But Murray would
+have been better pleased if the two women had not met, for he had no
+desire to have this case perpetually present in the more intimate
+associations of life. However, he had to make the best of it, even when
+he was invited to the wedding, to which his wife insisted that he should
+go. She had discovered that the bride was related to an intimate friend
+of her own girlhood days, and the bride further showed flattering
+gratification in this discovery. She was especially gracious to Murray.
+
+"I want to ask you a question," she told him.
+
+Thereupon Murray made heroic efforts to escape before she could find a
+suitable opportunity, but she beckoned him back whenever he got near the
+door.
+
+"Mama," she said finally, for this happened during the wedding
+reception, and her mother stood near her, "I wish you would take charge
+of Mr. Murray and see that he doesn't run away. I have something very
+important to say to him before Ralph and I leave."
+
+Thus the unhappy Murray was held until the bride and groom were ready to
+depart, when the bride finally succeeded in getting him alone for a
+minute.
+
+"I wanted to ask you, as a particular favor to me," she said
+appealingly, "to let Ralph live a little while--that is, if your doctor
+won't make too big a row about it."
+
+Then she laughed merrily. There could be no doubt at all that Mrs. Ralph
+Tucker refused absolutely to worry about the health of Mr. Ralph Tucker;
+she had simply put the doctor down as an ignoramus. And Mr. Ralph
+Tucker's appearance certainly was not that of a man in poor physical
+condition. However, Murray knew how deceptive appearances may be, and,
+while no physician is infallible, it is necessary to rely on their
+judgment. Nor was it a joking matter, in his opinion. He was glad that
+the young people could look at the future without misgivings, but a
+really serious matter ought not to be treated so lightly.
+
+It was about a week later that a note came to Murray from Mrs. Tucker.
+
+"So grateful to you for sparing Ralph so long," it read.
+
+Murray crumpled it up and, with some rather warm remarks, threw it in
+the waste-basket.
+
+"Why did I relieve Ross of his disagreeable task?" he grumbled.
+
+Then he began to count the days that would precede their return from the
+bridal trip, for he was sure they would call on him. There could be no
+doubt that Mrs. Tucker had deliberately planned to make things as
+uncomfortable for him as possible, and there was every reason to believe
+that Tucker himself was aiding and abetting her.
+
+"It isn't fair," he muttered, "to make it appear that this is a personal
+matter with me. The Lord knows I haven't anything to do with his lease
+of life."
+
+This was just after he had received a telegram to the effect that "the
+patient is doing as well as can be expected," and Ross, who happened in
+the office at the time, noticed that his chief looked at him
+reproachfully.
+
+"What's the matter?" asked Ross.
+
+"Hereafter," returned Murray morosely, "my solicitors have got to carry
+their own burdens. If Tucker and his wife put me in an insane asylum,
+the administrator of my estate will surely sue you for big damages. I
+never thought I was getting a life sentence when I let you unload on
+me."
+
+The physician also noticed a growing coolness and was moved to ask what
+was wrong.
+
+"Didn't you make a mistake in the Tucker case?" Murray inquired by way
+of reply. "I don't wish Tucker any harm, but I'm doomed to an early
+death if he isn't."
+
+"I don't see what his life has to do with yours," retorted the doctor.
+
+"That's because you don't know Mrs. Tucker," replied Murray.
+
+"He was an impossible risk," asserted the doctor. "The indications of
+serious trouble may entirely disappear, under favorable conditions of
+life, but they were there when I made the examination. Ours is not yet
+an exact science, and the human system frequently fools us. You recall
+the Denton case, don't you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"At twenty the doctors, including his family physician, gave him not
+more than two or three years to live, and at twenty-five he was
+considered a good risk for any insurance company. He is nearly
+thirty-five now, has one policy in this company, and we would be glad to
+let him have another."
+
+"Oh, you're all right, Doctor, of course," returned Murray. "We must be
+careful to err on the safe side, if we err at all, in this business. But
+I wish the Tuckers would transfer their attentions to you. I'll be
+tempted to jump out of the window when I see them coming in the door."
+
+The Tuckers, however, were not to be escaped. After an interval of about
+three weeks they sent him another telegram, which read: "If we retire to
+a ranch, will you lengthen the lease of life a little?" Then they came
+back and called on him.
+
+"So kind of you to let us have this trip," said Mrs. Tucker with every
+evidence of deep gratitude. "Poor Ralph appreciates it."
+
+Poor Ralph was looking as big and strong and happy as it was possible
+for a man to look, and Murray was correspondingly uncomfortable.
+
+"The premiums on fifty thousand dollars would have been pretty heavy,"
+remarked Tucker with a cheerful grin.
+
+"Yes," admitted Murray weakly.
+
+"I had a tidy little sum put aside to care for them," Tucker explained.
+"We thought it would interest your company to know that we put that
+money into a small ranch out west, so it is entirely out of reach now.
+You don't mind my choosing a restful place for my early demise, do you?"
+
+"Now, see here!" cried Murray, but Mrs. Tucker interrupted him.
+
+"Oh, he wouldn't be so cruel as that!" she exclaimed. "Show him what the
+doctor said, Ralph."
+
+Tucker spread a sheet of paper on the desk before Murray, and the latter
+read: "This is to certify that I have made a careful examination of
+Ralph Tucker, and I believe him to be in excellent physical condition. I
+attach slight importance to the indications of incipient heart trouble,
+which, with reasonable care and proper treatment, should disappear
+entirely." This was signed by a noted specialist.
+
+"And the next," said Mrs. Tucker.
+
+Thereupon Tucker laid this before Murray: "The heart murmur noted I
+believe to be due to temporary causes and not to any permanent
+affection. On the occasion of one examination there were no indications
+of it at all." This also was signed by a well-known physician.
+
+"Poor Ralph!" sighed Mrs. Tucker, and Murray felt that the burden of
+this case was greater than he could bear.
+
+"They don't agree entirely," he asserted aggressively.
+
+"No," admitted Tucker, "but I understand that's not unusual in such
+cases."
+
+"And they don't agree with your doctor at all," added Mrs. Tucker. "But,
+of course, your doctor is right. Poor Ralph!"
+
+"Please don't do that," pleaded Murray.
+
+"Poor Ralph!" sighed Mrs. Tucker again. "The doctors don't think he'll
+live more than a lifetime."
+
+"Put in another application and take another examination," urged Murray
+in despair. "The doctor may have been misled by some trifling temporary
+trouble."
+
+"What would be the use?" asked Tucker. "I've already invested the
+premium money in a small ranch."
+
+"It's too bad," remarked Mrs. Tucker lugubriously. "That money would
+have done the company so much good."
+
+"This has ceased to be a joke!" declared Murray earnestly.
+
+"A joke!" exclaimed Mrs. Tucker. "Has it ever been a joke with you?"
+
+"No, it hasn't," said Murray.
+
+"I didn't think you could be so heartless," asserted Mrs. Tucker. "One
+has only to look at poor Ralph--"
+
+"Don't, don't!" cried Murray. "On what terms will you quit this?"
+
+"Oh, if you want to get down to business," put in Tucker, "I'd like to
+begin delivering this company to Frances. You know I said I was going to
+do it. I don't care for policies, but I might take some stock."
+
+"You said you had no money."
+
+"No premium money," corrected Tucker. "I invested that in the ranch, but
+I was notified this morning of a legacy from a bachelor uncle that will
+give me some ready cash."
+
+"The stock of this company gets on the market very seldom," explained
+Murray. "I have a little myself, but I don't care to part with it."
+
+"Oh, very well," replied Tucker in careless tones; "it's quite
+immaterial to us for the moment. In fact, I'd be in no hurry about it at
+all if I only had a longer time to live."
+
+"Poor Ralph!" sighed Mrs. Tucker, as they departed.
+
+When they had gone, Murray rang for his office-boy.
+
+"You tell Mr. Ross," he said to the boy, "to keep out of my way for a
+few days. I'm not in a mental condition to stand the sight of the man
+who loaded this trouble on me."
+
+For the next three days Murray saw as little of his office as he
+possibly could, fearing another call from Mr. and Mrs. Tucker. Then he
+learned that they had left again for the West, and he breathed more
+freely. But, shortly thereafter, a stock-broker called upon him.
+
+"I am commissioned," said the broker, "to buy some stock in your
+company, and I thought possibly you might know of some that is for
+sale."
+
+"I do not," replied Murray. "As you know, it is not a speculative stock,
+but is held, for the most part, by conservative investors. A little gets
+on the market occasionally, when some estate is being settled or some
+holder becomes financially embarrassed, but that is about your only
+chance."
+
+"So my client informed me," said the broker, "but he also informed me
+that he was sure he could get some himself, and he wished me to use
+every effort to add to his prospective holdings."
+
+"Mr. Tucker, your client, tried to buy some from me before he left for
+the West," said Murray, for he had no doubt as to the identity of the
+man who wanted the stock.
+
+"Indeed!" returned the broker. "I didn't know that. He explained his
+anxiety for prompt action by the rather extraordinary statement that he
+wished to get the stock before somebody foreclosed on his life!"
+
+"By thunder!" cried Murray, "somebody _will_ foreclose on his life, and
+take the Limited west to do it, if he keeps this thing up!"
+
+In some amazement, the broker apologized and retired, and Murray began
+to wonder what would happen to him if Mrs. Tucker ever did get enough of
+the stock to make her influence felt. Of course, there was little chance
+of that, but even a small stock-holder could be annoying when so
+disposed. He began to dream about the Tucker case, and an incidental
+mention of it in the office would make the atmosphere unpleasant for the
+day. Every clerk and solicitor understood that it was a dangerous topic.
+Once the name "Tucker" was mentioned in the ordinary course of business,
+and Murray had things at a fever heat before it could be explained to
+him that it was another Tucker. Then came a letter from the West, with a
+Tucker return card on the envelop. A council of war was held before it
+was delivered to Murray, and even then a time was chosen when he was
+absent to lay it on his desk. It was very brief--just an announcement
+that "the patient" had rallied splendidly after the fatigue of the
+journey and exhibited "really wonderful vitality for a sick man." No one
+cared to go near Murray all the rest of that day.
+
+Soon after the first of the following month another missive arrived--a
+mere formal affidavit, headed "Certificate of Life," and solemnly
+averring that "Ralph Tucker's heart has not ceased to murmur along in
+the land of the living." This was followed a month later by a
+certificate from a physician to the effect that "a restful ranch life is
+especially conducive to longevity, and Mr. Tucker's health continues to
+show all the improvement that can be expected in a man who had nothing
+the matter with him in the first place."
+
+These facetious reports continued to arrive at monthly intervals for a
+period of nearly a year. Usually they were brief, but occasionally the
+doctor, who seemed to enter into the spirit of the affair, would go into
+such details as weight, endurance, appetite, lifting power, respiration
+and--heart murmur. "The heart," he wrote at one time, "seems to be too
+well satisfied to murmur now, and the patient was able to sit up and eat
+a large steak to-day, after which a little gentle exercise--about twenty
+miles on horseback--seemed to do him some good."
+
+Murray promptly turned this over to the company doctor, and the latter
+sighed. Almost the only satisfaction in life that Murray had during this
+time arose from his ability to make the doctor miserable.
+
+"He was not a good risk when I examined him," the doctor insisted, "but
+he may be a good one now. We can't be certain of results in such a case,
+and the law of probabilities frequently works out wrong. He could not
+have done a better thing, under the circumstances, than to go in for a
+simple, outdoor life. The basis of trouble was there, in my judgment,
+but it may have been overcome."
+
+"The basis of trouble is still there," declared Murray; "not only the
+basis of trouble, but the whole blame structure, and it's resting on us.
+I can feel the weight."
+
+"So can I," replied the doctor disconsolately.
+
+Less than a week after this Tucker telegraphed to know if Murray had
+changed his mind about disposing of any stock.
+
+"No," was the reply sent back.
+
+"All right," Tucker answered. "I just wanted to give Mrs. Tucker another
+slice of your company. She has a little of it already."
+
+Investigation showed that the broker had succeeded in picking up a few
+shares, but hardly enough to exert any considerable influence. Still, it
+was disquieting to find the Tuckers so persistent.
+
+"I'll bet," said Murray, "that mental worry has put me where you
+wouldn't pass me for a risk."
+
+"If your wife," returned the doctor, "is anything like Mrs. Tucker I'd
+pass you for any kind of risk rather than incur her displeasure. They'll
+begin to take a stock-holder's interest in the affairs of this
+particular office pretty soon."
+
+"The affairs are in good shape," declared Murray.
+
+"But a real determined stock-holder can stir up a devil of a rumpus over
+nothing," asserted the doctor. "If she should send all those physicians'
+reports to headquarters, they would rather offset my report on which he
+was turned down, and the company would feel that it had lost a good
+thing. The company will not stop to think that my report may have been
+justified by conditions at the time."
+
+"And the risk that I thought too big for him then may not seem too big
+for him now," commented Murray ruefully.
+
+"I'd like to examine him again," said the doctor.
+
+"I don't think it would be safe," returned Murray, "unless you were
+searched for weapons first."
+
+So the doctor and Murray settled down to await, with some anxiety, the
+next move in the game, and their patience was rewarded by the receipt of
+five certificates of health from as many different physicians, each
+certificate having a message of some sort scribbled across the top. "The
+patient had to ride a hundred miles to get these," Mrs. Tucker had
+written on the first. "There were a few shares of this stock in my late
+lamented uncle's estate," appeared in Tucker's handwriting on the
+second. "The president of your company is rusticating a few miles from
+here," Mrs. Tucker asserted on the third. "Better come out here for a
+few days," Tucker urged on the fourth. "Poor Ralph!" was Mrs. Tucker's
+comment on the fifth.
+
+"Poor Dave Murray!" grumbled Murray, and he and the doctor started West
+the next day. "Might as well get this thing settled," he said. "You and
+I have got to be on harmonious terms with the stock-holders. Besides,
+there's an early grave yawning for me if I don't succeed in making peace
+with Mrs. Tucker. I tell you, Doctor, when a woman decides to make
+things uncomfortable for a man,--well, the man might just as well resign
+himself to being perpetually uncomfortable."
+
+And yet, no one could have greeted them more graciously than did Mrs.
+Tucker.
+
+"I'm so glad you've come," she said, "and brought the doctor. It is
+particularly pleasing to have the doctor here, for I want him to see if
+something can't be done for poor Ralph. I'm sure I don't know what's
+going to become of the poor fellow. He doesn't sleep any better than a
+baby, and he can't ride over a hundred miles without getting tired. His
+muscles aren't a bit harder than iron, either, and his heart beats all
+the time."
+
+"Mrs. Tucker," said Murray appealingly, "what can we do to make peace
+with you?"
+
+"Without even seeing your husband again," added the doctor, "I am
+willing to concede that he will live to be three thousand years old."
+
+"We are beaten," asserted Murray. "You have humbled our business and
+professional pride. We give Mr. Tucker none of the credit; it all
+belongs to you. We claim to be the equals of any man, but of no woman.
+Now, on what terms can we have peace?"
+
+"I did want your insurance company for a sort of belated wedding
+present," said Mrs. Tucker thoughtfully.
+
+"I'd give it to you if I could," said Murray with the utmost sincerity.
+"I assure you, that company has been nothing but an annoyance to me ever
+since you cast longing eyes on the stock."
+
+"Oh, I've become more modest in my expectations," replied Mrs. Tucker
+cheerfully. "I don't expect much more than we've got now."
+
+"How much have you got?" asked Murray.
+
+"Well, our broker picked up a few shares, and there were some more in
+the estate of Ralph's uncle, and the president of the company kindly
+arranged it so that we could get a little more. Such a delightful man he
+is, too! It was when I heard he had a place in this vicinity, where he
+came for an outing every year, that I insisted upon Ralph's buying this
+ranch. I thought it would be nice to be near him--and it was. We're great
+friends now, although he's only here for a little while in the spring
+and fall."
+
+"Did--did you tell him about the insurance?" asked Murray.
+
+"What insurance?" asked Mrs. Tucker blandly. "We haven't any insurance.
+Poor Ralph--"
+
+"Mrs. Tucker," interrupted Murray, "if you say 'Poor Ralph' again, you
+will see a driveling idiot making streaks across the prairie. I have
+reached the limit of endurance. All I want is peace, peace, peace, and
+I'll pay the price for it. Do you want some of my stock?"
+
+"Oh, dear, no," she replied. "We've got it fixed now so that Ralph is
+pretty sure to be a director next year. We talked it over with the
+president."
+
+"Does Mr. Tucker still want a policy?" asked Murray.
+
+"Certainly not," said Mrs. Tucker. "If he's going to die so soon, it
+would be beating the company, and we're part of the company now, so we--"
+
+"Stop it! stop it!" pleaded Murray. "I'll bet you couldn't kill him with
+an ax!"
+
+"Sir!"
+
+"I beg your pardon, but this is the climax of a year of torment that I
+didn't suppose was possible this side of the infernal regions,"
+explained Murray dismally, "and I'm just naturally wondering why you
+brought me out here."
+
+"Oh, I didn't tell you that, did I?" returned Mrs. Tucker ingenuously.
+"I just wanted to tell you that, now that we're stock-holders to a
+reasonable amount--Ralph retained a few shares, you know, and holds a
+proxy for mine--we look at the matter from an entirely different
+viewpoint, and we think that every reasonable precaution should be taken
+to avoid poor risks, as you call them. We are highly gratified by the
+evidence of caution that has inadvertently come under our notice, even
+if there was an incidental error that baffled human foresight."
+
+The sudden and startling changes of position by this young woman were
+too much for both Murray and the doctor; they could only look at her in
+amazement as she calmly commended their course.
+
+"You have brought us all this distance to tell us that!" ejaculated
+Murray at last.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, it's worth the trip!" he announced, as he recalled the events of
+the last year.
+
+Then Tucker appeared, big, strong, bronzed, hearty, and shook hands with
+them. Never a weakling in appearance, his year of outdoor life had made
+him the embodiment of health. He beamed upon his guests with hearty good
+nature as he gave them each a grip that made them wince. His wife
+regarded him critically for a moment.
+
+"Poor Ralph!" she said mischievously, and then she hastily assured them
+that this was really the last of the joke.
+
+
+
+
+AN INCIDENTAL FAILURE
+
+
+Adolph Schlimmer's wink was of the self-satisfied variety that plainly
+says to the person at whom it is directed, "They're mostly fools in this
+world--except you and me, and I'm not quite sure about you." Adolph
+Schlimmer was a small man, but he thought he had enough worldly wisdom
+and sharpness for a giant. "You bet you, I don't get fooled very much,"
+he boasted.
+
+Just now his wink was directed at Carroll Brown, an insurance solicitor.
+
+"How much iss there in it for you?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, I get my commission, of course," replied Brown.
+
+"Sure, sure,"--and again Adolph winked. "You don't need it all, maybe."
+
+"Why not?" asked Brown with disconcerting frankness. "I'm entitled to
+what I earn."
+
+"Sure, sure," admitted Adolph, somewhat annoyed. "It's vorth something
+to you to make the money, ain't it, yes? I gif you the chance. It might
+be vorth something to me, perhaps, maybe."
+
+"Oh, if you want me to divide my commission with you," exclaimed Brown,
+"we might as well quit talking right here. It would cost me my job, if
+anybody found it out."
+
+"Who iss to find it out? I bet you, if people could find out things,
+we'd haf more people in jail than out. Some big men, vorth millions,
+would haf to live a century to serf their time out. The boss discharges
+hiss clerk for doin' what he iss doin' himself."
+
+"It's against the law," argued Brown. "It's a rebate on premiums and is
+prohibited."
+
+"Sure, sure," conceded Adolph again. "But you got to do something to
+make business, ain't it? I gif premiums and I get discounts. There don't
+nobody fool me very much."
+
+"Well, I'm taking no chances with either my job or the law," announced
+Brown, "even if I wanted to sacrifice part of my legitimate commission.
+I'm offering you a policy in a first-class company on the same terms
+that we give them to all others, and that's the best I can do. If you're
+looking for an advantage over your neighbors, you'll have to go
+elsewhere. The very first rule of straight business is to treat all
+alike."
+
+"Sure it iss," returned Adolph. "Look at the railroads and the big
+shippers." Again he winked wisely. "I bet you, your boss ain't such a
+fool as you. Make the big money when you can, but don't run avay from
+the little money. I gif you a chance for the little money because I'm
+smart; some other feller let you haf it all because he issn't."
+
+Therein lay the measure of Adolph. It was beyond his comprehension that
+any man should treat all fairly: some one surely was "on the inside,"
+and his first thought in any transaction was to make a quiet "deal" with
+some interested party that would give him a trifling advantage over
+others. He was shrewd in a small and near-sighted way, and he had an
+idea that all men, except fools, looked at things as he did. He believed
+there was "graft" in everything. That being the case, it was the duty of
+a sharp man to get a share of it, even if, as in this instance, it only
+lessened his own expense somewhat. So Adolph Schlimmer went to see
+Brown's boss, who happened to be Dave Murray.
+
+"I get me some insurance," he announced.
+
+"All right," returned Murray agreeably. "You look like a good risk."
+
+"Risk?" repeated Adolph. "No, _nein_. I'm a sure thing."
+
+Murray laughed.
+
+"That's bad," he said banteringly. "Sure things are what men go broke on
+in this world; they're the biggest risks of all." Then, explanatorily:
+"I mean you seem to be in good physical condition, so that our physician
+is likely to pass you."
+
+"You bet you," returned Adolph, "but it's my vife what counts. If I die,
+I leaf her the money; if she die, she leaf me nothing."
+
+"Oh, you want to get a policy on your wife's life," said Murray
+thoughtfully, not favorably impressed with the other's commercial tone.
+"How much?"
+
+"_Zwei_ t'ousand dollars."
+
+"Not very much," commented Murray. "A man of sense would prefer a good
+wife to two thousand dollars any day. Is she a worker?"
+
+"You bet you, yes," replied Adolph earnestly. "If she die, I looss money
+on her at that price. I figger it all out. She safe me the wages uf a
+clerk and a cook and some other things. I count up what she safe me and
+what she cost me and she's vorth fifteen dollars a week easy in work and
+ten dollars a week in saving. I can't afford to looss that. I insure the
+store and the stock, and now I insure this. I watch out for myself
+pretty close."
+
+Murray was both disgusted and amused. Such a character as this was new
+to his experience, but the risk might be, and probably was, a perfectly
+good and legitimate one.
+
+"Well, you bring your wife in," he said after a moment of thought, "and
+I'll talk to her."
+
+"Sure," said Adolph. Then he winked in his wise way. "I safe you the
+commission. What iss there in it for me?"
+
+"What?" exclaimed Murray.
+
+"I haf a talk with Brown," explained Adolph. "It's vorth something to
+him to get the business, but he don't make it vorth nothing to me to
+give it."
+
+"If he did we'd discharge him."
+
+"Sure, sure," returned the imperturbable Adolph. "We got to watch the
+boys or there won't be nothing left for us. So I safe the commission for
+you. What iss there in it for me?"
+
+"Not a damn thing!"
+
+"You play it that way with the fool," advised Adolph complacently. "It's
+a bully bluff for the feller that don't know how things was done in
+business. Then we go splits, yes?"
+
+The ignorance and effrontery of the man so amazed Murray that he forgot
+his indignation for a moment and undertook to explain.
+
+"There is no commission on business that comes to the office," he said.
+
+"Sure!" laughed Adolph, again resorting to that sagacious wink. "You let
+the company make it, yes? I stay home, you send man to tell me get
+insured, I say yes, man get paid--ain't it so? I come here to get
+insured, and you give that man's pay to the company, the men vorth
+millions--oh, yes, sure!" Adolph laughed at the absurdity of the thing.
+"Iss there anything in my eye?" he asked suddenly.
+
+"You sit down there!" ordered Murray, for Adolph was now leaning
+familiarly over Murray's desk. "I ought to kick you out, but I'm going
+to tell you a few things. Sit down and keep still. I'm several sizes
+bigger than you are and it's my turn." Murray spoke so aggressively that
+Adolph promptly returned to his seat. "Now, to begin with, you make a
+mistake in judging everybody else by yourself; there are a lot of decent
+people in this world. A good many may worship the almighty dollar, and
+that's bad enough, but God help the few who get down to worshiping the
+almighty cent. A good many keep a lookout for graft, but you are the
+first one I ever saw who seemed to think everybody was crooked."
+
+"No, _nein_; only business--"
+
+"Keep still! You insult everybody you try to do business with by acting
+on the assumption that he is in your class. You have absorbed some of
+the tricky commercialism that is prevalent these days, and you've got
+the idea that there isn't anything else--not even common sense. You would
+break the law for a trifle. What you propose is morally wrong, but we
+won't discuss that, because you can't understand it."
+
+"I don't like--"
+
+"Keep still! I'm doing you a favor, but I've got to tell you first what
+a libel you are on the average human being. The law that you want to
+break was made for the protection of just such financially insignificant
+people as you. It prohibits giving rebates in any form on insurance
+premiums and provides that the acceptance of such a rebate by the
+policy-holder shall invalidate his policy, and that the giving of such a
+rebate by a company or any of its agents shall subject the company to a
+fine. Do you understand?"
+
+"Sure; but who iss to know?"
+
+Murray was discouraged, but he had set out to drive a lesson home to
+this dull-witted fellow who thought he was smart, and he valiantly held
+to his task. He could feel nothing but contempt for the man, but he had
+become rather interested in convincing him how foolish he was. Besides,
+Murray was a bitter opponent of the rebate evil in all lines of
+business--every one knows how it fosters monopoly--and he attacked it
+whenever and wherever he could.
+
+"If rebates on insurance premiums were not unlawful," he asked, "do you
+think people of your kind are the ones who would get them? Well, hardly.
+The millionaires, the rich men, the men who take out the big policies,
+would get them, and you little fellows would pay the full price, just as
+you do wherever else the rebate evil exists. This law was made to
+protect you, and you want to break it down. Well, I suppose there are
+others just as bad. The men for whose benefit a law is made frequently
+insist upon playing with it until they drop it and break it, and then
+they wonder why the splinters won't do them as much good as the original
+law." Having warmed up to a subject that interested him, Murray was
+talking for himself now. Adolph could understand in a general way what
+he meant, but many of the remarks were entirely beyond his
+comprehension. "Look at it in another way," Murray went on. "As a
+speculation, the insurance rebate is a mistake. The man who gets or
+accepts a rebate is taking a risk. 'Well,' he argues, 'so is the man who
+buys wheat or stocks or undeveloped real estate of problematical future
+value.' Quite right; but when you speculate you want to be sure that
+your probable or possible profits bear a fair proportion to the risk and
+your possible losses. It's all right to make a secured loan of one
+thousand dollars at five per cent., but when you put your thousand into
+a scheme where there is a chance of losing every cent of it, you also
+want a chance of making a good deal more than the legal rate of
+interest. Russell Sage is said to look as closely after the small
+profits as the large, but Russell would shy away from an investment--a
+real safe _investment_--that promised only a ten cent profit on five
+dollars; and if it were a _speculation_, where he might lose the whole
+five, he would want to see a possibility of winning at least half as
+much. The man who accepts an insurance premium rebate is going into a
+speculation--a flimsy, cheap speculation, with a chance of loss so
+entirely out of proportion to the slight advantage he gains over other
+policy-holders that no man with a grain of sense would consider it for a
+moment. To secure a discount on his premium he risks his whole policy.
+Why, in your case you would put a two-thousand-dollar policy in danger
+to save a few miserable dollars. It isn't cleverness, it isn't
+shrewdness, it isn't business, it isn't sense; it isn't anything but
+damn foolishness. Do you understand?"
+
+"Sure," answered Adolph. "If we iss found out, I looss the policy and
+you looss a fine. We both looss."
+
+"That's it exactly."
+
+"Vell, if we both looss by telling, who iss going to find it out?"
+demanded Adolph triumphantly. "You bet you, I take the chance. Go ahead
+with her."
+
+Murray leaned wearily back in his chair.
+
+"You'd better get out of here," he said. "This company wouldn't issue a
+policy in which you had any sort of interest on any terms. I was curious
+to discover if I could not stir up just a glimmer of business sense in
+you, and my curiosity is satisfied. You seem to me like a man who would
+risk all his money to win a fly-speck, if he thought he was going to win
+it by some underhand deal. Get out as quick as you can! But I tell you
+again, don't fool with rebates!"
+
+Adolph stopped in the doorway.
+
+"You got to haf the whole commission, yes?" he remarked with accusing
+bitterness. "I take you for a hog."
+
+Then he disappeared very suddenly, for he feared Murray would pursue.
+
+Here again was the measure of Adolph. In spite of Murray's explanation,
+he could see nothing except a chance to win by saving a part of the
+commission. He could not comprehend that he was running any unusual risk
+or doing anything that another would not do, if the other had the sense
+to see the chance. In fact, he was fully convinced in his own mind that
+Murray was merely talking for effect and really desired the whole
+commission for himself. This made him the more determined to gain this
+small advantage for himself--partly because his little business world was
+made up of such devious methods, and partly because it would be an
+evidence of his own cleverness.
+
+Now, occasionally a solicitor for a company of high standing, acting on
+his own responsibility, will divide his commission in order to get some
+one to take out a policy. If he is trying to make a record, the
+temptation is considerable. If the policy is large, his half of this
+commission may be more than his whole commission in most other cases. He
+does this secretly, but he is inviting three kinds of trouble: his own
+discharge, a fine for his company, and a loss for the policy-holder.
+These three things will follow discovery, but he takes the chance. And
+there are irresponsible or unscrupulous companies or agencies (so it is
+said) that will tacitly approve such a course in some instances, taking
+the necessary risk in order to get business. Of course, no first-class
+or reliable company will sanction or even tolerate such methods.
+
+Nevertheless, Adolph, the shrewd fool, finally found the man for whom he
+was searching. A man may nearly always find trouble if he searches for
+it industriously, and Adolph was industrious. Unfortunately for him,
+however, he treated several other solicitors to his knowing wink before
+he met the one who agreed to his proposition, and, when it was learned
+that Adolph was taking out a policy on his wife's life, they were quick
+to reach conclusions. But it was none of their business, and they said
+nothing. What they knew merely made it easier to prove the case, if the
+question should ever arise. The solicitor who finally entered into the
+deal was one who had done the same thing before. He was "broke" a good
+part of the time, and, when in that condition, he did not question
+closely the ethics of any proposition that promised an early, even
+though small, cash return. He was an outcast among such of the many
+conscientious men of the fraternity as knew him, but the local agent of
+the company that employed him was not particular, and there were rumors
+that the company itself might have been more strict.
+
+Anyhow, Adolph got the policy he wanted. His wife was disposed to object
+at first, for she had not been consulted until Adolph had made his
+bargain. There was no use, he argued, in telling her about it until he
+knew what he was going to do.
+
+"I buy you a policy," he finally told her in the tone that a man--another
+man--might tell his wife he would buy her a sealskin coat.
+
+"What's that?" she asked.
+
+"It pays _zwei_ t'ousand dollars," he explained.
+
+Mrs. Schlimmer was not enthusiastic.
+
+"When?" she asked.
+
+[Illustration: "What's the use to me?" she persisted]
+
+"When you are in the grafe," he answered after a pause.
+
+"What's the use to me?" she persisted.
+
+"My dear," he said, with such gallantry as he could command, "it shows
+what you iss vorth."
+
+Somehow, she was not flattered. She was a good wife, who worked hard,
+and she herself thought she was worth it, but she was selfish enough to
+think she ought to realize on her own value.
+
+"No, _nein_," he argued, "it ain't the vay it's done. You got yourself,
+ain't it, yes? When you ain't got yourself, you ain't here, but I am.
+You don't looss yourself when you die, but I looss you, and you're vorth
+a lot."
+
+"There's other women," she retorted.
+
+"But they ain't vorth what you are by _zwei_ t'ousand dollars," he
+insisted, and this delicate bit of flattery won the day. After all, it
+made no difference to her. She rebelled a little at going to the
+insurance office to be examined, however.
+
+"You tell 'em I'm all right," she urged. "You know."
+
+But a new gown--a cheap one--gained this point, and she went.
+
+Adolph prided himself very much on this stroke of business. His great
+aim in life was to pay a little less than the market price for
+everything, and he was never convinced that he was really doing this
+unless the deal had to be carried out in some underhand way. When he
+could buy for less than others he was making so much more money, and it
+was his experience that the biggest profit lay in shady transactions. In
+others he had made, or saved, much more than in this, but the
+difficulties he encountered in this instance convinced him that it was
+an especially notable achievement. He was proud of his success.
+
+"You bet you, they don't fool me very much," he asserted frequently.
+
+And, in time, he told how clever he was. Not at first, however; he was
+very cautious at first, for Murray's words had made an impression on
+him. But, after he had paid a few premiums, the lapse of time gave him a
+feeling of security, and one day, in boasting of his business
+shrewdness, he mentioned that he was even sharp enough to get life
+insurance at a bargain. After that, it was easier to speak of it again,
+and he finally told the story. The news spread in his own little circle.
+It was quite a feat, and he was held to have demonstrated remarkable
+cleverness. When another told of some sharp business deal, some one
+would remark, "Yes, that was clever, but you never got life insurance at
+a bargain." And, in the course of time--six months or more from the time
+the story was first breathed--it came to the ears of one Daniel Grady.
+This was unfortunate, for Daniel at once jumped to the conclusion that
+he had been cheated. Daniel had a small policy in the same company, and
+this policy was costing him the full premium without rebate of any kind
+from any insurance solicitor or anybody else. Daniel did not like this,
+and neither did he like Adolph; in fact, he would have been willing to
+pay a little higher premium for the privilege of making trouble for
+Adolph. Failing that, Daniel would like to get on even terms with him.
+
+"It's th' divil iv a note," said Daniel, "that I sh'u'd be payin' more
+than that little shrimp, an' me only thryin' to take care iv Maggie an'
+th' childhern. I'll go down to th' office an' push th' face iv th' man
+in if he don't give me th' same rate, I will so."
+
+But Daniel wisely did nothing of the kind, for he recalled that there
+were a number of clerks in the office and a police station not far away,
+and he had no wish to add a fine to his expenses. Instead, after
+pondering the matter a few weeks and growing steadily more indignant, he
+went to see a little lawyer who had an office over a saloon, next to a
+justice of the peace. Daniel planned only to get his premiums reduced,
+but the lawyer saw other opportunities.
+
+"It's a great chance," said the lawyer. "You're a policy-holder--"
+
+"Who says so?" demanded Daniel, for this sounded to him like an
+accusation.
+
+"I mean," explained the lawyer, "that you are insured in the company."
+
+"What iv it?" asked Daniel.
+
+"Why, the other policy-holders are the ones discriminated against in a
+case like this," said the lawyer, "and any one of them can file a
+complaint."
+
+"I'm not the kind iv a man to do much complainin'," declared Daniel. "I
+niver see that it did much good. If I c'u'd give Schlimmer a bad turn--"
+
+"That's it; that's it exactly. You can knock his insurance sky-high and
+get some money yourself."
+
+"Say that wanst more," urged Daniel. "Me hearin' seems to be playin'
+thricks."
+
+"The law," said the lawyer slowly, "fines a company for doing that--"
+
+"How much?"
+
+"I'll have to look it up. Pretty stiff fine, though, and the informer--"
+
+"I don't like th' word."
+
+"Well, the man who makes the complaint gets half the fine. Do you
+understand that? Let me take charge of the matter for you, and we'll
+divide the money."
+
+"Will it hurt me own insurance?" asked Daniel.
+
+"Not a bit."
+
+"I'm not lukkin' to l'ave Maggie an' th' childhern without money whin I
+die, jist to land a dollar-twinty f'r me own pocket now. That's a
+Schlimmer thrick."
+
+"Your insurance will be just as good as it ever was," the lawyer
+asserted.
+
+"Will there be twinty dollars in it f'r me?" Daniel persisted.
+
+"There'll be a good deal more than that--exactly how much I can't say."
+
+"Go ahead," instructed Daniel. "Put the little divil through."
+
+The lawyer investigated and found his task comparatively easy, for
+Adolph had now personally told the story to several people. Indeed, by
+the exercise of a little ingenuity, the lawyer got him to tell it to
+him. Then he acted.
+
+When the news reached the local agency of the company there was no
+indecision as to what should be done. Unnecessary publicity in a matter
+of that kind was the very last thing sought. The solicitor was called
+in, put on the rack, and promptly confessed. Then he was discharged
+without further questioning. Perhaps the local agent was afraid he might
+learn of other similar instances if he pressed the matter too far, and
+he was quite content to remain in ignorance of anything else of that
+nature, so long as the public also remained in ignorance. The company
+promptly acknowledged its fault, showed that it had cleared itself
+morally by discharging the offending agent, and proceeded to clear
+itself legally by paying the necessary fine.
+
+When the news came to Adolph, however, there was wailing prolonged, for
+his policy was annulled.
+
+"I bet you," said Adolph, "that feller Murray put up the job. He iss a
+great hog; he iss like those mono_pol_ists that puts smaller people out
+of business and gobbles it all."
+
+Then Adolph got a pencil and a sheet of paper and began to figure his
+losses.
+
+"_Zwei_ t'ousand dollar insurance," he groaned, "and maybe she wouldn't
+lif long. And I gif her a dress, too--a new dress. _Ach, Himmel!_ it's
+hard when a man's vife beats him. A new dress for nothing at all but to
+looss money. That law iss a shame. It iss a--what you call
+it?--restriction of business."
+
+Thereafter, for some time, the sight of the new gown would make Adolph
+morose and gloomy, and his friends found him unusually modest and
+unobtrusive.
+
+
+
+
+AN INCIDENTAL SCHEME
+
+
+There came to Dave Murray one day a young man who was looking for a job.
+He was a bright young fellow and seemed to be very earnest.
+
+"I have been a clerk," he explained, "but there is little prospect for
+the future where I am now, and I want to get something that has some
+promise in it. In fact, I must do so. I am making barely enough to
+support my mother and myself, and I may want to marry, you know."
+
+Murray readily admitted that young men frequently were attacked by the
+matrimonial bacillus and that, there being no sure antidote, the disease
+had to run its course. "Which is a good thing for the world," he added,
+"so you are quite right to prepare yourself for the attack. But are you
+sure that insurance is your field?"
+
+"I have given the subject a good deal of thought," was the reply, "and
+insurance interests me."
+
+"That's a good sign," commented Murray. "Success is for the man who is
+interested in his work, and not merely in the financial results of that
+work."
+
+"Oh, I want to make money, too," said the young man frankly.
+
+"We all do," returned Murray, "but the man who has no other aim than
+that would better stick to business and let the professions alone. Life
+insurance has become a profession, like banking. Time was when anybody
+with money could be a banker, but now it is conceded to require special
+gifts and a special training. I place life insurance right up in the
+front rank of the professions, for it is semi-philanthropic. We are not
+in it for our health, of course, but, if we are conscientious and
+earnest, we may reasonably flatter ourselves that we are doing a vast
+amount of good in line with our work. The life insurance solicitor has
+been the butt of many jokes. Perhaps he himself has been responsible for
+this, but times have changed and so have methods. If I ever caught one
+of my men slipping into an office with an apologetic air, like a
+second-rate book-canvasser, I'd discharge him on the spot. The insurance
+solicitor of to-day wants to consider himself a business man with a
+business proposition to make; he must have self-respect and show it. The
+best men plan their work carefully, do not attempt to hurry matters, and
+usually meet those that they expect to interest in their proposition by
+appointment, instead of trying to force the thing upon them by pure
+nerve. When a fellow becomes a nuisance he is hurting himself, his
+company and all others in his line. Do you still think insurance the
+line for you?"
+
+"I can begin," said the young man, by way of reply, "with an application
+from my present employer. I've been talking insurance to him for
+practice, and he has agreed to take out a policy. He's a pretty good
+fellow. He says I'm worth more than he can afford to pay me and he wants
+to help me along."
+
+"I guess you're all right," laughed Murray. "At any rate, you impress me
+as being the kind of man I want. Leave your references and come in again
+tomorrow."
+
+Murray was unusually particular as to the character of the men he
+employed. It was not enough for him that a man could get business, but
+he had his own ideas as to the way business should be secured. Absolute
+integrity and the most painstaking care to state a proposition fairly,
+without exaggeration, were points upon which he insisted.
+
+"A dissatisfied policy-holder," he said, "is a dead weight to carry; a
+satisfied policy-holder is an advertisement. If a man finds he is
+getting a little more than he expected, he is so much better pleased; if
+he finds he is getting a little less, he feels he has been tricked.
+Insurance is a good enough proposition, so that you don't have to gild
+it."
+
+Murray himself, in his younger days, had once secured an application for
+a large policy by refusing to expatiate on the merits of the particular
+form of insurance he was advocating.
+
+"Well, let's hear what a beautiful thing it is," the man had said.
+
+"My dear sir," Murray had replied, "it is a straight business
+proposition, with no frills or twists of any kind. You have the facts
+and the figures. If you, with your business training, can't see the
+merit of it, it would be a waste of time for me to attempt any
+elucidation. I have not the egotism to think I can _talk_ you into
+taking out a policy. As a matter of fact, this proposition doesn't need
+any argument, and it would be a reflection on the plain merit of the
+proposition for me to attempt one."
+
+Different methods for different men. This man never before had seen an
+insurance solicitor who would not talk for an hour, if he had the
+chance, and he was impressed and pleased. This was business,--straight
+business and nothing else. He straightway took out a large policy.
+
+Something of this Murray told the young man when he came back the next
+day, for he was anxious to impress upon him the fact that life insurance
+was not like a mining scheme, which has to be painted with all the
+glories of the sunset in order to float the stock, and that the man who
+overstated his case would inevitably suffer from the reaction.
+
+Murray had been favorably impressed with the young man--Max Mays was the
+name he gave--and the employer of Mays had spoken well of him. He was
+rather a peculiar fellow, according to the employer--always busy with
+figures or financial stories and seemingly deeply interested in the
+details of the large business affairs that were discussed in the
+newspapers and the magazines. Aside from this, he was about like the
+average clerk who hopes for and seeks better opportunities, and
+meanwhile makes the best of what he has--reasonably industrious and yet
+far from forsaking the pleasures of this life.
+
+All in all, Mays seemed like good material from which to make a life
+insurance man, and the fact that he did not propose to desert his
+present employer without notice was in his favor. Possibly the fact that
+he was getting his first commission through the latter had something to
+do with this, but, anyhow, he planned to continue where he was until a
+successor had been secured; and too many young men, contemplating such a
+change, would have let their enthusiasm lead them to quit without notice
+when they found the new place open to them. This is mentioned merely as
+one of the things that led Murray to think he had secured a thoroughly
+conscientious, as well as an ambitious, employee.
+
+When he finally reported for duty Murray gave him certain general
+instructions, principal among which was this: "Never make a statement
+that will require explanation or modification later. Any time you decide
+that the proposition you are making is not good enough to stand squarely
+on its merits, without exaggeration or deception, direct or inferential,
+come into the office and resign. Any time you find yourself saying
+anything that you yourself do not believe implicitly, it is time for you
+to quit. When you have to explain what you really meant by some certain
+statement, you are creating doubt and distrust, for the unadulterated
+truth, of course, does not have to be explained."
+
+For a time Murray watched Mays rather closely--not in the expectation of
+finding anything wrong, but rather with the idea of giving him helpful
+suggestions--but the young man seemed to be unusually capable and
+unusually successful for a beginner. He seemed to be working a
+comparatively new field--a field that turned up no large policies but
+that seemed to be prolific of small ones. This, however, was quite
+natural. Every new man works first among those he happens to know, and
+Mays was doing business with his old associates. In time, Murray ceased
+to give him any particular attention, except to note the regularity with
+which he turned in applications for small policies, and there probably
+would have been no deviation from the customary routine had it not been
+for an unexpected and apparently trivial incident.
+
+An application for a small policy had come in through one of the other
+solicitors. Mays happened to be in the office when the applicant called
+for his physical examination, but they exchanged no greetings.
+Apparently they were strangers. Yet Mays slipped out into the hall and
+intercepted the other as he came from the doctor's office. Murray,
+emerging suddenly from his own room, saw them talking together and
+caught this question and answer:
+
+"Is it all right?"
+
+"Of course. I'm a bully good risk, as you call it."
+
+Then, seeing Murray, they hastily separated and went their ways.
+
+Now, why should a friend of Mays apply for insurance through another
+solicitor? Well, he might have been ignorant, when he made his
+application, of the fact that Mays was in the insurance business. But
+why did they give no sign of recognition when they met in the main
+office? It was quite natural that Mays should be anxious to learn how
+his friend came out with the physician, but why should he sneak out into
+the hall to ask the question?
+
+Any evidence of secrecy and underhand work always annoyed Murray. He did
+not like this, although he could see nothing in it to cause him any
+anxiety. Nevertheless, he looked up the papers of the man who had just
+been examined and found that his name was John Tainter and that he lived
+near Mays. He was a good risk, however, and he got his policy. There was
+no earthly reason why it should be refused. But Murray watched Mays more
+carefully and gave painstaking attention to the risks he brought in.
+
+The applicants were generally small tradesmen--usually foreigners--but
+there was nothing in the least suspicious in any case. Indeed, it was
+difficult to see how there could be anything wrong, for the safeguards
+made it practically impossible for a mere solicitor to put up any
+successful scheme to beat the company, and certainly it would not be
+tried with any trifling policy. But it annoyed Murray to find that a man
+he had believed so frank and straightforward was tricky, and he could
+not, try as he would, find any reason for this trickiness.
+
+Then, one day, while he was waiting in a hotel office for his card to be
+taken up to the room of a man with whom he had some business, he heard a
+strangely familiar voice near him making a strangely familiar assertion.
+
+"You bet you, they don't fool me very much," said the voice.
+
+Murray turned to see who it was, but a big square column was in the way.
+Murray's chair was backed up to one side of this, and the speaker was on
+the other.
+
+"I can't just place that voice," mused Murray, "but I have heard it
+somewhere." There was silence for an instant.
+
+"It's going to be vorth something, ain't it, yes?" inquired the voice at
+last.
+
+"It looks like a big thing and no mistake," was the reply.
+
+"By George!" muttered Murray, "it's that Adolph Schlimmer who tried to
+get a rebate on his policy, and the fellow with him is Max Mays."
+
+Just then word came that Murray's man would see him, and he had to
+leave. He was careful, however, to keep the column between him and the
+two he had found in conversation. It was just as well not to let them
+know of his presence, for he preferred not to have their suspicions
+aroused.
+
+There was now little doubt in his mind that some scheme was being worked
+out. But what? What could these two men, neither of whom was versed in
+the theory and details of life insurance, do that would be in any way
+hurtful to the company or advantageous to them? Of course, it was only a
+surmise that their confidential business concerned him in any way, but
+association with Schlimmer would be sufficient to make Murray uneasy
+about any of his men, and the strange action of Mays in the Tainter
+matter added to his uneasiness.
+
+His first move was to investigate Mays thoroughly, and, to his
+astonishment, he discovered that, far from having a mother to support,
+Mays was living with a married brother and had no one to look after but
+himself. He had told the truth about his business record, but he had
+lied about his personal responsibilities. That lie had been an artistic
+one, however, for it had helped materially to get him a position with
+Murray.
+
+Further investigation showed that there was a light-headed, frivolous
+young girl, to whom he was devoted and with whom he attended
+Saturday-night dances in various public halls, but it had to be
+admitted, to his credit, that he never let these interfere with business
+and was always on hand with a clear head. At the same time, it threw an
+entirely new light on his character, and showed him to be not at all the
+sort of fellow his business record had indicated.
+
+Murray was tempted to discharge him at once, but he refrained for two
+reasons: first, his action would be dictated by his own disappointment
+in the man rather than by anything he knew that was definitely
+derogatory, aside from his falsehood about his mother; second, he wanted
+a chance to investigate further the association with Schlimmer, and the
+only way to do this was to pretend to be entirely unsuspicious and
+entirely satisfied. If there was any kind of scheme that could be put up
+by two such men, he was interested in finding it out, especially if they
+had already taken any action. Until the thing was clear, he wished to
+have Mays within reach.
+
+Mays was shadowed for a few days, but nothing was learned except that he
+unquestionably had business relations with the unscrupulous Schlimmer,
+and that they occasionally met in the office of a lawyer in that
+district.
+
+"A lawyer!" mused Murray. "Now, what the devil do they need of a lawyer?
+I can't see where he comes in."
+
+"Tainter was with them once," replied the "shadow."
+
+"I certainly never had anything puzzle me like this," remarked Murray.
+"The separate incidents are so trifling that it seems absurd to attach
+any importance to them, and yet, taking them all together, I am
+convinced there is something wrong. I'd like to hear what they have to
+say to each other."
+
+"That," said the shadow, "can be easily arranged, for they are to meet
+next Sunday afternoon, and I can get the janitor easily to let us into
+the adjoining office."
+
+"I'll be there," said Murray.
+
+Now, Murray, in spite of his good nature, was a dignified man, but he
+knew when to sacrifice his dignity. He was an "office man," but he
+rather enjoyed an excuse for getting outside and occupying himself in
+some unusual way. In fact, Murray had the making of a "strenuous" man in
+him, if fate had not decreed that he should devote his energies to the
+less exciting task of directing the destinies of a life insurance
+agency. So he rather enjoyed the mild excitement of getting into the
+adjoining office unobserved and lying prone on his stomach to get his
+ear close to the crack under the door. But the reward was not great. The
+lawyer--a big blustering fellow--was there, and so were Schlimmer, Tainter
+and Mays, but the meeting seemed to be one for jubilation rather than
+for planning.
+
+"I got the papers all ready," said the lawyer. "Sign 'em, Tainter, and
+then we're ready to go ahead the moment Mays gives the word. We want to
+land all we can."
+
+And that was the only business transacted. The rest of the time was
+given to gloating over some scheme that was not put in words.
+
+"You bet you, I make that Murray sit up and take notice, yes?" remarked
+Schlimmer. "I gif him his chance once and I get the vorst of it, but I
+even up now."
+
+"It's great," commented the lawyer. "You've got a great head on you,
+Schlimmer. Not one man in a thousand would have thought of it. We'll all
+even up, but they would have been mighty suspicious if I had let
+Tainter's application go in through Mays. That's where you get the
+advantage of having a lawyer in the deal."
+
+And more to the same effect, but no definite explanation of the scheme.
+
+Murray was at his office unusually early Monday morning, and the first
+thing he did was to have a clerk look up the Schlimmer case. Some
+company, he knew, had got into trouble over a Schlimmer policy, and he
+wanted to know all about it. He learned that Schlimmer had taken out a
+policy on his wife's life, had demanded and secured a rebate from the
+solicitor, and that another policy-holder had taken action that resulted
+in nullifying the policy and imposing a fine on the company.
+
+"I think I understand it now," mused Murray, "but it looks to me as if
+pretty prompt action might be necessary."
+
+All doubt, all hesitation had disappeared. Murray was wide awake and
+active. He called in his private messenger.
+
+"When Mr. Mays reports," he said, "he is to wait until I have had a talk
+with him before going out. I shall send for him when I am ready." Then,
+giving the boy a slip of paper with a name and an address on it, "I want
+to see that man here at once. Take a cab and bring him. Tell him the
+validity of his life insurance depends upon it."
+
+While the boy was gone, Murray slipped out himself, and, when he
+returned, a stranger accompanied him. The stranger was secreted in a
+room adjoining, and then Murray took up the routine of his regular work.
+The only interruption came when a clerk informed him that Mays was
+waiting.
+
+"Let him wait," said Murray. "I'm not quite ready for him yet. If he
+tries to leave, jump on his back and hold him."
+
+After a time the messenger returned with the man for whom he had been
+sent, and Murray immediately took him into his private office and shut
+the door.
+
+"Mr. Leckster," he said abruptly, "how much of a rebate did Mays give
+you on the policy you took out with us?"
+
+Leckster was plainly mystified and frightened.
+
+"Out with it!" commanded Murray. "Your policy isn't worth the paper it's
+written on unless the matter is straightened out mighty quick. How much
+was the rebate?"
+
+"I don't understand," said Leckster, already nearly terror-stricken.
+
+"How much of his commission did he give to you to get you to take out a
+policy?"
+
+"Oh, he give me a half."
+
+"Leckster," said Murray, "that was against the law. If any other
+policy-holder hears of it and wants to go into court, he can nullify
+your policy and get half of the fine that will be assessed against us
+for the act of our agent. If you want to make your policy unassailable,
+you must refund that rebate. Now, go home and think it over."
+
+Then he sent word to Mays that he was ready to see him.
+
+"Mays," he said abruptly, "what was your scheme?"
+
+"Sir!" exclaimed Mays.
+
+"What was your scheme?"
+
+"Surely you must be joking, sir," protested Mays. "I have no scheme."
+
+"Why did Tainter," replied Murray in deliberate tones, "a friend of
+yours, put in his application through another solicitor?"
+
+"He didn't know I was in the insurance business until he came up here to
+be examined."
+
+"Then why did you fail to recognize each other until you got out in the
+hall where you thought you were unobserved?"
+
+Mays did not even hesitate. Evidently he had prepared himself for this.
+
+"Another man had got his application," he said, "and I was afraid it
+would look as if I were trying to interfere in some way. I did nod to
+him, but very likely it wasn't noticed."
+
+"What are your relations with Schlimmer?" persisted Murray.
+
+"Oh, I got into a little business deal with him, for which I am
+sincerely sorry. I'm trying to get out now."
+
+"Insurance?" asked Murray.
+
+"No, sir; it had nothing whatever to do with insurance."
+
+Murray was thoughtful and silent for several minutes.
+
+"Mays," he said at last, speaking slowly, "I don't know whether you're
+worth saving or not. You've got in with a bad crowd and you're mixed up
+in a bad deal. But you impressed me favorably when you came here, and I
+think you are capable of being legitimately successful. Of course, you
+lied to me about your mother--"
+
+"I was very anxious for the job, sir."
+
+"I quite appreciate that, although your motive for wanting the job will
+hardly bear close scrutiny. Still, you are young and I am anxious to
+give you another chance. Now, tell me the whole story."
+
+"There is nothing to tell, sir," Mays replied with an ingenuous air.
+"Your words and insinuations are a deep mystery to me."
+
+"Think again," advised Murray. "I know the story pretty well myself."
+
+"I shall be glad to have you tell it, sir," said Mays. "Your earnestness
+leads me to think it must be interesting."
+
+"If I tell it," said Murray, "it removes your last chance of escaping
+any of the consequences."
+
+"Go ahead," said Mays.
+
+At least, he had magnificent nerve.
+
+"Schlimmer," said Murray, fixing his eyes sharply on Mays, "was once
+mixed up in a little trouble over rebates, which are unlawful. He tried
+to get me to give him a rebate on a policy, but I refused, and he seems
+to have got the idea that I was directly responsible for the failure of
+his scheme elsewhere. He learned, however, that the informer gets half
+of the fine assessed against the company in each case, but that only
+another policy-holder is empowered to make the necessary complaint. It
+occurred to Schlimmer that, if he could find enough rebate cases, there
+would be a good bit of money in it on the division of the fines. Being a
+man of low cunning, it occurred to Schlimmer that these cases might be
+manufactured, if he could get hold of a complaisant insurance solicitor,
+for the company is held responsible for the act of the agent, and the
+easiest way to get hold of a complaisant solicitor was to make one. So
+he went to a young man who was absorbed in the study of tricky finance
+and who couldn't see why he couldn't do that sort of thing himself, and
+the young man got a job in this office. The young man, Max Mays by name,
+immediately began preparing rebate cases for future use. He worked among
+a class of people who knew little of insurance or insurance laws and who
+are in the habit of figuring very closely, and this rebate proposition
+looked pretty good to them.
+
+"Next, Schlimmer and Mays got a lawyer into the scheme, because they
+would need him when it came to the later proceedings, and they further
+prepared for their _coup_ by having a confederate, named Tainter, take
+out a policy in the company, so that he would be in a position to make
+the necessary complaint. In order to avert suspicion, when the time for
+action came, Tainter applied for his policy through another solicitor. I
+think that is about all, Mays, except that you were ready to spring your
+surprise as soon as the policies had been issued on two or three
+applications now under consideration. I was in the next room to you when
+you held your meeting yesterday, Mays."
+
+Mays had grown very white during this recital, but he still kept his
+nerve, although he now showed it in a different way.
+
+"Yes," he said, "that is about all. There are some details lacking, but
+the story is practically correct. What do you intend to do with me?"
+
+Then Mays was suddenly conscious of the fact that a man, a stranger, was
+standing beside him. The man had emerged quietly from the room in which
+he had been concealed.
+
+"There are the warrants for the whole crowd, including this man," said
+Murray, handing the stranger a number of documents. "The charge is
+conspiracy, and, if they could have secured half the fine in each of the
+cases they prepared so carefully, they would have made a pretty good
+thing. Now, I've got the job of straightening this matter out so that
+both the policies and the company will be unassailable under the rebate
+law. But, at any rate, Schlimmer has got his second lesson, and it's a
+good one. Look out for him especially, officer. If you keep this man
+away from the telephone, you'll have no difficulty in getting Schlimmer
+and all the others."
+
+
+
+
+AN INCIDENTAL COURTSHIP
+
+
+Harry Renway was the kind of man that people refer to as "a simple
+soul." He might feel deeply, but he did not think that way. As a matter
+of fact, it was stretching things a little to call him a man, for he was
+hardly more than a boy--a youth in years, but a boy in everything else.
+Nevertheless, it is worth recording that he was a reasonably thrifty
+boy, although his earning capacity had not permitted him to put aside
+anything resembling a fortune.
+
+Love, however, visits the poor as well as the wealthy, the simple as
+well as the wise. Indeed, sometimes it seems as if Love rather avoids
+the wealthy and wise and chooses the companionship of less-favored
+mortals. So, perhaps, it is not at all extraordinary that Harry Renway
+was in love, and the object of his affections was one of the most
+tantalizing specimens of femininity that ever annoyed and delighted man.
+
+She said frankly that she was mercenary, but it is probable she
+exaggerated. She had been poor all her life, but she had no dreams of
+great wealth and no ambition for it: she merely wanted to be assured
+reasonable comfort--that is, what seemed to her reasonable comfort. A
+really mercenary girl would have deemed it poverty and hardship.
+Somehow, when one has been poor and has suffered some privations, one
+learns to give some thought to worldly affairs, and it is to the credit
+of Alice Jennings that she did not grade men more exactly by the money
+standard. Harry's modest salary would be sufficient to meet her
+requirements, but Harry had nothing but his salary. A larger salary
+might give something of luxury, in addition to comfort, but, assured the
+comfort and freedom from privation, she would be guided by the
+inclinations of her heart. So, perhaps, she was wise rather than
+mercenary. Love needs a little of the fostering care of money, although
+too much of this tends to idleness and scandal.
+
+"But if anything should happen to you," argued Alice, when Harry tried
+to tell her how hard he would work for her.
+
+"What's going to happen to me?" he demanded.
+
+"I don't know," she answered lightly. "You're a dear, good boy, Harry,
+and I like you, but I've had all the poverty I want."
+
+"Who's talking about poverty?" persisted Harry stoutly. "I've got more
+than two hundred dollars saved up, and I'll have a bigger salary pretty
+soon."
+
+"What's two hundred dollars!" she returned. "We'd use that to begin
+housekeeping. Then, if anything should happen to you--Why, Harry, I'd be
+worse off than I am now. I don't want much, but I've learned to look
+ahead--a little. I've neither the disposition nor the training to be a
+wage-earner, and I'll never go back home after I marry. Dad has a hard
+enough time of it, anyhow." There was raillery in her tone, but there
+was also something of earnestness in it. "Now, Tom Nelson has over two
+thousand dollars," she added.
+
+"Oh, if you're going to sell yourself!" exclaimed Harry bitterly.
+
+"I didn't say I'd marry him," she retorted teasingly, "but, if I did and
+anything happened to him--"
+
+"You'd probably find he'd lost it in some scheme," put in Harry.
+
+"He might," admitted Alice thoughtfully, "but he's pretty careful."
+
+"And too old for you," added Harry angrily. "Still, if it's only money--"
+
+"It isn't," she interrupted more seriously; "it's caution. I've had
+enough to make me just a little cautious. You don't know how hard it has
+been, Harry, or you'd understand. If you knew more of the
+disappointments and heartaches of some of the girls who are deemed
+mercenary, you wouldn't blame them for sacrificing sentiment to a
+certain degree of worldliness. 'I just want to be sure I'll never have
+to go through this again,' says the girl, and she tries to make sure. It
+isn't a question of the amount of money she can get by marriage, nor of
+silks or satins, but rather of peace and security after some years of
+privation and anxiety. She learns to think of the future, if only in a
+modest way--that is, some girls do. I'm one of them. What could I
+do--alone?"
+
+"Then you won't marry me?"
+
+"I didn't say that."
+
+"Then you will marry me?"
+
+"I didn't say that, either. There's no hurry."
+
+Thus she tantalized him always. It was unfair, of course--unless she
+intended to accept him eventually. In that case, it was merely unwise.
+It is accepted as a girl's privilege to be thus perverse and
+inconsistent in her treatment of the man she intends to marry, but
+sometimes she goes too far and loses him. However, Alice Jennings was
+herself uncertain. She had known Harry a long time, and she liked him.
+She had known Tom Nelson a shorter time, and she liked him also. It may
+be said, however, that she did not love either of them. Love is
+self-sacrificing and gives no thought to worldly affairs. Alice Jennings
+might have been capable of love, if she could have afforded the luxury,
+but circumstances had convinced her that she could not afford it, so she
+did not try. She would not sell herself solely for money, and her
+standard of comfort was not high, but she was trying hard to "like" the
+most promising man well enough to marry him. As far as possible, she was
+disposed to follow the advice of the man who said, "Marry for love, my
+son, marry for love and not for money, but, if you can love a girl with
+money, for heaven's sake do so."
+
+As a natural result of her desire to make sure of escaping for all time
+the thraldom of poverty that was so galling to her, she was irresolute
+and capricious. She dressed unusually well for a girl in her position,
+but this was because she had taste and had learned to make her own
+clothes, so the money available for her gowns could be put almost
+entirely into the material alone. She was a capable housekeeper, because
+necessity had compelled her to give a good deal of time to housework in
+her own home. She had no thought of escaping all these duties, irksome
+as they were, but she did not wish to be bound down to them. A
+comfortable flat, with a maid-of-all-work to do the cooking and
+cleaning, and a sewing girl for a week once or twice a year, was her
+idea of luxury. This, even though there was still much for her to do,
+would give her freedom, and this, with reasonably careful management,
+either of the men could give her. But she looked beyond, and hesitated;
+she had schooled herself to go rather deeply into the future.
+
+Tom Nelson found her quite as unreasonable and bewildering as did Harry.
+Tom was older and more resourceful than Harry, but he was not so steady
+and persistent. Harry was content to let his money accumulate in a
+savings' bank, but Tom deemed this too slow and was willing to take
+risks in the hope of larger profits. He made more, but he also spent
+more, and, all else aside, it was a question as to whether Harry would
+not be able to provide the better home. Then, too, Tom occasionally lost
+money, while nothing but a bank failure could endanger Harry's modest
+capital. So Tom had his own troubles with the girl. He knew her dread of
+poverty--amounting almost to a mania--and he made frequent incidental
+reference to his capital.
+
+"But that isn't much," she said lightly. Her self-confessed
+mercenariness was always brought out in a whimsical, half-jocular way
+that seemed to have nothing of worldly hardness in it. "And there's no
+telling whether you'll have it six months from now," she added. "As long
+as I had you to take care of me, it would be all right, but--"
+
+She always came back to the same point. Yet one of these two she
+intended to marry, her personal preference being for Harry, and her
+judgment commending Tom. The former would plod; the latter might be
+worth twenty thousand in a few years, or he might be in debt. Harry
+never would have much; Tom might have a great deal--enough to make the
+future secure, no matter what happened.
+
+"Will you invest the money for me?" she asked.
+
+"Why, no,--I must use it to make more."
+
+Thus she flirtatiously, laughingly, but with an undertone of
+seriousness, kept them both uncertain, while she impressed upon them her
+one great fear of being left helpless. Yet even in this her ambition was
+modest: no income for life, but only something for her temporary needs
+until she could adjust herself to new conditions, if that became
+necessary. Anything more than that was too remote for serious thought.
+
+Harry finally told his troubles to a friend, when these exasperating
+conditions had continued for some time. He wanted consolation; he got
+advice.
+
+"A little too worldly to suit me," commented the friend. "Still, it
+might be better if some of the girls who marry hastily had just a little
+of such worldliness. There would be fewer helpless and wretched women
+and children."
+
+"That's just it," returned Harry. "She knows what it means, and that two
+thousand of Tom Nelson's looks awful big to her. If I had as much I'd
+invest it for her outright, and that would settle it."
+
+"Doesn't want it to spend, as I understand it?" queried the friend.
+
+"Oh, no--just to know that she has something in case anything happens."
+
+"Why don't you try life insurance?" asked the friend.
+
+It took Harry a moment or two to grasp this. Then his face lighted up.
+
+"By thunder! I never thought of that!" he cried.
+
+"That's the trouble with lots of men," remarked the friend dryly.
+"Marriage is considered a dual arrangement when it should be a
+triple--man, woman and life insurance. That's the only really safe
+combination. The thoughtful lover will see that the life insurance agent
+and the minister are interviewed about the same time."
+
+"Where did you learn all that?" asked the astonished Harry.
+
+"Oh, it's not original with me," was the reply. "I heard Dave Murray
+talk about insurance once. He's an enthusiast. He claims that the best
+possible wedding gift is a paid-up life insurance policy, and I guess
+he's right. It would be a mighty appropriate gift from the groom's
+father to the bride--a blame sight better than a check or a diamond
+necklace. A paid-up policy for five thousand would look just as big as a
+five-thousand-dollar check, and it wouldn't cost nearly as much--unless
+the old man plans to sneak back the check before it can be cashed. And
+what a lot of good it might do at a time when the need may be the
+greatest! If the bride is the one to be considered in selecting a
+wedding gift, as I understand to be the case, what better than this?"
+
+"I guess Dave Murray is the man for me," said Harry in admiration of the
+originality of this idea.
+
+"Of course he is," asserted the friend. "And if you want to make the
+argument stronger for your wavering girl, get an accident insurance
+policy, with a sick benefit clause, also, and then take out a little old
+age insurance. There ought to be no trouble about giving her all the
+assurance necessary to allay her fears."
+
+Harry was a good risk, and he had no difficulty in getting a policy. He
+saw Murray personally, but, as he did not explain his purpose or
+situation, their conference was brief: Murray merely asked if he thought
+a thousand-dollar policy was all he could afford.
+
+"Because," said Murray, "when you go after a good thing it's wise to
+take all you can of it. There ought to be enough so that something can
+be found after your estate is settled."
+
+"I'd make it five hundred if I could," said Harry.
+
+"Most of the good companies," said Murray, "wisely protect a man from
+his own economical folly by refusing to issue a policy for less than a
+thousand."
+
+"It's an experiment. A fellow doesn't want to put too much money into an
+experiment."
+
+Murray, the resourceful Murray, was bewildered. Life insurance an
+experiment! Surely he could not mean that.
+
+"Well," he said, "your widow will be pretty sure to think the experiment
+a success."
+
+"I haven't got a widow," asserted Harry.
+
+"Of course not; but you may have."
+
+"How can I have a widow when I am dead?" asked Harry. "How can I have
+anything when I am dead?"
+
+"You can't tell by the looks of an electric wire how highly it is
+charged," mused Murray. "I guess I touched this one too recklessly."
+Then to Harry: "But there may be _a_ widow."
+
+"There may," returned Harry.
+
+"Well, she'll be sorry you didn't experiment on a larger scale, because
+it really isn't an experiment at all. There's only one thing surer than
+insurance."
+
+"What's that?" asked Harry with interest.
+
+"Death; and, with the popular gold bonds or any limited payment policy,
+you have a chance to beat death by some years. But suit yourself."
+
+So Harry took the physical examination and got the policy, payable to
+his estate. Then he promptly assigned it to Alice.
+
+"There's one thousand dollars sure, if anything should happen to me," he
+said. "That beats any old elusive two thousand that Tom Nelson may
+have."
+
+"You're a dear, good, faithful boy, Harry," she said impulsively, and
+she gave him a kiss.
+
+That was happiness enough for that day and the next, but on the third he
+began to get down to earth again and deemed the time propitious.
+
+"You'll marry me?" he suggested.
+
+"Perhaps," was her reply.
+
+"Perhaps!" he cried. "It's always perhaps."
+
+"Perhaps it won't be always perhaps," she returned.
+
+In truth, she had wavered so long that she found it difficult to make up
+her mind. Besides, Tom was prospering, Tom was devoted, and Tom was a
+nice fellow. True, he was twenty-six while she was only eighteen, and
+Harry, at twenty, was nearer her own age, but--well, aside from any
+question of the future, it was rather nice to have two men so devotedly
+attentive. Then, too, Tom spent his money more freely, and she derived
+the benefit in present pleasures. There was no hurry; the future was now
+brighter, whichever she chose, and, things being so nearly equal, there
+was even less reason for haste. Alice, in addition to her dread of
+poverty, was a natural flirt: she enjoyed the power she exerted over
+these two men. But she said nothing to Tom of Harry's latest move;
+perhaps she thought it would be unfair, or perhaps she was a trifle
+truer to Harry than to Tom.
+
+Harry, in his "simple" way, misinterpreted this irresolution. He was too
+devoted to criticize; he had begun to understand her dread and to think
+that she was quite right in taking such a very worldly view of the
+situation. Why should she not, so far as possible, endeavor to make her
+future secure? It was for him to convince her of his thoughtfulness and
+his ability to provide for her. Thereupon he got an accident insurance
+policy.
+
+"You're awfully thoughtful, Harry," she said. "I like you."
+
+"I don't want you to worry," said Harry, flattered and pleased.
+
+"I'm not worrying," she told him.
+
+"But I am," he retorted ruefully.
+
+"Men," she asserted, "are _so_ impatient."
+
+Harry could not quite agree to this--he thought he had been wonderfully
+patient. In his straightforward way he began to ponder the matter
+deeply. It had seemed to him he was doing a wonderfully clever thing
+that ought to settle the matter definitely. Had he made a mistake? If
+so, what was necessary to rectify it? Incidentally, he heard that some
+of Tom Nelson's little speculations had turned out favorably, and Tom
+was still quite as devoted as ever and seemed to be received with as
+much favor. Then to Harry came an idea--a really brilliant idea, he
+thought.
+
+"Perhaps," he told himself, "I ought not to have assigned that policy to
+her; perhaps I ought to have kept it in my control so that a wedding
+would be necessary to give her the benefit of it. As it is now, she has
+the policy, no matter whom she marries. I don't think she would--"
+
+Without finishing the sentence, Harry knitted his brow and shook his
+head. It was not a pleasant thought--he told himself it was an unjust
+thought--but, as he had gone in to win, he might as well take every
+precaution. If the conditions were a little different, it might put an
+end to her flirtatious mood and compel a more serious consideration of
+his suit; it might have a tendency to emphasize his point and "wake her
+up," as he expressed it. Possibly, it was just the argument needed.
+
+With this in mind, he again called upon Murray.
+
+"I'm in a little trouble," he explained. "I ought to have had that
+policy made out to my wife."
+
+"It makes no difference, unless the estate is involved in some way,"
+explained Murray. "She'll get it through--"
+
+"It makes a big difference," interrupted Harry. "You see, I've got to
+get the wife."
+
+"What!" ejaculated Murray. "Say that again, please."
+
+"Why, if I had an insurance policy in favor of my wife, it would make it
+easier to get the wife, wouldn't it?"
+
+"Thunder!" exclaimed Murray. "I thought I was pretty well up on
+insurance financiering, but this beats me. Are you hanging an insurance
+policy up as a sort of prize package?"
+
+"That's it, that's it!" cried Harry, pleased to find the situation so
+quickly comprehended. "The other fellow is worth more, but insurance
+looks bigger than anything else I can buy for the money, and I want to
+show her how much safer she will be with me than with him."
+
+"You're all right," laughed Murray, "but I'm afraid you'll have to marry
+first. We can't very well make a policy payable to a person who doesn't
+exist, and you have no wife now. When you have one, bring the policy
+back if you're not satisfied to have it payable to the estate, and--"
+
+"But she's got it."
+
+"Who?"
+
+"The girl. I assigned it to her, so she doesn't have to marry me to get
+the benefit. That wasn't good business."
+
+Murray leaned back in his chair and looked at the youth with amusement
+and curiosity.
+
+"No," he said at last, "that may have been good sentiment, but it wasn't
+good business. And," he added jokingly, "I don't know that this
+transaction is quite legal."
+
+"Why not?" asked Harry anxiously.
+
+"Well, we're not allowed to give prizes, and, if a girl goes with the
+policy, it looks a good deal like a prize-package affair. I'm not sure
+that that wouldn't be considered worse than giving rebates on premiums."
+
+"You've got the wrong idea," argued Harry with solemn earnestness. "The
+girl doesn't go with the policy, but the policy goes with me. At least,
+that's what I intended."
+
+"Better try it again with another policy," suggested Murray. "Make it
+payable to your estate, and then hang on to it until you get the girl.
+Let me give you a word of advice, too, although it's not exactly to my
+interest."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well, the policy that you gave to her doesn't amount to much if you
+stop paying premiums on it. You might suggest that to her."
+
+"By George! I never thought of that!" exclaimed the youth. "I guess I
+haven't much of a financial head."
+
+"Oh, you're all right," returned Murray. "You're the first fellow I ever
+knew who made a matrimonial bureau of an insurance office. I've got
+something to learn about this business yet."
+
+With his second policy in his pocket, Harry reverted quite casually to
+the subject of insurance, although he had first taken the precaution to
+have a lot of insurance literature sent to Alice. From this she learned
+that nothing could quite equal it in making the future secure.
+
+"I have decided," said Harry in an offhand way, "that the best
+investment for a young man who has any one dependent upon him is life
+insurance. I have just taken out another policy for a thousand dollars."
+
+"How thoughtful of you!" exclaimed Alice.
+
+"It's on the twenty-year endowment plan," explained Harry. "At the end
+of twenty years the whole sum may be drawn down or it may be left to
+accumulate. As provision for the future, I guess that makes any two or
+three thousand in the bank look like thirty cents."
+
+"You're awfully good to me," said Alice, for this apparent evidence of
+unselfish devotion, in addition to what had preceded it, really made her
+reproach herself for her capriciousness. But it was such jolly fun to
+keep two men anxious!
+
+"The insurance," Harry went on, "is payable to my estate."
+
+"What does that mean, Harry?" she asked.
+
+"It means," replied Harry, "that a girl has got to marry me to get a
+chance at it."
+
+"I always did like you, Harry."
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"But you're so impatient."
+
+Harry was beginning to develop a little strategical ingenuity.
+
+"There is no need," he said, "to make a secret of this. I'm not ashamed
+to have all the girls know that I am making proper provision for the one
+who becomes my wife."
+
+"Harry Renway," exclaimed Alice, "if you make our private affairs a
+subject of public gossip I'll never speak to you again as long as I
+live."
+
+Thereupon Harry demonstrated that he was not as "simple" as he was
+supposed to be, for he promptly returned the kiss that she had given him
+on a previous occasion. There could be no misinterpreting "our" private
+affairs.
+
+"When?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, pretty soon," she replied, for the flirtatious instinct was still
+in evidence. Besides, under the circumstances, too much haste might be
+in poor taste. However, their friends were told of the engagement, and
+that was something. Tom Nelson was angry and disgusted.
+
+"The fool!" he exclaimed. "A live man wants to have the use of his
+money, and he has tied himself up with insurance. That isn't my way."
+
+"But he got the girl," some one suggested.
+
+"Not yet," retorted Tom, "and you never can tell."
+
+In truth, it seemed as if Tom's insinuation was almost prophetic, for
+Alice procrastinated and postponed in a most tormenting way, and Harry
+took it all in good part for two or three months. There was no
+particular reason for this delay, as the preliminaries of such a wedding
+as they would have could be arranged very quickly, and in time it tried
+the patience even of Harry.
+
+"The semi-annual premium on that first policy is due the day after
+to-morrow," he remarked one evening.
+
+"Well?" she returned inquiringly.
+
+"If the premium isn't paid the policy lapses," he went on.
+
+"But you'll pay it?"
+
+"For my wife I will."
+
+She gave him a quick look and knew that he was not going to be swayed
+this time by her little cajoleries.
+
+"But, Harry," she protested, "that's so--so soon."
+
+"I have the license in my pocket," he said; "there's a church within two
+blocks, and I saw a light in the pastor's study as I came by. I guess
+we've waited long enough. Let's go out for a little stroll."
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was six months later that Harry again met Dave Murray, but Murray
+remembered him.
+
+"Did you get the prize with your policy?" asked Murray.
+
+"Sure," replied Harry.
+
+"Was it a good prize?"
+
+"Bully!" said Harry. "A little hard to handle just at first, but you can
+do almost anything with insurance."
+
+"You certainly have made good use of it," laughed Murray.
+
+"You bet I have," answered Harry with some pride. "Why, say! an
+insurance policy is the greatest thing in the world for family
+discipline."
+
+"For what!" exclaimed Murray.
+
+"Family discipline. The first time we had a little rumpus she had me
+going seven ways for Sunday until I thought of the insurance policies.
+'Well,' said I, 'if I'm not the head of the house there's no reason why
+I should be paying insurance premiums, and I'll default on the next one.
+The head of the house looks after things of that sort,' I told her, and
+that settled it. I'm the head of the house, and, if I don't play it too
+strong, I've got the thing to maintain discipline."
+
+"Don't you want another policy?" laughed Murray.
+
+"Well," returned Harry thoughtfully, "if I could get the same kind of
+prize with another, and if it wasn't against the law, I rather think I
+might be tempted to do it. Anyhow, there can't anybody tell me there's
+nothing in insurance, for I know better."
+
+
+
+
+AN INCIDENTAL SACRIFICE
+
+
+"I guess it's all up with us," said Sidney Kalin despairingly.
+
+"It looks that way," admitted his brother, Albert Kalin.
+
+The father, Jonas Kalin, sat at his desk with his head half-buried in
+his hands.
+
+"There is no chance for an extension, of course," he said wearily.
+
+"I should say not," returned Sidney. "Telmer bought up the mortgage for
+just one purpose, and his only hope of success lies in foreclosing. He
+wants to get his hands on the invention."
+
+"Will he take an interest in the business?" asked Jonas.
+
+"Why should he, when he can get the only thing he wants without?"
+returned Sidney.
+
+"What does Dempsey say?" persisted the senior Kalin.
+
+"It's out of his line," answered Albert, to whom the question was
+addressed. "If five thousand would straighten the thing out, he might
+risk it, but he wouldn't put up a cent more than that, and he'd want a
+twenty-five per cent. interest in the business for that sum."
+
+"And, if we can save it, the thing is worth a fortune," groaned Jonas.
+"We've got a start already, and there's almost no limit to the
+possibilities. It ought to be worth fifty thousand a year inside of
+three years. He doesn't want much."
+
+"Well, he's out of the question, anyway," said Sidney. "We've got to
+have twenty-five thousand, and we've got to have it mighty soon."
+
+"My life insurance is more than that," mused Jonas.
+
+"What good does that do?" retorted Sidney rather sharply. "Even if you
+wanted to surrender it, the cash surrender value is less than ten
+thousand at the present time."
+
+"That would help," argued Jonas.
+
+"Nothing will help that doesn't put the full sum needed within our
+reach," asserted Albert. "We're about due to begin life over again with
+a little less than nothing."
+
+"I'll think it over," said Jonas, rising and wearily reaching for his
+hat. "I've always weathered the storms before. Perhaps I'll find a way
+to weather this one."
+
+Jonas Kalin once had been accounted a successful real estate man, but he
+had lost a good deal of money in speculation, and the time and thought
+he gave to speculation had had an injurious effect upon his business.
+One of the sons had been for a time in the employ of a manufacturer of
+fountain pens. Later the elder Kalin had started both boys, as an
+independent firm, in that line of business, their pen differing
+sufficiently from others to avoid any infringement of patents on
+patented features. They had made no great amount of money, indeed barely
+a living income, but they had kept out of debt until Sidney invented a
+machine for finishing the shell or case of the pen.
+
+His experiments had been rather costly, and the machine had been costly
+to construct, but he had convinced his father that it was a good thing,
+and Jonas had given up his dwindling real estate business and put what
+money he had left into his sons' firm, becoming a partner in the
+enterprise. Even then it had been found necessary to borrow twenty-five
+thousand dollars in order to establish the business on the new and
+larger basis, giving a mortgage on the entire plant, which included the
+new machine, and this mortgage had passed into the hands of a more
+prosperous business rival at a time when the value of the invention was
+just becoming apparent. This invention largely reduced the cost of
+production, but the exploiting so far done, although expensive and
+reasonably successful, had not enabled the Kalins to accumulate anything
+to meet their obligation. Indeed, believing they would have no
+difficulty in securing an extension, they had not worried about this
+until they found themselves in the power of a rival.
+
+The machine had not been patented, for reasons that most successful
+inventors will readily understand. While a patent is supposed to protect
+the inventor, it does not do so in many instances; on the contrary, it
+frequently gives a rival just the information he needs to duplicate the
+device with technical variations that will at least make the question of
+infringement a difficult one to decide. The inventor of limited means,
+opposed by a company with almost unlimited capital, is at a serious
+disadvantage when he gets into the courts, and there are cases where the
+value of an invention has been largely destroyed by having the market
+flooded with the article before the legal rights can be definitely
+determined. There is hardly a single patented device of great value that
+has not been the basis of long and costly litigation, involving either
+the unauthorized use or manufacture of the device as it is or the use or
+manufacture of a device suggested by the original and differing from it
+only enough to give technical plausibility to the plea that it is not an
+infringement. Even the great Edison is reported to have said that he has
+made practically no money on his patents, but has had to enter the
+manufacturing business to get any material benefit from his inventions.
+
+"When you patent an invention," the Kalins had been informed by a man of
+experience in such matters, "you are furnishing ammunition to the enemy.
+You are giving him your secret, and he will put some smart men at work
+to discover some method of using it himself. Edison is still busy with
+inventions, but you don't see his name in the patent reports any more.
+He has become too wise for that. Secrecy is the best protection,
+provided you have something that can be kept secret."
+
+All this Jonas Kalin reviewed as he walked slowly and with bowed head
+toward his club. They had kept their invention secret, they had
+advertised extensively, and now, just as they were beginning to get
+returns on their investment, the dream was shattered. They had tried to
+interest various capitalists, but capitalists could not see the future
+as they saw it. Capital is exceptionally conservative when there is a
+question of investing in inventions that it does not understand, for
+inventors are proverbially optimistic and not infrequently cost capital
+a good deal of money.
+
+"Thirty thousand dollars of life insurance!" muttered Jonas, as he
+settled himself in a corner of the reading-room. "If we could have the
+use of that money for a year we would be all right."
+
+Jonas was a widower, but his wife had been living when he had taken out
+this insurance. Now it would go to the sons eventually, if they survived
+him, but, meanwhile, they would lose a fortune. Since the death of his
+wife, Jonas had given his every thought to the boys and their future. He
+reproached himself for the speculations that had deprived him of the
+power of helping them as he had planned in earlier days; he felt that
+somehow he had defrauded them. So deeply did he feel this that from the
+day he gave up his real estate business he never had put one dollar into
+a speculation of any kind, except so far as his investment in their
+business was a speculation.
+
+"If we could make that go," he mused, as he crouched miserably in the
+big chair, "I should be content. I owe it to the boys to see them fairly
+started. I was in a position to do it once and I lost the money
+foolishly--their money, by rights, for I had put it aside for them. And
+here am I, almost useless--a business wreck--too old to begin again as an
+employee and lacking the capital to be an employer or to do business of
+any sort for myself. Instead of helping my boys, I am to be a burden to
+them--until I die. I am of value only in the grave." He shuddered and
+seemed to sink still lower in the chair. "It is my duty to do what I can
+for them," he added. "I am useless, but life is before them--a
+continuation of my life. I must be a success through my sons."
+
+Benson, a friend, stopped near him.
+
+"What's the matter, Kalin?" asked Benson. "You look blue."
+
+Kalin looked up at Benson in a dazed way, and for a moment seemed to be
+unable to grasp the fact that he had been addressed.
+
+"Benson," he said at last, his eyes wandering dreamily about the room,
+"is a man ever justified in committing suicide?"
+
+Benson was startled, but he replied promptly and emphatically, "Never."
+
+"Suppose," Kalin went on, "that your life intervened between those you
+love and happiness; suppose that your life meant misery and failure for
+them, while your death meant success and--and comfort."
+
+Benson drew up a chair and placed his hand on Kalin's arm as if to
+emphasize his words.
+
+"_The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away_," he quoted earnestly.
+"Life is God's gift and should be treasured as such. You may not return
+it until He calls, unless you would doubt His wisdom."
+
+Kalin nodded his head thoughtfully.
+
+"Men have gone to certain death for those they love and been glorified
+for so doing," he argued.
+
+"A man may _give_ his own life to save the life of another and be a
+hero," returned Benson, "but he may not _take_ his own life for any
+cause and be aught but a coward."
+
+"What matters it whether he takes it or gives it, so long as the purpose
+is the same?" asked Kalin.
+
+Benson gripped the arm on which his hand lay and shook Kalin.
+
+"Wake up!" he commanded sharply. "What's the matter with you to-day?"
+
+Kalin roused himself, as if from a dream, and laughed in a forced,
+dreary way.
+
+"Nothing is the matter with me," he replied. "I must have been reading
+something that gave my thoughts a morbid turn. Still, your reasoning
+seems to be that of a man who never has been tested. Your view has been
+my view, but I can see how a man's views may change when he is
+confronted by the actual conditions concerning which he has previously
+only theorized. I don't think you're right."
+
+"It's a disagreeable subject, even for abstract consideration," asserted
+Benson. "Let's drop it."
+
+"All right," said Kalin. "I'm going in to lunch."
+
+In the dining-room he got into an obscure corner and the waiter had to
+joggle his elbow to rouse him from the reverie into which he immediately
+fell. Then, after barely tasting the lunch he ordered, he went to the
+office of the club and asked that all charges against him be footed up.
+
+"There's nothing against me at all now?" he said inquiringly as he paid
+the bill.
+
+"Nothing at all, sir," replied the clerk.
+
+"I'd hate to leave any club debts," he remarked, as if talking aloud to
+himself.
+
+At his office he found his sons still gloomily discussing the situation.
+
+"I think," he said, "that I have found a way to save the business."
+
+"How?" they asked eagerly.
+
+"The details are not quite clear in my mind yet," he replied. "I would
+like to give them a little more thought before explaining the matter.
+But, if I succeed in pulling you through, you boys must be mighty
+careful in the future. A concern doesn't get out of this kind of hole
+twice, and I'm going to turn it all over to you."
+
+"Why?" asked Albert in surprise.
+
+"I ruined one business," was the reply. "One is enough. Be cautious. Go
+slow. You've got a good thing--a fortune--if you handle your finances
+properly and don't try to spread out too fast."
+
+He shook hands with both the boys, to their great bewilderment.
+
+"Where are you going?" asked Sidney. "One would think you were starting
+on a long journey."
+
+"I'm taking leave of the business," he answered, with a laugh that had
+something of pathos in it. "I'm going to shut myself up for a day or so
+until I get my little scheme elaborated, and then you shall have the
+benefit of it, but I am out of active business."
+
+Sidney and Albert were silent for some time after he had left. Jonas
+Kalin always had been a rather eccentric man, and they were accustomed
+to letting his whims and peculiarities of word and action pass without
+comment, but there was something in this parting that made them feel
+uncomfortable.
+
+"I don't like it," remarked Sidney. "I wonder if the worry and
+disappointment have been too much for him."
+
+"It is a hard blow to him--not for himself, but for us," returned Albert.
+"However, we'll see him this evening."
+
+Mrs. Albert Kalin was the housekeeper for the three men. Sidney, being a
+bachelor, had always lived with his father, but Albert had married and
+moved away from the parental roof. Then, when his mother died, Jonas had
+called him back and practically turned the house over to him and his
+wife, reserving only one large room for himself. In this he had his own
+little library, and to this he frequently retired for long evenings of
+solitude, for, while not a recluse, he was a man who really needed no
+other companionship than his own thoughts and often seemed to avoid the
+society of others.
+
+He was not at home, however, when his sons arrived for dinner. Mrs.
+Albert Kalin said he had brought home two or three bundles early in the
+afternoon, had gone directly to his room, where he remained for about an
+hour, and had then appeared with a valise.
+
+"I never saw him look so haggard and distressed," she explained. "He
+kissed me most affectionately and said he had some business to attend to
+and would not be home to-night."
+
+Late that evening Sidney Kalin went to his father's club, where he saw
+Benson and learned enough to send him to police headquarters. There was
+no publicity, but a search for the missing man was begun at once. The
+circumstances were, to say the least, disquieting.
+
+At the moment this search was begun Jonas Kalin was crossing Lake
+Michigan on one of the large steamers, and his actions were such as to
+attract the attention of some of the other passengers. It was a Friday
+night boat and was crowded with excursionists bound for a Saturday and
+Sunday outing in Michigan. Jonas had a state-room, but he merely put his
+valise in it, and then paced the deck, occasionally stopping to lean
+over the rail and look down at the water. Once or twice he sought a
+secluded corner and sat for a time buried in thought, but he moved away
+the moment others stopped near him. About eleven o'clock, as he passed
+through the main cabin, he saw a woman putting a little boy to bed on a
+sofa, and he offered her his state-room.
+
+"I'm very grateful to you, sir," she replied, "but we couldn't think of
+taking it. You'll need it yourself."
+
+"I shall not sleep to-night," he said. "It will be vacant unless you
+take it. Shove the valise into a corner somewhere and I'll get it in the
+morning."
+
+He dropped the state-room key on a chair and disappeared through a door
+leading to the deck before she could make further protest, but his face
+haunted her all that night. In the morning, after some search, she found
+him huddled up on a camp-stool against the rail of the forward deck, and
+she thanked him again.
+
+"You don't look well," she ventured. "Can I do anything for you?"
+
+"It's not a question of what any one can do for me," he answered, "but
+of what I can do for others."
+
+"I don't understand you, sir," she said.
+
+"It's a good thing you don't," he returned, and, fearing that she had to
+deal with a crazy man, she left him.
+
+After landing, he went directly to a hotel, engaged a room, and shut
+himself up in it until afternoon. Then he went to the dock and wandered
+nervously back and forth, looking out over the water and occasionally
+down into it. The dock men watched him curiously, and one of them
+loosened a life-preserver that hung near, but he went back to the hotel
+without giving them an opportunity to use it.
+
+He kept close to his room at the hotel, and was so unobtrusive that the
+clerks and the other guests hardly realized he was there, and, being
+registered under an assumed name, not one of them recognized him as the
+Jonas Kalin who was described in the Sunday papers as being missing.
+For, the secret search Friday night and Saturday failing to reveal any
+trace of him, his sons had decided to try the effect of publicity.
+
+It was not until he had surrendered his room Sunday night that his
+identity was established. On the table was found a letter, sealed,
+addressed to Sidney Kalin.
+
+"Kalin!" cried the clerk, when the letter was brought to him. "Good
+Lord! that's the man who disappeared. And there's a reward for
+information. I remember, too, he had all the Sunday papers sent to his
+room, and then kept out of the way until the moment he left."
+
+The clerk looked at the letter, uncertain as to what he ought to do.
+Finally, he decided to get the Chicago police department on the
+long-distance telephone.
+
+"Jonas Kalin has been here for two days under an assumed name," he
+reported, "but his identity was discovered only after he had taken the
+night boat back to Chicago. He left a letter. It is sealed and addressed
+to Sidney Kalin."
+
+"We'll notify Kalin and meet the boat," was the prompt reply. "Hold the
+letter until you hear from Kalin."
+
+A little later Kalin called up the hotel and instructed that the letter
+be mailed to him at once. As Jonas was already on his way back, nothing
+would be gained by having its contents transmitted by telephone. He was
+beyond reach until the boat arrived.
+
+It was an anxious little crowd that waited at the wharf for the arrival
+of the boat. There were Albert and Sidney Kalin, two detectives and some
+newspaper men. The news of Jonas Kalin's sojourn across the lake was
+already in the morning papers, having come by telegraph, and there was
+natural curiosity to learn the reason for this strange procedure. In
+addition, there was an undefined and unexpressed feeling that there
+might be a tragedy back of it. In any event, there was a mystery.
+
+The boat reached its dock before five o'clock, but the state-room
+passengers had the privilege of sleeping until seven, so only the
+excursionists who had been obliged to sit up all night left the boat at
+once. There were many of these, however--a weary and disheveled lot of
+individuals, groups and couples straggling along to the dock. They were
+talking of something that had happened during the night, or was supposed
+to have happened. Something or some one certainly had gone over the
+rail, for the splash was distinctly heard, and an excitable passenger
+had raised the cry of "Man overboard!" The boat had been stopped, but
+investigation had failed to discover an actual witness to any such
+accident, although two people were sure they had seen something in the
+water just after the splash. The captain, however, insisted that it was
+all the result of some nervous person's imagination.
+
+To Albert and Sidney Kalin these rumors brought sinking hearts and a
+great dread. It took them a little time to locate the state-room that
+had been occupied by their father, but a description of him, coupled
+with the name he had used at the hotel, enabled them to do it.
+
+His valise alone was found.
+
+Several people remembered the haggard man who had tramped the deck so
+restlessly. He seemed to be in great mental distress, anxious only to
+keep away from all companionship, and no one could recall having seen
+him after the cry of "Man overboard!" Even the captain had finally to
+admit that it was probable he had lost a passenger, although, of course,
+no blame whatever attached to him or to any of the boat's crew.
+
+Then came the letter that had been forwarded from the hotel. It was
+pathetically brief and to the point, as follows:
+
+  "My Dear Sons: The insurance money will pull you through. It is all
+  that I can give you. Your success is dearer to me than anything else
+  in the world. Your affectionate father,
+
+                                                          Jonas Kalin.
+
+Of course, Dave Murray read the story in the papers--all but the letter.
+That was brought to him later by Albert Kalin.
+
+"We wish to give you all the facts, without reservation," Albert
+explained. "Father did this for us to save the firm, to save an almost
+priceless invention." The young man choked a little. "We have hoped
+against hope that his letter might prove to be capable of some other
+interpretation, or that he may have changed his mind after writing it,
+and we have left no stone unturned--"
+
+"Neither have we," said Murray quietly. "Perhaps we know more than you."
+
+"Have you got trace of him?" asked Albert quickly, and his face showed a
+dawn of hope that could not be misunderstood: he actually believed his
+father dead and would welcome any evidence to the contrary. It was not
+the expression of a man who was principally interested in the payment of
+the insurance money, although he was naturally presenting his and his
+brother's claim.
+
+"I am sorry to say we have not," replied Murray, "but neither have we
+any proof of death."
+
+Albert plainly showed his disappointment at Murray's first statement,
+and it was a moment or two before he replied to the second.
+
+"I do not know your rules or aims," he said, "but it is possible--indeed
+almost probable, under the circumstances--that there never will be any
+absolute proof of death. It--it happened in mid-lake, you know."
+
+"Our aim," returned Murray, "is to pay every claim that we are convinced
+is just, without resorting to any quibbling or technical evasions, but
+we have to be careful. In saying this, I am merely stating a general
+proposition, without particular reference to this affair. Indeed, I
+concede that the presumption of death is unusually strong in this case.
+I shall be glad to have any facts bearing on it that you can give me."
+
+Albert fully reviewed the circumstances as he knew them, to all of which
+Murray listened attentively.
+
+"I shall make a complete report to the home office," said Murray at the
+conclusion of the recital. "Of course, after the lapse of a certain
+period there is a legal presumption of death, anyhow, but it is possible
+that the circumstantial evidence may be deemed strong enough to warrant
+an earlier settlement. Knowing the ostensible motive, I appreciate the
+value of time to you, and I assure you the company has no desire to
+delay matters longer than is necessary to assure itself of the justice
+of the claim."
+
+After Albert had departed, Murray went over the case carefully, and the
+evidence seemed quite convincing. In the first place, there could be no
+question as to a very strong motive. There was the certainty of ruin,
+which the death of Jonas alone could avert, and, after a lapse of two
+years from the date of the policy, suicide did not invalidate it.
+Therefore, by his own sacrifice, he could purchase a bright future for
+his sons. Then there could be no doubt that he had been depressed and
+worried for some time, and latterly unquestionably had brooded on the
+subject of self-destruction. In a talk with one man he had spoken of it
+as "self-elimination," but he had spoken more bluntly to Benson at the
+club. There could be no doubt now that he contemplated such action at
+that time, and that he had reference to it when he told his sons he had
+discovered a way to raise the necessary money. Everything indicated that
+his troubles had made him temporarily insane.
+
+Then there was the evidence of the woman to whom he had resigned his
+state-room on the boat, and of various other passengers who had noted
+his restlessness and his misery. One woman even asserted that she had
+said to a companion at the time that there was a man who contemplated
+some desperate act. It seemed probable that he had planned to jump
+overboard that first night, but had been deterred, either by lack of a
+favorable opportunity or because his courage failed him. His actions at
+the hotel, and especially at the dock, were wholly consistent with this
+theory, and the blunt note he left was further evidence of mental
+derangement. Although his purpose in no way affected his policy, a man
+in his right mind would hardly have stated it so frankly; indeed, a sane
+man probably would have tried to give the appearance of accident to his
+death. Finally, he had boarded the return boat and was missing when the
+boat reached Chicago, although his strange actions had directed
+particular attention to him during the early part of the trip.
+
+After a brief delay the company paid the policy. The circumstantial
+evidence could hardly be more convincing, and the body of a man who
+drowned himself in mid-lake might never be recovered.
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was several years later that Albert Kalin called upon Murray and
+introduced himself a second time.
+
+"We have just heard from father," he said.
+
+"What!" cried Murray.
+
+"He died in South America," explained Albert; "died there miserably--not
+because of any poverty, but because he was an exile and felt that he was
+a swindler. He left a letter which was forwarded to us. His life, he
+said, had been one long torture since that night on the boat, and he had
+a thousand times regretted that he did not actually throw himself into
+the lake. I fear," added Albert sadly, "that he really did commit
+suicide finally. He made one dying request. I would like to read it to
+you."
+
+Albert took a letter from his pocket and read this paragraph:
+
+"My life as an exiled swindler has been hell, but I have seen the
+Chicago papers and I know that I saved the firm and the invention and
+that you have prospered. That has been my only consolation. It would
+have been some relief if I could have communicated with you, but I would
+not make you a party to my crime. Now, at last, I ask you to do
+something for the old man: Refund to the insurance company every cent
+you received, less the premiums I actually paid. Refund it all, if
+necessary, but make my record clear. That was the only dishonest act of
+a long business career, and God only knows how I have suffered for it.
+You have prospered, you can do this, and I know you will. It is that
+alone that gives me consolation as my period of punishment at last draws
+to a close."
+
+"How did he do it?" asked Murray, before Albert could speak.
+
+"He purchased and took with him a second-hand suit of clothes and a
+wig," explained Albert. "He cut off his whiskers and mustache, so that
+he appeared as a man who had neglected to shave for a week--a pretty good
+disguise in itself, for father was always neat and clean. The clothes he
+had worn went overboard with a weight attached, which accounts for the
+splash, and he himself raised the cry of 'Man overboard!' After that he
+kept out of the light, and he had little difficulty in slipping ashore
+while we were hunting his state-room. His mental distress was real, for
+he was leaving all he held dear and condemning himself to exile."
+
+"Well," commented Murray, "I guess the circumstances would have fooled
+any one, for his whole previous life made him about the last man who
+would be suspected of anything of that sort."
+
+"And now," said Albert, "my brother and I are prepared to make a cash
+settlement with you on any basis that you deem satisfactory."
+
+
+
+
+AN INCIDENTAL DISCOVERY
+
+
+The applicant for insurance was nervous and ill at ease, but that alone
+was not sufficient to make Dave Murray suspicious. A man taking out his
+first policy is very often nervous--he dreads the physical examination in
+many instances. He may think he is all right, but he fears the
+possibility of some serious latent trouble. If there is anything
+radically and incurably wrong with the average man, he prefers not to
+know it. He may not say so, but he does. He goes before the medical
+examiner with the fear that he may learn something disagreeable.
+
+"I'm fairly contented now," he says to himself, if he happens to be
+practical enough to put his thoughts into words, "but life will be a
+haunting hell to me if I learn that I am not a good risk. That will mean
+at least the probability of an early death. It will not change
+conditions, but it will seem to bring death nearer."
+
+These thoughts do not come to the very young man, but they do come to
+the man who has passed, or is passing, the optimism of youth. In the
+words of Dave Murray, "One of the great annoyances of the life insurance
+business is that the very young man is too well and strong to want to be
+insured, and the man of middle age is afraid of learning that he is not
+as well and strong as he thinks he is. We have to fight optimism first
+and cowardice later. Theoretically, the 'risk' ought to be caught young,
+but, practically, it is easier to catch him when he has begun to
+appreciate the responsibilities of life. The optimism is more difficult
+to overcome than the cowardice."
+
+Nevertheless, the man who has neglected to take out insurance when he
+could get the best rate is likely to be nervous when he applies for it
+later, however hard he may try to conceal the fact. And Elmer Harkness
+was nervous. He was a year short of forty, apparently in the best
+physical condition, but he was unusually nervous. He hesitated over his
+answers to the most ordinary questions, he corrected himself once or
+twice, and he betrayed a strong desire to get through with the ordeal in
+the quickest possible time. When, at last, he was able to leave, the
+physician having completed his examination, he gave a very audible sigh
+of relief.
+
+"There's something about this I don't like," commented Murray a little
+later.
+
+"What?" asked the doctor.
+
+"That's the trouble," returned Murray. "I can't say exactly what it is,
+but I have a feeling that something is wrong. We've had nervous men here
+before. Remember the fellow who was brought up by his wife and who would
+have ducked and run if he could have got the chance? He was nervous
+enough, but not in the same way. He was afraid he would find he was
+going to die next week, but this fellow was shifty. How does he stand
+physically, doctor?"
+
+"Fine," answered the doctor. "You couldn't ask a better risk."
+
+"Well, he doesn't get the policy until I've made a pretty thorough
+investigation, in addition to the usual investigation from
+headquarters," announced Murray.
+
+It took a good deal really to disturb Murray, but this case disturbed
+him before he got through with it. His first discovery was that Elmer
+Harkness had been refused insurance by another company some years
+previous. This information came from the home office, which had secured
+it through the "clearing-house."
+
+"The risk was refused," said the report, "on the advice of the company's
+physician."
+
+"Must be another Harkness," said the doctor, when Murray told him about
+it. "This man was in splendid physical condition."
+
+"The Elmer Harkness refused," said Murray, consulting the papers before
+him, "was born at Madison, Indiana, January twentieth, 1866, and that is
+the place and date of birth given by the man who applied to us. You
+don't suppose there were twins, do you?"
+
+"Might look it up," suggested the doctor.
+
+"Of course, I'll look it up," returned Murray. "It's mighty funny that a
+man who was refused on physical grounds five years ago should be a
+superb risk now."
+
+"There's one satisfaction," remarked the doctor. "With the safeguards
+thrown around the business in these modern days, a man can't very well
+beat us."
+
+"There's no game that can't be beaten," asserted Murray emphatically.
+"There is no burglar-proof safe. With improvements in safes there has
+come a corresponding improvement in cracksmen's methods. No man is so
+much superior to all other men that he can devise a thing so perfect
+that some other can not find the flaw that makes it temporarily
+worthless. The burglar-proof safes have to be watched to keep burglars
+away from them. The insurance system is as good as we now know how to
+make it, but it has to be watched to keep swindlers from punching holes
+in it. When we further improve the system they will further improve
+their methods, and we'll have to keep on watching. The business concern
+that thinks it has an infallible system to protect itself from loss is
+then in the greatest danger."
+
+"Do you think this case a swindle?" asked the doctor.
+
+"It's better to get facts before reaching conclusions," replied Murray.
+"It may be only an extraordinary coincidence. The man who was refused
+insurance was not then living where the man who applied to us is now
+living. That's worth considering."
+
+But investigation only made the case the more puzzling. From Madison,
+Indiana, a report was received that Elmer Harkness was born there on the
+date given, and that nothing was known of any second Elmer Harkness. The
+father of the Elmer born at Madison had been Abner Harkness, who was now
+dead. The name of the father of the man who had applied to Murray was
+given as Abner, and that also was the name of the father of the man
+whose application had been previously refused. Elmer, after the death of
+his parents, had left Madison, and nothing had been heard of him since,
+although he was supposed to be in Chicago.
+
+"Strange!" commented Murray. "This Madison Harkness is our Harkness,
+beyond question, and he also corresponds, except physically, to the
+Harkness who was refused."
+
+So far as was known at Madison, Harkness was physically sound and well.
+He certainly had been considered a strong, healthy man.
+
+"That," said Murray, "answers the description of the man who was here,
+but it really means nothing, as far as the other refusal is concerned.
+Heart trouble was the cause of that refusal, and there hardly would have
+been any indication of that to the casual observer. This Madison
+Harkness may well have been the man who was refused or the man who
+applied to us, but he can hardly be both--unless you have made a mistake,
+Doctor."
+
+"I'll examine him again," said the doctor.
+
+So he sent for Harkness again, on the plea that he had mislaid the
+record of the previous examination, and this time he gave particular
+attention to the heart.
+
+"Normal and strong," he reported. "No trouble there. It's possible he
+had some slight temporary affection when he was examined for the other
+company. The heart is sometimes most deceptive, and there are
+occasionally apparent evidences of a serious malady where none really
+exists. In some cases I've discovered symptoms of heart trouble at one
+examination and found them absolutely lacking a little later. This man
+is all right."
+
+Nevertheless, Murray questioned Harkness closely.
+
+"Are you sure," he asked, the question having been previously answered
+when the application was made, "that you never were refused by any other
+company?"
+
+"I never applied for insurance before," replied Harkness, but there was
+the same shifty look in his eyes.
+
+"Did you ever know another Harkness at Madison, Indiana?"
+
+Harkness looked frightened, but he answered promptly in the negative.
+
+"Where have you been since you left Madison?"
+
+Harkness told briefly of his movements.
+
+"Did you ever live at 1176 Wabash Avenue?"
+
+"No."
+
+The case became even more mystifying. There was a record of only one
+Elmer Harkness at Madison, but it was evident that two had applied for
+insurance, for the Harkness who had been refused had given his address
+as 1176 Wabash Avenue.
+
+"I am tempted," said Murray later, "to make a strong adverse report. At
+the same time I don't want to do an injustice and refuse a man who is
+rightfully entitled to insurance. My refusal, coupled with the
+mystifying record, would make it practically impossible to get insurance
+anywhere at any time, and he may be all right."
+
+"If there's a fraud in it anywhere," remarked the doctor, "there are
+some clever and experienced people behind it."
+
+"Quite the contrary," returned Murray. "The experienced people are the
+people we catch, because they do things the way one naturally expects.
+As a general thing, you will find that the police are fooled, not by the
+professional criminal, but by the novice who is ignorant of the ways of
+the crook, and the same rule applies to insurance swindles. If there is
+anything wrong here our difficulty lies in the fact that this fellow and
+those behind him are not experienced and are not going at the thing the
+way an experienced swindler would."
+
+An attempt to identify the Harkness who had applied for insurance as the
+Harkness who had lived at 1176 Wabash Avenue failed utterly, owing to
+the fact that the woman who had formerly conducted a boarding-house at
+that number had moved and it was impossible to find her. It was a simple
+matter, however, to verify other statements made by Harkness. He was now
+living at 2313 Wesson Street, and was employed by a large wholesale
+grocery firm. His employer spoke highly of him, but knew nothing of his
+personal affairs. He might or might not be married. The employer had
+been under the impression that he was a bachelor, but could not recall
+that Harkness ever had said so. This confusion was partly explained at
+the Wesson Street boarding-house, for Harkness had recently told the
+landlady that he expected his wife to join him soon. He explained that
+she had been visiting relatives during the six months he had been at
+this house, but that they were planning to take a small flat. They had
+previously had a flat, the address of which he gave, and the agent for
+the building remembered that Elmer Harkness had been among his tenants
+for two years. He knew very little about them, except that Harkness had
+paid his rent promptly and had been a model tenant.
+
+"And there you are!" grumbled Murray. "He's all right, and I wouldn't
+hesitate a minute, except for this other Harkness who hailed from the
+same place, lived in Wabash Avenue, and was refused insurance. Who was
+he? How can there be two Elmers from a town that produced only one?"
+
+"Possibly it is the same Elmer," suggested the doctor. "Possibly he was
+refused owing to some temporary trouble that deceived the first
+physician. Possibly he did live at the Wabash Avenue place, but thought
+his chance of getting insurance would be better if he denied that he
+ever had been refused, and, having once told that story, he has had to
+stick to it. Of course, he had no means of knowing our facilities for
+getting information."
+
+"I don't see," returned Murray, "that our facilities have succeeded in
+doing more than confuse us in this case. However, I'll submit the whole
+matter to the home office."
+
+After taking some time for consideration, the home office decided that
+there was no reason for refusing the risk.
+
+"If you are sure this man is physically all right," was the reply
+received, "and that he is the man he represents himself to be, there
+would seem to be no reason for refusing the risk. There may have been
+some attempt at fraud, with which he had nothing to do, in the other
+case, and none in this. In any event, if the man who applied to you is a
+good risk physically, and a man of good reputation, as your report
+indicates, we are willing to give him the policy."
+
+In these circumstances there was no reason for refusal. Harkness was a
+man of good reputation. Because of the other apparently mythical
+Harkness, he had been investigated more thoroughly than was usually
+deemed necessary, and his references had proved to be good. The
+inquiries had been made cautiously and circumspectly, to avoid giving
+offense, and the replies had been generally satisfactory. Nevertheless,
+Murray had another talk with him before delivering the policy.
+
+Harkness told whom and when he married, and the truthfulness of this
+statement was capable of easy verification. His wife, he said, had been
+away for some time, but was now returning.
+
+"We shall take a small flat again," he explained. "I have already
+selected one in Englewood--on Sixty-fourth Street. A fellow can get more
+for his money out there than he can nearer the city."
+
+Then Harkness got his policy, and a little later he notified the company
+that he had moved to the Sixty-fourth Street flat. Murray puzzled his
+head a little over the mysterious Harkness, and once took the trouble to
+learn that the Harkness he had insured was still employed by the
+wholesale grocery firm. Then other matters claimed his attention, and
+the Harkness case was forgotten. There seemed to be no doubt that it was
+a good risk, even if there was a mystery back of it somewhere.
+
+It was six months later that he was notified of the sudden death at the
+Sixty-fourth Street flat of Elmer Harkness, who had a policy in his
+company. Instantly the details of the case, and his misgivings at the
+time, returned to him. Yet the proof of death, signed by a reputable and
+well-known physician, was flawless. A latent heart trouble had developed
+suddenly, and Harkness had died within forty-eight hours after he was
+stricken. The physician who had attended him never had been called for
+Harkness before, but he had been at the flat a number of times to
+prescribe for the trifling ailments of Mrs. Harkness, and he had become
+well acquainted with the husband. They had moved into the neighborhood
+about six months before.
+
+"It all fits in with what we know of the case," commented Murray,
+"except the heart trouble. That sounds like the mysterious Harkness.
+Could you have possibly made any mistake in your examination, Doctor?"
+
+"Certainly I could," admitted the company's physician ruefully. "None of
+us is infallible, but I'll swear there were no indications of any heart
+trouble when I examined him. Still, the heart is a mighty deceptive
+organ. There may be trouble without any indications of it and there may
+be indications without any trouble. I once knew of a man whose heart
+seemed to skip a beat once in so often, but the best of medical talent
+was unable to discover the cause of it, and the man lived to a good old
+age. I don't claim infallibility, but I never examined a man who seemed
+freer from any indications of heart trouble."
+
+"I wonder," said Murray thoughtfully, "if Harkness' employer has heard
+of his death."
+
+An insurance company is merciless in following up evidence of attempted
+fraud, but, lacking such evidence, it is wise to conduct investigations
+with extreme delicacy. A reputation for unnecessary intrusion or
+harshness, for a lack of sympathy with the bereaved, for any action that
+implies a suspicion of dishonesty when the proof is lacking, may do a
+great deal of harm. Every reputable company is anxious to pay all honest
+claims with as little inconvenience to the beneficiaries as is
+compatible with safety. Such investigation as may be necessary in some
+exceptional case is conducted as unobtrusively as possible.
+
+In this instance, the ordinary proof of death would have been accepted
+without question were it not for the mystery of the "heart trouble" that
+was supposed not to exist. This, combined with the report on the other
+Harkness, was annoying, and, to satisfy himself, Murray sent a man to
+the wholesale house where Harkness had been employed. The result was
+reassuring, so far as any question of fraud was concerned. The other
+clerks were then taking up a subscription to send some flowers to the
+funeral, and his illness and death had been reported promptly to the
+head of the department in which Harkness had worked. Furthermore, he was
+registered as living at the Sixty-fourth Street flat, to which place he
+had moved from 2313 Wesson Street.
+
+"It seems to be all right," remarked Murray. "This is the man we insured
+on the strength of your report, Doctor, and I guess the only thing we
+can do is to charge you up with an error of judgment. Fortunately, it's
+only a three-thousand-dollar policy."
+
+"I don't understand it," said the doctor gloomily. "I wish we could
+demand an autopsy."
+
+"Hardly justifiable, in view of the circumstances," returned Murray. "We
+have the affidavit of a first-class physician, and we know that it's the
+same man, so the autopsy would be only to satisfy your curiosity. My own
+curiosity deals with the Wabash Avenue man who was refused. I wish we
+could locate him, although I don't see that it would have any bearing on
+this case. He seems to have disappeared utterly. Perhaps he's dead."
+
+Before dismissing the matter from his mind, Murray reviewed the facts
+carefully. There had been an application to another company from a man
+living at 1176 Wabash Avenue, which had been refused because of heart
+trouble, but the city directory for that year gave no Harkness at that
+address. It did give an Elmer Harkness at another address, however,
+which coincided with the story told by the Harkness he had insured.
+
+"Somebody," mused Murray, "must have been trying to beat the other
+company. That's the best I can make out of it, although I can't see why
+he should have assumed this Elmer's name and antecedents. It's a most
+extraordinary case."
+
+The latest city directory gave Elmer Harkness as living at 2313 Wesson
+Street, which certainly was his address at the time the directory was
+issued. So much Murray had looked up before. Now, further to satisfy
+himself, he went through all the directories for the interval between
+the two years, and he was rewarded by finding the name of Elmer Harkness
+twice in one of them. Both were clerks, the addresses of the employers
+not being given, and the residence of one of them was put down as the
+address of the Harkness who had secured insurance.
+
+"Then there are, or at least there were, two," thought Murray, "but only
+one came from Madison. And what has become of the missing Harkness? Why
+is he in only one directory? The fact that there were two helps to clear
+up the record of the one I insured, so far as that Wabash Avenue address
+is concerned, but how did both happen to give the same place and date of
+birth? And did both have heart trouble?"
+
+Murray straightened up suddenly and sent for the clerk who had made the
+previous inquiries for him.
+
+"Harry," he said, "I want you to go to the funeral of Elmer Harkness
+to-morrow. Go early, and get a look at him, if possible. If not, get a
+description of him from some of the neighbors."
+
+Murray reproached himself for not having searched all the directories
+before, although it would have made little difference. The fact that
+another Harkness had lived in Chicago would have had no bearing on the
+case, so long as the record of the one who applied for insurance was
+clear. In fact, it would have explained everything, except the
+coincidence of the alleged birth records. Still, it would have given a
+new line of investigation, which might have cleared up the mystery.
+
+Harry reported promptly the next day, and almost his first words aroused
+Murray.
+
+"I couldn't get a glimpse of the late lamented," he said flippantly,
+"for the casket was closed, but I learned that he had hair slightly
+tinged with gray and--"
+
+"Gray!" exclaimed Murray. "Does a man get gray hair in six months? The
+man we insured hadn't a gray hair in his head."
+
+"He was rather stout--"
+
+"Our man was not."
+
+"I couldn't learn much else--"
+
+"You've learned enough."
+
+"--except that when he was stricken his wife's first thought seemed to be
+to get a message to some mysterious man, who responded in person, had a
+short talk with the wife, and then disappeared. A neighbor who had come
+in was somewhat impressed by this, because she called him 'Elmer,' which
+was her husband's name."
+
+"What!" cried Murray, startled out of his usual imperturbability by the
+evidence thus unexpectedly accumulating. Then, more calmly, "Harry, you
+didn't get the address to which she sent, did you?"
+
+"The messenger," said Harry, proud of his success, "was a neighbor's
+boy. I found him. Here is the address."
+
+Murray took the slip of paper, looked at the address, and then sent for
+the company's physician.
+
+"We'll make identification sure," he said, "for we both know the man,
+and we'll take an officer and a warrant along with us."
+
+Elmer Harkness was sitting on his trunk, waiting for an expressman, when
+the party appeared at the door of his room in a little out-of-the-way
+boarding-house.
+
+"I thought you were dead," said Murray.
+
+"I wish I was," said Harkness. He had almost fainted at the first sight
+of Murray, but had recovered himself quickly, and, having once decided
+that the case was hopeless, he resigned himself to the inevitable and
+spoke with a frank carelessness that had been entirely lacking when he
+was playing a part and trying to stick to the details of a prepared
+story.
+
+"Any weapons?" asked the policeman, making a quick search.
+
+"No weapons," replied Harkness. "I'm not that kind."
+
+"I don't see," said Murray, "why you waited here to be arrested."
+
+"Why, I had a little interest in that insurance," explained Harkness,
+"and I rather wanted to get it before leaving. However, waiting here was
+a little trying to the nerves, even if everything did seem to be going
+all right, and I was just about to slip up to Milwaukee until the case
+was settled. I ought to have gone the day Elmer was stricken."
+
+"What Elmer?" demanded Murray.
+
+"Elmer Harkness, my cousin," the other replied promptly.
+
+"And who are you?"
+
+"I'm Elmer Harkness, his cousin," he returned with equal promptness.
+
+"Which of you was born at Madison, Indiana?" pursued Murray.
+
+"He was," replied Harkness, and added, "I was born at Matteson,
+Illinois."
+
+"There's a nice pair of names for a tangle," commented Murray as the
+possibilities of the situation began to dawn on him. "No wonder my
+inquiries failed to untangle it. Would you mind telling me how you
+happened to try this thing?"
+
+"No trouble at all," returned Harkness. "It was my cousin's scheme. He
+had tried to get insurance when he was living on Wabash Avenue and had
+failed. He had a heart trouble that was likely to culminate fatally
+almost any time. Still, I don't think it occurred to him to try to beat
+an insurance company until we happened to be thrown together about a
+year ago. We were cousins, although we never had met before, and the
+similarity of names seemed to make a great impression on him. He had
+just returned to Chicago after a year or more in St. Louis, and he
+already had had one heart attack, with a warning from his doctor that
+the next would almost certainly be fatal. He was also told that the next
+was not likely to be long delayed. Now, I suppose you'll think I'm
+lying, but I did not take kindly to his scheme, and the money alone
+would not have tempted me to go into it. I was sorry for his wife. He
+had been able to make only a bare living; he could leave her absolutely
+nothing. She never had had to support herself and there seemed to be
+mighty little chance that she could do it. I finally agreed to go into
+it for her sake. It looked easy and I was glad to make the try on her
+account."
+
+"But you wouldn't refuse a little something for yourself on the side, so
+to speak," suggested Murray sarcastically.
+
+"No, I wouldn't," Harkness frankly admitted. "To carry out the plan it
+would be necessary for me to give up my job, change my name and make a
+fresh start somewhere else. The job was not such an all-fired good one,
+but it might be some time before I got another as good, and I would need
+something for expenses while I was losing myself. I was to get five
+hundred of the three thousand dollars insurance. The rest was to go to
+the widow."
+
+"That wouldn't last her very long," remarked Murray.
+
+"It would help a little," said Harkness, "and we thought we would stand
+a better chance if we didn't ask for too big a sum."
+
+"An insurance company," said Murray, "has to be as particular with a
+small risk as with a large one, and it will follow up a suspicious case
+as closely in one instance as in the other. It's a matter of principle."
+
+"I think I understand that now," remarked Harkness regretfully.
+
+"But I am curious to know," persisted Murray, "how in the world you
+arranged such a mystifying record."
+
+"It was easy," replied Harkness. "I gave you my cousin's place and date
+of birth, his parents, his marriage and his life up to the time he left
+Madison. Then I gave you my record up to the finish, with the exception
+of one year, when he was in the Chicago directory. We put that year in
+so you could get trace of the wife in case you made any investigation. I
+have no wife, and it was rather important, of course, that there should
+be a record of a wife somewhere."
+
+"It was a wise provision," admitted Murray. "We got trace of the wife at
+that flat."
+
+"It was after leaving there," Harkness continued, "that my cousin went
+to St. Louis. When he returned we met and a little later fixed up the
+job. As soon as I got the policy I rented the Sixty-fourth Street flat,
+and my cousin and his wife moved in. That's all, I think, except that
+you ought to be a little easy on me, I think, for giving you such an
+entertaining story."
+
+Murray turned to the doctor with a pardonable air of triumph.
+
+"Was I right, Doctor," he asked, "in saying that it takes the novice to
+devise the really confusing scheme?"
+
+"You were right," said the doctor.
+
+
+
+
+AN INCIDENTAL GRIEVANCE
+
+
+Jane Moffat, widow, was sore distressed.
+
+"Without Tom," she said, "I don't know what I'll do. Tom was a good man,
+but unlucky. There was better providers than Tom, but he was better than
+none."
+
+This apparent reflection on her late husband did not mean that Mrs.
+Moffat confined herself to the financial point of view, for she had been
+a true and devoted wife, but her present need was great and her present
+resources were nothing. Furthermore, Tom Moffat certainly had been
+either unlucky or incapable. Mrs. Moffat, out of her affection for him,
+chose to attribute their misfortunes to ill luck; another, less
+considerate, might have said that Tom lacked ability and stability; no
+one, however, could have said that he was neglectful or indifferent--he
+did the best he could, and his family always had all he could provide.
+Nevertheless, Tom Moffat had drifted from one thing to another, and his
+wife and two children had drifted with him. He had worked at many
+things, and in many places, and there had been times when he lacked work
+entirely. So he left Mrs. Moffat practically nothing when he died.
+
+"The neighbors was good," continued Mrs. Moffat, "an' I've got some
+sewing to do. I was pretty good at that in my younger days, but the
+children don't give me time to earn much, even if the pay was what it
+should be. I had to sell some furniture already, an' I don't know what
+I'll do. We've been going from bad to worse."
+
+"Didn't he have no insurance?" asked the sympathetic Mrs. Crimmins,
+whose husband was a member of one of the fraternal organizations.
+
+"Not when he died," answered Mrs. Moffat. "Didn't I say he was unlucky?
+He had insurance when it didn't mean anything but paying out money, but
+there ain't any when the time comes for getting it back."
+
+"They can't take your money an' not give you nothing for it," declared
+Mrs. Crimmins.
+
+"Sure they can!" said Mrs. Moffat.
+
+"I say they can't," insisted Mrs. Crimmins. "There can't nobody do that,
+if you got the sense to fight. There was a lawyer once told my man so."
+
+"Well, Tom paid the money, an' it ain't come back to me, has it?"
+demanded Mrs. Moffat, as if that settled the question.
+
+"You ain't tried to get it, that's why!" retorted Mrs. Crimmins. "You go
+see a lawyer. He'll make 'em pay, an' he won't charge you a cent if he
+don't get the money. Some might, but I'll tell you one that won't."
+
+Mrs. Moffat was not in a position to overlook even a slight chance to
+get any money, especially if it cost nothing to make the attempt. She
+knew less about insurance than Mrs. Crimmins, and Mrs. Crimmins had only
+wild, weird, second-hand notions. Still, Mrs. Crimmins talked
+confidently, and Mrs. Moffat finally took the address of the lawyer
+recommended to her. This, of course, was a mistake--it would have been
+better to go direct to the insurance company. But the impression
+prevails in some quarters that insurance companies are ready to take
+advantage of any technicality to escape the payment of claims, and that
+a lawyer's services are necessary to compel them to pay anything that
+can possibly be questioned. Some lawyers, for their own purposes,
+encourage this idea. Isaac Hinse, to whom Mrs. Moffat went, was one of
+this class.
+
+"You did well to come to me," he said pompously, as soon as she had
+stated her errand. "What chance has a woman, with no knowledge of the
+law, against a great corporation that has big lawyers engaged for the
+sole purpose of bulldozing or fooling the ignorant? Fortunately, I know
+how to deal with them. Now, where is this policy?"
+
+"Tore up," answered Mrs. Moffat.
+
+"What!" cried Hinse.
+
+"Tom tore it up when he couldn't pay any more on it. I ain't looking for
+the whole thousand dollars, but only to get back what he paid in. Mrs.
+Crimmins said I could do that."
+
+Hinse leaned back in his chair and looked at the ceiling thoughtfully.
+
+"Well," he said at last, "that makes more trouble, of course. An
+insurance company can't escape its obligations because the policy has
+been destroyed, but it makes it more difficult to prove the claim. Do
+you know what kind of policy it was?"
+
+"How should I?" returned Mrs. Moffat. "I'm no lawyer nor no insurance
+man. I come to you to learn my rights."
+
+"Quite right, quite right," conceded Hinse; "but I must know something
+of the circumstances. When was this policy taken out?"
+
+"Fifteen or sixteen years ago," answered Mrs. Moffat. "We was doing
+pretty well then. Tom's aunt left him a bit of money, an' Tom was
+workin' steady an' I got some money a little later. But Tom was always
+unlucky. He didn't seem to hold on well, an' we kept movin' an' movin'
+an' gettin' harder up--"
+
+"And he finally let the policy lapse," suggested Hinse.
+
+"Lapse!" exclaimed Mrs. Moffat, as if she had made an important
+discovery unexpectedly. "That's it; that's what he said when he tore it
+up an' threw it in the fire. I only knew he didn't think it was good,
+but Mrs. Crimmins says they got to pay back what he paid them."
+
+"That depends on the policy and circumstances," said Hinse in his most
+impressive way--and Hinse prided himself upon being impressive. "How long
+did he pay premiums?"
+
+"Eight or ten years."
+
+"Ha!" exclaimed Hinse. "There is a chance, but it is a desperate
+chance--so desperate that I really can't afford to take this on my usual
+contingent fee."
+
+"What's that?" asked Mrs. Moffat.
+
+"I mean," explained Hinse, "that I'll get the money for you if any one
+can, but I'll have to charge five dollars in advance."
+
+Mrs. Moffat hesitated.
+
+"I got it," she said, "but it's rent money."
+
+"There's more than rent in this," declared Hinse, "but why should I take
+all the risk? It is a hard case and will take a great deal of my time,
+but I know these people, and I think I can work it out of them. You
+happened to come to just the right man."
+
+Mrs. Moffat was sitting on the opposite side of the desk from Hinse,
+which she deemed fortunate at this critical moment.
+
+"There ain't any safe place to leave money at home," she explained
+apologetically, "an' a woman don't have safe pockets like a man."
+
+She made a dive down behind the desk, there was a sound of moving
+skirts, and she straightened up with three bills in her hand--a five and
+two ones. She handed the five to Hinse, who promptly tucked it away in
+his vest pocket.
+
+"I don't know what I'll do about the rent," she sighed.
+
+"Think of the insurance," suggested Hinse, "and remember that you've got
+the best man cheap. I'll see these insurance people to-day."
+
+Hinse was a large pompous man, who wore a long rusty frock coat, because
+he thought that kind of coat properly impressed his police-court
+clients. His speeches also were for his clients, rather than for the
+judge--he wanted to show them he was not afraid of the court. He talked
+loud and aggressively. His whole life being what is popularly termed a
+"bluff," it naturally followed that he considered bluffing the main
+element of success.
+
+That is where he made his mistake when he went to see Dave Murray about
+Mrs. Moffat's claim. Murray was not in particularly good humor that day.
+A friend had been arguing to him that corporations are notoriously
+ungrateful for services rendered, and another friend had endeavored to
+demonstrate that life insurance companies had a way of forcing a man to
+the limit of his endurance, of squeezing all the life and energy out of
+him in a few years, and then dropping him.
+
+The worst of it was that some of the cases cited Murray knew to be true:
+men were "forced" and then left to seek other avenues of employment when
+insurance had got the best that was in them. He had argued that it was
+the universal business rule of "the survival of the fittest"; that the
+man who had the ability to get near the top need have no fear, and that
+men who could stand the pace prospered wherever they might be in the
+great system. But an unexpected and rather harsh criticism from
+headquarters had given him a more pessimistic view of the situation: it
+could not be denied that comparatively few men grew old in the service.
+Then there was a gloomy outlook for a promotion he had expected, to add
+to his annoyance, and--well, Murray, the energetic and enthusiastic
+Murray, was momentarily dissatisfied. He was in no humor to be "bluffed"
+by a pompous shyster lawyer.
+
+"I am representing Mrs. Jane Moffat," announced Hinse.
+
+"What about her?" asked Murray shortly.
+
+"She has a claim against your company."
+
+"Policy?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Let's see it."
+
+"There will be time enough for that," said Hinse in his most impressive
+tones, "when we have settled what is to be paid on it." Hinse was so
+constituted morally that he could not possibly be frank and
+straightforward. "It is a policy for a thousand dollars on the life of
+her late husband, Thomas Moffat. He failed to pay some of the last
+premiums, but there is a value to it."
+
+"Is there?"
+
+"There is. Will you look it up and see how the matter stands, or shall I
+take legal proceedings to force a settlement?"
+
+"Better sue," said Murray. "Good day."
+
+"You will regret this interview," announced Hinse.
+
+"I regret it already," returned Murray. Then, his professional instinct
+overcoming his dislike of the man, he added: "If premiums have not been
+paid, the policy may have lapsed, or it may be non-forfeitable. I must
+see the policy and know the details. I never heard of Thomas Moffat that
+I recall. Give me the facts."
+
+"Ah," said Hinse, settling himself comfortably in a chair, "I thought
+you would see the wisdom of being reasonable."
+
+"Reasonable!" exploded Murray. "Damn it! I'm having trouble enough being
+patient. Who was he, where did he live, and when did he die?"
+
+There was something in the way this was said that led Hinse to change
+his tactics, and he partly explained the situation in a confidential
+way. Premiums had been paid on the policy for at least eight years, he
+said, but the widow had supposed that everything was forfeited when her
+husband failed to pay the later premiums: she knew nothing about cash
+surrender values or non-forfeitable clauses.
+
+"She'll do what I say," he said significantly in conclusion. "She'll
+compromise for any figure that I say is right."
+
+He waited for Murray to reach for this bait, but Murray was merely
+fighting an impulse to throw the man out of the office.
+
+"Oh, she will!" said Murray at last. "Well, you'll talk more frankly
+than you have, if you want to do business with me. Where's the proof of
+death and the proof of identity? Where's the policy?"
+
+Hinse ignored the last question. He wished to find out certain things
+about that policy himself before he admitted that it had been destroyed,
+and he thought he was handling the matter with consummate skill.
+
+"There will be no trouble about the proof of death," he said. "In fact,
+I have that with me. But Moffat and his family moved many times during
+the years that have elapsed since he stopped paying premiums, living in
+two or three different cities, and they were not always known to their
+neighbors."
+
+"I thought so," remarked Murray sarcastically. "Somebody died, and you
+want me to take it on faith that he was the Thomas Moffat who once was
+insured in this company. Although I haven't looked it up, I have no
+doubt that a Thomas Moffat did take out a policy, for I don't believe
+even you would have the nerve to come to me without at least that much
+foundation for your claim. Perhaps it was the same Thomas Moffat who
+died; perhaps it was a man who was merely given that name in the
+certificate of death. Perhaps he left a widow; perhaps you are
+representing that widow, but perhaps you are representing a woman who
+merely claims to be that widow. She has moved so often that she can't
+produce any satisfactory evidence of her identity. Doesn't it strike you
+that you are telling a rather fishy story? Doesn't it occur to you that
+you ought to have ingenuity enough to concoct something more plausible?"
+
+"This insult, sir--" Hinse shifted again to his pompous manner, but
+Murray interrupted him.
+
+"Insult!" exclaimed Murray. "That wasn't an insult, but I'll give you
+one. I think you're a tricky scoundrel. You have virtually offered to
+sell out your alleged client. I think you're a swindler. I don't believe
+you have or can produce any such policy."
+
+"The loss of a policy, sir--"
+
+"I knew it!" broke in Murray. "Policy lost, of course! In other words,
+your client hasn't a policy and never did have one. She's an impostor!
+You or she learned that there had been such a man and such a policy, and
+you thought there was a chance to get some money. You must think
+insurance companies are easy."
+
+"I shall take this matter to court!" declared Hinse.
+
+"Do!" advised Murray. "Take it anywhere, so long as you take it out of
+this office."
+
+"You shall hear from me again!" said Hinse at the door.
+
+"I'd rather hear from you than see you," retorted Murray. "You annoy
+me."
+
+Nevertheless, when Hinse had departed, Murray had the matter looked up,
+and found that such a policy actually had been issued, that it was
+non-forfeitable after three years, and that about four hundred dollars
+was due on it as a result of the premiums that had been paid. Murray was
+eminently a just man--he wished to take unfair advantage of no one. There
+might be merit in the claim advanced, and some woman, entitled to the
+money, might be in great want. Still, it was not his business to seek
+for ways of disbursing the company's funds. He reported the matter to
+the home office, and was advised to give it no further attention unless
+suit actually was brought. Then it should be fought. Insurance companies
+do not like lawsuits, but they like still less to pay out money when
+there is doubt as to the justice of a claim. When one of them goes into
+court, however, it fights bitterly. Hinse knew this, and he had not the
+slightest intention of bringing suit.
+
+If Mrs. Moffat had had any more money, so that there would have been a
+chance to exact further fees, he might have sued for the mere sake of
+getting the fees, but she could not even advance court costs. So Murray
+waited in vain for the threatened suit, but the possibility of it kept
+the case in his mind. The claim probably was fraudulent, but, if not,
+the woman unquestionably was poor and unfortunate: the very fact that
+she had taken the case to such a shyster as Hinse was proof of that.
+Somehow, the well-to-do people do not get into the hands of shysters.
+Murray believed it was a fraud, but he always came back to the
+possibility of being mistaken in this. And injustice--the injustice of
+passivity as well as of activity--was abhorrent to him.
+
+The day Murray ran across a newspaper item to the effect that a Mrs.
+Thomas Moffat had been evicted for the non-payment of rent, he disobeyed
+the instructions from the home office and looked her up. In theory it
+was all right to wait for a beneficiary to bring in the necessary
+proofs; in practice it was horrible to think of taking advantage of the
+ignorance or helplessness of a woman in trouble.
+
+Murray found Mrs. Moffat and her two children in a little back room near
+the somewhat larger apartment from which she had just been evicted. She
+was trying to sew and care for the children at the same time. It was
+evident, however, that she had long since overtaxed her strength and was
+near the point of physical collapse.
+
+"The neighbors has been good to me," she explained, "but they got their
+own troubles an' they can't do much."
+
+Murray had primed himself with such facts as to Thomas Moffat as the
+books of the company and the old insurance application gave, and, after
+explaining his errand, he asked when and where Thomas Moffat was born.
+The weary woman, too long inured to disappointment to be really hopeful
+now, brought out a little old Bible and showed him the entries relating
+to birth and marriage. They corresponded with the dates he had. Murray
+took up the little Bible reverently, and he then and there decided that
+this woman was the widow of the Thomas Moffat who had been insured in
+his company. Even her maiden name, as given in the Bible, corresponded
+with the name he had taken from the books. Nevertheless, he questioned
+her closely on all the other details that he could verify. She gave the
+address at which they were living when the policy was taken out, and
+also told of the various changes of residence during the time that the
+premiums were being paid.
+
+"He kep' the big paper with the seals on it for 'most three years after
+he quit paying," she said. "Then he tore it up an' burned it. He said it
+wasn't no more use, for he'd lost it all when he quit paying. It seemed
+mighty hard, but I thought he knew."
+
+"There isn't even a scrap of it left?" queried Murray.
+
+"No, sir. He burned the scraps. I saw him do it."
+
+"That's unfortunate," said Murray. "If there was barely enough to
+identify the policy it would help. It would be annoying to have it turn
+up after we had settled the matter, for the custom is to surrender the
+policy to the company when the payment is made."
+
+"You needn't to worry over that," Mrs. Moffat assured him anxiously. "It
+was burned to the very last piece. I saw it myself."
+
+"I don't doubt it," returned Murray. "Have you your marriage
+certificate?"
+
+"Have I!" exclaimed Mrs. Moffat in surprise. "You didn't never know an
+honest married woman who would lose that, did you? A man don't think
+much of it, but a woman does. It's the proof she's respectable."
+
+Mrs. Moffat produced the certificate, but Murray merely glanced at the
+names.
+
+"I think you may rely on getting the money, Mrs. Moffat," he said. "It
+isn't much, but--"
+
+"I got a chance to start a little school store if I had a bit of money,"
+she interrupted eagerly. "I don't need only two hundred or two hundred
+and fifty, an' it's better than sewing."
+
+"I am so confident that this is all right," said Murray, ignoring the
+interruption, "that I am going to advance you a little money now. I
+imagine you need it."
+
+"Indeed I do!" exclaimed the grateful and now hopeful woman. "The lawyer
+got most of the rent money."
+
+"Damn the lawyer!" ejaculated Murray. "If he hears that you've got
+anything he'll probably put in another claim, but you're not to pay him
+a cent. Do you understand that? Send him to me. I'll settle with him."
+
+"Yes, sir," returned Mrs. Moffat meekly. "He helped me--"
+
+"Helped you! He did more to hurt you than any other ten men could have
+done. He ought to be made to pay damages."
+
+Then Murray laughed at his own heat and gave Mrs. Moffat a twenty-dollar
+bill.
+
+"When we get the matter settled," he said, "you can repay this."
+
+"Indeed I will!"
+
+Murray noted that there were tears in her eyes, and, disliking a scene
+of any description, he picked up his hat and hastily withdrew.
+
+The matter, however, was not settled as easily as he expected. He stated
+frankly what he had done, and the officials at headquarters seemed to
+think he had taken unnecessary pains to make trouble. It was not that
+they objected to paying any just claim against the company, but they
+held that he had put life into a slumbering claim that was at least open
+to suspicion. Such evidence as she produced might have fallen into the
+hands of an impostor, and there was a considerable interval during which
+the connection between the real beneficiary and the present claimant was
+lost, the only explanation being that they had made frequent changes of
+residence and had been among strangers. In brief, the company did not
+consider the claims satisfactorily established and criticized the whole
+affair as being irregular.
+
+Murray was disappointed and annoyed. He was entirely satisfied in his
+own mind, and he resented the criticism. Nevertheless, he sought for
+further evidence, and Mrs. Moffat was finally able to supply it in the
+shape of a receipt for the last premium paid. This, it seemed, had not
+been destroyed with the policy. Mrs. Moffat had discovered it among some
+old papers. This Murray also reported.
+
+"We are not satisfied with the evidence produced," was the reply that
+came back.
+
+"I am satisfied," was Murray's answer, as he recalled the woman's tears
+of gratitude, "and I have settled the claim and paid the money. Is my
+action to be upheld or is my resignation desired?"
+
+There was a long interval of silence on the part of the officials at
+headquarters. This Murray understood to be an evidence of their
+displeasure. Having thus made their displeasure very apparent, the
+report was finally returned with the single word, "Approved," written
+across it.
+
+"Nevertheless," mused Murray, "I fear I am not long for this business--at
+least with this company. Either I am becoming both headstrong and
+sensitive or else my superiors are becoming inconsiderate and
+dissatisfied."
+
+That evening he took a long street-car ride, at the end of which he
+entered a little store opposite one of the big public schools. He wanted
+to see the result of his work.
+
+When he reappeared, a little woman followed him to the door, and there
+was a quaver in her voice as she said, "You've been so good to us, Mr.
+Murray, and we're so happy."
+
+"Well," returned Murray with a smile, "I'm happy myself. And," he added,
+as he was returning home, "it's worth all that it ever can cost me."
+
+
+
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