E. Phillips Oppenheim

“ Sinclair Smith promised as he put the check into his pocket.
“I hope we'll see your charming daughter again,” the Honorable Charles Frinton remarked as they said good-by.
“Why not fix up a little dinner for this evening?” Mr. Cray invited hospitably. “Sara'd be tickled to death. We might go to a music-hall afterward.”
The Honorable Charles Frinton looked the picture of woe.
“Alas,” he regretted, “not this evening! I have some relatives who are apt to be a little exciting.” ”

“ A check for five hundred pounds any time before that hour will be all right. You'll find the lift round to the right. So long, boys!”
Mr. Cray returned to the room with beaming face.
“Sara,” he said, looking toward the sideboard, “give her a shake.”
AT a quarter to nine that evening, while Mr. Cray and his daughter were dining at a corner table in the grill, a note was brought to him. He tore open the envelope. Inside was a check for five hundred pounds. He thrust it into his waistcoat pocket, produced the one which he had written for two hundred and fifty pounds and passed it to Sara. ”

“ Cray acknowledged. “There's more money coming to me over there than I should care to think about spending; but it's like this, Sara: If I should be cabling for supplies just now, your stepmother would be wise to the fact that I've quit France. She's a busy woman, but she might take it into her to take a quick trip over.” ”

“ Once or twice the thought of what George would say if he were to see her in such company troubled her slightly, but on the whole she reflected that he belonged to a different side of her life, and that she was really only indulging for a very brief period that unquenched love of adventure in which she had reveled during her younger days. ”

“ I am not a hard man. I will take five hundred pounds cash.”
A secondary burst of eloquence was less original but more abusive.
“You're a damned sharper!” Mr. Frinton wound up.
“A low confidence-trick man,” Mr. Sinclair Smith finished, with a glance at Sara, “you and your—”
Mr. Cray took a step forward. Mr. Sinclair Smith did not finish his sentence. He took a step backward toward the door. Mr. Cray threw it open and stood there. ”

“ Mr. Cray explained. “By this document here you seem bound to deliver to me five thousand Idabor shares at thirty-seven and six, today's price forty-one, profit to me eight hundred and seventy-five pounds.”
Mr. Sinclair Smith stared at Mr. Cray for several moments without speech. Once he opened his lips, glanced at Sara and closed them again. Mr. ”