I’ve said is right in line. If you’ll take a word of advice that’s intended right, even if it seems patronizing, you’ll wake up right now and begin to steer straight for the flag-pole. If you keep on floundering aimlessly and waiting for an act of Providence you’ll come to grief as surely as to-morrow is coming, old man.”

“And by steering straight you mean to save money. To get my eye on a dollar, leave 25 everything else, and chase it until it drops from fatigue.”

“I mean get power; and dollars are the tangible evidence and manifestation of power. They are the only medium that passes current in any country any day in the year.”

Armstrong smiled, a smile that was not pleasant to see.

“You’d have me give up my literary aspirations then, let them die a-borning as it were—”

“I didn’t say that. So far as I can see you can keep on just the same. There are twenty-four hours in every day. But make that phase secondary. I don’t discount writers in the least or their work; but with the world as it is the main chance doesn’t lie that way—and it’s the main chance we’re all after. Fish or no fish, I tell you some time you’ll find this out for yourself. To get the most out of life a man must be in the position to pass current wherever he may be. In the millennium the standard may be different—I for one sincerely hope it will be; but in the twentieth century dollars are the key that unlocks everything. Without them you’re as helpless as a South Sea islander in a metropolitan street. You’re at the mercy of every human being that wants to give you a kick; and the majority 26 will give it to you if they see you are defenceless.”

Armstrong was still smiling, the same being a smile not pleasant to see.

“Now that I’ve got you going,” he commented, “I’ve a curiosity to have you keep on. You’re certainly stirring with a vengeance to-night, Darley.”

“And accomplishing nothing. Strange as it may seem to you, I’m serious.”

“I don’t doubt it, old man.” Of a sudden the smile had passed. “I can’t adjust my point of view to yours at all. If I thought dollars were the end of existence I’d quit the game now. If the world has come to this—”

“The world hasn’t come to it and never will. You simply can’t or won’t see the point. I repeat, that of themselves they’re nothing, but they’re the means to everything. Get your competency first, your balance-wheel, your independence, your established base of supplies; then plan your campaign. The world is big, infinitely big, to the human being who can command. It’s a little mud ball to the other who has to dance whenever some one else whistles.”

“And how about happiness, the thing we’re all after?” 27

“It isn’t happiness, but it’s the means to it. There can be no happiness without independence.”

“Even marital happiness?”

“That most of all. I tell you the lack of a sufficient income is the rock on which most married people go to pieces. It isn’t the only one, but it’s the most frequent. I’ve seen and I know.”

“You’d drive our old friend Cupid out of business, Darley. You don’t give him an inch of ground to stand on.”

“On the contrary, I keep him in business indefinitely—”

“Moreover, the examples of the rich, scattered broadcast through the daily papers, hardly bear you out.”

“They are the exception that proves the rule. Nine hundred and ninety-nine poor couples come to grief, and the world never hears of it. In the thousandth case a rich man and woman make fools of themselves and the world reads the scandal next morning. The principle is unaltered. The exceptions, the irresponsibles whether rich or poor, are something to which no rule applies.”

“All right.” Armstrong sat up, preventingly. “I don’t want to argue with you. You’re a 28 typical lawyer and always ride me down by pure force of mass.” He smiled. “Gentlemen of the law are invariably that way, Darley. Figuratively, you fellows always travel horseback while the rest of us go afoot, and if we don’t hustle out of the way you ride us down without remorse.”

Roberts was listening again in silence, with his normal attitude of passive observance.

“I’m feeling pretty spry, though, to-night,” went on the other, “and able to get out of the way, so I’m going to get in close as possible and watch you. I’ve tried to do so before, but somehow I’m always side-tracked just at the psychological moment.” The quizzical voice became serious, the flippant manner vanished. “Honestly, Darley, I can’t understand you any more than you can me. You said a bit ago you wondered where I would end. I have the same wonder about you. Just what are you aiming at, old man, anyway? In all the years I’ve known you you’ve never come right out and said in so many words.”

“You mean what do I intend to do that will make me famous or infamous, that will at least make me talked about?”

Armstrong laughed shortly. The shot was well aimed. 29

“I suppose that is approximately what I had in mind,” he admitted.

“To answer your question then, directly, I don’t intend to do anything. Nothing is further from my plans than to get a position where I’ll be talked about.”

“Just what do you want, then?”

“I want the substance, not the husk. I want to be the party that pulls the wires and not the figures that dance on the front of the stage. I want things done when I say they shall be done. I want the piper to play when I pass the word. I’m perfectly willing that others should have the honor and the glory and the limelight; but after the play is over I want to be the boy to whom the report is made and who gives directions for the next performance. Is that definite enough?”

“Yes, definite enough; but are you going to get there? You asked me the same question, you recall, a bit ago.”

“Yes, if I live.”

“And if you don’t live?”

Again the shrug. “I shall have tried. I can tell Saint Peter that.”

“I didn’t refer to Saint Peter. I meant you yourself. Where is your own justification except in the attainment of the end?” 30

“Justification!” Roberts leaned suddenly forward, his attitude no longer that of an observer but of a participant, one in the front of the charge. “The game is its own justification, man! Things don’t have to be done with two hundred bright young students watching and listening to be worth while, my friend.”

Armstrong shifted uncomfortably, then he tacked.

“Just one more question, a repetition again of your own. Have you the attainment of this object you suggest definitely in sight? You’re older than I and have been playing the game some time yourself.”

“I think so.”

“Do you know so?”

“As nearly as a man can know anything that hasn’t come to pass.”

“Just how, Darley? I’m absolutely in the dark in regard to your deals and I’m curious to know the inside. You’ve got something particular in mind, I know, or you wouldn’t speak that way.”

For the first time in minutes Roberts looked at the other, looked