he settled down to his report.Like his earlier telegram, the report was a little masterpiece of concise information. Not a word in it that was not dry, exact, meaningful. This was the

e done. "Did you attend all the injured?" he asked."All the serious ones, I think.""Was there a young girl among them, dark and good-looking, whose name began--""The one my addle-brained young nephew has been pestering me about? Miss I. O. W.?""Yes. He reported her to me.""I handled no such case that I recall. Now, as to your own helpfulness, I wish to make clear that I appreciate it."Mr. Vanney launched into a flowery tribute of the after-dinner variety, leaning forward to rest a hand upon Banneker's desk as he spoke. When the speech was over and the hand withdrawn, something remained among the strewn papers. Banneker regarded it with interest. It showed a blotch of yellow upon green and a capital C. Picking it up, he looked from it to its giver."A little tribute," said that gentleman: "a slight recognition of your services." His manner suggested that hundred-dollar bills were inconsiderable trifles, hardly requiring the acknowledgment of thanks.In this case the bill did not secure such acknowledgment."You don't owe me anything," stated the agent. "I can't take this!""What! Pride? Tut-tut.""Why not?" asked Banneker.Finding no immediate and appropriate answer to this simple question, Mr. Vanney stared."The company pays me. There's no reason why you should pay me. If anything, I ought to pay you for what you did at the wreck. But I'm not proposing to. Of course I'm putting in my report a statement about your help."Mr. Vanney's cheek flushed. Was this composed young hireling making sport of him?"Tut-tut!" he said again, this time with obvious intent to chide in his manner. "If I see fit to signify my appreciation--remember, I am old enough to be your father.""Then you ought to have better judgment," returned Banneker with such candor and good-humor that the visitor was fairly discomfited.An embarrassing silence--embarrassing, that is, to the older man; the younger seemed not to feel it--was happily interrupted by the advent of the lily-clad messenger.Hastily retrieving his yellow-back, which he subjected to some furtive and occult manipulations, Mr. Vanney, after a few words, took his departure.Banneker invited the newcomer to take the chair thus vacated. As he did so he brushed something to the floor and picked it up."Hello! What's this? Looks like a hundred-bucker. Yours?" He held out the bill.Banneker shook his head. "Your uncle left it.""It isn't a habit of his," replied the other."Give it to him for me, will you?""Certainly. Any message?""No."The newcomer grinned. "I see," he said. "He'll be bored when he gets this back. He isn't a bad old bird, but he don't savvy some things. So you turned him down, did you?""Yes.""Did he offer you a job and a chance to make your way in the world in one of his banks, beginning at ten-per?""No.""He will to-morrow.""I doubt it."The other gave a thought to the bill. "Perhaps you're right. He likes 'em meek and obedient. He'd make a woolly lamb out of you. Most fellows would jump at the chance.""I won't.""My name's Herbert Cressey." He handed the agent a card. "Philadelphia is my home, but my New York address is on there, too. Ever get East?""I've been to Chicago.""Chicago?" The other stared. "What's that got to do with--Oh, I see. You'll be coming to New York one of these days, though.""Maybe.""Sure as a gun. A chap that can handle a situation like you handled the wreck isn't going to stick in a little sand-heap like this.""It suits me here.""No! Does it? I'd think you'd die of it. Well, when you do get East look me up, will you? I mean it; I'd like to see you.""All right.""And if there's anything I can do for you any time, drop me a line."The sumptuous ripple and gleam of the young man's faultless coat, registered upon Banneker's subconscious memory as it had fallen at his feet, recalled itself to him."What store do you buy your clothes at?""Store?" Cressey did not smile. "I don't buy 'em at a store. I have 'em made by a tailor. Mertoun, 505 Fifth Avenue.""Would he make me a suit?""Why, yes. I'll give you a card to him and you go in there when you're in New York and pick out what you want.""Oh! He wouldn't make them and send them out here to me? Sears-Roebuck do, if you send your measure. They're in Chicago.""I never had any duds built in Chicago, so I don't know them. But I shouldn't think Mertoun would want to fit a man he'd never seen. They like to do things _right_, at Mertoun's. Ought to, too; they stick you enough for it.""How much?""Not much short of a hundred for a sack suit."Banneker was amazed. The choicest "made-to-measure" in his Universal Guide, "Snappy, fashionable, and up to the minute," came to less than half of that.His admiring eye fell upon his visitor's bow-tie, faultless and underanged throughout the vicissitudes of that arduous day, and he yearned to know whether it was "made-up" or self-confected. Sears-Roebuck were severely impartial as between one practice and the other, offering a wide range in each variety. He inquired."Oh, tied it myself, of course," returned Cressey. "Nobody wears the ready-made kind. It's no trick to do it. I'll show you, any time."They fell into friendly talk about the wreck.It was ten-thirty when Banneker finished his much-interrupted writing. Going out to the portable house, he lighted an oil-stove and proceeded to make a molasses pie. He was due for a busy day on the morrow and might not find time to take the mile walk to the hotel for dinner, as was his general habit. With the store of canned goods derived from the mail-order catalogue, he could always make shift to live. Besides, he was young enough to relish keenly molasses pie and the manufacture of it. Having concluded his cookery in strict accordance with the rules set forth in the guide to this art, he laid it out on the sill to cool over night.Tired though he was, his brain was too busy for immediate sleep. He returned to his den, drew out a book and began to read with absorption. That in which he now sought release and distraction was not the _magnum opus_ of Messrs. Sears-Roebuck, but the work of a less practical and popular writer, being in fact the "Eve of St. Agnes," by John Keats. Soo