"I have. I believe there is an effort on foot to get some of Mr.
Hammon's money dishonestly. I have a reason for wishing to prevent
it."

"I knew I wasn't mistaken in you," smiled Merkle.

"Oh, don't attribute my actions to any high moral motives! I'm
getting a little rusty on right and wrong. Personally, I have no
sympathy with Mr. Hammon, and I don't imagine he acquired all of
his tremendous fortune in a perfectly honorable way. Besides, he's
a married man."

"It isn't alone Jarvis or his family or their money that is
concerned," Merkle said, gravely. "Great financial institutions
sometimes rest on foundations as slight as one man's personality--
one man's reputation for moral integrity. A breath of suspicion of
any sort at the wrong time may bring on a crash involving innocent
people.

"Hammon at this moment carries a tremendous top-heavy burden of
responsibilities; his death would be no more disastrous than a
scandal that would tend to destroy public confidence in him as a
man."

"Doesn't he know that himself?"

"Perhaps. But his infatuation overtook him at an age when a man is
a fool. Young men are always objects of suspicion in the financial
world, for their emotions are unruly; but when old men fall in