could not do it. But of late he had gained a strong vantage point. He
watched with intense interest Mr. Allen's attraction toward, and
entrance upon, a speculation that he knew to be as uncertain of issue
as it was large in proportions, for, if the case ever became critical,
he was conscious of the power of introducing a very important element
into the problem.

In his care of the custom-house business he had discovered technical
violations of the revenue laws which already involved the loss to the
firm of a million dollars, and, with his peculiar loyalty to himself,
thought this knowledge ought to be worth a great deal. As Mr. Allen
went down into the deep waters of Wall Street, he saw that it might
be. In saving his employer from wreck he might virtually become
captain of the ship.

After this brief delineation of character, it would strike the reader
as very incongruous to say that Mr. Fox had fallen in love with Edith.
Mr. Fox never stumbled or fell. He could slide down and scramble up to
any extent, and when cornered could take a flying leap like that of a
cat. But he had been greatly impressed by Edith's beauty, and to win
her also would be an additional and piquant feature in the game. He
had absolute confidence in money, much of which he might have gained
from Mr. Allen himself. He knew a million of her father's money was in
his power, and this, in a certain sense, placed him in the position of
a suitor worth a million, and such he knew to be almost omnipotent on
the avenue. If this money could also be the means of causing Mr.
Allen's ruin, or saving him from it, he believed that Edith would be
his as truly as the bonds and certificates of stock that he often
counted and gloated over. Even before Mr. Allen entered on what he
called his great and final operation for the present, Mr. Fox was half