"And miss all the fun? Miss my pay for the trip? I agreed to take
my commission in thrills."

The jeweler was frankly curious. "Weren't you frightened?"

"Frightened? No." Gray shook his head. "I've never been really
afraid of anything or anybody, so far as I recall. I've never been
able to understand the necessity of being frightened. I dare say
the capacity for enjoying that particular emotion was omitted from
my make-up--the result of some peculiar prenatal influence,
probably. I'm sorry, too, for fear must have a fascination and I
like unusual sensations."

"Speaking of your commissions, how am I going to pay you--not for
the sale you made, although I wouldn't have done as well, but for
the loss you saved the firm and for the risk you ran?"

Gray felt a momentary desire to have done with pretense, to
confess his true condition and to beg not only a suitable reward
for his services, but also as large a loan as Coverly could spare.
It is hard to maintain an attitude of opulence on less than
nothing; it would be so much easier to have done with this
counterfeit gesture and trust to a straightforward appeal. But he
dared not yield to the impulse.

"You may give me anything you see fit," he declared, "and I
sha'n't embarrass you by refusing. On the contrary, go as strongly
as you possibly can."