"Before discussing the business that is before us," said Thor, "I think
you would all enjoy, more or less, a record which I have in my
dictagraph, and which I have just listened to with a great deal of
pleasure."

He handed a tube to each and started the machine. It is a pity that
Hogarth could not have been present to have painted the several
expressions that came upon the faces of those four. A quiet but amused
satisfaction beamed from Thor, and his counsel could not conceal a broad
smile, but the wretched victim was fairly sick from mortification and
defeated avarice. He finally could stand no more and took the tube from
his ear, reached for his hat and was gone.

Thor had not seen Selwyn for a long time, but one morning, when he was
expecting another for whom he had his dictagraph set, Selwyn was
announced. He asked him in and gave orders that they were not to be
disturbed. When Selwyn had assured himself that they were absolutely
alone he told Thor his whole story.

It was of absorbing interest, and Thor listened fairly hypnotized by the
recital, which at times approached the dramatic. It was the first time
that Selwyn had been able to unbosom himself, and he enjoyed the
impression he was making upon the great financier. When he told how
Rockland had made an effort for freedom and how he brought him back,
squirming under his defeat, they laughed joyously.

Rich though he was beyond the dreams of avarice, rich as no man had ever
before been, Thor could not refrain from a mental calculation of how
enormously such a situation advanced his fortune. There was to be no