"I know that," said I. "And I will even admit that its scoundrels are
seldom made up wholly of scoundrelism. Even Roebuck would rather do the
decent thing, if he can do it without endangering his personal interests.
As for you--I regard you as one of the decentest men I ever knew--outside
of business. And even there, I believe you'd keep your word, as long as the
other fellow kept his."

"Thank you," said he, bowing ironically. "This flattery makes me suspect
you've come to get something."

"On the contrary," said I. "I want to give something. I want to give you my
coal mines."

"I thought you'd see that our offer was fair," said he. "And I'm glad you
have changed your mind about quarreling with your best friends. We can be
useful to you, you to us. A break would be silly."

"That's the way it looks to me," I assented. And I decided that my sharp
talk to Roebuck had set them to estimating my value to them.

"Sam Ellersly," Langdon presently remarked, "tells me he's campaigning hard
for you at the Travelers. I hope you'll make it. We're rather a slow crowd;
a few men like you might stir things up."

I am always more than willing to give others credit for good sense and good
motives. It was not vanity, but this disposition to credit others with
sincerity and sense, that led me to believe him, both as to the Coal matter
and as to the Travelers Club. "Thanks, Langdon," I said; and that he might
look no further for my motive, I added: "I want to get into that club much