Black will have my life to answer for."

"Judge Black?" asked Katherine. "What has he done?"

"Done? He's disappeared off the face of the earth just at this particular
moment when I've got to have him here."

"Why," cried Katherine, "I know where he is. He's at the Grand View
Hotel--"she paused and leaned forward, her elbows on the table and her
hands clasped before her. "It's some place up in Wisconsin that sounds
like alpaca. Waupaca--that's it. Grand View Hotel, Waupaca, Wisconsin."

"Are you sure that's right?" he asked. "How do you know?"

"Mr. West told me," she answered. "There was such a good joke on him in
the paper. I meant to tell you about it."

But Porter was smiling over something else. After a moment he said:--

"We'd have been swamped long ago in this M. & T. business if it hadn't
been for the kind services of that wise and valuable young man, West. I
think I'll pay him a regular salary after this to keep him on the other
side in all the fights I get into. Lord, what a fool he is!"

He left the room so abruptly that he did not see how Katherine's cheeks
reddened, nor how her lips pressed together in vexation. If he had he
would not have known the reason for it any more than Katherine did.