“That Miss Miller is a fine looking girl, all right,” he mused, trying to devote his attention to the morning’s report about the corn market; “I don’t think I ever met such an attractive person. Still, I think I prefer Bessie. And the chap that was with her--I forget his name--he seems to be a pretty swell party. Seems to me I’ve seen him before. If I have, of course it was in Chicago. I wonder if Dudley will be around looking for me this morning? I don’t fancy him much, although he certainly treated me away up in G. I’m sorry on the whole I met him, for if he returns to town before me he’ll probably mention that he met me out here, and that’s just what Mr. Whitemore doesn’t want. If it should get about that I was on a night racket with him it’s bound to hurt me. I guess I’d better cut Dudley out by taking an early train for Grainville.” As this seemed to be good policy, Vance hastened to settle with the hotel people, and having found that he could get a train for his destination at 1:30 p. m., he snatched a hasty lunch, hired a cab, and reached the station in plenty of time to board the through accommodation. Arrived at Grainville, he went to the best hotel in town and registered, depositing his documents, as usual, in the office safe. Next morning he visited the two elevator concerns he had to do business with, settled the differences without trouble, and took a call on the grain, sending his vouchers off to Chicago in the usual way. From there he went to other important grain centers in Kansas, where the balance of his options were to be settled, closing up that part of the business finally in Jayville, Missouri. “There, that winds up the option business,” he remarked with an air of relief as he registered the last of his vouchers for Chicago. Consulting his letter of instructions, he found that he had to proceed to a town called Elevatorville, on the Mississippi, facing the State of Kentucky. The branch railroad that connected the place with the nearest trunk line was a rocky affair, and had fallen into the hands of a receiver owing to a default in the interest on its first mortgage bonds. Evidently transportation business had fallen off badly in that section. Vance made cautious inquiries at the junction as to whether much grain had passed over the branch road lately, but nobody seemed to know anything about the matter. The regular station agent was sick in bed, and the substitute assured Vance that there was nothing doing in that line. The boy took the late afternoon train for Elevatorville, arriving at the town long after dark. A solitary, worn-out hotel ’bus was backed up against the station platform. Vance, grip in hand, was stepping over to take it, when it suddenly struck him that perhaps he had better not go to the hotel. If he could obtain accommodation at some house in the suburbs his presence in the place would probably attract less attention.