"I wanted to ask Mr. Elkins about me home," said she. "I tuk in washin' to buy it, an' me son, poor Patsy, God rist 'is soul, he helped wid th' bit of money from the Brotherhood, whin he was kilt betune the cars. It was sivin hundred an' fifty dollars, an' now Thronson offers me four thousan'. I told him I'd sell, fer it's a fortune for a workin' woman; but befure I signed papers, I wanted to ask Mr. Elkins; he's such a fair-spoken man, an' knowin' to me min-folks in Peoria." "If you want to sell, Mrs. Collins," said I, "we will take your property at five thousand dollars." She started, and regarded me, first in amazement, then with distrust, shading off into hostility. "Thank ye kindly, sir," said she; "I'll be goin' now. I've med up me moind, if that bit of land is wort all that money t' yees, it's wort more to me. Thank ye kindly!" and she fled from the presence of the tempter. "The town is full of Biddy Collinses," commented Jim. "Well, we can't land everything, and couldn't handle the catch if we did. In fact, for present purposes, isn't it better to have her refuse?" This incident was the hint upon which our "Syndicate," as it came to be called, acted from time to time, in making fabulous offers to every Biddy Collins in town. "Offer twenty thousand," Jim would say. "The more you bid the less apt is he to accept; he's a Biddy Collins." And whatever Mr. Elkins advised was done. There were eight or ten of us in the "Syndicate," dubbed by Jim "The Crew," among whom were Tolliver, Macdonald, and Will Lattimore. But the inner circle, now drawing closer and closer together, were Elkins, our ruling spirit; Hinckley, our great force in the banking world; and myself. Soon, I was given to understand, Mr. Cornish was to take his place as one of us. He and Jim had long known each other, and Mr. Elkins had the utmost confidence in Mr. Cornish's usefulness in what he called "the thought-transference department." Elkins & Barslow kept their offices open night and day, almost, and the number of typewriters and bookkeepers grew astoundingly. I became almost a stranger to my wife. I got hurried glimpses of Miss Trescott and her mother at the hotel, and knew that she and Alice were becoming fast friends; but so far the social prominence which the _Herald_ had predicted for us had failed to arrive.