Vanulm laughed uneasily. Then suddenly he drew a long breath. "Confound it, Dick," he cried, a note of apology in his tone. "I hate to interfere this way, but I've known you a long time, and I like you too much to have things seem to begin to go wrong with you now. Since you've asked me, I'll tell you straight out that people are beginning to talk about this Konahassett scheme. They don't like it, Dick, and, as far as I can see, you can't really blame them. Your capitalization _is_ big, and beyond that, your methods of getting it before the public--well, they're unusual, Dick, if we simply let it go at that. Lamson tried that sort of thing, and you know where he wound up; Prince tried a clumsy imitation of Lamson, with all Lamson's lack of conscience, and none of Lamson's brains to back it up with, and he's where he won't do any more advertising for some time to come. And now you're working along the same lines that they did, and it's costing you your standing around the Federal, and down-town, too. There's not a doubt of it, Dick; and I can't bear to see it going on this way. What's the use?" Gordon grinned somewhat malevolently. "Meaning the ads?" he queried. Vanulm nodded. "Principally the ads," he answered. "They are cheap, Dick; cheap as the devil, and you know it." For answer Gordon pulled from his pocket a sheaf of the evening papers, and at random turned to the financial page of the _Observer_. There, sure enough, in huge black capitals, his latest bit of advice to investors stared the reader in the face: COPPERS--COPPERS--COPPERS ran the big head-lines; then, in smaller type, Gordon's brief pithy argument in favor of the purchase of copper stocks; the future of the metal; the expansion of telegraph and telephone; the electrification of railroads; the vain search for a substitute; the immense foreign demand; then good words for half a dozen other mines, all well and favorably known, and, lastly, a glowing paragraph devoted to the past, present and future of the Konahassett, its great area, the wonderful richness of its copper, its boundless possibilities within the next few years. The deduction was as obvious as the type which proclaimed it to the world. KONAHASSETT--KONAHASSETT ran the next to last line, and then, for a parting shot at the hesitating speculator, with splendid vigor and decision: BUY KONAHASSETT--BUY IT OUTRIGHT AND BUY IT NOW Gordon grinned again. "And you say they don't care for that at the Federal?" he asked. Vanulm shook his head. "They most certainly do not," he answered. "In fact, from all I hear, it's going to cost you your place on the House Committee at the next election."