"Twenty-two bob a week certain," he said. "Better than losing a couple of hundred pounds, Jack. Not much longer hours either, and an open-air life!" "Well, take it on," Jack, who had a cynical turn of humour, advised. "He (the platelayer he meant) couldn't very well lose more than you do; and you'll never make more than he does. Swap!" The first speaker retired behind the _Telegraph_ in some disgust. It is hard to meet a rival wit as early as eight-thirty in the morning. The American mail was not in when Andy reached Dowgate Hill, in which important locality he occupied an insignificant attic. A fog off the coast of Ireland accounted for the delay. But on his table, as indicated by the small boy who constituted his staff--the staff would, of course, be larger when that corner was turned--lay a cable. There was no other correspondence. Things were quiet. Andy could not suppress a reflection that a rather later train would have done as well. Still there was a cable; no doubt it advised the remittance. The remittance was a matter of peremptory necessity, unless Andy were to empty his private pocket. "Incontestable--Incubation--Ineffective." So ran the cable. Andy scratched his nose and reached for the code. If ever a digression were allowable, if expatiation on human fortune and vicissitudes were still the fashion, what a text lies in the cable code! This cold-blooded provision for all emergencies, this business-like abbreviation of tragedy! "Asbestos" means "Cannot remit." "Despairing" signifies "If you think it best." (Could despair sound more despairing?) "Patriotic--Who are the heaviest creditors?" Passing to other fields of life: "Risible--Doctor gives up hope." "Refreshing--Sinking steadily; prepare for the worst." "Resurrection--There is no hope of recovery." "Resurgam--Realization of estate proceeding satisfactorily." The cable code is a masterly epitome of life. However Andy Hayes was not given to digression or to expatiation. Patiently he turned the leaves to find the interpretation of his own three mystic words. The result was not encouraging. "Incontestable--Incubation--Ineffective." Which being interpreted ran: "Most essential to retrench all unnecessary expense. Cannot see prospects of your branch becoming paying proposition. Advise you to close up and return as soon as possible." There was a fourth word. The "operator"--Andy still chose in his mind the transatlantic term--had squeezed it into a corner, so that it did not at first catch the reader's notice. "Infusoria." Andy turned up "Infusoria." It was a hideously uncompromising word, as the code rendered it; the code makes a wonderful effort sometimes. "Infusoria" meant: "We expect you to act on this advice at once, and we cannot be responsible for expenditure beyond what is strictly necessary to wind up." Andy did not often smoke in his office in business hours, but he had a cigarette now.