"Well, that's pretty straight," he thought. The instructions were certainly free from ambiguity. "Made a failure of it!" The cigarette tended to resignation. "Needed a cleverer fellow than I am to make it go." This was his usual sobriety of judgment. "Rather glad to be out of it." That was the draught-horse's instinctive cry of joy at being released from a hopeless effort. They were right on the other side--it was not a "paying proposition." He was good at seeing facts; they did not offend him. So many people are offended at facts--really a useless touchiness. "All right!" said Andy, flinging the end of the cigarette into the grate, and taking up that fateful code again. "Passionately" met his need: "Will act on instructions received without delay and with all possible saving of expense." "Yes," said Andy, his stylograph moving in mid-air. He turned over the pages again, seeking another word, thinking very hard whether he should send that other word when he found it. The word was "Interjection." It meant: "My personal movements uncertain. Will advise you of them at the earliest moment possible." To cable "Interjection" would mean an admission of considerable import, both to his principals in Montreal and to himself. It would imply that he was thinking of cutting adrift. Andy was thinking terribly hard about it. It might cause his principals to consider that he was taking too much on himself. Andy was not a partner; he was only on a salary, with a small contingent profit from commissions. It seemed complimentary--and delusive--now to call the profit contingent; the salary was all he had in the world. Such an independently minded word as "Interjection" incurred a risk. Before he had done thinking about cutting adrift, he might find himself cut adrift. The principals were peremptory men. In view of his failure to make the London branch a "paying proposition," perhaps he was lucky in that he had not been cut adrift already. There was a code word for that--"Seltzer." It meant, "We shall be able to dispense with your services on the ---- prox." "Seltzer thirtieth" would have thrown--and might still throw--Andy on the mercy of the world. Turning up the code (if you are not thoroughly familiar with it) may be interesting work--"as exciting as any novel," as reviewers kindly say of books of travel.