I was expressing my pleasure at being of any use to him, when the ominous sound of the approaching cars made itself heard, and I had to hurry off. But, all the way back to the city, I could think of nothing but Silverthorn's announcement; and suddenly there flashed upon me the secret and the danger of the whole situation. This girl, who had so much interested the two friends, in spite of their strong contrasts of character, was, perhaps, the only one in the world who could have pleased them both; for in her own person she seemed to display a mixture of elements, much the same and quite as decided as theirs. What, then, if Vibbard also should wake up to the knowledge of a love for her? The next time I saw Silverthorn, which was a full year later, I said to him: "Do you hear from Vibbard anything about that agreement to divide your gains?" "No!" he replied, avoiding my eye; "nothing about that." "Do you expect him to keep it?" "Yes!" he said, glancing swiftly up again, with a gleam of friendly vindication in his eyes. "I know he will." "But I hear hard things said of him," I persisted. "Reports have lately come to me as to some rather close, not to say sharp, bargains of his. He is successful; perhaps he is changing." For the first time I saw Silverthorn angry. "Never say a word of that sort to me again!" he cried, with a demeanor bordering on violence. I was a little piqued, and inquired: "Well, how do you get on toward being in a position to pay him?" But I regretted my thrust. Silverthorn's face fell, and he could make no reply. "Is there no prospect of success with those machines you were talking of last year?" I asked more kindly. "No," said he, sadly. "I'm afraid not. I shall never succeed. It all depends on Vibbard, now. I cannot even marry, unless he gets enough to give me a start." I left him with a dreary misgiving in my heart. What an unhappy outcome of their compact was this! Meanwhile, Vibbard was thriving. After a brief sojourn with his father, who was a well-to-do hardware merchant in his own small inland city, he went to Virginia and began sheep-farming. In two years he had gained enough to find it feasible to return to New York, where he took up the business of a note-broker. People who knew him prophesied that he would prove too slow to be a successful man in early life; and, in fact, as he did not look like a quick man, he was a long time in gaining the reputation of one. But his sagacious instincts moved all the more effectively for being masked, and he made some astonishing strokes. It began to seem as if other men around him who lost, were controlled by some deadly attraction which forced them to throw their success under Vibbard's feet. His car rolled on over them. Everything yielded him a pecuniary return.