"I’ll be liberal, and give you more than it’s worth. I’ll pay you One Thousand Dollars a week for the next four weeks, and on the day that Wharton Kendrick makes his assignment, I’ll give you Twenty-Five Thousand Dollars. I wouldn’t do it for any one else, but I want to see that you don’t lose anything." I understood from this outburst of verbal generosity how much he overestimated my share in Wharton Kendrick’s affairs. "Well, I’ll think it over and let you know," I said, rising to escape. The pressure of my indignation had reached the danger point, and I felt that if I sat there another minute my honest opinion would burst forth in words that would put an end to further hopes of getting any revelations out of him. "You’d better take it now," he urged, with a shadow of disappointment on his face. "It’s a good offer, and I might find some one else to take it up by to-morrow." "Oh, I’ll take the risk," I returned. "I have a monopoly on this business, and you know it, and I can take what time I please." "Just as you like, young man, just as you like," he said in his sarcastic drawl. "But look out for your own interests. If you don’t, I can tell you that Wharton Kendrick won’t." Before he could deliver another homily on the folly of honesty and the importance of pursuing the interests of Number One, I hastened out of the office, with the thought that I had penetrated far into the evil designs of Peter Bolton at the cost of a good deal of self-respect. I soothed my indignant spirit with a walk that gave me time to assure myself that no spy was following me, and then bent my steps to Wharton Kendrick’s offices to lay the case before my client. The accumulation of five hundred thousand dollars’ worth of his notes in Peter Bolton’s hands seemed to be a matter that might call for very serious consideration. I found Wharton Kendrick in his private room in converse with General Wilson, and the discussion appeared to have become heated. General Wilson’s face gleamed like a great carbuncle, and Wharton Kendrick’s ruddy cheeks were ruddier than ever with signs of temper. "You can’t do it, Kendrick," General Wilson was saying, with a wave of the hand. "I’ve been over every foot of that land that isn’t too soft to stand on, and I’ll tell you that you can’t put in any such works." "I’ve had two first-class engineers go over it," replied Wharton Kendrick with equal positiveness, "and they say it can be done." "Engineers--engineers! What are they worth?" snorted General Wilson scornfully. "I’ve got two eyes, and they are good enough engineers for me." "You’ll find ’em mighty expensive ones if you try to do business on their estimates," said Wharton Kendrick grimly. "Experts come high, but they are cheaper than your own guesswork. You can count it liberal of me to give you that information for nothing, for it cost me over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars."