John dropped the paper beside his chair, stared at his plate a moment, and then turned to Dick. “Did either of you say anything to me just now? I think I’ll have some more coffee. What are you laughing about?” “I said I thought there must be something very entertaining about the front page of that paper,” said Dick. “Entertaining isn’t just the word,” he answered slowly. “It’s what I call confoundedly enterprising. They’ve told a great deal more than they’ve any right to know, and the worst of it is they’ve told the truth.” “I don’t know why you should object to their telling the truth,” said Alice. “Is it about something you’re concerned in?” Dick asked. John nodded. “I loaned a man a large sum of money day before yesterday, and the fact of his wanting it and the kind of security he put up would show to any one who knew about it that he was in a certain deal. He didn’t want that to get out, so I was very careful to conceal the loan. And here this paper seems to know all about it: not only about the deal, which they might have guessed from other things, but about the loan. It leaves me in an awkward position, you see.” “What sort of deal is it?” Dick asked. “Lard,” said John. “Here, you can read all about it,” and he handed her the paper. Dick glanced at the staring letters of the scare head. “To corner lard,” she read. “I should think that would be pretty hard to do,” she said reflectively. Then as John looked at her, manifestly surprised at the sageness of the remark and nodded assent to it, she added, “It’s so squashy, you know.” John laughed. “You took me in that time. Pickering will have to fight though, sure enough. They’re likely to make it warm for him to-day.” “On the Board of Trade?” cried Dick. “Will it be like the day you took Alice and me?” “It was unusually quiet that day,” said John. “Quiet!” exclaimed Alice. “It made my head ache for two days.” “Will it really be worse than that?” Dick asked. “Oh, I wish--” John glanced at his watch and hurriedly left the table. He appeared a moment later at the dining-room door and said,-- “If you and Alice care to come to the bank to-day at twelve o’clock, we can lunch together and then look in there for a few minutes.” They exclaimed simultaneously, but with different import. “All right,” said John, “either or both. Be there sharp at twelve if you want to catch me.”