An attempt to identify the Harkness who had applied for insurance as the Harkness who had lived at 1176 Wabash Avenue failed utterly, owing to the fact that the woman who had formerly conducted a boarding-house at that number had moved and it was impossible to find her. It was a simple matter, however, to verify other statements made by Harkness. He was now living at 2313 Wesson Street, and was employed by a large wholesale grocery firm. His employer spoke highly of him, but knew nothing of his personal affairs. He might or might not be married. The employer had been under the impression that he was a bachelor, but could not recall that Harkness ever had said so. This confusion was partly explained at the Wesson Street boarding-house, for Harkness had recently told the landlady that he expected his wife to join him soon. He explained that she had been visiting relatives during the six months he had been at this house, but that they were planning to take a small flat. They had previously had a flat, the address of which he gave, and the agent for the building remembered that Elmer Harkness had been among his tenants for two years. He knew very little about them, except that Harkness had paid his rent promptly and had been a model tenant. “And there you are!” grumbled Murray. “He’s all right, and I wouldn’t hesitate a minute, except for this other Harkness who hailed from the same place, lived in Wabash Avenue, and was refused insurance. Who was he? How can there be two Elmers from a town that produced only one?” “Possibly it is the same Elmer,” suggested the doctor. “Possibly he was refused owing to some temporary trouble that deceived the first physician. Possibly he did live at the Wabash Avenue place, but thought his chance of getting insurance would be better if he denied that he ever had been refused, and, having once told that story, he has had to stick to it. Of course, he had no means of knowing our facilities for getting information.” “I don’t see,” returned Murray, “that our facilities have succeeded in doing more than confuse us in this case. However, I’ll submit the whole matter to the home office.” After taking some time for consideration, the home office decided that there was no reason for refusing the risk. “If you are sure this man is physically all right,” was the reply received, “and that he is the man he represents himself to be, there would seem to be no reason for refusing the risk. There may have been some attempt at fraud, with which he had nothing to do, in the other case, and none in this. In any event, if the man who applied to you is a good risk physically, and a man of good reputation, as your report indicates, we are willing to give him the policy.”