Here he found at a desk a man still young, albeit his hair was whitened here and there and showed only a suggestion of its pristine auburn hue; his eyes were grave and had that steady, concentrated look characteristic of those who deal much with money in the abstract, as it were, as if they appreciated its elusive quality and fugitive tendency and kept a sharp lookout for unexpected vagaries. Nevertheless there was something in his aspect, even in the lines of his firm mouth, with its slightly compressed lips, that betokened geniality, and the tones of his voice were kind. "Jim, I want you to do me a favor," said the manager without preamble. He disregarded the chair close at hand and perched himself on the edge of the desk. "You couldn't do me a greater favor than to ask one," said the broker, whose first thought was of course of the market, of bulls and bears, and he was prepared to do his utmost in the financial arena, for this was a friend whom he valued indeed. His well-controlled face changed as Gorham plunged into Ned's story; this was far from the sort of thing which he had expected, and taken by surprise he could not all at once adjust his mind to the point of view. He listened vaguely, perceiving no way in which this could concern any service that he could render Gorham, until at last the manager concluded with the blunt request,-- "Now Jim, I want you to go down and bail the little fellow." The broker recoiled aghast. "_I?_ Why, the boy would jump the ranch! I should lose the money!" The manager explained. "I'll stand in behind you. If the boy runs away and you have to pay the money I'll make it good. _I_ can't go on the bail-bond, you see, because it wouldn't do for me to appear as one of the prosecutors in the case and surety on the bond as well! Even if _I_ could get out of the case now against him, the other prosecutors would hold on to him." Vanbigh said nothing. He looked at once surprised, distrustful, troubled. Gorham talked on impulsively. "This is the first genuine case of conscience I have seen for many a year! Believe a boy who couldn't endure to chouse me out of half a dollar burned my theatre! No, sir! I tell you I have lived so long by sham heroics and sham sentiment--and I am so sick of shams, and the world is generally such a big, shameless sham--that I'm mighty apt to know a genuine thing when I see it by the sheer force of contrast. _That_ boy won't jump the town! A boy with all that conscience to carry _couldn't_ run away! He is innocent. And this is a terrible charge. He is helpless and he ought to be befriended. I want you to give bail for him!" The broker was not only dubious--he was becoming greatly embarrassed as well. "Suppose," he suggested in a constrained voice, "it should be discovered somehow that I am not acting for myself in bailing him, but for _you_."