"It's a little complex," said I, "the way you state it, but--" "It'll all be clear in the morning," he said. "Anyway, that's what he chose. And what is he? The Emperor of Coin. He was a modest business man a few years ago. Suddenly the wealth of a continent began flowing into his control. It rolled in and rolled in, every coin making him stronger and stronger, until now the business of the world takes out insurance policies on his life and scans the reports of his health as if the very basis of society were John D. You-Know-Who. Emperors court his favor, and the financial world shakes when he walks. You don't think for a minute that this could be done by any natural means, do you?" "But the price of the bottle was one _centime_!" said I, my altruism coming uppermost once more. "One _centime_: and he is no longer young!" "Exactly," he answered, "and he's got to sell it, or go to--Well, he's just about got to sell it!" "But how?" I queried. "What coin is there smaller than a _centime_--what he paid?" "All been figured out," said he airily. "Who solved the puzzle I don't know; but I guess it was Senator Depew. Know what a mill is?" "A mill? Yes," said I. "A factory? A pugilistic encounter? A money of account?" "Yes," said he, "a 'money of account.' Never coined. One-tenth of a cent. _One-half a centime!_ Have you heard of Senator Aldrich's currency bill, S. F. 41144? It's got a clause in it providing for the coinage of the mill. And there's where I come in. I'm an unelected legislator--third house, you know. Let the constructive statesman bring in their little bills. I'm satisfied to put 'em through! S. F. 41144 is going to be put through, and old J. D.'ll sell his Bottle, Imp and all. Price, one mill. When this grip epidemic started in, he got a touch of it, and I'll state that a sick man feels a little nervous with that Imp in stock. So they wired for me. It's going to be a fight all right!" "Why, who will oppose the bill?" said I. "No one will know its object." "Lots of folks will oppose it," said he. "Every association of clergymen in the country is liable to turn up fighting it tooth and nail. There are too many small coins now for the interests of the people who depend on contribution boxes. The Sunday-schools will all be against it. And the street-car companies won't want the cent subdivided. Then it'll be hard to convince Joe Cannon; he's always looking for a nigger in the fence, and there _is_ one here, you understand. But the mill's going to be coined, all the same!" "But," said I, "who will buy the diabolical thing for a mill? If Keawe and his wife had such trouble selling it for a _centime_, it will be impossible to dispose of it for a mill, absolutely impossible! It's the irreducible minimum!" "I take it, Sir," said he, with a recurrence of the capital S, "that you are not engaged in what Senator Lodge in our conference last night called 'hot finance'?"