Ships ... ships ... house-flags ... brass-buttoned owners....

He waved Mr. Fred to a chair and wrote furiously. This frantic

pressure of work was a phenomenon which invariably coincided with the

arrival of a visitor. It was, I think, partly due to nervousness and

partly to his dislike of strangers. Presently he finished, blotted the

paper, stuck it in an envelope, addressed it, and placed it in his

drawer. Then he took up the card.

"Mr. Pole?" he said.

"Mr. Pole," repeated that gentleman.

"Mr. Fred Pole?" asked Bones, with an air of surprise.

"Mr. Fred Pole," admitted the other soberly.

Bones looked from the card to the visitor as though he could not

believe his eyes.

"We have a letter from you somewhere," he said, searching the desk.

"Ah, here it is!" (It was, in fact, the only document on the table.)

"Yes, yes, to be sure. I'm very glad to meet you."

He rose, solemnly shook hands, sat down again and coughed. Then he

took up the ivory paper-knife to chew, coughed again as he detected the

lapse, and put it down with a bang.

"I thought I'd like to come along and see you, Mr. Tibbetts," said Fred

in his gentle voice; "we are so to speak, associated in business."

"Indeed?" said Bones. "In-deed?"

"You see, Mr. Tibbetts," Fred went on, with a sad smile, "your lamented

uncle, before he went out of business, sold us his ships. He died a

month later."

He sighed and Bones sighed.

"Your uncle was a great man, Mr. Tibbetts," he said, "one of the

greatest business men in this little city. What a man!"

"Ah!" said Bones, shaking his head mournfully.

He had never met his uncle and had seldom heard of him. Saul Tibbetts

was reputedly a miser, and his language was of such violence that the

infant Augustus was invariably hurried to the nursery on such rare

occasions as old Saul paid a family visit. His inheritance had come to

Bones as in a dream, from the unreality of which he had not yet

awakened.

"I must confess, Mr. Tibbetts," said Fred, "that I have often had

qualms of conscience about your uncle, and I have been on the point of

coming round to see you several times. This morning I said to my

brother, 'Joe,' I said, 'I'm going round to see Tibbetts.' Forgive the

familiarity, but we talk of firms like the Rothschilds and the Morgans

without any formality."

"Naturally, naturally, naturally," murmured Bones gruffly.

"I said: 'I'll go and see Tibbetts and get it off my chest. If he

wants those ships back at the price we paid for them, or even less, he

shall have them.' 'Fred,' he said, 'you're too sensitive for

business.' 'Joe,' I said, 'my conscience works even in business

hours.'"




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