None knew better than he how important it was to the firm that this sale should be effected.

The truth was if the money market should become at all close the firm would undoubtedly find themselves in serious difficulty.

Ruin to the company meant not only the blasting of his own prospects, but misery to her whom he loved better than life; and after all, what he was asked to do was nothing more than might be done any day in the world of business.

Every buyer is supposed to know the value of the thing he buys, and certainly Colonel Thorp should not commit his company to a deal involving such a large sum of money without thoroughly informing himself in regard to the value of the limits in question, and when he, as an employee of the Raymond and St.Clair Lumber Company, gave in his report, surely his responsibility ceased.

He was not asked to present any incorrect report; he could easily make it convenient to be absent until the deal was closed.