He doesn't care for my good name any more than for his own." Hendricks drummed with his fingers on the desk before him.

His blue eyes looked into nothing, and his mind's eye saw the house of cards he had been dallying with totter and fall.

He drew a deep breath before he looked up at the colonel, and said rather sadly: "Well, Colonel, you're right.

I told John the day after I came home that I wouldn't stand it." He drummed with his fingers for a moment before continuing, "I suppose you got about half of those contracts, didn't you ?" The colonel pulled from his pocket a crumpled paper and handed it to Hendricks, "Here they are, sir--and every one from a soldier or a soldier's widow, every one a homestead, sir." Hendricks walked to the window, and stood looking out with his eyes cast down.

He fumbled his Masonic watch-charm a moment, and then glancing at it, caught the colonel's eye and smiled as he said: "I'm on the square, Colonel, in this matter.