THE shipping clerk and commercial traveler walked out of the store arm-in-arm, and bent their steps toward a billiard saloon. Mr. Jones talked incessantly. The sober face Guy wore, and the words he had let fall a while ago, were small things in themselves, but much too important to be disregarded, for they were signs of the awakening which was sure to come, but which Mr. Jones, for reasons of his own, wished to postpone for a day or two longer. So he tried to keep up Guy’s spirits, and believing that a little assistance might not come amiss, led him into Dutch Jake’s saloon, where they had a glass of beer and a cigar apiece, Jones paying for one and Guy treating to the other.

“Chalk it, Jake,” said Guy, as he walked around the end of the counter for a match to light his cigar.

“Vell,” said the Dutchman with some hesitation, “I shalks dis, but I don’t likes dis shalking pisness pooty vell, nohow. You peen shpending monish like plazes, Meester Harris—you know it? Your pill peen running dwo months.”

Guy reddened to the roots of his hair. This was a gentle hint that Jake wanted him to pay up, and he had never been dunned before.

“How much do I owe you?” he asked.

“Eight tollars und vorty zents; you know it now.”

“Eight dollars and—Great Scott! how can that be?” exclaimed Guy, almost overwhelmed with astonishment. “I haven’t been stuck for a game of cards for the last two weeks.”

“Vell, it’s all fair, every zent!” almost shouted the Dutchman, bringing his fist down on the counter with a sounding whack. “You dinks I sheats you, py dunder?”

“Oh, now, Jake, you needn’t get on the rampage,” said Jones, interposing to calm the rising storm. “Guy is not disputing your bill—he is a gentleman. He will pay every cent of it in a few days.”

“Vell, dot’s all right, put it’s petter he bays it pooty gwick. Ven a man gomes here mit vine glose und a vine vatch und shain, und runs me a pill here in mine house von eight tollars und vorty zents, I don’t likes dis pisness.”

While the Dutchman was talking himself hoarse Guy and his companion beat a hasty retreat. Jones seemed to look upon the matter in the light of an excellent joke, and laughed heartily over it, but Guy said nothing. He was in a very serious frame of mind. He did not in the least enjoy the game of billiards that followed, for his thoughts were full of the unpleasant incident that had just happened. He was learning now what all people who go in debt must learn sooner or later—that a bill, like the snow-ball a boy rolls up to build his mimic fort, accumulates rapidly. He was glad when the game was finished. He and Jones took a cigar at the counter, and were about to move away when the bar-tender beckoned to Guy.

“I don’t want you to think hard of me, Harris,” said he, leading Guy out of earshot of his companion, “but I just thought that I would suggest to you that perhaps your bill here is rather larger than you think. It has been running five weeks, and we like to have our customers settle up at least once a month.”

“How much is it?” asked Guy with as much indifference as he could throw into his tones.

“Only twenty-four dollars. Don’t misunderstand me now. I am not dunning you, for I know that you are a thoroughbred, and that you are able to pay it at any moment. I merely wish to call your attention to it.”

“I am glad you did,” said Guy. “I’ll see to it. Good-evening.”

Had Guy suddenly been knocked over by some invisible hand he could not have been more amazed. Thirty-two dollars in debt, and several creditors yet to hear from! Had he been asked an hour before to name the sum he owed these two men, he would have said not more than five dollars. He had kept no account of the bills he had run at other places, and if they exceeded his estimate of them in the same proportion that these two did, what would become of him? Where could he raise the money to pay them? He could not bear to think about it. He overtook his companion at the door, and the latter saw very plainly that the awakening had come.

“Well, perhaps it is as well that it should come now as at a later day,” soliloquized the commercial traveler. “I’ve got him just where I want him, and I’ll make him a proposition to-night. I have another whole day to operate in before I start out on my travels, and a great deal can be accomplished in that time. How much is it, Guy? Twenty-four dollars! That is less than I thought it would be. Billiards at twenty-five cents a game, and fancy drinks at fifteen cents each count up, you know. When are you going to pay it?”

“I don’t know. I can’t pay Jake’s bill, much less this one.”

“Well, now, I say! Look here, my dear fellow, this won’t do, you know!” exclaimed Mr. Jones, suddenly stopping in the street and turning a most astonished face toward Guy. “Remember, if you please, that these people to whom I have introduced you are my personal friends, and that I brought you to their notice supposing you to be a gentleman. You must pay these bills. My honor is at stake as well as your own, because I introduced you. If you don’t do it, your creditors will call upon Mr. Walker.”

“Great Scott!” ejaculated Guy, who had never thought of this before.

“Certainly they will,” continued Mr. Jones. “And just consider how I should feel under such circumstances! I should never dare to look a white man in the face again. I didn’t think you were dishonest.”

“And I am not, either,” returned Guy with spirit. “I should be glad to settle these bills, but how can I do it without money?”

“Oh, that’s the trouble, is it? It isn’t want of inclination, but a lack of means. Is that it?”

“That’s just the way the matter stands,” answered Guy.

“Then I ask your pardon,” said Mr. Jones, grasping Guy’s hand and shaking it cordially. “I misunderstood you. But are you really out of money?” he added, with a look of surprise, although he knew very well that Guy was penniless, and had been for weeks.

“I haven’t a red,” was the despairing reply.

“Don’t let it trouble you. I can remedy that.”

“You can!” exclaimed Guy, astonished and delighted.

“Of course. I earn three or four thousand every year, outside of my commission, and in an hour I can explain the mode of operating, so that you can do the same.”

“And will you?” asked Guy.

“I will, I assure you. Harris, when I am a friend to a man I am a friend all over. And what is the use of my professing to think so much of you if I am not willing to prove it?”

“You are a friend, indeed,” returned Guy with enthusiasm, “and if you will help me out of this scrape I will never go in debt again as long as I live.”

“Oh, as to that,” said Mr. Jones indifferently, “it doesn’t signify. The best of us get short sometimes, and then it is very convenient to have a friend or two who is willing to credit us. All one has to do is to get up a reputation for honesty, and then he can run his face as long as he chooses.”

“What is this plan you were speaking of?” asked Guy.

“I will tell you this evening. After supper we will go up to our room, and while we are smoking a cigar we’ll have a long, friendly talk.”

Guy did not want any supper. He could think of nothing but his debts and his companion’s friendly offer to help him out of them, and he was impatient to learn how his relief was to be accomplished, he urged Jones to reveal the secret at once, but the latter could not be prevailed upon to say more on the subject just then, and Guy was obliged to await his pleasure.

Supper over, the cigars lighted, and the door of their room closed to keep the smoke from going out into the hall where the landlady would be sure to detect it, Guy and the commercial traveler seated themselves, one in the easy chair and the other on the bed, and proceeded to discuss matters.

“In the first place,” said Mr. Jones, “in order that I may know just what to do, you must tell me how much you owe, and give me the names of those to whom you are indebted—that is, if you are perfectly willing to do so.”

“Of course I am,” returned Guy readily. “I will meet your friendly advances half-way. To begin with, there are my bills at Dutch Jake’s and the billiard saloon, amounting to thirty-two dollars and forty cents. Then I am indebted thirty dollars to Mrs. Willis, and if I may judge by the way she looks at me now and then, she would be wonderfully pleased if I would pay up.”

“Oh, she doesn’t need the money,” said Jones. “She has a little fortune of her own, and only keeps boarders for company. If she says anything to you, there are plenty of ways to put her off. Tell her that you will settle up as soon as you draw your next quarter’s salary.”

“That would be a good joke on her, wouldn’t it?” said Guy with a forced laugh. “To tell the truth,” he added, with some hesitation, “I—that is—you know Mr. Walker allows me to be my own paymaster, and I have already drawn and spent my last quarter’s salary. I shall not get a cent of money from the firm for five weeks.”

“I am overjoyed to hear it,” said Mr. Jones to himself. “Things are working better than I thought. I’ve got you in a tight corner, my lad, and all that is required is a little careful handling to get you in the way of embezzling.” Then aloud he said: “That is a very bad state of affairs, Guy. These people must be paid at once.”

“I know they ought to be paid, and you said you would put me in the way of doing it.”

“So I will. I’ll come to that directly. But who else do you owe?”

Guy went on with the list of those to whom he was indebted, checking each one off on the fingers of his left hand as he pronounced his name. Jones listened in genuine amazement, for Guy had been carrying things with a much higher hand than he had supposed. His debts, according to his own showing, footed up one hundred and twenty-five dollars, and if the amounts charged against him on the books of his creditors exceeded his expectations as greatly as Jones hoped they would, he owed at least two hundred dollars. The commercial traveler took down the names and amounts as Guy called them off—a proceeding that Guy could not see the necessity of.

“You mustn’t show that to anybody,” said he.

“Certainly not,” replied Jones with an injured air. “I wish to ascertain just how much you owe, so that I may know how large a sum of money it will take to put you on your feet again. One hundred and twenty-five dollars,” he continued, after he had added up the column of figures. “That is a bad showing, Guy—a very bad showing indeed. It is a large sum to one whose salary amounts to only four hundred dollars a year, but it must be paid. Are you ready to listen to my plans now?”

“I am,” said Guy. “I am all ears.”

“I do not suppose that you will like them at first,” said Mr. Jones, “but if you will take my advice you will consider well before you reject them. I can only say that I am about to describe to you a business to which, as I happen to know, a great many people resort to enable them to eke out a respectable livelihood.”

With this, Mr. Jones took a long pull at his cigar by way of inspiration, settled back on his elbow on the bed, and proceeded with a minute and careful explanation of the business to which he had referred. He had not said many words before Guy’s eyes begun to open with surprise, and the longer he listened the more amazed he became. When Mr. Jones drew from his pocket the implements of his trade and exhibited them to Guy, the latter jumped from his chair in high indignation.

“I’ll never do it!” said he with emphasis. “I haven’t amounted to much during the time I have knocked about the world, but I have never yet been mean enough to play confidence man.”

“This is the way you repay the interest I take in you, is it?” demanded Mr. Jones angrily. “I offer you a friend’s advice and services, and you abuse me for it.”

“You are no friend when you try to get me into danger,” said Guy.

“There’s no need of getting excited over it,” said Mr. Jones, as the shipping clerk begun pacing nervously up and down the room. “I am not trying to get you into danger. I have followed this business for years, and know that there is no trouble in carrying it out successfully; but mark you—there will be trouble if you don’t pay your debts, and serious trouble, too. What will Mr. Walker say? He thinks everything of you now—says you’re one of the finest young fellows in St. Louis.”

“Does he say that?” asked Guy, who could not remember that any one had ever spoken a word in his praise before.

“Yes, he does; and if I were you I would work hard to retain his good opinion.”

“I don’t see that I can retain it by becoming a swindler,” said Guy.

“He will never know it; but he will know there’s something wrong when your creditors carry their bills to him, as they certainly will, if you don’t settle up soon.”

“Great CÆsar!” gasped Guy, who trembled at the bare mention of the merchant’s name in connection with his debts. “Is there no other way out? Can’t you lend me some money?”

“Not a red, my dear fellow. I manage to spend all I make as soon as it gets into my hands. There is no other way out that I can think of now. As I told you before, I did not expect that you would like the business at first—I know I objected when it was proposed to me—but you will find that it will grow less distasteful the longer you think about it. It is a sure road to ease and fortune, and you had better take time to consider before you refuse to try it. But you are getting down-hearted, Guy. Let’s go out for a breath of fresh air. It will liven you up a bit.”

“No, I don’t care to go out,” said Guy. “I am in no mood to enjoy anything.”

“Then you will excuse me, won’t you? I have an engagement at this hour. I will be back at eleven, and in the meantime you had better smoke another cigar, and think the matter over.”

“There’s no need that I should think it over. I’ll never consent to it—never. My creditors will not drive me to such extremities.”

“Oh, they won’t, eh?” said Mr. Jones to himself as he closed the door and paused a moment on the landing outside. “We’ll see about that, my fine lad. I’ll have them following you like so many sleuth-hounds before twenty-four hours have passed over your head. You’ll find that they won’t care what becomes of you so long as they get their money. There is another way out of the difficulty, but I don’t think it quite safe to propose it to Guy to-night. I will tell him of it to-morrow. By that time he will be cornered so tightly that he will be glad to do anything to get out.”

So saying the commercial traveler laughed softly to himself, and slowly descended the stairs.