game run away with her. I guess she started it because she felt
lonesome when you were away; and now it's got her and she can't drop
it. All she wants is a jolt. It would slow her up and show her just
where she was. She's asking for it. One good, snappy jolt would put the
whole thing right. And this thing of jerking the kid away to
Connecticut would be the right dope, believe me.'
Kirk shook his head.
'It wouldn't do, Steve. It isn't that I don't want to do it; but one
must play to the rules. I can't explain what I mean. I can only say
it's impossible. Let's think of a parallel case. When you were in the
ring, there must have been times when you had a chance of hitting your
man low. Why didn't you do it? It would have jolted him, all right.'
'Why, I'd have lost on a foul.'
'Well, so should I lose on a foul if I started the sort of rough-house
you suggest.'
'I don't get you.'
'Well, if you want it in plain English, Ruth would never forgive me. Is
that clear enough?'
'You're dead wrong, boss,' said Steve excitedly. 'I know her.'
'I thought I did. Well, anyway, Steve, thanks for the suggestion; but,
believe me, nothing doing. And now, if you feel like it, I wish you
would resume your celebrated imitation of a man exulting over the fact
that he is wearing Middleton's Undeniable. There isn't much more to do,
and I should like to get through with it to-day, if possible. There,
hold that pose. It's exactly right. The honest man gloating over his
suspenders. You ought to go on the stage, Steve.'
There are some men whose mission in life it appears to be to go about
the world creating crises in the lives of other people. When there is
thunder in the air they precipitate the thunderbolt.
Bailey Bannister was one of these. He meant extraordinarily well, but
he was a dangerous man for that very reason, and in a properly
constituted world would have been segregated or kept under supervision.
He would not leave the tangled lives of those around him to adjust
themselves. He blundered in and tried to help. He nearly always
produced a definite result, but seldom the one at which he aimed.
That he should have interfered in the affairs of Ruth and Kirk at this
time was, it must be admitted, unselfish of him, for just now he was
having troubles of his own on a somewhat extensive scale. His wife's
extravagance was putting a strain on his finances, and he was faced
with the choice of checking her or increasing his income. Being very
much in love, he shrank from the former task and adopted the other way
out of the difficulty.
It was this that had led to the change in his manner noticed by Steve.
In order to make more money he had had to take risks, and only recently
had he begun to perceive how extremely risky these risks were. For the
first time in its history the firm of Bannister was making first-hand
acquaintance with frenzied finance.
It is, perhaps, a little unfair to lay the blame for this entirely at
the door of Bailey's Sybil. Her extravagance was largely responsible;
