Memphis, Egypt, and by thunder I'm going to have a new deal all around.”     

       “Very well, Jack. Don't excite yourself. I'll give you exactly thirty days to sicken of it all—and then I shall come and claim my property.”     

       “Neddy, I'll not work for you.”     

       “Oh, yes, you will, John.”     

       “No, sir, I'm mad. I won't play.”     

       “You're it. I just tagged you.”     

       “I require a rest—but unfold your proposition, Neddy. I was born a poor, weak vessel consumed with a curiosity that was ever my undoing. I can only protest that this is no way to treat a friend.”     

       “Nonsense! My own brother wants this job, and I have refused to give it to him. Business is business—and I've saved it for you.”     

       Jerome leaned forward and laid his finger confidentially on Webster's knee; whereat the lighthearted wanderer carefully lifted the finger, brushed an imaginary speck of dirt from it, and set it down again. “Be serious, you ingrate,” Jerome protested. ''Listen! I've been working for two years on a consolidation up near Telluride, and I've just put it across. Jack, it's the biggest thing in the country——     

       Webster closed his eyes and crooned:     

  

       “I'm dying for some one to love me;     

       I'm tired of living alone;     

       I want to be somebody's darling,     

       To be queen upon somebody's throne.”     

  

       “Well, you'll be king on the throne of the Colorado Consolidated Mines Company, Limited. English capital, Jack. Pay 'em 6 per cent, and they'll call you blessed. There's twenty-five thousand a year in it, with a house and a good cook and an automobile and a chauffeur, and you can come to town whenever you please, provided you don't neglect the company's interests—and I know you're not that kind of an engineer.”   

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