Colonel Carter's Christmas and The Romance of an Old-Fashioned Gentleman. Francis Hopkinson Smith

had my ‘Garden Spots’ bonds printed yet, have you?”

      “No.”

      “Nothin’ lookin’ to’ards it?”

      “Yes, certainly, but nothing definite. I’ve got the proposition I told you about from the Engraving Company. Here it is.” And Fitz pulled out a package of papers from a pigeon-hole and laid the letter before the Colonel. It was the ordinary offer agreeing to print the bonds for a specified sum, and had been one of the many harmless dodges Fitz had used to keep the Colonel’s spirits up.

      The Colonel studied the document carefully.

      “When I accept this, of co’se, the mattuh is closed between me and the Company?”

      “Certainly.”

      “And no other party could either print or receive the bonds except on my written order?”

      “No.” Fitz was groping now in the dark. Why the Colonel should have suddenly dropped Consolidated Smelting to speak of the “Garden Spots” was another mystery.

      “And I have a right to transfer this order to any one I please?”

      “Of course, Colonel.” The mystery was now impenetrable.

      “You have no objection to my takin’ this letter, Fitz?”

      “Not the slightest.”

      The Colonel walked to the window, looked out for a moment into the street, walked back to Fitz’s desk, and with a tinge of resignation in his voice as if he had at last nerved himself for the worst, laid his hand on Fitz’s shoulder:

      “I should never have a moment’s peace, Fitz, if I did not exhaust every means in my power to ward off this catastrophe from you. Kindly give me a pen.”

      I moved closer. Was the Colonel going to sign his check for a million, or was there some unknown friend who, at a stroke of his pen, would come to Fitz’s rescue?

      The Colonel smoothed out the letter containing the proposition of the Engraving Company, tried the pen on his thumbnail, dipped it carefully in the inkstand, poised it for an instant, and in a firm round hand wrote across its type-written face the words: