The Third Degree

to the desk, slowly selected a cigar and lighted it. Howard looked up at him foolishly, not knowing what

in, old chap," he

in comic surprise. He was not so drunk as not

t till you hear my hard-luck story. That'll cheer you up. Who was it said: 'There's nothing cheers us up so much as other people's money?" Reaching for the whiskey

d classmate had certainly chosen a good time to come and ask h

of that little matter of two hundred and fifty bucks which you bo

ance came over

t of it?"

ther drink befo

him to put in the church plate. I told him I preferred independence. Well," he went on with serio-comic gravity, "I got my independence, but I'm-I'm dead broke. You might as well understand the situati

s disappointed. Underwood's face was a study of supreme indifference. He did not even appear to be lis

a rousing success of it-got a big name as ar

patiently in

e a little hard with me, too, just no

d gri

, I didn't want that. I w

ould not he

usand? Why not m

being so humorous that he sa

ly, Howard helped him

a hit," he sai

time had recover

hing since you left

got a job as time-keeper, but I didn't keep it down a week. I kept the time all right, but it wasn

with that," laughed Underwo

ned in drun

wim, play tennis, football, golf and polo as well as anybody, but

t $2,000 for?" d

o into business. I want $2,00

hrugged his

ome and ask your fa

med offended at

injured their pride. You know father married a second time, loaded me down with a stepmother. She's all right, but she's so c

his feet and abrup

y. Sitting down at a desk, he began to rummage with s

ery busy now. You'll

t for him to be gone, but in his besotted condition, he did not propose to be dispos

ghly respectable uncles wrote me. His grandfather was an iron puddler." With a drunken laugh he went on: "Doesn't it m

proaching the state of complete intoxication. Underwood made an attempt to interfere. Why should he care if th

"you'd never make a dec

t," hiccoug

her social ostracism?

thoroughbred, all right

to her," replied Underwood. "I never thought y

ad in a maudlin man

n going back to work, just as if I'd permit such a thing. Do you know what I said on our wedding day? 'Mrs. Howard Jeffries, you are entering one of the oldest families in America. Nature has fitted y

et drowsy. Lying back on the sofa, he

ghed Underwood. "Why, man,

enabled him, Howard ga

nting around the room, he sa

wood

not a vase, not a stick belongs to m

tly too much for him, because he stretched out his hand for

t," suggeste

ad drowsily. Touchi

"Too little down here. Once he gets an idea, he never lets it go, he holds on. O

oked at him

asure of happiness. You, at least, married the woman you love. Drunken beast

f the whiskey that he was almost asleep

here to listen to hard-luck

n to my tale of woe, while Underwood sat glari

od. The words came thickly from his lips and he

phone bell rang. Underwood q

s face lit up and he replied eagerly: "Mrs. Jeffr

he hastily went over to t

you! You've got to get ou

but his old classmate

imed Underwood impatiently.

ad forgotten entirely where he was and bel

py. Say-porter,

out to pull him from the sofa by force,

o awaken him and get him out of the way, so, quickly, he took a big screen and arranged it aro

a ent