The Judge smiled grimly as he thought of her phrasing,—­“a man like yourself.”  She did not know how near to it he had come!

The boy had a surface smartness, and he had proved himself an apt scholar.  The Judge had found him a willing tool in many of his deep laid schemes to get money for less than money’s worth.  But within the last few months there had been a change.  A spark of manhood had asserted itself, and in the presence of his minion the Judge found himself upon the rack.

He was the first to speak.  “I hope there is nothing out of the usual?” he said.  “I intended coming over to the office before the meeting of directors took place.”

“It is the same old trouble about bonds, Judge Hildreth.  There are not enough of them to go round.”

The Judge rubbed his hands in simulated pleasure.  “Well, that shows good management, Peters, if the public are hungry for our stock.”

“The public are fools!” said the young man, hotly.

“Not at all, Peters.  A discriminating public, you know, always chooses the best depositaries.”  He chuckled softly.  He had turned his eyes towards the window so as not to see the ghostly figure behind the young man’s chair which had such a world of reproach in its face.  “There is only one thing to do, Peters.  We must water it a little, eh?”

“It seems to me we’ve been using the watering-pot rather too frequently.”

The Judge started.  Had he detected a menace in the tone?

He temporized.  His plans were not sufficiently matured yet.  When they were he would crush this tool of his as surely and as carelessly as he would have crushed a fly.

“Nonsense, Peters!” he said pleasantly; “that is only a little clever financing to tide us over the hard places.  Of course we will make it all good to the public—­by and bye.”

“How?” The question rang out through the office like a pistol shot.

The Judge looked at the man before him in amaze.  For once his face showed determination and an honest purpose.

“Will you tell me how we’re going to do it?” he persisted with a strange vehemence.  “I’ve been a fool, Judge Hildreth, a blamed, gigantic fool!  I’ve let you hood wink me and lead me by the nose for years.  I’ve done your dirty work for you and borne the credit of it, too; but I swear I’ll not do it any longer.  I thought at first—­fool that I was—­that everything you did was just the right thing to copy.  My poor old mother told me you were the pattern I was to follow if I wanted to be an honorable man.  An honorable man!  Good heavens!

“Do you know where I’ve been these last months?  I’ve been in hell, sir; in hell, I tell you!  Every night I’ve dreamed of my mother and every day I’ve bamboozled the public and sold bonds that weren’t worth the paper they were written on, and paid big dividends that were just some of their own money returned.  And now you tell me to keep on watering the stock