ONE agreeable afternoon in late autumn two young men stood together on Canal Street, closing a conversation that had evidently begun within the club-house which they had just quitted. "There 's big money in it, Offdean," said the elder of the two. "I would n't have you touch it if there was n't. Why, they tell me Patchly 's pulled a hundred thousand out of the concern a'ready." "That may be," replied Offdean, who had been politely attentive to the words addressed to him, but whose face bore a look indicating that he was closed to conviction. He leaned back upon the clumsy stick which he carried, and continued: "It 's all true, I dare say, Fitch; but a decision of that sort would mean more to me than you 'd believe if I were to tell you. The beggarly twenty-five thousand 's all I have, and I want to sleep with it under my pillow a couple of months at least before I drop it into a slot." "You 'll drop it into Harding & Offdean's mill to grind out the pitiful two and a half per cent commission racket; that 's what you 'll do in the end, old fellow - see if you don't." "Perhaps I shall; but it 's more than likely I shan't. We 'll talk about it when I get back. You know I 'm off to north Louisiana in the morning" -