“Arthur—Mr. Benton, I mean—has a pistol with a silencer attachment. It’s fine! You’d never know there was shooting going on. It isn’t any louder than the snap of a whip.”

“Yes,” said Graves with a dry laugh, “that’s it—the snap of a whip! You can blow out your own brains, or some one else’s, without being heard.”

Benton looked up.

“I’ve never known you to talk like that, Graves.”

“Oh. I’ve had a strenuous day. By the way, haven’t you had any word from your brokers?”

“I’d forgotten all about it,” drawled Benton. “Chalmers called up. I was reading poetry to Mrs. Graves. Meant to get Chalmers on the ’phone when I’d finished. It went clean out of my mind.”

“Better get him right away. There’s been something like a panic in the street—a break in a whole lot of stocks.”

Benton rose rather reluctantly.

“I had the usual margin with Chalmers. What’s the use of a broker if he can’t look after your business without bothering you?”

He said this petulantly, as he left the room.

“I hope nothing has happened to his ‘Silencer’ stock,” said the woman. “He’s awfully proud of his invention. Says England wants it for the army. He’s going to give you a look-in on it.”

“His invention?” Graves said this with a sneer. “He must have gotten that out of the poetry-book he’s been reading to you. His father bought the ‘Silencer’ patent from the inventor and organised the company.”

“Well, you know I don’t understand anything about business,” she said in rather a bored tone.

“Perhaps you can understand, when I tell you that I’ve come home worth half again as many millions as I was when I said good-bye to you this morning.”

There was nothing bored about her expression now. She was thinking of how much more money he would give her to spend on herself, and that made her look softer and prettier than ever. She smiled as she looked up at him.

“I thought that would fetch you,” he said.

“You’re a wonder, Archie. How did you do it?”

“Broke the market on ‘Silencer.’ Watched it tumble till it dropped far enough to suit me. Then grabbed up the whole lot—mine and his. While he was reading poetry to you I was wiping up the street with him. Couldn’t go to the phone, eh? He’s there now all right, hearing that he hasn’t a dollar to his name, and to whom he’s indebted for his haircut.”

She didn’t seem to grasp the full meaning of what he said. She was still smiling up at him, and looking her prettiest, when, from the hall below, there came a sound that resembled nothing so much as the snap of a whip.

The smile vanished. Her expression was that of a person who does not yet grasp the full significance of a sudden thing that has happened. She started to rise. Her husband closed the door and turned toward her.