At the door they shook hands heartily.  Brauer said at parting: 

“Well, good luck, old man...  I hope you aren’t sore.”

Fred tried to suppress his delight.  “Oh no, nothing like that!  If it had to come I’m glad to see everything end pleasantly.”

And as Brauer drifted down the hall Starratt called out, suddenly: 

“I say, Brauer, don’t put that check through the bank until day after to-morrow, will you?”

Brauer nodded a swift acquiescence and disappeared into a waiting elevator.

Fred retreated to his desk.  “Well,” he said to Helen, as he let out a deep sigh, “that’s what I call easy!”

She looked up from her work.  “Almost too easy,” she answered.  He made no reply and presently she said:  “You didn’t tell me how tightly you let him sew us up.  With signed notes and that agreement he could have been nasty...  It’s strange he didn’t wait a day or two and then claim half of the Hilmer commissions...  I wonder why he was in such a rush?”

Fred shrugged.  Helen’s shrewdness annoyed him.

That evening just as Helen and he were getting ready to leave, a messenger from the Broker’s Exchange handed him a note.  He broke the seal and read a summons to appear before the executive committee on the following morning.  His face must have betrayed him, for Helen halted the adjustment of her veil as she inquired: 

“What’s wrong?  Any trouble?”

He recovered himself swiftly.  “Oh no ... just a meeting at the Exchange to-morrow.”

But as he folded up the letter and slipped it into his coat pocket he began to have a suspicion as to the reason for Brauer’s haste.

CHAPTER VII

The next morning Fred Starratt went down to the office alone.  Mrs. Hilmer had telephoned the night before an invitation for Helen to join them in a motor trip down the Ocean Shore Boulevard to Half moon Bay and home by way of San Mateo.  Hilmer was entertaining a party of Norse visitors.  Helen demurred at first, but Fred interrupted the conversation to insist: 

“Go on ... by all means!  The change will be good for you.  I can run the office for a day.”

Secretly he was glad to be rid of his wife’s presence.  He didn’t know what trouble might be impending and he wanted to face the music without the irritation of a prying audience.

His fears were confirmed.  He had been brought before the executive committee on a charge of rebating preferred by Kendrick.  The evidence was complete in at least three cases and they all involved Brauer’s clients.  In short, Kendrick had sworn affidavits from three people to the effect that a representative of Starratt & Co. had granted a discount on fire-insurance business.  Obviously all three cases had been planted by Kendrick, and Brauer had walked into the trap with both feet.  There was nothing for Fred to do but to explain the whole situation—­who Brauer was and why he had an interest in the firm.  He found the committee reasonably sympathetic, but they still had their suspicions.  Fred could see that even the sudden withdrawal of Brauer from partnership with him had its questionable side.  It looked a bit like clever connivance.  However, his inquisitors promised to look fairly into the question before presenting an ultimatum.