“Can’t you help me to a millionaire?”

Mackworth answered me generously, affectionately.

In two weeks he had procured my millionaire ...  Derek, of Chicago, the bathtub magnate ... how much could I get on with?

I wrote that I could do with seven dollars a week....

Mackworth replied not to be a fool—­that Derek was willing to make it fifteen, for a year’s duration....

I replied that I could only take enough to fill my simplest wants....

Derek jocosely added fifty cents to the sum I asked—­“for postage stamps”—­ ... for one year, week in, week out, without a letter from me except those indicating changes of address, without sending me a word of advice, criticism, or condemnation, no matter what I got into ...  Derek sent me that weekly stipend of seven dollars and fifty cents!...

* * * * *

I settled down to consecutive literary work.

Lyrics I could write under any condition.  They came to me so deeply from the subconscious that at times they almost seemed like spirit-control, which, at times, I am sure they had been, till I set the force of my will against them.  For I was resolved that what I wrote should be an emanation from my own personality, not from dead and gone poets who used me for a medium.

But when it came to long and consecutive effort, the continual petty worry of actual penury sapped my mind so that I lacked the power of application....

With Derek’s remittances this obstacle was removed....

I had soon completed the first act of my apostolic play....

And then I plunged into a scrape, together with my fellow members of the press or “Scoop Club,” as it was more popularly known, which halted my work mid-way....

* * * * *

Our common adventure derived its inception from a casual remark of Jack Travers’, at one of our meetings....

Ever since Arthur Brisbane had come to Laurel, Jack had been on his toes....

“Brisbane brought me a breath of what it must mean to be a big newspaper man in the world outside,” said Travers, as he stretched and yawned, “why don’t we,” he continued, “start something to show ’em we’re alive, and not dead like so many of the intellects on the Hill!”

“—­s all right to talk about starting something ... that’s easy to do.  The hell of it is, to stop it, after you’ve got it started,” philosophised “The Colonel"....

“Just what is it that you propose starting?” asked practical, pop-eyed Tom Jenkins.

“Oh, anything that will cause excitement!” waved Travers, serenely.

“If you boys really want some excitement ... and want to do some service for the community at the same time,—­I’ve got a scheme to suggest ... something I’ve been thinking over for a long time,” suggested Jerome Miller, president of the club....