“How is it then that——”
“Oh, that’s all right. It came out just as I expected. That’s why you get the check.”
“But—ahem!—didn’t you buy 500 shares for me?”
“Yes; but after you left I sold 10,000 shares between 65 and 67. Your congregation, Doctor, developed a remarkable bullishness on Erie.” He chuckled gleefully. “It was to them that I sold the stock!”
“But my—ahem!—impression was that you said the stock would go up.”
“Oh, no. I never said that. I merely told you we’d come out O.K. And I guess we have.” He laughed joyously. “It’s all right, Doctor; those pesky Bolivians will be enlightened, you bet.”
“But,” said the doctor, with a very red face, fingering the check, hesitatingly, “I don’t know whether to accept it or not.”
“Oh, you’re not robbing me,” the old stock gambler assured him, gaily. “I made out quite well; quite well, thank you.”
“I—I—mean—” stammered the clergyman, “I don’t know whether it is right to——”
Shaw frowned. “Put that check in your pocket,” he said, sharply. “You earned it.”