He knew what he was about.

As soon as a particular member of the Board got back from the other side the Honorable Collector would have the position of Treasurer, and then it was only a question of time when he would be President of the new corporation.

I can see now the smile that lighted up his rather handsome face when he told me.

He was "monkeying with a buzz-saw" all the same if he did but know it, and yet he always professed to follow the metaphor that he could "throw off the belt" that drove the pulley at his own good pleasure and so stop the connecting machinery before the teeth of the whirling blade could reach his fingers.

Should it get beyond his control--of which there was not the remotest possibility--he would, of course, rent his house, sell his books and curtail.