ney, Mr. Weldon, real
money! I wouldn't take Blick's name on paper for what I want this
week--and getting it or not getting it means the top of the heap for
me, or three years' fight for it. I can't afford three years. I
wasn't a bank president at forty, you know."

"You mean you want the ten thousand pounds you gave me?"

"Just so. I want fifty thousand dollars, Mr. Weldon--for six weeks. I
hate to do it, honestly. Nothing but this infernal panic could have
driven me to this. But I'm helpless. And it's worth millions to me to
have no one suspect it. I can't touch a penny elsewhere--it's all tied
up. I must be able to produce it without any fuss, or disturbing the
jack-straws a particle. There's no use in going into the details."

"No use at all," said Weldon stiffly, "for it will be impossible for me
to lend you such a sum, Mr. Webb, impossible. I have paid well for my
position here."

"And a good move, too," said the other heartily. "You stand well,
Weldon; none better."

"I have never been what you would call ambitious," Weldon went on, more
passionately, now. "When you yourself asked me why I demanded no more
than the ten--the fifty thousand, you remember my answer. I knew that
it would buy me a good, respectable interest out here, assure me of a
position I had every capacity to sustain honourably and efficiently,
and give me the leisure and climate that I wanted. I shall never be a
rich man--by your standards. I don't care. I thought my brains and
initiative were worth what I asked, and you agreed with me. I promised
utter silence and have kept my word. You promised the same and have
broken yours. I can do nothing for you, even if I wished to. I'd
rather not discuss it further."

"_Manana! manana! manana!_" the parrot shrilled. It still hung head
down in the shining cage. Weldon could have wrung its neck. It was
worse than a clock. Webb sighed regretfully and raised his heavy lids.
As the old snakish glance reached him Weldon felt the old net-like
sensation, the old baffled rage.

"I'm sorry, Weldon, but I can't let it go. It's no use--you can't
afford it. It's all like a house you build out of cards, you see, and
you can't slip out one without the whole thing caving in. Whatever I
pull out I have to explain. How do you suppose I got you your fifty
thousand, back there? You know I've never had much money--to call
money. It's brains--what you call mind-reading, you other
fell