the shape of contracts--fat ones--street-paving,
bridges, viaducts, sewers. And in order for him to get these contracts
the affairs of the Republican party, of which he was a beneficiary as
well as a leader, must be kept reasonably straight. At the same time it
was no more a part of his need to keep the affairs of the party straight
than it was of either Mollenhauer's or Simpson's, and Stener was not his
appointee. The latter was more directly responsible to Mollenhauer than
to any one else.

As Butler stepped into the buggy with his son he was thinking about
this, and it was puzzling him greatly.

"Cowperwood's just been here," he said to Owen, who had been rapidly
coming into a sound financial understanding of late, and was already a
shrewder man politically and socially than his father, though he had
not the latter's magnetism. "He's been tellin' me that he's in a rather
tight place. You hear that?" he continued, as some voice in the distance
was calling "Extra! Extra!" "That's Chicago burnin', and there's goin'
to be trouble on the stock exchange to-morrow. We have a lot of our
street-railway stocks around at the different banks. If we don't look
sharp they'll be callin' our loans. We have to 'tend to that the first
thing in the mornin'. Cowperwood has a hundred thousand of mine with him
that he wants me to let stay there, and he has some money that belongs
to Stener, he tells me."

"Stener?" asked Owen, curiously. "Has he been dabbling in stocks?" Owen
had heard some rumors concerning Stener and others only very recently,
which he had not credited nor yet communicated to his father. "How much
money of his has Cowperwood?" he asked.

Butler meditated. "Quite a bit, I'm afraid," he finally said. "As a
matter of fact, it's a great deal--about five hundred thousand dollars.
If that should become known, it would be makin' a good deal of noise,
I'm thinkin'."

"Whew!" exclaimed Owen in astonishment. "Five hundred thousand dollars!
Good Lord, father! Do you mean to say Stener has got away with five
hundred thousand dollars? Why, I wouldn't think he was clever enough to
do that. Five hundred thousand dollars! It will make a nice row if that
comes out."

"Aisy, now! Aisy, now!" replied Butler, doing his best to keep all
phases of the situation in mind. "We can't tell exactly what the
circumstances were yet. He mayn't have meant to take so much. It may all
come out all right yet. The money's invested. Cowperwood hasn