ivate
manipulator of considerable wealth; Frederick Van Nostrand, the State
treasurer, who was interested in local street-railway stocks, and
others. Of all those to whom he appealed one was actually not in
a position to do anything for him; another was afraid; a third
was calculating eagerly to drive a hard bargain; a fourth was too
deliberate, anxious to have much time. All scented the true value of his
situation, all wanted time to consider, and he had no time to consider.
Judge Kitchen did agree to lend him thirty thousand dollars--a paltry
sum. Joseph Zimmerman would only risk twenty-five thousand dollars. He
could see where, all told, he might raise seventy-five thousand dollars
by hypothecating double the amount in shares; but this was ridiculously
insufficient. He had figured again, to a dollar, and he must have at
least two hundred and fifty thousand dollars above all his present
holdings, or he must close his doors. To-morrow at two o'clock he would
know. If he didn't he would be written down as "failed" on a score of
ledgers in Philadelphia.

What a pretty pass for one to come to whose hopes had so recently run so
high! There was a loan of one hundred thousand dollars from the Girard
National Bank which he was particularly anxious to clear off. This bank
was the most important in the city, and if he retained its good will
by meeting this loan promptly he might hope for favors in the future
whatever happened. Yet, at the moment, he did not see how he could do
it. He decided, however, after some reflection, that he would deliver
the stocks which Judge Kitchen, Zimmerman, and others had agreed to
take and get their checks or cash yet this night. Then he would persuade
Stener to let him have a check for the sixty thousand dollars' worth of
city loan he had purchased this morning on 'change. Out of it he could
take twenty-five thousand dollars to make up the balance due the bank,
and still have thirty-five thousand for himself.

The one unfortunate thing about such an arrangement was that by doing
it he was building up a rather complicated situation in regard to these
same certificates. Since their purchase in the morning, he had not
deposited them in the sinking-fund, where they belonged (they had been
delivered to his office by half past one in the afternoon), but, on the
contrary, had immediately hypothecated them to cover another loan. It
was a risky thing to have done, considering that he was in danger of
f