hought he'd say. He won't let me do this. I can't,
Frank, I tell you!" exclaimed Stener, jumping up. He was so nervous
that he had had a hard time keeping his seat during this short, direct
conversation. "I can't! They've got me in a corner! They're after me!
They all know what we've been doing. Oh, say, Frank"--he threw up his
arms wildly--"you've got to get me out of this. You've got to let me
have that five hundred thousand back and get me out of this. If you
don't, and you should fail, they'll send me to the penitentiary. I've
got a wife and four children, Frank. I can't go on in this. It's too big
for me. I never should have gone in on it in the first place. I never
would have if you hadn't persuaded me, in a way. I never thought when I
began that I would ever get in as bad as all this. I can't go on, Frank.
I can't! I'm willing you should have all my stock. Only give me back
that five hundred thousand, and we'll call it even." His voice rose
nervously as he talked, and he wiped his wet forehead with his hand and
stared at Cowperwood pleadingly, foolishly.

Cowperwood stared at him in return for a few moments with a cold, fishy
eye. He knew a great deal about human nature, and he was ready for and
expectant of any queer shift in an individual's attitude, particularly
in time of panic; but this shift of Stener's was quite too much. "Whom
else have you been talking to, George, since I saw you? Whom have you
seen? What did Sengstack have to say?"

"He says just what Mollenhauer does, that I mustn't loan any more money
under any circumstances, and he says I ought to get that five hundred
thousand back as quickly as possible."

"And you think Mollenhauer wants to help you, do you?" inquired
Cowperwood, finding it hard to efface the contempt which kept forcing
itself into his voice.

"I think he does, yes. I don't know who else will, Frank, if he don't.
He's one of the big political forces in this town."

"Listen to me," began Cowperwood, eyeing him fixedly. Then he paused.
"What did he say you should do about your holdings?"

"Sell them through Tighe & Company and put the money back in the
treasury, if you won't take them."

"Sell them to whom?" asked Cowperwood, thinking of Stener's last words.

"To any one on 'change who'll take them, I suppose. I don't know."

"I thought so," said Cowperwood, comprehendingly. "I might have known
as much. They're working you, George. They're simply trying to get your
stocks