was a mistake to become panic-stricken, also to
withhold further credit. It was true that Stener was his easiest, his
quickest resource, but not his only one. He thought, as a matter of
fact, that his credit would be greatly extended by his principal money
friends if necessary, and that he would have ample time to patch up his
affairs and keep things going until the storm should blow over. He had
told Stener of his extended purchase of city loan to stay the market on
the first day of the panic, and of the fact that sixty thousand dollars
was due him. Stener had made no objection. It was just possible that
he was too mentally disturbed at the time to pay close attention. After
that, to his, Cowperwood's, surprise, unexpected pressure on great
financial houses from unexpected directions had caused them to be not
willingly but unfortunately severe with him. This pressure, coming
collectively the next day, had compelled him to close his doors, though
he had not really expected to up to the last moment. His call for the
sixty-thousand-dollar check at the time had been purely fortuitous. He
needed the money, of course, but it was due him, and his clerks were
all very busy. He merely asked for and took it personally to save time.
Stener knew if it had been refused him he would have brought suit. The
matter of depositing city loan certificates in the sinking-fund,
when purchased for the city, was something to which he never gave any
personal attention whatsoever. His bookkeeper, Mr. Stapley, attended to
all that. He did not know, as a matter of fact, that they had not been
deposited. (This was a barefaced lie. He did know.) As for the check
being turned over to the Girard National Bank, that was fortuitous.
It might just as well have been turned over to some other bank if the
conditions had been different.

Thus on and on he went, answering all of Steger's and Shannon's
searching questions with the most engaging frankness, and you could have
sworn from the solemnity with which he took it all--the serious business
attention--that he was the soul of so-called commercial honor. And to
say truly, he did believe in the justice as well as the necessity and
the importance of all that he had done and now described. He wanted the
jury to see it as he saw it--put itself in his place and sympathize with
him.

He was through finally, and the effect on the jury of his testimony and
his personality was peculiar. Philip Moultrie, juror No. 1