me," he cried, and he felt his fingers
clutching for the thin neck so near them, and then suddenly his hands
went back to his pockets. "Now, another thing--you got Brownwell to
lend the colonel that money?" Hendricks was himself.

Barclay nodded.

"And you got Brownwell to sign a lot of accommodation paper there at
the bank?"

"Yes--to cover our own overdrafts," retorted Barclay. "It was either
that or bust--and I preferred not to bust. What's more, if we had
gone under there at one stage of the game when Brownwell helped us, we
could have been indicted for obtaining money under false
pretences--you and I, I mean. I'm perfectly willing to stick my head
inside the jail and look around," Barclay grinned, "but I'll be damned
if I'm going clear inside for any man--not when I can find a way to
back out." Barclay tried to laugh, but Hendricks would not let him.

"And so you put up Molly to bail you out." Barclay did not answer and
Hendricks went on bitterly: "Oh, you're a friend, John Barclay, you're
a loyal friend. You've sold me out like a dog, John--like a dog!"

Barclay, sitting at his desk, playing with a paper-weight, snarled
back: "Why don't you get in the market yourself, if you think I've
sold you out? Why don't you lend the old man some money?"

"And take it from the bank you've just got done robbing of everything
but the wall-paper?" Hendricks retorted.

"No," cried Barclay, in a loud voice. "Come off your high horse and
take the profits we'll make on our wheat, pay off old Brownwell and
marry her."

"And let the bank bust and the farmers slide?" asked Hendricks, "and
buy back Molly with stolen money? Is that your idea?"

"Well," Barclay snapped, "you have your choice, so if you think more
of the bank and your old hayseeds than you do of Molly, don't come
blubbering around me about selling her."

"John," sighed Hendricks, after a long wrestle--a final contest with
his demon, "I've gone all over that. And I have decided that if I've
got to swindle seventy-five or a hundred farmers--most of them old
soldiers on their homesteads--out of their little all, and cheat five
hundred depositors out of their money to get Molly, she and I wouldn't
be very happy when we thought of the price, and we'd always think of
the price." His demon was limp in the background of his soul as he
added: "Here are some papers I brought over. Let's get back to the
settlement--fix them up and bring them over to the bank this morning