"Lost!" Cappy jeered. "Lost! Skinner, you infuriate me. I haven't lost.
Like John Paul Jones, I haven't yet commenced to fight. Skinner, listen
to me. When I get through with that Matt Peasley you can take it from me
he'll be sore from soul to vermiform appendix."

"If I may be permitted a criticism, sir, I would suggest that you let
this matter rest right where it is. Surely you realize the delicate
position you are in, quarreling with your future son-in-law--"

"Agh-h-h! Pooh!" snapped Cappy. "That's all outside office hours. I
haven't any grudge against the boy and he knows it. I don't want his
little old bank roll--that is, for keeps. When I went into this deal,
Skinner, I was actuated by the same benevolent intentions as a man
that desires to cure a hound pup of sucking eggs. He fills an egg with
cayenne pepper and leaves it where the pup can find it--and after that
the pup sucks no more eggs. I love this boy Matt like he was my own
son, but he's too infernally fresh! He holds people too cheap; he's too
trustful. He's made his little wad too easily, and easy money never did
any man any good. So I wanted to teach him that business is business,
and if I could take his roll away from him I was going to do it. Of
course, Skinner, I need not remind you that I would have loaned him the
next minute, without interest and without security, every cent I'd taken
from him in this deal--"

"But why peeve over it, Mr. Ricks? If Captain Matt--"

"At my age--to take a beating like that?" Cappy shrilled. "Impossible!
Why, he'll tell this story on the Merchants' Exchange, and I can't
afford that. Not at my age, Skinner, not at my age! I have a reputation
to sustain, and, by the Holy Pink-toed Prophet, I'm going to sustain it.
I'm going down fighting like a bear cat. I know he scalded us yesterday,
Skinner, but every dog must have his day--and that dog-gone Matt's day
dawned this morning."

"The only tactical error, if I may appear hypercritical," Skinner said
suavely, "was your failure to cancel the charter on the very day that
Matt slipped up on his first advance payment. If you had done that you
would have had him. Don't say I didn't call your attention to the fact
that his payment was overdue!"

"Yes, if I had done that I would have had him, but how much would I have
had him for? Paltry nine thousand dollars! I wanted him to get into the
financial quicksands up to his chin--and then I'd have had him! Besides,
Skinner, I