battle.

"Damn you, Ben, do you know cash is as tight as wax?" he enquired. "You
ain't dozing in the midst of a panic?"

"There's trouble at the bank," I replied. "A run has started, but so far
it is almost entirely among the small depositors. We can manage to pay
off till three o'clock, and if we open to-morrow with a quarter of a
million, we shall probably keep on our feet, unless the excitement
spreads."

"When do you want it?"

"By nine o'clock to-morrow morning; and I want it, General," I added,
"on my personal credit."

He rose from his chair and stood swaying unsteadily on his gouty foot.

"I'll give you every penny that I've got, Ben," he answered, "but it
ain't that much."

"You have access to the cash of both the Tilden Bank and the Bonfield
Trust Company. If there's a dollar in the city you can get it."

A hint of his sly humour appeared for an instant in his eyes. "It wasn't
any longer ago than breakfast that I remarked I didn't believe there was
a blamed dollar in the whole country," he returned. Then his swaying
stopped and he became invested suddenly with the dignity of the greatest
financier in the state.

"Hand me my stick, Ben, and I'll go and see what I can do about it," he
said.

I gave him his stick and my arm, and with my assistance he limped to the
offices of the Bonfield Trust Company on the next block. When I returned
to the bank the directors were talking excitedly, but at my entrance a
hush fell, and they sat looking at me with a row of vacant, expectant
faces that waited apparently to be filled with expression.

"By ten o'clock to-morrow morning," I said, "a quarter of a million in
cash will be brought in through the door in bags."

"I told you he'd do it," exclaimed Bingley, as he grasped my hand, "and
I hope to God it will stay 'em off."

"You need a drink, Ben," observed Judge Kenton, "and so do I. Let's go
and get it. A soft-boiled egg was all I had for breakfast, and I've gone
faint."

I remember that I went to a restaurant with him, that a few old women
sitting on the curbing spoke to us as we passed, that we ate oysters,
and returned in half an hour to another meeting, that we discussed ways
and means until eight o'clock and decided nothing. I know also that when
we came out again several of the old women were still crouching there,
and that when they came whining up to me, I turned on them with an oath
and ordered them to be off. As clearly as if it were yesterday,