housand we borrowed for me
finishes that."

"Can't you take up part of your note?"

"My note comes due in 1885," rejoined Newmark with cold disgust. "I
expect to take it up then. But I can't until then. I hadn't expected
anything like this."

"Well, don't get hot," said Orde vaguely. "I only thought that Northern
Peninsula stuff might be worth saving any way we could figure it."

"Worth saving!" snorted Newmark, whirling in his chair.

"Well, keep your hair on," said Orde, on whom Newmark's manner was
beginning to have its effect, as Newmark intended it should. "You have
my Boom Company stock as security."

"Pretty security for the loss of a tract like the Upper Peninsula
timber!"

"Well, it's the security you asked for, and suggested," said Orde.

"I thought you'd surely be able to pay it," retorted Newmark, now secure
in the position he desired to take, that of putting Orde entirely in the
wrong.

"Well, I expected to pay it; and I'll pay it yet," rejoined Orde. "I
don't think Heinzman will stand in his own light rather than renew the
notes."

He seized his hat and departed. Once in the street, however, his
irritation passed. As was the habit of the man, he began more clearly
to see Newmark's side, and so more emphatically to blame himself.
After all, when he got right down to the essentials, he could not but
acknowledge that Newmark's anger was justified. For his own private ends
he had jeopardised the firm's property. More of a business man might
have reflected that Newmark, as financial head, should have protected
the firm against all contingencies; should have seen to it that it met
Heinzman's notes, instead of tying up its resources in unnecessary
ways. Orde's own delinquency bulked too large in his eyes to admit his
perception of this. By the time he had reached Heinzman's office, the
last of his irritation had vanished. Only he realised clearly now that
it would hardly do to ask Newmark for a renewal of the personal note on
which depended his retention of his Boom Company stock unless he could
renew the Heinzman note also. This is probably what Newmark intended.

"Mr. Heinzman?" he asked briefly of the first clerk.

"Mr. Heinzman is at home ill," replied the bookkeeper.

"Already?" said Orde. He drummed on the black walnut rail thoughtfully.
The notes came due in ten days. "How bad is he?"

The clerk looked up curiously. "Can't say. Probably won't be back for a
long time. It's smallpox, you kn