ot dare take such authority without her
uncle's consent. He might telephone, anyway, then a more direct
resolution followed swiftly. He turned away from Mrs. Barnett and went
to the cashier's window.

"Did Jim Crill deposit $25,000 here subject to my check?" he asked.

"He did," replied the cashier.

"Are there any strings to it?"

"None," responded the cashier promptly.

Without so much as glancing toward the widow, who had watched this move
with a venomous suspicion, Bob went to Miss Chandler by the desk and
took the papers from his pocket, and laid them before her.

"Indorse the compress receipts over to Mr. Crill."

Then he wrote two checks--one to the bank for $3,123 to pay off all the
claims against the Chandler cotton and one to Imogene for $1,377.

"You don't know, Mr. Rogeen," she started to say in a low, tense voice
as she took the check, "how much----"

"I don't need to," he smilingly interrupted her gratitude, "for it
isn't my money. I'll see you at lunch; and then take you back home in
my car." He lifted his hat and turned back to the counter where Mrs.
Barnett stood loftily, disdainfully, yet furiously angry.

"Well," said Bob, casually, "I've made one loan, anyway."

"It will be your last." Mrs. Barnett clutched her hands vindictively.
"You'll be discharged as quick as I get to Uncle Jim."

Bob really expected he would, but not for three jobs would he have
recalled that loan and the light of relief in Imogene Chandler's eyes.

CHAPTER XVI

Mrs. Barnett went direct from the bank to Reedy Jenkins' office. As
she climbed the outside stairway she was so angry she forgot to watch
to see that her skirts did not lift above her shoe tops. As she
entered the door her head was held as high and stiff as though she had
been insulted by a disobedient cook. White showed around her mouth and
the base of her nose, and her nostrils were dilated.

"Why, Mrs. Barnett!" Reedy arose with an oratorical gesture. "What a
pleasant surprise. Have a chair."

She took the chair he placed for her without a word and her right hand
clutched the wrist of the left. She was breathing audibly.

"Did you see Rogeen?" Jenkins suggested suavely.

"Yes." The tone indicated that total annihilation should be the end of
that unworthy creature. But her revenge, like Reedy's expectations,
was in the future. She hated to confess this. She breathed hard
twice. "And I'll show him whose word counts."

"You