Dinneford. There was no risk in this sort of business.
Moreover, he enjoyed his interviews and confidences with the elegant
lady, and of late the power he seemed to be gaining over her; this power
he regarded as capital laid up for another use, and at another time.

But it was plain that he had reached the end of his present financial
policy, and must decide whether to adopt the new one suggested by Mrs.
Dinneford or make a failure, and so get rid of his partner. The question
he had to settle with himself was whether he could make more by a
failure than by using Granger a while longer, and then throwing him
overboard, disgraced and ruined. Selfish and unscrupulous as he was,
Freeling hesitated to do this. And besides, the "desperate expedients"
he would have to adopt in the new line of policy were fraught with
peril to all who took part in them. He might fall into the snare set for
another--might involve himself so deeply as not to find a way of escape.

"To-morrow we will talk this matter over," he said in reply to Mrs.
Dinneford's last remark; "in the mean time I will examine the ground
thoroughly and see how it looks."

"Don't hesitate to make any use you can of Granger," suggested the lady.
"He has done his part toward getting things tangled, and must help to
untangle them."

"All right, ma'am."

And they separated, Mrs. Dinneford reaching the street by one door of
the hotel, and Freeling by another.

On the following day they met again, Mrs. Dinneford bringing the two
thousand dollars.

"And now what next?" she asked, after handing over the money and taking
the receipt of "Freeling & Granger." Her eyes had a hard glitter, and
her face was almost stern in its expression. "How are you going to raise
money and keep afloat?"

"Only some desperate expedient is left me now," answered Freeling,
though not in the tone of a man who felt himself at bay. It was said
with a wicked kind of levity.

Mrs. Dinneford looked at him keenly. She was beginning to mistrust the
man. They gazed into each other's faces in silence for some moments,
each trying to read what was in the other's thought. At length Freeling
said,

"There is one thing more that you will have to do, Mrs. Dinneford."

"What?" she asked.

"Get your husband to draw two or three notes in Mr. Granger's favor.
They should not be for less than five hundred or a thousand dollars
each. The dates must be short--not over thirty or sixty days."

"It can't be