get through Stoddard has still got the stock and I owe the bank a
million. Those may not be big words but that's what's happened, like
Crockett buying the drinks with his coonskin; but if they collect from me
they'll have to sue. Now how can I fix it for you?"

"Well, just raise the money to meet my shortage--it's a matter of nearly
six hundred thousand."

"All right," said Rimrock, "I'll tell you what I'll do. I just got some
bad news from the mine. That big dividend that I absolutely counted on
to meet all those obligations was held up--it wasn't passed. But here's
the point: the money is still there, right in old L. W.'s bank; the only
question is how to get it out. You show me how I can borrow on that
tied-up dividend and I'll pay you back every dollar."

"The easiest thing in the world!" exclaimed Buckbee. "All you have to do
is to put up your Tecolote stock."

"Nothing doing," said Rimrock, "show me some other way. You fellows know
all the tricks."

"No, there's no other way," responded Buckbee earnestly. "That's the
only way you can touch it, until the dividend is declared. The surplus
in the bank is regarded in law simply as increasing the value of the
shares; and so all you have to do is to prove its existence and put up
your stock as security."

"And then, if I don't pay it back, the bank will keep my stock!" Rimrock
stated it guardedly, but his eyes were snapping and his mouth had become
suddenly hard. "Don't you ever think it!" he burst out. "I don't put up
that stock! No, by grab, not a single share of it, if I lose every cent
I've got and leave my best friend in the hole! Do you know what I
think?" he demanded portentously as he shook his finger under Buckbee's
nose. "I believe every doggoned woman and broker in the whole crooked
city of New York is working for--Whitney--H.--Stoddard!"

He paused and at a sudden guilty glance he dropped his hand and started
back.

"My God!" he cried, "not you, too, Buckbee? Don't tell me you're in on
it, too! Well, I might as well quit, then! What's the use of trying
when every friend you've got turns out a crook!" He slumped down in his
chair and, rumpling up his hair, gazed at Buckbee with somber eyes. "So!
Old friend Buckbee, too? Well, Buckbee, what's the deal? Just tell me
where I'm at and I'll leave this cursed town forever."

"Too bad, Old Scout," answered Buckbee kindly, "but you know I warned
you, from the first. I'm a Stoddard m