it in any manner to my undoing. It is this:

"The men with whom I was unwise enough to become partially identified
are marked for destruction by the Clearing House Committee and by the
Federal Government. I know it; others know it. Which means the ruthless
elimination of anything doubtful which in future might possibly
compromise the financial stability of this city.

"It is a brutal programme; the policy they are pursuing is bitterly
unjust. Innocent and guilty alike are going to suffer; I never in all my
life consciously did a crooked thing in business; and yet I say to you
now that these people are bent on my destruction; that they mean to
force us to close the doors of the Algonquin; that they are planning the
ruin of every corporation, every company, every bank, every enterprise
with which I am connected, merely because they have decreed the
financial death of Moebus and Klawber!"

He made a trembling gesture with clenched hand, and leaned farther
forward:

"Mallett! There is not one man to-day in Wall Street who has not done,
and who is not doing daily, the very things for which the government
officials and the Clearing House authorities are attempting to get rid
of me. Their attacks on my securities will ultimately ruin me; but such
attacks would ruin any financier, any bank in the United States, if
continued long enough.

"Doesn't anybody know that when the government conspires with the
Clearing House officials any security can be kicked out of the market?
Don't they know that when bank examiners class any securities as
undesirable, and bank officials throw them out from the loans of such
institutions, that they're not worth the match struck to burn them into
nothing?

"If they mean to close my companies and bring charges against me, I'll
tell you now, Mallett, any official of any bank which to-day is in
operation, can be indicted!"

He sat breathing fast, hands clasped nervously between his knees. Duane,
painfully impressed, waited. And after a moment Dysart spoke again:

"They mean my ruin. There is a bank examiner at work--this very moment
while we're sitting here--on the Collect Pond Bank--which is mine. The
Federal inquisitors went through it once; now a new one is back again.
They found nothing with which to file an adverse report the first time.
Why did they come back?

"And I'll tell you another thing, Mallett, which may seem a slight
reason for my sullenness and quick temper; they've had sec