At the same time a forward movement of the crowd threatened to sweep the
interposing figure off the threshold. Britz, who had elbowed his way to
the door, pinned his shield to his lapel, and, facing the excited men
and women, exclaimed:

"I am a police officer."

"Then why in hell don't you arrest Lester Ward?" cried someone near the
opposite wall.

"If the facts warrant it, he will be arrested," answered Britz. "Your
interests will be protected and you are only wasting your time remaining
here."

As abruptly as he had faced them, Britz now swung around and entered the
office, locking the door behind him.

"What's the trouble?" he inquired.

"I have been appointed receiver by the United States District Court,"
answered the man who had addressed the crowd from the half-open door.
"An involuntary petition in bankruptcy has been filed against Ward & Co.
It looks to me like an awful failure."

Britz's eyes traveled about the office in search of Ward. But the head
of the firm was not to be seen. Instead, the detective saw a score of
clerks, bookkeepers and tellers seated gloomily at their desks, gazing
at one another in appalled silence.

The tragedy of the failure was written in their faces. These men, grown
old in the employ of this seemingly solid establishment, suddenly found
themselves confronted anew with the problem of earning a livelihood.
Nearly all of them had passed into that enfeebled state that comes with
years of unvarying routine. Each seemed to realize the almost utter
hopelessness of obtaining new employment, and several of them were
weeping silently.

Even Britz was moved by this pitiful picture of despairing old age. The
mute suffering of these men was a hundredfold more distressing than the
wild, helpless clamoring of the horde of enraged creditors. A person
born and bred to poverty soon grows insensible to deprivation; for when
one is accustomed to little, a little less doesn't matter. But these men
had occupied comfortable homes all their lives. From their sons and
daughters the colleges and universities recruit the majority of their
students. In a small way they have learned to enjoy the good things in
life. To be cut off suddenly, to learn that the rod on which they have
been leaning for so many years is but a broken reed--it is such men who
feel most acutely the bitter poverty of old age.

Britz contemplated the scene about him with a feeling of growing
depression. Then, suddenly recall