es of the
Exchange. I may be able to carry you along for a short time if you
three gentlemen, the Executive of your company, will give the bank your
personal bond without limit as to the amount. I have even gone so far
as to draw up the document for signature, if it meets with your
approval."

"What about that, Kennedy? Spencer?"

"Guess we've got to do it," nodded Kennedy.

"Looks like it," agreed Spencer.

"Then--down she goes!" decided Partridge, dipping his pen in the ink.
The others signed after him.

"That means we three go down with the ship," he remarked quietly after
the door had closed upon the bank manager. "I appreciate you two
fellows signing that thing." He got up and shook hands with each of
them in turn. "If bad gets worse and we go to smash----"

"It can't get worse and we're not going to smash," reassured the others.

But that remained to be seen. Although placing grain in the East was
robbing them of profits, it was the best that could be done to tide
things over. The three active officials were on the anxious seat from
morning till night. It had got down now to a question of meeting each
day's events as they came and frequently the lights blazed in the
little office till two and three in the morning while the provisional
officers raked the situation from every angle in an endeavor to
forecast the next day's difficulties and to prepare for them.

For three months the overdraft at the bank had averaged $275,000, due
almost entirely to the conditions resulting from the action of the
Exchange. It was useless to worry over the amount of interest which
this accommodation was costing and the profits which might have been
rolled up had things been different; the real worry was to keep going
at any cost. For, as the bank manager had intimated, the whole thing
was just hard luck rather than any unsoundness in the business. It was
a fine paradox that the more pronounced the success of the idea itself
became, the greater grew the danger of complete failure because of the
predicament! Death by wheat! An ironical fate indeed for a grain
company!

Upon investigation, the farmers' company discovered that their original
idea of distributing their profits co-operatively--as embodied in the
circular to which the Exchange had objected--was contrary to the
provisions of the Manitoba Joint Stock Companies' Act under which they
held their charter. Therefore the co-operative idea in connection with