apped! You owe everybody!" cried Blount in a passion. "I
don't believe you've got a cent!"

"Just a minute," said Wiley, and took down his telephone. "Hello," he
called, "get me the First National Bank." He waited then, twiddling
his pencil placidly, while Blount's great neck swelled out with venom.
"I figure," went on Wiley, as he waited for the connection, "that I
owe you twenty-two thousand dollars, with interest amounting to
two-eighty-three, sixty-one. Here's your check, all filled out, and
when I get the bank you can ask the cashier if it's good."

"But, Wiley--," began Blount.

"Hello! Hello! Is this the First National? This is Holman, out at the
Paymaster. Mr. Blount is here and, as I'm closing my account with
him----"

"No! No!" cried Blount in a panic, but Wiley went on with his talk.

"Yes," he said, "the check is for twenty-two thousand, two eighty-three,
sixty-one. Will you please set that amount aside to meet the payment on
this check? All right, Mr. Blount, here's the bank."

He held out the instrument and Blount seized it roughly, for he had
heard of fake telephone messages before, but when he listened he
recognized the voice.

"Oh, Agnew?" he hailed, smiling genially at the 'phone. "Well, sorry
to have troubled you, I'm sure. Oh, yes, yes; I know Wiley is all
right; he's good with us for twenty thousand more. No, never mind the
certification; we may let the matter drop. Yes, thank you very
much--good-by!"

He hung up the receiver and turned to Wiley; but the cold, killing look
was gone.

"Wiley," he chuckled, slapping him heartily on the back, "you certainly
have put one over. It isn't every day that I find a man waiting with the
check all made out to a cent; and somehow--well, I hate to take the
money."

"Yes, I know how you suffer," replied Wiley, grimly, "but let's get the
agony over." He held out the check and Blount accepted it reluctantly,
passing over the notes with a sigh.

But for the trifling detail that "demand" had not been waived Blount
could have gone into court without even asking for his money and secured
an attachment against the property. But Wiley's firm insistence that all
cut-throat clauses should be omitted had compelled Blount to demand
payment on the notes; and then, by some process which still remained a
mystery, he had raised the full amount to meet the payment. And so once
more, after going to all the trouble of bringing a deputy sheriff along,
Blount found hims