now," I replied. "We'll fix up
the notes and checks at once."

He reddened, but after a brief hesitation busied himself. When the papers
were all made up and signed, and I had the certified checks in my pocket,
I said: "Wait here, Bob, until the National Industrial people call you
up. I'll ask them to do it, so they can get your personal assurance that
everything's all right. And I'll stop there until they tell me they've
talked with you."

"But it's too late," he said. "You can't deposit to-day."

"I've a special arrangement with them," I replied.

His face betrayed him. I saw that at no stage of that proceeding had I been
wiser than in shutting off his last chance to evade. What scheme he had in
mind I don't know, and can't imagine. But he had thought out something,
probably something foolish that would have given me trouble without saving
him. A foolish man in a tight place is as foolish as ever, and Corey was
a foolish man--only a fool commits crimes that put him in the power of
others. The crimes of the really big captains of industry and generals of
finance are of the kind that puts others in their power.

"Buck up, Corey," said I. "Do you think I'm the man to shut a friend in the
hold of a sinking ship? Tell me, who told you I was short on Textile?"

"One of my men," he slowly replied, as he braced himself together.

"Which one? Who?" I persisted. For I wanted to know just how far the news
was likely to spread.

He seemed to be thinking out a lie.

"The truth!" I commanded. "I know it couldn't have been one of your men.
Who was it? I'll not give you away."

"It was Tom Langdon," he finally said.

I checked an exclamation of amazement. I had been assuming that I had been
betrayed by some one of those tiny mischances that so often throw the best
plans into confusion.

"Tom Langdon," I said satirically. "It was he that warned you against me?"

"It was a friendly act," said Corey. "He and I are very intimate. And he
doesn't know how close you and I are."

"Suggested that you call my loans, did he?" I went on.

"You mustn't blame him, Blacklock; really you mustn't," said Corey
earnestly, for he was a pretty good friend to those he liked, as friendship
goes in finance. "He happened to hear. You know the Langdons keep a sharp
watch on operations in their stock. And he dropped in to warn me as a
friend. You'd do the same thing in the same circumstances. He didn't say a
word about my calling your loans. I