adieu to his friends, who hurried
away, struck with their own predicament.

"You had better go on out to the house, father, and I'll send some
telegrams." (The telephone had not yet been invented.) "I'll be right
out and we'll go into this thing together. It looks like black weather
to me. Don't say anything to any one until after we have had our talk;
then we can decide what to do."

Cowperwood, Sr., was already plucking at his side-whiskers in a confused
and troubled way. He was cogitating as to what might happen to him
in case his son failed, for he was deeply involved with him. He was
a little gray in his complexion now, frightened, for he had already
strained many points in his affairs to accommodate his son. If Frank
should not be able promptly on the morrow to meet the call which the
bank might have to make for one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, the
onus and scandal of the situation would be on him.

On the other hand, his son was meditating on the tangled relation in
which he now found himself in connection with the city treasurer and the
fact that it was not possible for him to support the market alone. Those
who should have been in a position to help him were now as bad off as
himself. There were many unfavorable points in the whole situation.
Drexel & Co. had been booming railway stocks--loaning heavily on them.
Jay Cooke & Co. had been backing Northern Pacific--were practically
doing their best to build that immense transcontinental system alone.
Naturally, they were long on that and hence in a ticklish position. At
the first word they would throw over their surest securities--government
bonds, and the like--in order to protect their more speculative
holdings. The bears would see the point. They would hammer and hammer,
selling short all along the line. But he did not dare to do that. He
would be breaking his own back quickly, and what he needed was time. If
he could only get time--three days, a week, ten days--this storm would
surely blow over.

The thing that was troubling him most was the matter of the half-million
invested with him by Stener. A fall election was drawing near. Stener,
although he had served two terms, was slated for reelection. A scandal
in connection with the city treasury would be a very bad thing. It would
end Stener's career as an official--would very likely send him to the
penitentiary. It might wreck the Republican party's chances to win. It
would certainly involve himself