ough
I will give you my word that I will see that the money which has been
taken from the treasury is put back there. Mr. Stener is out of town or
I would have brought him here with me."

Cowperwood was lying out of the whole cloth in regard to bringing Stener
with him, and he had no intention of putting the money back in the city
treasury except by degrees and in such manner as suited his convenience;
but what he had said sounded well and created a great seeming of
fairness.

"How much money is it Stener has invested with you?" asked Butler. He
was a little confused by this curious development. It put Cowperwood and
Stener in an odd light.

"About five hundred thousand dollars," replied Cowperwood.

The old man straightened up. "Is it as much as that?" he said.

"Just about--a little more or a little less; I'm not sure which."

The old contractor listened solemnly to all Cowperwood had to say on
this score, thinking of the effect on the Republican party and his own
contracting interests. He liked Cowperwood, but this was a rough thing
the latter was telling him--rough, and a great deal to ask. He was a
slow-thinking and a slow-moving man, but he did well enough when he did
think. He had considerable money invested in Philadelphia street-railway
stocks--perhaps as much as eight hundred thousand dollars. Mollenhauer
had perhaps as much more. Whether Senator Simpson had much or little he
could not tell. Cowperwood had told him in the past that he thought
the Senator had a good deal. Most of their holdings, as in the case of
Cowperwood's, were hypothecated at the various banks for loans and these
loans invested in other ways. It was not advisable or comfortable
to have these loans called, though the condition of no one of the
triumvirate was anything like as bad as that of Cowperwood. They could
see themselves through without much trouble, though not without probable
loss unless they took hurried action to protect themselves.

He would not have thought so much of it if Cowperwood had told him that
Stener was involved, say, to the extent of seventy-five or a hundred
thousand dollars. That might be adjusted. But five hundred thousand
dollars!

"That's a lot of money," said Butler, thinking of the amazing audacity
of Stener, but failing at the moment to identify it with the astute
machinations of Cowperwood. "That's something to think about. There's
no time to lose if there's going to be a panic in the morning. How m