n of this kind in the first place. And it was because
of this very warning that Mr. Stener became wildly excited, lost his
head, and wanted Mr. Cowperwood to return him all his money, all the
five hundred thousand dollars he had loaned him at two and one-half per
cent. Isn't that silly financial business at the best? Wasn't that a
fine time to try to call a perfectly legal loan?

"But now to return to this particular check of sixty thousand dollars.
When Mr. Cowperwood called that last afternoon before he failed, Mr.
Stener testified that he told him that he couldn't have any more money,
that it was impossible, and that then Mr. Cowperwood went out into his
general office and without his knowledge or consent persuaded his chief
clerk and secretary, Mr. Albert Stires, to give him a check for sixty
thousand dollars, to which he was not entitled and on which he, Stener,
would have stopped payment if he had known.

"What nonsense! Why didn't he know? The books were there, open to him.
Mr. Stires told him the first thing the next morning. Mr. Cowperwood
thought nothing of it, for he was entitled to it, and could collect it
in any court of law having jurisdiction in such cases, failure or
no failure. It is silly for Mr. Stener to say he would have stopped
payment. Such a claim was probably an after-thought of the next morning
after he had talked with his friends, the politicians, and was all a
part, a trick, a trap, to provide the Republican party with a scapegoat
at this time. Nothing more and nothing less; and you may be sure no
one knew it better than the people who were most anxious to see Mr.
Cowperwood convicted."

Steger paused and looked significantly at Shannon.

"Gentlemen of the jury [he finally concluded, quietly and earnestly],
you are going to find, when you think it over in the jury-room this
evening, that this charge of larceny and larceny as bailee, and
embezzlement of a check for sixty thousand dollars, which are contained
in this indictment, and which represent nothing more than the eager
effort of the district attorney to word this one act in such a way that
it will look like a crime, represents nothing more than the excited
imagination of a lot of political refugees who are anxious to protect
their own skirts at the expense of Mr. Cowperwood, and who care for
nothing--honor, fair play, or anything else, so long as they are let off
scot-free. They don't want the Republicans of Pennsylvania to think too