age was pressing inexorably upon him, palsying his
hands on its rack, tripping his feet in its helpless mazes. His dimmed
eyes could see only ruin coming, coming slowly and steadily toward
him. In the panic, it came suddenly and inspired fight in him. But
this year there was something diabolical in its resistless approach.
So he shrank from his impending fate as a child trembles at some
unknown terror. But Barclay did not swerve. He knew the affairs of the
bank fairly well. He was a director who never signed the quarterly
statement without verifying every item for himself. He had dreaded the
general's visit, yet he knew that it must come, and he pulled toward
the general a big hickory chair. The old man sank into it and looked
helplessly into the drawn hard face of the younger man and sighed,
"Well, John?"

Barclay stood before him a second and then walked down one arm of the
"X" of the carpet and back, and up another, and then turned to
Hendricks with: "Now, don't lose your nerve, General. You've got to
keep your nerve. That's about all the asset we've got now, I guess."

The general replied weakly: "I--I, I--I guess you're right, John. I
suppose that's about it."

"How do you figure it out, General?" asked Barclay, still walking the
carpet.

The general fumbled for a paper in his pocket and handed it to
Barclay. He took it, glanced at it a moment, and then said: "I'm no
good at translating another man's figures--how is it in
short?--Right down to bed-rock?"

Hendricks seemed to pull himself together and replied: "Well,
something like ten thousand in cash against seventy thousand in
deposits, and fifty thousand of that time deposits, due next October,
you know, on the year's agreement. Of the ten thousand cash, four
thousand belongs to Brownwell, and is on check, and you have two
thousand on check."

"All right. Now, General, what do you owe?"

"Well, you know that guarantee of your and Bob's business--that nine
thousand. It's due next week."

"And it will gut you?" asked Barclay.

The old man nodded and sighed. Barclay limped carefully all over his
"X," swinging himself on his heels at the turns; his mouth was
hardening, and his eyes were fixed on the old man without blinking as
he said: "General--that's got to come. If it busts you--it will save
us, and we can save you after. That has just absolutely got to be
paid, right on the dot."

The old man could not have turned paler than he was when he entered