ttle better if we also agree to pay
this year's taxes on the land they put under the mortgage. It would be
a great sweetener to some of them, and I can slip in an option to sell
the land to us outright as a kind of a joker in small type." His
brassy eyes were small and beady as his brain worked out the details
of his plan. He put his hands affectionately on General Hendricks'
shoulders as he added, "You mustn't forget to write to Bob, General;
hold him there whatever comes."

At the foot of the stairs the two men could hear the heavy tread of
Colonel Culpepper. As Hendricks went down the stairs John heard the
colonel's "Mornin', General," as the two men passed in the hallway.

"Mornin', Johnnie--how does your corporocity sagashiate this
mornin'?" asked the colonel.

Barclay looked at the colonel through little beady green eyes and
replied,--he knew not what. He merely dipped an oar into the talk
occasionally, he did not steer it, and not until he emerged from his
calculations twenty minutes after the colonel's greeting did Barclay
realize that the colonel was in great pain. He was saying when
Barclay's mind took heed: "And now, sir, I say, now, having forced his
unwelcome and, I may say, filthy lucre upon me, the impudent scalawag
writes me to-day to say that I must liquidate, must--liquidate, sir;
in short, pay up. I call that impertinence. But no matter what I call
it, he's going to foreclose." Barclay's eyes opened to attention. The
colonel went on. "The original indebtedness was a matter of ten
thousand--you will remember, John, that's what I paid for my share of
the College Heights property, and while I have disposed of some,--in
point of fact sold it at considerable profit,--yet, as you know, and
as this scoundrel knows, for I have written him pointedly to that
effect, I have been temporarily unable to remit any sum substantial
enough to justify bothering him with it. But now the scamp, the
grasping insulting brigand, notifies me that unless I pay him when the
mortgage is due,--to be plain, sir, next week,--he proposes to
foreclose on me."

The colonel's brows were knit with trouble. His voice faltered as he
added: "And, John--John Barclay, my good friend--do you realize that
that little piece of property out on the hill is all I have on earth
now, except the roof over my head? And may--" here his voice slid
into a tenor with pent-up emotion--"maybe the contemptible
rapscallion will try to get that." The colo