they were resold all over the East, wherever people had money to put out
at interest."

"I see," said Josie; "we have already had the money on these notes."

"Yes," said I, "and now we find that a great many of these notes, which
are being sent on for payment, will not be paid. Your father's estate is
not able to pay them, and our trust company must either take them up or
fail. If it fails, everyone will think that values in Lattimore are
unstable and fictitious, and so many people will try to sell out that we
shall have a smashing of values, and possibly a panic. Prices will
drop, so that none of our mortgages will be good for their face.
Thousands of people will be broken, the city will be ruined, and there
will be hard and distressful times, both here and where our paper is
held. But if we can keep things as they are until we can do some large
things we have in view, we are not afraid of anything serious happening.
So we form this new corporation, and have it advance the funds on the
notes, so as not to weaken the trust company--and because we can't
afford to do it otherwise--and we know you would not permit it anyhow;
and we ask you to give to the new corporation all the property which the
creditors could reach, which will be held, and sold as opportunity
offers, so as to make the loss as small as possible. But we must keep
off this panic to save ourselves."

"I must think about this," said Josie. "I don't see any way out of it;
but to have one's affairs so wrapped up in such a great tangle that one
loses control of them seems wrong, somehow. And so far as I am
concerned, I think I should prefer to turn everything over to the
creditors--house and all--than to have even so good friends as yourself
take on such a load for us. It seems as if we were saying to you, 'Pay
our debts or we'll ruin you!' I must think about it."

"You understand it now?" said Jim.

"Yes, in a way."

"Let me come over this evening," said he, "and I think I can remove this
feeling from your mind. And by the way, the new corporation is not going
to have the ranch out on the Cheyenne Range. The syndicate says it
isn't worth anything. And I'm going to take it. I still believe in the
headwaters of Bitter Creek as an art country."

"Thank you," said she vaguely.

Somehow, the explanation of the estate affairs seemed to hurt her. Her
color was still high, but her eyes were suffused, her voice grew choked
at times, and she showed the distre