word?" snarled Gresham. "I
nearly put my foot in it by having a man with whom Gamble is doing
business inquire about him at the Fourth National. In place of injuring
his credit, we've strengthened it."

"Good work!" approved Collaton. "I hope he makes all kinds of money."

"I don't!" snapped Gresham. "Did you read the papers this morning?"

"I read the racing and base-ball returns."

"There was more to interest you in the news. Gamble has a big hotel
proposition on--and I want it stopped. Can you get another attachment
against him for about fifty thousand dollars?"

"It's risky!" And Collaton looked about him furtively. "It's easy
enough to fake an old note for money--"

"You must not say 'fake' to me. I will not countenance any crooked
business."

"To dig up an old note for money I am supposed to have borrowed and
spent--"

"Not supposed."

"For money I borrowed and spent on the work out there--and have a quiet
suit entered by one of my pet assassins in Fliegel's court, have the
summons served and confess judgment. Johnny is sucker enough to confess
judgment, too, rather than repudiate a debt which he can not prove he
does not owe; but I've already milked that scheme so dry that I'm
afraid of it."

"You're afraid of everything," Gresham charged him with the scorn one
coward feels for another. "Your operations out there were spread over
ten thousand acres of ground; and it would take a dozen experts six
months, without any books or papers to guide them, to make even an
approximate estimate of your legitimate expenditures."

"I don't know," hesitated Collaton with a shake of his head--"I only
touched the high places in the actual work out there. I believe I was a
sucker at that, Gresham. If I had buckled down to it, like Gamble does,
we could have made a fortune out of that scheme. He's a wonder!"

"He has wonderful luck," corrected Gresham. "I tried my best to scare
Courtney away from him with that attachment, but he insisted on
clinging to his Johnny Gamble; so we'll hand him enough of Johnny by
laying a fifty-thousand-dollar attachment against his property."

"You're a funny cuss," said Collaton, puzzled. "If you wanted to soak
him for this fifty thousand why did you try to scare Courtney off?"

"Can't you understand that I'm not after the money?" demanded Gresham.
"I've explained that to you before. I want Gamble broke, discredited,
and so involved that he can never transact any business in New York.