h Tandy had made the
whole affair appear to have been an effort on Duncan's part to extort a
bribe and betray those who had employed him. Temple readily grasped the
situation.

"The worst of it is," he said, "Duncan can't even sue the old scoundrel
for libel without making matters worse. Tandy would stick to his story,
and as there were no witnesses that story would seem probable to people
who don't know Duncan. What are we to do, Captain Hallam?"

"Well, it all depends upon your shrewdness and circumspection. Tandy is
president of the X National Bank, you know. That's his club to fight me
with. So, little by little, I've bought in there--through other people,
you understand--so that now Stafford and I own forty-eight of the bank's
hundred shares of stock, though on the books our names do not appear at
all. Tandy owns the other fifty-two shares, I suppose, or at least he
controls them. Indeed, whenever a stockholder's meeting occurs he votes
practically all the stock, for it has been my policy to hide my hand by
having the men who hold stock for me, give him their proxies as a blind.

"Now, what I propose is, that you shall manage somehow to get hold of a
little block of the stock--three shares will be enough to give me the
majority, but I'd rather make it four or five shares. If we can get the
stock I'll surprise Tandy out of a year's growth by going into the
stockholders' meeting, which occurs about ten days from now, and
proceeding to elect a board of directors for the bank. I'll select the
men I want for directors, and the board will at once make Guilford
Duncan president of the bank, leaving old Napper a good deal of leisure
in which to enjoy life. He'll need it all to convince anybody that
there's anything shady in Guilford Duncan's character after it is known
that Will Hallam has made him president of a bank."

Hallam chuckled audibly. He was enjoying the game, as he always did.

"Indeed, he will. But everything, as I understand it, depends upon my
ability to secure the necessary shares of stock?"

"Yes, it all hangs on that, and it will be a ticklish job. Tandy is as
wily as any old fox. You're sure he doesn't know you?"

"Neither by sight nor by name."

"You're sure nobody in his bank knows you and your relations with me?"

"Yes, I am certain. I was never in this town before, and as for my
relations with you, why they have existed for so brief a time, at such a
distance from Cairo, and are so obscure i