ve manner, glanced inquiringly at
me over his shoulder, and we all three entered the private office and
shut the door: he would give us ten minutes at all events. What really
perplexed Fitz at the moment was the hour of the Colonel's visit and
his reference to the "stand-by." These were mysteries which the broker
failed to penetrate.

The Colonel tilted his silver-topped cane against Fitz's desk, put his
hat on a pile of papers, drew his chair close and laid his hand
impressively on Fitz's arm. He had the air of a learned counsellor
consulting with a client.

"You are too busy, Fitz, to go into the details, and my mind is too
much occupied to listen to them, but just give me an outline of the
situation so that I can act with the main facts befo' me."

Fitz looked at me inquiringly; received my helpless shrug as throwing
but little light on the matter, and as was his invariable custom, fell
instantly into the Colonel's mood, answering him precisely as he would
have done a brother broker in a similar case.

"It is what we call a 'squeeze,' Colonel. I'm through for the day, I
hope, for my bank has come to my rescue. My clerk has just carried up
a lot of stuff I managed to borrow. But you can't tell what to-morrow
will bring. Looks to me as if everything was going to Bally-hack, and
yet there are some things in the air that may change it over night."

"Am I right when I say that Mr. Klutchem is leadin' the attack? And on
you?"

"That's just what he is doing--all he knows how."

"And that any relief must be with his consent?"

"Absolutely, for, strange to say, some of my defaulting customers have
been operating in his office."

The Colonel mused for some time, twisting the fish-hook end of his
goatee till it looked like a weapon of offence.

"Is he in town?"

"He was yesterday afternoon."

The Colonel rose from his chair with a determined air and pulled his
coat sleeves over his cuffs.

"I'll call upon him at once."

Fitz's expression changed. Once start the dear Colonel on a mission of
this kind and there was no telling what complications might ensue.

"He won't see you."

"I have thought of that, Fitz. I do not forget that I informed him I
would lay my cane over his back the next time we met, but that mattuh
can wait. This concerns the welfare of my dea'est friend and takes
precedence of all personal feelin's."

"But, Colonel, he would only show you the door. He don't want _talk_.
He wants something