ut there is no excuse--none in the
world--for such a stroke of trickery on Cowperwood's part. It's just as
we've known all along--the man is nothing but a wrecker. We certainly
ought to find some method of ending his career here if possible."

Mr. Schryhart kicked out his well-rounded legs, adjusted his soft-roll
collar, and smoothed his short, crisp, wiry, now blackish-gray
mustache. His black eyes flashed an undying hate.

At this point Mr. Arneel, with a cogency of reasoning which did not at
the moment appear on the surface, inquired: "Do any of you happen to
know anything in particular about the state of Mr. Cowperwood's
finances at present? Of course we know of the Lake Street 'L' and the
Northwestern. I hear he's building a house in New York, and I presume
that's drawing on him somewhat. I know he has four hundred thousand
dollars in loans from the Chicago Central; but what else has he?"

"Well, there's the two hundred thousand he owes the Prairie National,"
piped up Schrybart, promptly. "From time to time I've heard of several
other sums that escape my mind just now."

Mr. Merrill, a diplomatic mouse of a man--gray, Parisian,
dandified--was twisting in his large chair, surveying the others with
shrewd though somewhat propitiatory eyes. In spite of his old grudge
against Cowperwood because of the latter's refusal to favor him in the
matter of running street-car lines past his store, he had always been
interested in the man as a spectacle. He really disliked the thought
of plotting to injure Cowperwood. Just the same, he felt it incumbent
to play his part in such a council as this. "My financial agent, Mr.
Hill, loaned him several hundred thousand not long ago," he
volunteered, a little doubtfully. "I presume he has many other
outstanding obligations."

Mr. Hand stirred irritably.

"Well, he's owing the Third National and the Lake City as much if not
more," he commented. "I know where there are five hundred thousand
dollars of his loans that haven't been mentioned here. Colonel
Ballinger has two hundred thousand. He must owe Anthony Ewer all of
that. He owes the Drovers and Traders all of one hundred and fifty
thousand."

On the basis of these suggestions Arneel made a mental calculation, and
found that Cowperwood was indebted apparently to the tune of about
three million dollars on call, if not more.

"I haven't all the facts," he said, at last, slowly and distinctly. "If
we could talk with