s even to that d----d paper. Do you realize, Littleson, that we
may have to leave the country?"

"If we do," he answered, "we are done for--I am at least. I am in
Canadian Pacifics too deep. If I cannot keep the ball rolling here, I
can never pull through."

"It all depends," Weiss said, "into whose hands that paper has gone. A
week's grace is all I want, time enough to fight this thing out
with Duge."

"Has he been near you?" Littleson asked. "Has he offered any
explanation?"

Weiss shrugged his shoulders.

"None," he answered. "That little fool of a Leslie, the outside broker,
must have given us away. I was afraid of him from the first. He was
always Duge's man."

A clerk knocked at the door. He entered, bearing a card.

"Mr. Norris Vine wishes to see you, sir!" he announced.

Weiss and Littleson exchanged swift glances. The same thought flashed
into both their minds. Neither spoke for fully a minute. Then Weiss,
with the card crumpled up in his hand, turned to the clerk, and his
voice sounded as though it came from a great distance.

"Show him in," he said.

Littleson sank into a chair. His eyes were still fixed upon his
companion's.

"God in heaven!" he muttered.

CHAPTER XV

THE WARNING

Norris Vine shook hands with neither of the two men he greeted upon
entering the room. Weiss, now that he felt that a crisis of some sort
was at hand, recovered altogether from the nervous excitement of the
last few minutes. He bowed courteously, if a little coldly, to Vine, and
motioning him to a chair, took his own place in the seat before his
desk. His manner was composed, his face was set and stern. Behind his
spectacles his eyes steadfastly watched the countenance of the man whose
coming might mean so much. Littleson, taking his cue, did his best also
to feign indifference. He leaned against a writing-table, close to where
Vine was sitting, and taking out his case, carefully selected and lit a
cigarette.

"Well, Mr. Vine," Weiss said, "what can we do for you? Are you too going
to join in the hustle for wealth? Have you any commissions for us? You
will forgive me if I ask you to come to the point quickly. Things are
moving about here just now, and we have little time to ourselves. By the
by, you know Littleson, I suppose? Your business with me is not so
private that you object to his remaining?"

"Certainly not," Vine answered calmly. "As a matter of fact, my business
concerns also Mr. Littleson. In