rs
knew him and were friendly to him, but in spite of their personal regard
they could do nothing for him.

"It's this stringency, Luck," Jordan of the Cattlemen's National explained
to him. "We can't let a dollar go even on the best security. You know I'd
like to let you have it, but it wouldn't be right to the bank. We've got
to keep our reserve up. Why, I'm lying awake nights trying to figure out a
way to call in more of our money."

"I'm not asking much, Jack."

"Luck, I'd let you have it if I dared. Why, we're running close to the
wind. Public confidence is a mighty ticklish thing. If I didn't have
twenty thousand coming from El Paso on the Flyer to-night I'd be uneasy
for the bank."

"Twenty thousand on the Flyer. I reckon you ship by express, don't you?"

"Yes. Don't mention it to anyone. That twenty thousand would come handy to
a good many people in this country these times."

"It would come right handy to me," Luck laughed ruefully. "I need every
cent of it. After the beef roundup, I'll be on Easy Street, but it's going
to be hard sledding to keep going till then."

"You'll make a turn somehow. It will work out. Maybe when money isn't so
tight I'll be able to do something for you."

Luck returned to the hotel morosely, and tried to figure a way out of his
difficulties. He was not going to be beaten. He never had accepted defeat,
even in the early days when he had sometimes taken a lawless short cut to
what he wanted. By God, he would not lose out after all these years of
fighting. It had been his desperate need of money that had made him sit in
last night's poker game. But he had succeeded only in making a bad
situation worse. He knew his debts by heart, but he jotted them down on
the back of an envelope and added them again.

Mortgage on ranch (due Oct. 1), $13,000
Note to First National, 3,500
Note to Reynolds, 1,750
I O U to Mackenzie, 1,200
Same to Flandrau, 400
Same to Yesler, 300
------
Total, $20,150

Twenty thousand was the sum he needed, and mighty badly, too.
Absentmindedly he turned the envelope over and jotted down one or two
other things. Twenty thousand dollars! Just the sum Jordan had coming to
the bank on the Flyer. Subconsciously, Luck's fingers gave expression to
his thoughts. $20,000. Half a dozen times they penciled it, and just